336 



APPENDIX. 



lectivcly, or the fingers alone, being prevalent; whereas 

 the decimal system as opposed to the quinary is referrible 

 to the numeration being extended to both hands, instead 

 of limited to one. Numerations not extending as far as 

 Jive are generally independent of the fingers in toto. Then 

 as to the names of particular numbers. Two nations may 

 each take the name of the number two from some natural 

 dualism ; but they may not take it from the same. For 

 instance, one American Indian may take it from a pair of 

 skates, another from a pair of shoes. If so, the word for 

 two will differ in the two languages, even when the names 

 for skate and shoe agree. All this is supported by real 

 facts, and is no hypothetical illustration; so that the 

 inference from it is, that, in languages where a numeral 

 system is in the process of formation, difi'erence in the 

 names of the numbers is comparatively unimportant. 



The extent to which the numerals vary, the extent to 

 which they agree, and the extent to which this variation 

 and agreement are anything but coincident with geogra- 

 phical proximity or distance, may be seen in the following 

 table : — 



