Page:The Pima Indians.pdf/40

] has published a series of Kiowa calendars that resemble those of the Sioux, but are more distinctly calendric.

In addition to these published records we have references to yet others that have wholly disappeared; references that can not now be verified. For example, the Iroquois are said to have maintained a record of their exploits in war by means of war posts on which notches indicated the occurrence of campaigns and conventional characters denoted the number of scalps and captives taken. Events of a certain class were thus recorded in chronologic order. Among the Santee Sioux Clark found a notched stick which he was assured represented the history of the tribe for more than a thousand years. Mooney suggests that this must have been used in connection with a chant similar to that accompanying the Walum Olam. However, it seems extremely improbable that any record should have survived the vicissitudes of an Indian camp for so long a period. The use of notched sticks for mere numeration is common enough in all cultures and among all peoples, but such a use as that made by the Santees is not, so far as known, mentioned elsewhere in the literature.

The writer was therefore greatly interested to discover no fewer than five notched calendar sticks among the Pimas. Two sticks were "told" to him by their possessors. The record covers a period of seventy years, dating from the season preceding the meteoric shower of November 13, 1833, as do the oldest of those discovered among the Kiowa. There are traditions of older sticks that have been lost or buried with their keepers. Juan Thomas, of the village of Blackwater, had lost his stick in some inexplicable manner, but he was continuing the history with pencil and paper, thus rendering it more nearly comparable to the calendars of the Plains tribes. It is noteworthy that the change from stick to paper introduced a tendency to use pictorial symbols rather than merely mnemonic characters, such as are most easily incised on the surface of a stick having clearly marked grain. Among the sticks there is an evident increase in the number and elaboration of characters which may be attributed to contact with the whites, though not to their direct influence, as the existence of the calendars has been almost entirely unknown to them.

The year begins with the saguaro harvest, about the month of June. At that time, also, the mesquite beans are ripening, as well as the cultivated crops. It is the season of feasting and rejoicing. No other annual occurrence can compare in importance with these festivities, so that it is not surprising that the years should be counted by harvests. The Lower California tribes, as described by Baegert