On another side, for a prisoner taken alive, they make a red cross in this manner
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.
SECTION 3.
WAMPUM.
Fig. 163.—Wampum strings.
Prof. Robert E. C. Stearns (a) says that wampum consisted of beads of two principal colors having a cylindrical form, a quarter of an inch, more or less, in length, the diameter or thickness being usually about half the length. The color of the wampum determined its value. The term wampum, wampon, or wampom, and wampum-peege was apparently applied to these beads when strung or otherwise connected, fastened, or woven together. The illustration given by him is now reproduced as Fig. 163.