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NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Hurons placed a limit on story-telling in a similar way : 



They present to him from whom they desire to hear any thing, a 

 little bundle of straws, a foot long, which serve as counters, to supply 

 the place of numbers and to aid the memory of the assistants, dis- 

 tributing in different lots these straws, according to the diversity of 

 the things which they recount. Relation, 1646 



In 1648 the French gave the Hurons " a bunch of sticks tied to- 

 gether, to show the number of presents they required " for a murder 

 committed. 



When Father Chaumonot went from Onondaga to the Senecas in 

 1657, it is said : 



His guide presented to him a bit of wood to throw upon two round 

 stones, which they encountered in the road, surrounded by marks of 

 the superstition of these poor people who throw, in passing, a little 

 rod upon these stones in the way of homage, and adding these words : 

 Koue askennon eskatongot ; that is to say: Hold, behold this is to 

 pay my passage, in order that I may go on in safety. Relation, 1657 



Montanus said of the New York Indians that, in agreeing on mat- 

 ters of importance, " they take as many little sticks as there are con- 

 ditions in their proposals." Sticks were temporarily used by the 

 Iroquois when there was not enough wampum, but were always re- 

 placed with belts or strings. Loskiel says they used colored bits of 

 wood before they had wampum. 



De Vries gave a curious account of a council he attended in 1643 '• 

 " There was one among them who had a small bundle of sticks and 

 was the best speaker among them." He spoke, and " then he laid 

 down one of the sticks, which was one point." He spoke again, and 

 " then laid down another stick. This laying down of sticks began 

 to be tedious to me, as I saw that he had many sticks in his hand." 

 De Vries, 13, 118 



This does not differ from the use of strings, but sticks were often 

 given to persons charged with remembering special parts of an 

 address, and Kalm speaks of cutting notches on a stick for the same 

 purpose. Sir William Johnson, in his letter to Arthur Lee, spoke 

 of another use: 



As to the information wch you observe I formerly Transmitted 

 to the Gov r of N. York concerning the belt & 15 Bloody Sticks 



