The following notices of the ancient mnemonic use of knotted cords and of its survival in various parts of the world are extracted from the essay of Prof. Terrien de Lacouperie (_d_):
The Yang tung, south of Khoten, and consequently north of Tibet, who first communicated with China in A. D. 641, had no written characters. They only cut notches in sticks and tied knots in strings for records.
The Bratyki and Buriats of Siberia are credited with the use of knotted cords.
The Japanese are also reputed to have employed knots on strings or bind-weeds for records.
The Li of Hainan, being unacquainted with writing, use knotted cords or notched sticks in place of bonds or agreements.
In the first half of the present century cord records were still generally used in the Indian archipelago and Polynesia proper. The tax-gatherers in the island of Hawaii by this means kept accounts of all the articles collected by them from the inhabitants. A rope 400 fathoms long was used as a revenue book. It was divided into numerous portions corresponding to the various districts of the island; the portions were under the care of the tax-gatherers, who, with the aid of loops, knots, and tufts of different shapes, colors, and sizes, were enabled to keep an accurate account of the hogs, pigs, and pieces of sandal wood, etc., at which each person was taxed.
In Timor island, according to the Chinese records in 1618, the people had no writing. When they wanted to record something they did it with flat stones, and a thousand stones were represented by a string.
Knotted cords were originally used in Tibet, but we have no information about their system of using them. The bare statement comes from the Chinese annals.
The following statement regarding the same use by the Chinese is made by Ernest Faber (_a_). He says: “In the highest antiquity, government was carried on successfully by the use of knotted cords to preserve the memory of things. In subsequent ages, the sages substituted for these written characters. By means of these the doings of all the officers could be regulated and the affairs of all the people accurately examined.”
The use of notches for mere numeration was frequent, but there are also instances of their special significance.