The Numerical System, Comparative. 



IX COXFIRMATIOX of tlie Polynesian connection with the Aryan stock, at a very 

 early period. I will refer to the numeral systems of both. 1 believe that it is now 

 ])retty well established that the more ancient and rude a people is or was, the more 

 limited is or was its numeral system. The Australians to this day do not count beyond 

 three or four. The wooly-haired indigenes of the peninsula of Malacca count only to two. 

 One is nai. and two is he. The latter calls strongly to mind the Basque bi and the Latin 

 /)/.s-, two. The Dravidian lanouages exhibit signs, by the composition of their higher num- 

 bers, that at one time the range of their numerals was equally limited. The Polynesian 

 language gives undoubted evidence that at one time the ]ieo])le who spoke it did not count 

 bevond four, and that its ideas of higher numbers were expressed by multiples of four.' 

 They evidently counted one, two, three, four, and that amount called "kaii-iia" was their 

 tally, when the process was repeated again. That the same systeiu obtained in the Aryan 

 family in early times is evident not only from the marked relationshij) between the four 

 first Ar\'an and Polvnesian numbers, but the method of counting by fours as a tally still 

 obtains among some of the Ar^an descendants.' 



The following table will show the relation I am seeking to establish. It is selected 

 e(|ually from Aryan and Polynesian branches; but there is this to be observed that, while 

 the latter in all probability exhibit the archaic form of the language, the former exhibit a 

 comparatively later and more or less modified form of the same. 



])Ulion differ from those listed by Fornander in .in Ai- 

 coiiiit of the Polynesian Race, etc. (Vol. I, pp. 144-147). 



■ The Endeh dialect on Florcs. or Endeh has only four 

 radical numerals. Four being iirelu. apparently allied to 

 invsol, feet. 



It is presumed, says Mr. Ricnzi, that the mountain- 

 eers of Sunda formerly counted by six, for the word 

 Snnat' signifies six and total or tally. 



herrings, are counted by fours. 

 'Russian, odin or odno. 

 'Gothic, fidzvar, four. 

 "Gothic, ahtaii, eight. 

 'Gotliic, tig, ten and liguus. 



(^SS) 



