;3I2 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VOL. V. 



calculations. Not unfrequently, at the present day, we see persons making 

 use of their fingers in adding numbers. Our word digit, in its Latin 

 signification, as is well known, has both the meaning of finger and of 

 an arithmetical number, and in German zehen means both tens and 

 toes, indicative of the fact that, no doubt, the Romans and the ances- 

 tors of the Germans at one time made use of this primitive method of 

 counting. Dr. S. R. Riggs in his Dakota Grammar says that the 

 Dakotas use their fingers in making their calculations, bending them 

 down, one after another, as they proceed, till they reach lo, when they 

 turn down a little finger to remind them that one ten has been disposed 

 of, and then commencing again, they go through the same process till 

 they again reach lo, when down goes another finger and so on. When 

 they wish to express ii, they say wickcemna satipa wanzidan, literally 

 "ten more one;" 12 would be wickcemna sanpa nonpa, that is "ten 

 more two," and so on till they reach 19, which is unma napcincoanka, 

 " the other nine ; '! 20 is wickcetnna nonpa, meaning " ten two " or 

 "ten again;" 21, wickcemna nonpa sanpa wanzidan = {\o x 2) -\- 1 . 

 Their mode of expressing the year 1897 would have been : kektopa- 

 winga opawinga sahdogan sanpa wickcemna napcinwanka sanpa sakowift 

 = 1000 + (100 X 8) + (10 X 9) + 7. We are told that, in early times, the 

 native tribes of Australia could only count as far as 3, and when they 

 wanted to express a larger number, they had either to raise their hands 

 or make use of a term meaning " multitude." Dr. Peacock gives 

 examples of similar cases among tribes on this continent. He states 

 that the Betoi, who formerly dwelt on the banks of the Orinoco, used 

 the word edojojoi for i ; for 2 their word was edoi, signifying " an- 

 other ; " 3 was expressed by ibutu, " beyond ; " 4 by ibutu edojojoi, 

 " beyond one ; " 5 was runioscoso, signifying " hand." We are also 

 told of another tribe, who are said to have been able to count as high as 

 30, but in doing so, they used combinations of the first four numbers, 

 and of the words for hands and feet to express the higher numbers. 

 Thus with them i, was petey \ 2, niocoi \ ■}^, iytbohassi ; ^, ij'undi ; 5, 

 irundi hae nirai, that is "four and another," or ace popetai, "one 

 hand ; " 6, ace popetei hae petei abe, " a hand and one besides ; " 9, 

 was ace popetei hae irundi abe, "a hand and four besides;" 10, ace 

 pomocoi, " two hands ; " 20, nibo nibi abe, " hands and feet besides ; " 

 30, mbo inbi hae pomocoi abe, " hands, feet, and two hands besides." 

 It is difficult to imagine how, with such complicated modes of express- 

 ing numbers, these nations could have had any intelligible S5^stem of 

 chronology. The Dakotas in reckoning time were said to have counted 

 their years by winters, such and such an event having happened so 

 many winters ago. Another peculiarity with them was, when they 



