308 On the Systems of Numerical Signs 



South America, the groups of five, ten, and twenty, are 

 distinguished by peculiar expressions, so, in the same manft^i" 

 these groups are easily to be recognized in numeral hielrbw'^ 

 glyphics. The Romans and Tuscans* had single figures to! : 

 express 5, 50, and 500. In the language of the Azteki^ i 

 (natives of Mexico), we find not only the group-signs of '^ ^ 

 flag for 20, a quill filled with grains of gold (which in som6'^ 

 districts of Mexico were used as money) for the quadrate of 

 20 or 400, and a bag (xiquipilli) with 8000 cocoa nuts (whichtJ 

 likewise served as a medium of barter) for the cube of 20 or 1 

 8000, but even (in the instances where the flag is divided into ' 

 four equal parts, and the half or three quarters of it are 

 coloured) numerical signs for half -twenty or 10, and fior »> 

 £ twenty or 15, two hands and a foot, as it weref. '' 



But the most remarkable of all proofs of the alternate effect 

 between numerical language and numerical figures, is to be 

 met with in India. Here the value of the unities expressed 

 by their position has^ in Sanscrit, been even transplanted into 

 the language. Thus the Indians have a figurative methodl 

 of expressing numbers by the names of objects, of which, *(» 

 certain number is known. For instance, surya (the sun) ex- v 

 presses 12, because, according to the mythology of the Hindoos, 

 there were twelve suns in the order of the twelve months. The 

 two j4swinas (Castor and Pollux), who also are met with in 

 the Nakchatras, are used to express the number two. Manu 

 signifies fourteen, taken from the menus of their mythology. 

 Now it will become intelligible, how the word surymanu, in which 

 the symbols of twelve and fourteen are combined, signifies the i* 

 year 1214. These facts I owe to the kind communication of i 

 the learned Colebrooke. Probably, according to these prin*- . 

 ciples, 1412 will be expressed by Manusurya, and 314 hy^u^ 

 Aswinimanu. We find besides so complete a numeration in 

 Sanscrit, that a single word, kotif is used to express 10 millions. 

 In the qquichau language of Peru, which does not count bj-x- 

 groups of twenty, a single word stands for a million (hunu)* ')rli 



If it be true that we count by decimals, quia tot digiti,.pmm 



^ ^ . _ "'• • u^.'^i niiibiil 



* Respecting the Tuscan figure for 500, see Otfried Muller, Etrusker, sec. iv., 

 fig- 2. 

 t Humboldt, Monura. Am^ric, torn, i., p. 309. ' ' 



