used by different Nations. 315 



used in the subdivision of ounces and feet, together with the 

 horizontal hnes (used by the Chinese and Phoenicians*). 

 These points and lines, nine or nineteen in number, in the 

 denary or vicesimal scale of the old and new continent, are 

 the most simple of all notations in the system of juxtaposition. 

 Here the unities are properly more counted than read. The 

 separate existence, the individuality, if I may say so, of the 

 numerical figures as signs of numbers, is first to be recognized 

 in the numerical letters of the Semitic and Hellenic tribes, and 

 among the inhabitants of Thibet, and the Indian tribes, who 

 express 1, % S, 4, by ideographic, distinct figures. In the 

 ancient Persian Pehlwi a remarkable transition is to be ob- 

 served from the inartificial method of expressing numbers by 

 the repetition of the figure of the unity, to that of using com- 

 pound ideographic hieroglyphics, in numbers greater than the 

 unity. There the first nine figures are evidently formed by as 

 many notches or teeth as they contain unities ; five and nine 

 are even merely the numbers 2, 3, and 4 twisted together, 

 without the repetition of the figure of one. In the system of 

 the Devanagariy which is truly of Indian origin, in the Per- 

 sian and Arabic-European figures, we are only able to discover 

 a contraction of 2 and 3 units, in the figures of 2 and 3 f, 

 certainly not in the higher figures, which in India within the 

 Ganges are written very differently from one another. 



As I mention here the Indian numerical figures, and shall 

 be obliged to do' it frequently in this essay, I feel myself 

 bound to make some observations on this expression. At the 

 same time I shall take the opportunity of declaring myself 

 against the old prejudices, that in India only one set of nu- 

 merical figures are employed in expressing numbers, and never 

 alphabetical letters in their place, and that in every district of 

 that extensive country, a knowledge of a system, a different 

 value to the different position of the figures is met with, 

 likewise that there never are peculiar figures used to indicate 

 the groups. As, according to what has been repeatedly said 

 by my brother William von Humboldt, the Sanscrit is not 



iU'.):; ;■ ,; .' I;,'. .. - ; .- ■ :-:-i: 



* Marini, t. i., p. 228. 



f Abel Remusat Langues Tartares, p. 30. On the strange numerical figure! 

 used in Java, see Crawfujrd^ vol. ii.; p. 263. 



