INSTEUCTIOXS 



RELATIVE TO THE 



ETHNOLOGY AND PHILOLOGY OF AMERICA. 



APPENDIX B. 



NUMERAL SYSTEMS. 



In the original circular of "Instructions" allusion was made 

 to the fact that some of the Indian tribes use different sets of 

 numerals, or rather modilications of the numerals, as applied to 

 different objects. This farct, in connection with the various serial 

 systems upon which their enumeration is based, presents a subject 

 worthy of particular inquiry, the more especially as the same 

 singularity exists among other distant and distinct barbarous 

 nations. 



Mr. Gallatin in his " Notes on the Semi-Civilized Nations of 

 Mexico," &c., published in the Transactions of the American 

 Ethnological Society (vol. ii. p. 54, et seq.), says: "Another 

 peculiarity of the Mexican and Maya, and of which traces may 

 be seen in other languages of the same group, is the alteration 

 which the numerals undergo according to the nature of the object 

 to be counted. The distinctions are not always easy to be under- 

 stood ; and the objects of the same class, that is to say in count- 

 ing which the same altered numeral is used, are apparently of the 

 same incongruous nature. Those stated by Father Alouzo de 

 Molina for the Mexican lang-uaffe, are as fullows : — 



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