MALLERY.] NOTCHED OR MARKED STICKS. 227 
into numerous portions corresponding to the various districts of the island; the por- 
tions were under the care of the tax-gatherers, who, with the aid of loops, knots, 
and tufts of different shapes, colors, and sizes, were enabled to keep an accurate ac- 
count of the hogs, pigs, and pieces of sandal wood, ete., at which each person was 
taxed. 
In Timor island, according to the Chinese records in 1618, the people had no writ- 
ing. When they wanted to record something they did it with flat stones, and a 
thousand stones were represented by a string. 
Knotted cords were originally used in Tibet, but we have no information about 
their system of using them. The bare statement comes from the Chinese annals. 
The following statement regarding the same use by the Chinese is 
made by Ernest Faber («). He says: ‘In the highest antiquity, govern- 
ment was carried on successfully by the use of knotted cords to pre- 
serve the memory of things. In subsequent ages, the sages substituted 
for these written characters. By means of these the doings of all the 
officers could be regulated and the affairs of all the people accurately 
examined.” 
SECTION 2. 
NOTCHED OR MARKED STICKS. 
The use of notches for mere numeration was frequent, but there are 
also instances of their special sfgnificance. 
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 os 
On another side, for a prisoner taken alive, they make a red cross in 
e 5 3 A ars 
this manner x 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 
