Farther to the south, in the Mexican state of Sonora, I was shown, some twenty years ago, a piece of buckskin, upon which certain Opata or Yaqui Indians--I forget exactly which tribe, but it matters very little, as they are both industrious and honest--had kept account of the days of their labor. There was a horizontal datum line, as before, with complete circles to indicate full days and half circles to indicate half days, a long heavy black line for Sundays and holidays, and a crescent moon for each new month. These accounts had to be drawn up by the overseer or superintendent of the rancho at which the Indians were employed before the latter left for home each night. THE SACRED CORDS OF THE PARSIS AND BRAHMANS. I have already apologized for my own ignorance in regard to the origin and symbolical signification of the izze-kloth of the Apache, and I have now to do the same thing for the writers who have referred to the use by the religious of India of the sacred cords with which, under various names, the young man of the Parsis or Brahmans is invested upon attaining the requisite age. No two accounts seem to agree and, as I have never been in India and cannot presume to decide where so many differ, it is best that I should lay before my readers the exact language of the authorities which seem to be entitled to greatest consideration. "A sacred thread girdle (kûstîk), should it be made of silk, is not proper; the hair of a hairy goat and a hairy camel is proper, and from other hairy creatures it is proper among the lowly."[599] Every Parsi wears "a triple coil" of a "white cotton girdle," which serves to remind him of the "three precepts of his morality--'good thoughts,' 'good words,' 'good deeds.'"[600] Williams describes the sacred girdle of the Pārsīs as made "of seventy-two interwoven woollen threads, to denote the seventy-two chapters of the Yasna, but has the appearance of a long flat cord of pure white wool, which is wound round the body in three coils." The Pārsī must take off this kustī five times daily and replace it with appropriate prayers. It must be wound round the body three times and tied in two peculiar knots, the secret of which is known only to the Pārsīs.[601] According to Picart, the "sudra," or sacred cord of the Pārsīs, has four knots, each of which represents a precept.[602] Marco Polo, in speaking of the Brahmans of India, says: "They are known by a cotton thread, which they wear over the shoulders, tied under the arm, crossing the breast."[603]