392 ON TRACES OF THE EARLY MENTAL CONDITION OF MAN. 



and 11, "one to the foot;" 20, "one Indian;" and 21, "one to the bands of the 

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

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

 single hand, viz: 5 is caWed puganna, "a man." 



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

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

 these words will Itecome a numeral, perhaps no language appi'oaches the Zulu. 

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

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

 priate gesture, calling it tatisitiipa, "take the thumb;" while 7, being shown in 

 gesture by the forefinger, and this finger l)eing used to point with, the verb koniba, 

 "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, bauds, and feet, this is far from being the only source of numerals. 

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

 set of words to serve as a sort of mcnwrla tcchnka for remembering dates, &c. 

 Thus, for 1 they said '■^earW or ^^moon ;" for 2 "e^e," or '^arm" or '■'■win/) f 

 for 3, "iiV{>«a," or '■'■firc^'' or '■'■quality''' — ^.here being considered to be 3 Ramas, 

 3 kinds of fire, 3 gunas or qualities; for 4 "ar/e" or '■'•veda^'' because there are 4 

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

 of the system : 



Ttihni tri rtwishu gunendu kritAgnibhftta: 

 That is to say : 



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

 That is 3 3 6 5 3 1 4 3 5. 



When Wilhelm 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 Malay, he said, calls 5 lima, that 

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

 took "wing" as the numeral for 2; and then, he 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 be for their practical use in language. Now a number of actual facts 

 may lie brought forward in support of Humb(tldt's far-sighted suggestion. The 

 Abipones of South 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 -pili and pac instead; now 

 piii, the new word for 2, means "together," andjjrtc, 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 tamia, " a pair," becoming a numeral equivalent for 2 ; the habit 

 of tying bread fruit in knots of 4 has made a new numeral, ^r»w>, "a knot," 

 while other terms for 10 and 100 have had thefr 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 j;a/r or coupk for 2, and score, that is "notch," for 20. The 

 Letts count crabs and little fish by throw^ing 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 when tribes count hy saying liand for 5, take the thiimh f'>r 6, half a man 

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



