It consisted of strings of small beads, in shape of a narrow ribbon (_banderole_) or rosary (_chapelet_). The beads are described as being similar to those called _Cayenne pearls_ in Milfort's time, varying in color, the grains being strung up one after the other. The signification of each bead was determined by its shape and the position it occupied in its order of sequence. Only the principal events were recorded by these beads, and without any historic detail; hence a single string often sufficed to recall the history of twenty or twenty-five years. The events of each year were kept strictly distinct from the events of any subsequent year by a certain arrangement of the grains, and thus the strings proved reliable documents as to the chronology of tribal events. The oldest of the míkalgi (_les chefs des vieillards_) often recounted to Milfort, who had risen to the dignity of "chief warrior" in the nation, episodes of early Creek history, suggested to them by these "national archives."