The Anathemata
Rite and Fore-time (continued)
For whom he has notched
his crutched tally-stick
not at: less one five twenties
but
at centum1
that follow the Lamb
from the Quaternary dawn.
Numbered among his flock
that no man may number
but whose works follow them.
David Jones notes
1 Various local traditions prevail as to the marking of the tally. In parts of Wales a notch is made in the stick for every ten sheep counted and in parts of the Lake District the hand is raised for every twenty and the tally notched for every hundred.
One Welsh way of saying ‘ninety-nine’ is ‘except one, five twenties’ (amyn un pum ugain). This is used in the Welsh gospel where St Luke reports our Lord as saying, in terms of the hill-people from whom he came: ‘What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one, etc.’ He was addressing Aramaean canonists, but he spoke as though to Powell Chapel Farm, Lewis the Vision or Watkins Tal Sam.
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