148 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



It is more profitable to note, as an indication of the level 

 of the Australian intellect, that in none of these 



System 61 dialects are there any words for the numerals 

 higher than one and two, or here and there three 1 , 

 beyond which four 2 + 2, 7^ = many, lots, heaps, and so on. 

 Even bula, a common word for two, is used in some places for 

 three, and in others for many, as if the numerical relation were 

 altogether beyond the grasp of the native mind 2 . In any case 

 "no Australian Black in his wild state can, I believe, practically 

 count as high as seven. If you lay seven pins on a table for a 

 Black to reckon, and then abstract two, he would not miss them. 

 If one were removed, he would miss it, because his manner of 

 counting by ones and twos amounts to the same as if he reckoned 

 by odds and evens 3 ." In fact the Australian stands practically at 

 the binary stage, and has nowhere yet reached the first of the 

 three natural systems quinary with a 5 base, decimal with 10, 

 and vigesimal with 20. 



Nor can it be said that they had no need of a more highly 

 developed arithmetic system, for it would be con- 



Hunters! venieiit to reckon at least the number of their 

 children and wives, and (as hunters) of the contents 

 of successful " bags." Professor Richard Simon 4 rightly regards 

 them as the typical hunters, in this respect unapproached by the 

 Canadian trapper, the South African Bushman, or any other 

 people savage or civilized. Hence in the wild state the Australian 

 is the most independent of mortals, but at the same time is 

 prevented from making any progress in culture beyond a certain 

 very low level. The difficulty of capturing game with his primitive 

 methods compels him to give his whole time to the quest 

 of food, and spend his days in roaming restlessly over wide 



1 Thus karbo = ^ in the Herbert Vale dialect ; but radicals beyond 2 are 

 very rare. 



' 2 Here \ve are reminded by Dr L. L. Conant that a few languages are 

 absolutely destitute of pure numerical terms. Thus the Bolivian Chiquito has 

 no true word for one, and etaitia, so used, really means " alone " (The humeral 

 Concept : Its Origin and Development, 1 896) . 



3 E. M. Curr, The Australian Race, Melbourne, 1886, Vol. I. p. 32. 



4 Reiseerlebnisse, &c. in Australien, c., Leipzig, 1896, passim. 



