392 ON TRACES OF THE EARLY MENTAL CONDITION OF MAN. 



and 11, "one to tlic foot;" 20, ''one Indian;" and 21, ''one to tlie hands of tli« 

 other Indian;" or for 11, "foot 1;" for 12, "foot 2;" for 20, "a person is finished;" 

 whilst among- the miserable natives of Van Dieraan's Land, the reckoning of a 

 single hand, viz: 5 is called 2mr/onna, "a man." 



For displaying- to us the picture of the savage counting on his fingers, and 

 being struck with the idea that if he describes in words his gestures of reckoning, 

 these words will liecome a numeral, perhaps no language app)-oaches the Zulu. 

 Counting on his fingers, he begins always with the little linger of his left hand, 

 and thus reaching 5, he calls it "a whole hand ;" for 6, he translates the appro- 

 priate gesture, calling it tatisitupa, "take the thumb;" Avhile 7, being shown iu 

 gesture by the forefinger, and this finger being used to point with, the verb Icomha, 

 "to point," comes to serve as a numeral expression, denoting 7. 



Now, though many numerals, especially fives, tens, and twenties, were named 

 from the fingers, hands, and feet, this is far from being the only source of numerals. 

 Many centuries ago, the Hindu scholars, besides their regular series, made a new 

 set of words to serve ag a sort of memoria ieclmka for remembering dates, &c. 

 Thus, for 1 they said ^^ earth" or ^' moon ;" for 2 "e^e," or "arm," or "wing;" 

 for 3, "Rama" or "fire" or "qaaJltiJ' — there being considered to be 3 Ramas, 

 3 kinds of fire, 3 gunas or qualities; for 4 "age" ox"veda," because there are 4 

 ages and 4 vedas. One line of an astronomical formula will show the working 

 of the system : 



VEihni tri rtwisliu gunendu kritagnibbuta: 

 That is to say : 



"Fire, Ibree, season, arrow, quality, moon, four of dice, fire, element:" 

 That is 33653143 5. 



When Wilhelra von Humboldt, more than 30 years ago, looked into this 

 artificial system of numeration, it struck him that he had before him a key to 

 the general formation of numerals. When a i\Ialay, he said, calls 5 I'uua, that 

 is, "hand," he is doing the same thing that the Hindu pandits did when they 

 took "wing" as the numeral for 2; and then, ho suggested, the numeral words 

 having thus been once made, the sooner their original meaning was got rid of 

 and they were reduced to the appearance of mere unmeaning symbols, the better 

 it would ha for their practical use in language. Now a number of actual facts 

 may be brought forward in support of Plumboldt's far-sighted suggestion. The 

 Abipones of i^outh America counted to 3, and for 4 said "ostrich toes," from the 

 division of their ostrich's feet; then, for 5, "one hand;" for 10, "two hands," 

 and so on. In Polynesia there is a regular set of decimal numerals, but some- 

 times, for superstitious reasons, they turn words out of their language for a time, 

 and have to use fresh ones. Thus, in Tahiti, they ejected rua 2, and rima 5; 

 and in a missionary translation of the Bible we find j«Yi and ^jac instead ; now 

 jnti, the new word for 2, means " together," and pae, the new word for 5, means 

 "side." 



In other South Sea islands, the habit of counting fish or fruit one in each 

 hand has led to tauna, "a pair," becoming a numeral equivalent for 2 ; the habit 

 of tying bread fruit in knots of 4 has made a new numeral, ^OHO, "a knot," 

 while other terms for 10 and 100 have had their origin from words meaning 

 "bunch" and "bundle." And so, even in European languages, numeral words 

 break out from time to time, ready to become proper numbers, should a vacancy 

 be made for them in the now meaningless series, one, two, three, four. Thus in 

 English we have pair or couple for 2, and score, that is "notch," for 20. The 

 Letts count crabs and little fish by throwing them 3 at a time, and thus the 

 word mettens, "a throw," has come to mean 3, and so in many other cases in 

 other languages. 



Now wlien tribes count by saying hand for 5, take the thumJ) for 6, half a man 

 for 10, and so on, it is evident that the basis of their numeration is finger counting. 



