NOTCHED OR MARKED STICKS.
The use of notches for mere numeration was frequent, but there are also
instances of their special significance.
The Dakotas, Hidatsa, and Shoshoni have been observed to note the number
of days during which they journeyed from one place to another by cutting
lines or notches upon a stick.
The coup sticks carried by Dakota warriors often bear a number of small
notches, which refer to the number of the victims hit with the stick
after they had been wounded or killed.
The young men and boys of the several tribes at Fort Berthold, Dakota,
frequently carry a stick, upon which they cut a notch for every bird
killed during a single expedition.
In Seaver’s (_a_) life of Mary Jemison it is set forth that the
war chief in each tribe of Iroquois keeps a war-post, in order to
commemorate great events and preserve the chronology of them. This
post is a peeled stick of timber 10 or 12 feet high, and is erected in
the village. For a campaign they make, or rather the chief makes, a
perpendicular red mark about 3 inches long and half an inch wide. On the
opposite side from this, for a scalp taken, they make a red cross, thus
[Illustration] On another side, for a prisoner taken alive, they make
a red cross in this manner [Illustration] with a head or dot, and by
placing these significant signs in so conspicuous a situation they are
enabled to ascertain with great certainty the time and circumstances of
past events.
It is suggested that the device first mentioned represents the scalp
severed and lifted from the head, and that the second refers to the
manner in which the prisoners were secured at night, pegged and tied in
the style called spread-eagle.
Rev. Richard Taylor (_a_) notes that the Maori had neither the quipus
nor wampum, but only a board shaped like a saw, which was called “he
rakau wakapa-paranga,” or genealogical board. It was, in fact, a tally,
having a notch for each name, and a blank space to denote where the male
line failed and was succeeded by that of the female; youths were taught
their genealogies by repeating the names of each ancestor to whom the
notches referred.
It is supposed that the use by bakers of notched sticks or tallies, as
they are called, still exists in some civilized regions, and there is an
interesting history connected with the same wooden tallies, which until
lately were used in the accounts of the exchequer of Great Britain.
They also appear more recently and in a different use as the Khe-mou
circulated by Tartar chiefs to designate the number of men and horses
required to be furnished by each camp.