SWANTON] INDIANS OP THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 611 



our Captaine gatt by taking a bough and singling of the leaues, let one drop after 

 another, saying caische which is. 10. so first Nauiraua tooke. 11. beanes and 

 tolde them to vs, pointing to this olde fellow, then 110. beanes; by which he 

 awnswered to our Demand for. 10. yeares a beane, and also euery yere by it selfe. 

 This was a lustye olde man, of a sterne Countenance, tall and streight, had a 

 thinne white beard, his armes overgrowne with white haires, and he went as 

 strongly as any of the rest. (Smith, John, Arber ed., 1884, pp. li-lii.) 



Lawson contributes the following : 



[In connection with his funeral oration a speaker] diverts the people with 

 some of their traditions, as when there was a violent hot summer, or very hard 

 winter; when any notable distempers raged amongst them; when they were at 

 war with such and such nations ; how victorious they were ; and what were the 

 names of their war-captains. To prove the times more exactly, he produces the 

 records of the country, which are a parcel of reeds of different lengths, with 

 several distinct marks, known to none but themselves, by which they seem to 

 guess very exactly at accidents that happened many years ago ; nay, two or three 

 ages or more. The reason I have to believe what they tell me on this account, 

 is, because I have been at the meetings of several Indian Nations, and they agreed, 

 in relating the same circumstances as to time, very exactly ; as for example, they 

 say there was so hard a winter in Carolina 105 years ago, that the great sound 

 was frozen over, and the wild geese came into the woods to eat acorns, and that 

 they were so tame, (I suppose through want) that they killed abundance in the 

 woods by knocking them on the head with sticks. (Lawson, 1860, p. 295; see also 

 pp. 311-312 under Woodcraft.) 



The use of bundles of small sticks to mark the passage of time or 

 keep appointments was general throughout the section. The Creeks 

 called them the "broken days," and used them when they assembled 

 for their annual ceremonies. The rising of the Natchez Indians 

 against the French was timed by means of such sticks, and its mis- 

 carriage attributed to the accidental destruction of some of these 

 (Swan ton, 1911, pp. 223-224). Adair speaks of both quipu and 

 notched sticks : 



They count certain remarkable things, by knots of various colors and make, after 

 the manner of the South-American Aborigines ; or by notched square sticks, which 

 are likewise distributed among the head warriors, and other chieftains of dif- 

 ferent towns, in order to number the winters, &c. — the moons also — their sleeps — 

 and the days when they travel; and especially certain secret intended acts of 

 hostility. Under such a circumstance, if one day elapses, each of them loosens 

 a knot, or cuts off a notch, or else makes one, according to previous agreement ; 

 which those who are in the trading way among them, call broken days. Thus 

 they proceed day by day, till the whole time is expired, which was marked out, 

 or agreed upon; and they know with certainty, the exact time of any of the 

 aforesaid periods, when they are to execute their secret purposes, be they ever 

 so various. (Adair, 1775, p. 79.) 



Milf ort indicates that there were also mnemonic belts made of beads : 



Since my arrival among the Creeks the old chiefs had often spoken to me of 

 their ancestors, and they had shown me the belts (banderoles), or varieties of 

 chaplets, which contained their histories. These chaplets were their archives; 



