DEFICIENCIES IN NUMERATION. 573 



and uncouth sounds of which the language itself consists, the 

 translation was wholly unintelligible."* 



So, again, the Tasmanians had no word for a tree, though 



* O ' * C 1 



they had a name for each species ; nor could they express 

 " qualities, such as hard, soft, warm, cold, long, short, round, 

 etc.; for 'hard' they would say 'like a stone;' for 'tall' they 

 would say 'long legs/ etc.; and for 'round' they said 'like a 

 ball,' 'like the moon,' and so on."-f- According to the mis- 

 sionaries,! Fuegians have "no abstract terms for expressing 

 the truths of our religion;" and among the North American 

 languages, "a term sufficiently general to denote an 'oak-tree' 

 is exceptional." Even the comparatively civilized inhabi- 

 tants of Tahiti had, according to Forster, " no proper words 

 for expressing abstract ideas." || 



The names for numbers are, however, the best, or, at least, 

 the most easily applicable test of mental condition among 

 the lower races of man. We have seen that the Esquimaux 

 can only with difficulty count up to ten, and that some in- 

 dividuals cannot go beyond five. The AbiponesH can only 

 express three numbers in proper words. The Dammaras 

 " in practice, whatever they may possess in their language, 

 certainly use no numeral greater than three. When they 

 wish to express four, they take to their fingers, which are to 

 them as formidable instruments of calculation as a sliding 

 rule is to an English schoolboy. They puzzle very much 

 after five, because no spare hand remains to grasp and secure 

 the fingers that are required for units.' 3 ** Mr. Crawfurd, to 

 whom we are indebted for an interesting paper on this sub- 

 ject,^ has examined no less than thirty Australian languages, 



* "WrangeU's Siberia and Polar || 1. c. p. 403. 



Sea, p. 121. IT Dobritxhoffer, vol. ii. p. 169. 



t Milligan, Proc. Hoy. Society, ** Gallon's Tropical Africa, p. 133. 



Tasmania, vol. iii. p. 281. ft Ethnological Society's Trans- 



| The Voice of Pity, vol. x. p. 152. actions, New Series, vol. ii. p. 84. 



Latham, Varieties of Maiiap. 375. 



