As will have been gathered from the answers of the Moï chief to Doctor Bernard, the estimation of time by years of twelve months is unknown in these regions. Savages date all the events of their lives by their relation to the occurrences which affect them most, that is to say, the variations of the monsoon and the forward or backward condition of the crops.
No one knows his age, for no practical benefit accrues from the attainment of that piece of knowledge.
The use of sticks is not limited to the purpose I have mentioned but extends to the transmission of orders or information. In the last case notches are cut on both sides of the stick and of various forms and depths. Also they will be separated by spaces of varying lengths. Each of these details has thus a special significance.
This is the method employed by one village to convey a declaration of war to another. Its general terms will be much as follows:
"Twelve days hence we shall seize any man who crosses our boundary. We will not release him except or ransom, four strong oxen which have already worked in the ricefields, or, failing them, two sets of gongs at least ten years in the making. Our tribe counts more than thirty young warriors trained to the bow, and a great number of old men, women and children."
Before being entrusted to the messenger charged with delivering it to the foe this ultimatum-stick is decorated, according to immemorial usage, with some egret's feathers, a burnt bamboo, and red pimento.
The symbolical significance of these accessories is as follows:
"Messenger! Thou must be as swift as the bird whose feather you bear. Thou shalt not stop by day or night, and this bamboo will point thy pathway in the hours of darkness. Thou shalt not fear if thou neglectest not to eat some pimento such as this."
I have often met women or old men with these notched laths hung round their necks. On inquiry they informed me that each notch represented a goat or chicken promised to the Pi of the forest in return for protection from the Tiger. As their slender means did not unable them to make a sacrifice in advance they were postponing the redemption of the promise until the next harvest.
I was indiscreet enough to inquire what would become of them if by any chance the vow was never fulfilled, but they looked at me in blank astonishment and indignantly denied that there could be any compromise with conscience. One of them, however, took me into his confidence. "I was unable to fulfil a certain vow during the last harvest, which was a particularly bad one, so instead of the five chickens which I first promised the Pi I now owe them one goat. If the next harvest is not better than the last, the goat will have to be replaced by a pig."