Quphu

The young king was laying down his first law. He was very nervous, his hands shook as he spoke, he was so unsure of himself. His father had died two years ago and now the throne was his with all its responsibilities.

A strange tribe had appeared from the far north and had come peacefully into the land of the King's tribe and they had begged for permission to join the King's tribe and to become one with it. Now this required that certain action be taken.

The King as saying to his senior counsellor, "Our tribe has now had an influx of new people, many of them, and it is important to know exactly how strong are we now, numerically. It is essential that I, the King, and my advisors should know clearly just how many men and women and children there are in the land, but most especially I want to know how many ablebodied people we can count upon in an emergency or when something important has got to be done by large numbers of people."

"Yes, my Lord," the counsellor said, nodding gravely. "We must know but you must also know, my King, that the counting of people displeases the Gods and therefore before we count the people, we must call them together in a great gathering and we must sacrifice sheep and chickens to the ancestral spirits and ask them for permission to count the people.

"This done, everybody must return to their homes and then the warriors of census must go from village to village counting how many people there are in which village."

"But," went on the advisor, "if in the skies the stars say we must not do this and if the ancestral spirits say we must not do this yet, we must obey the word of the unseen."

"Thank you, my friend," said the young King. 'It must be done exactly as you suggest."

Thus it was that about a month later there was a great gathering in the village of the King, every man and woman and child was there. The wise men chanted calling up the ancestral spirits, the wise women ululated and ancient rituals were performed to placate the unpredictable ancestral spirits.

Sheep and chickens were sacrificed and corn beer was poured ceremoniously onto the graves of some of the ancestors, by the young King. At the end of that four-day long ceremony the astrologers and the healers told the King that they had used every means of divination, they had looked at how birds were flying at certain times and they had looked at the clouds in the Sky and at the stars at night and the spirits say. "The spirits say that the people can be counted" and no misfortune will befall the land if we do so.

"Yes Great One," said the advisors. "Then," said the King to the advisors, "let the sacred counting strings be made. Find eleven wise women to make these strings and as the counting warriors go from village to village led by my oldest advisors, a small porcupine quill shall be attached to a string to represent each able bodied male in a particular village, while a tiny string from which a bead is suspended will be attached to stand for each woman."