ORIGIN OF THE ARABIC NUMERALS. 737 



The history of the Arabic or decimal notation is somewhat as 

 follows : The characters of this notation were introduced into Europe, 

 during the tenth century, by the Crusades. From the Arabic, these 

 characters have been traced to the sacred books of the Brahmans 

 of India. It was long supposed that for our modern arithmetic we 

 were indebted to the Arabians. But this, as we have seen, is not the 

 case. The Hindoos communicated a knowledge of it to the Arabi- 

 ans, and we have been unable to trace it beyond the Hindoos: hence 

 we must concede the honor to them of its invention. 



To the Arabians, however, belongs the honor of introducing arith- 

 metic into Europe. It was the Arabians who took the torch from 

 the Orient and passed it along toward the Occident, when "westward 

 the star of empire took its way." 



The origin of the characters came, undoubtedly, from the fact that 

 the Orientals first learned to count on their fingers and thumbs, and 

 from this originated the ten characters employed, and originally called 

 digits, from the Latin word digitus, signifying finger. In keeping 

 accounts among the Orientals, one mark represented one finger, or 



number, thus : /. Two horizontal marks, with a connecting line, 

 stood for two, thus : X . Three horizontal marks, with connect- 

 ing lines, would stand for three, thus : J; and four marks in the 

 form of a square, or a triangle, would stand for four, thus : / m . 



Five marks in this form, * 1 , was the original figure -five in this 



notation ; six marks, thus, I , the original figure six. The 

 figure seven was made by marks representing two squares with one 



of the lines wanting, thus: ' The figure eight was made by 



placing two squares near each other, thus : ; and nine by adding 



----5 ^ 



The zero, or cipher, was originally a circle, and seems to have come 

 from counting around the fingers and thumbs. Hence, once around 

 was denoted by one finger, or character, representing one, thus : 



/ and J J; twice around, by ^r and f V 



^^ TOT T 1*7 ^KmOB ^^ 



j. From this last ar- 



TOL. X. 47 



