NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY — ROTH. 



81 



Ask a Mack as to 



reckoned the intermediate days on both hands : first and second 



on ball and tip respectively of left thumb, 



third to sixth on tips of remaining fingers, 



the seventh to tenth on right hand fingers, 



commencing with the little or.e, the 



eleventh falling on right thumb; the 



names applied bore traces of the three 



numerals, as well as compounds of them. 



Natives do not possess special terms to 

 express numbers over three collectively, 

 everything beyond this being relatively 

 either few or many. Not that they lack 

 the mental ability to appreciate a conce] 

 tion of higher values — 1 have known of 

 black children working at decimal frac- 

 tions, and a young full-blood engaged as 

 draughtsman in a large engineering 

 works — but that the opportunity so 

 seldom arises of having to exercise it. 

 the number of occupants in a camp, he will probably tell you there 

 are few ormany,and if pressed for further information, will mention 

 the names of Tom, Dick, Harry, etc., ticking them off or not on 

 either his fingers or in the sand, but always in pairs. He 

 apparently takes a concrete view of the case, leaving you to form 

 a mental picture of the number as a whole. He can certainly 

 form such a mental picture for himself, because he will describe 

 any large number of strangers, a flock of pigeons, anything in fact, 

 of which the components are not individually known to him, in 

 some such form as "plenty sit down all round about." 



It is true I have met with natives here and there who can count 

 np to twenty pretty accurately in their own language, making use 

 of the term for hand, foot, leg or arm to indicate a group of five 

 (digits or toes), and forming the compounds from them accord- 

 ingly, e.g., 8 = 5 + 3, 11=5 + 1 + 5, etc. But in all such cases they 

 have mixed pretty freel) T with whites, and can speak fairly good 

 English, with the result that, for ethnographical purposes, it is 

 quite sufficient to mention its occurrence. 



Taking three northern languages of which we have accurate 

 information, the numerals are as follows : — 



Cape Bedford. Bloomfield River, 



Oue 

 Two 

 Three 



nobun 



godera 



kundo 



nupun 

 ma-ma-ra 



kollur 



Tally Rivei . 

 yungkul 

 bulai 

 karbo 



