190 BELIQULE AQUITANI<m 



games, counting days of travel, and such like ; and they mark their weapons to 

 enumerate enemies slain or prey captured (see above, page 47) : Mr. Lamprey 

 informs me they nick their rifles for good (and sometimes for bad) shots ; and 

 even the more civilized hunters and trappers do the same. Thus also an ardent 

 schoolboy notches his cricket-bat in memory of good " hits " and " runs." 



Mr. T. K. Gay has kindly drawn my attention to an interesting Esquimaux 

 specimen in the Christy Collection, bearing what may be Tally-marks. It is a 

 wooden sheath for the head of a Whale-dart or Harpoon, from Cook's River, 

 Russian America. It is made of two pieces of wood, hollowed and laid together, 

 and tied with sinew string in two places. This sheath has four notches on one of 

 its edges, cut since it was made ; and they possibly stand for four Whales killed. 

 This sheath would fit such an Harpoon-head as that shown in fig. 78, page 196. 



Though it is long since " our forefathers had no other books but the Score and the 

 Tally"* (Jack Cade in ' Henry VI.' Part 2, Act iv. Sc. 7), yet we know that Tally- 

 sticks were used in the Exchequer accounts until a recent period f. At Riga and 

 elsewhere Tallies are still used in taking in and discharging a cargo ; and Mr. S. R. 

 Pattison has seen them used in loading minerals in Andalusia. In loading carts 

 with turf in Ireland, and on other occasions, Tally-sticks are still sometimes in requi- 

 sition ; indeed M. J. C. Buckley, Esq., Member of the Celtic Society of London, in- 

 forms me that in some parts of the south of Ireland Tally-sticks and Tally-boards, 

 either of wood or slate, and either notched or otherwise marked, are frequently used 

 in noting loads and other quantities of Corn, Hay, Potatoes, and Turf, barrels of 

 Beer, firkins of Butter, pails of Milk, &c. See fig. 70, page 192. 



"scoring" a piece of roasting-pork, glacial "scoring" of rocks, old "scores" of injuries to be revenged, 

 a favour granted on the "score" of kindred, &c., also "scaur," "scar," " scarify," &c. have evidently a 

 close relationship. Thus also : "All shall eat and drink on my score" (Jack Cade in ' Henry VI.' Part 2, 

 Act iv. Sc. 2); "Do you owe me nothing on that scorel" (Dickens's 'Little Dorrit'); "A clear score 

 between us" (Dickens's 'Battle of Life'); and "Start off on a score," and "Death clears old scores" 

 (Barham's ' Ingoldsby Legends'). 



* An interesting remark as to scoring or notching being available as means of intercommunication, 

 has been copied for me by Mr. T. K. Gay from " Some Notes on the Ainos," by A. S. Bickmore, in the 

 ' Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London,' New Series, vol. vii. 1869, p. 22 : " They have no 

 written characters. The only approach to such a thing, of which I was able to hear, was that in the 

 southern part of Saghalien the old men can send information to each other by notching sticks in a peculiar 

 manner ; but only the old men can understand what is meant by this notching." Colonel A. Lane Fox 

 remarks on intelligible signs and signals among the Esquimaux, in his memoir " On Oghams " &c. 1867. 



t See remarks on Tallies, in ' Notes and Queries ' (1st series, vol. x. p. 485 ; vol. xi. pp. 18, 95 ; and 

 3rd series, vol. x. pp. 197, 307, 382); on Music-scores, ibid. 2nd series, vol. xii. p. 416; and on Masons' 

 Marks, ibid. 3rd series, vol. xii. pp. 431, 514. A "Tallyman" now sells on a running account. 



