Chapter XXIX

COUNTING, TIME, AND PLACE

Counting on the fingers was usual practice. Mountain Maidu started with their thumbs while Atsugewi began on the little finger of one hand and counted across to that on the other hand, and toes were used for the purpose too. To help in counting, tribes also employed sticks to represent groups of numbers: Atsugewi used sticks to represent 1’s, 5’s, 10’s, and hundreds. Yana frequently used a stick to represent the unit 20. This is presumed to be a natural unit because it is the sum of all of a person’s fingers and toes.

Time of day, of course, was not expressed in any unit like our hour, but roughly by the position of the sun in its daily course overhead. Seven to nine positions were referred to descriptively in this respect plus early, mid, and late night.

Phases of the moon were most practical and were universally used as a longer measure of time. The succession of new moon cycles were named and an old man in the village customarily kept track of these by memory. As might be expected from this system, in which there was no recording, arguments ensued over just which moon or “month” was currently in effect. One full course of the moon’s phases takes just about a month, so the names for Indians’ moons corresponded nearly to our month names.

All local tribes recognized four seasons. These were identified by the positions of certain stars among mountain Maidu, but more generally by the positions of the rising sun with respect to a certain peak, tree, or similar fixed object. Some Indians kept track of the seasons by watching the daily progression of a beam of sunlight coming through the smoke hole of a house and falling upon its floor or wall. The shortest day of the year naturally was marked by the most southerly progression of the sun. This was noted by the Indians, no doubt with joy in the realization that longer days and, somewhat later, warmer weather were to be expected. The year started with the beginning of November when Indians of the Lassen area had left the high elevation hunting grounds on the flanks of Lassen Peak, had collected their stores of acorn and salmon, and were warmly settled in their winter quarters. Mountain Maidu seem to have used names for only the nine moons most important to them.

There was no calendar as such, but the number of days until a certain “big time” or other event was kept track of by either cutting off or untying one knot in a knotted cord or thong each day. Years were not recorded either, but were measured within the memory span as so many winters ago, or by relating time to some important event, such as a war which most persons might remember.

Directions were pointed out, or in speech were referred to as sunrise and sunset for east and west respectively. Directions were commonly given with respect to features of the local geography: in the direction of such and such a village or toward a named river, spring, or mountain which was conspicuous or generally known. We must remember that the territories of our local tribes were small and that the terrain was intimately known. Specific names were not only given to the conspicuous features of the topography, but among Atsugewi, at least, virtually every flat, every draw, and every hill was specifically named, and these names were known to all members of the tribe. Names of places in the territories of other tribes were not known by the local names of those tribes. They were either translated or given its own entirely different set of names by the first tribe. In other words, each tribe had different names for all places—a very confusing situation. Dixon reports that Maidu recognized directions as we know them, but that the northeast or mountain Maidu had five: west, northwest (the direction of Lassen Peak), north, east, and south.