He then skewers it on a long wooden stave and sets this up so that the head sticks far above the house, often above the chimney. They maintain that the head is put there as guardian of the whole house. . . .

With the heads of their worst enemies they proceed as follows: once they have sawn off everything below the eyebrows, they carefully clean out the head. If the owner is poor he will merely stretch calf-leather round it and use it thus. But if he is rich, he will also line the inside with gold and use it as a drinking vessel.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3729992&forum_id=2#34198097)