THE ABORIGINES OP AUSTRALIA. 35 



out good chess-players, taking plenty of time to study the moves, 

 and showing great patience and calmness ; these boys never went 

 to school, and yet they could count up to a thousand." It is very 

 clear that mental power was there, in these boys, but unseen and 

 dormant, like seed in the ground, until circumstances led to its 

 being developed. 



Sir John Lubbock also says, " In no Australian language is there 

 any word for ' five.' " This is not quite correct, for I know at least 

 two large tribes (and there may be others that I do not know of), 

 the one in Queensland and the other in the south-east of New South 

 Wales, which have single words for "five," and in each case the 

 word " five " is formed from the native word meaning " hand." 

 As to the general question the counting of numbers I believe that 

 a careful analysis of the numerals used by the Aryan family of Ian 

 gnages will show that the base of them is one, two, three, and no 

 more, three being in many religions a sacred and complete number ; 

 and that the other digits are expressed by words equivalent to one- 

 three, hand, hand-and-one, hand-and-two, two-four, one-wanting 

 two hands. If it should be proved that the Aryans, now the 

 most civilized of races, originally said one-three for four, why 

 should our Australians be considered " of low mental power " 

 because they say two-two for four ? Indeed, I am inclined to think 

 that our Australians count in the more natural way, for they see 

 nothing in or around them arranged in threes ; the birds and beasts 

 go in pairs ; they themselves have two feet, two hands, two eyes, 

 and so they count by twos. If the Australian blacks separated 

 from the parent stock of mankind at a time when the common 

 numeral system was still limited to one, two, or one, two, three, 

 then their case is merely one of arrested development, their en- 

 vironment being unfavourable after separation ; or if they ever had a 

 developed system of composite numbers, these have fallen into 

 disuse through the operation of a law of nature, for their wants are 

 few and they live so much from hand to mouth that they had no 

 need for high numbers. Their neighbours in Polynesia, who have 

 plenty of fish to count, and bunches of bananas, and yams, and taro 

 and cocoa-nuts, have developed many peculiar expressions to in- 

 dicate the number of these, but our black fellow, who is well 

 pleased when he is able to sing of the capture of " wakula, boolara 

 bundarra " (one, two kangaroos), and whose only property is two 

 or three spears, clubs, and boomerangs, does not require to use high 



