Counting by Means of Tally Sticks
or Cuts on the Body in Africa
Sture Lagercrantz
In two previous papers, I have drawn attention to tally strings, tallies
with markers or inserted sticks, etc., to weekly and monthly calendars and
to counting with stones and sticks, etc. or with lines on the ground or on walls.
Other tallies, such as the phallus trophy, were referred to more in passing
(Lagercrantz 1968/69 and 1970). Two other, more widespread methods will
be discussed in the present article and some supplementary data relating to
the previous studies will also be taken into account. In this connection, I
Would remind the reader again of E. Fettweis’s fundamental researches on
the subject (1927: 10-16). The tally stick is not exactly common as an aid
ln counting in West Africa, but it is nevertheless quite widely used. Thus,
there is evidence of its use from the Vei, Ho, Bonny, Tiv, Duala, “King”
Qua Ben’s Town, and Baja. The stick may be used to count the weeks, six
bays being marked by small notches and the seventh by a larger one (Vei).
It is also known as an ordinary day-counter (the Matse in Ho), but its main
u se is in business agreements with Europeans (in Bonny and “King” Qua
Ben’s Town) and in the calculation of dowries (the Baja). A district officer
lri the Tiv area told the chiefs on his staff to keep a tally “of all the cases which
they had tried and settled” and at the end of every month to send it by a
Messenger, who would then also report on the verdicts. In this connection,
I may also mention that the Europeans in Douala had the quantity of oil
offered for sale measured by inserting a marked stick into the barrel b
Tally sticks are also widely used in the Congo and the adjoining territories,
Su ch as the Loango coast (for example, among the Vili in Tshimsinda), and
1 Globus 87: 173-174; Hilberth 1962: 9, 25 and fig. 12: A; Makembe 1920/21:
181; Boteler 1835, 2: 379, 395-396 (cf. also the parallel text in Owen 1833, 2: 321);
Buttikofer 1890, 2: 318; East 1939: 393 (unfortunately the text is somewhat obscure
Rad each verdict may have been marked by a separate stick; for this method cf. Lager
crantz 1970: 53, 55-58 and map); Koler 1848: 143-144.
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Anthropos 68. 1973