364 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



began to become habitual, must have been at best only partial, incom- 

 plete, and for a very few acts. The left-handed arrow-chippers, basket- 

 weavers, club-wielders, sewing-women, etc., even if more numerous 

 relatively than in civilized life, would perhaps attract little or at least 

 less attention than now, and would be less discouraged, surely less 

 taught to reverse the natural inclination. 



In default of systematic banding and military training, also, the 

 left-handed spearmen, bowmen, swordsmen and clubmen might not 

 have much attention directed to themselves and sometimes might have 

 an advantage over their single and dextral adversaries, e. g., in tilting. 

 The preference in heraldry for dextral quarterings, etc., is by no means 

 uniform. 



But there was one overlooked factor which was doubtless decisive 

 in setting up the trend toward dextrality. This was the development 

 of sign-language synchronously, and even preceding that of spoken 

 language. The ineffaceable relics of this long and arduous period exist 

 in present day language, plainly in many savage tribes and customs, 

 but the most striking proof is displayed in our so-called Eoman 

 numerals. The fingers of the hand held up, or counted off, were 

 beyond question the beginnings of arithmetic, the means of barter, the 

 method of stating the fundamental fact of number requisite in all 

 thinking and doing. Military and intertribal dealings, especially made 

 the custom powerful and even sacred. One finger was the origin of 

 our figure one, the second equaling two, etc., up to five, or V, which 

 fork was made by the thumb stuck up opposite the first I. When the 

 counting was more than five, the other hand was made to represent the 

 first five, the digits being added up to ten, when two forks were used, 

 or the crossed thumbs, which constituted X., or ten.* The impressive 

 ceremonies of warring and bartering tribes would stamp with dis- 

 tinctive approval the hand used in the sign-language, and henceforth 

 it would become the honored one, the stamping and writing hand, and 

 in time the sword-hand. The right was chosen as the sign and num- 

 bering hand because the left was naturally used for the highly impor- 

 tant task of guarding the sinistrally-placed heart with the shield. 

 War is the substance of all early history and of the savage aeons which 

 preceded all history. Dr. Flint (The Sun, April 17, 1904) says that 

 deaf-mutes may have an aphasia that prevents the use of the right 

 hand in the sign-language. 



Speech is the sole example of the higher functions, sensational or 

 motor, which is single. Feet, legs, arms, hands, vision, hearing, all 



* It does not matter with which hand the first numbering, in some cases, 

 was done; the intelligent attention must have been directer to the action with 

 the dextral or spear side. Homer and the earliest Greek vases show the right 

 was ettI (Upv, the spear side, and en' aonida the shield side. 



