108 SAVAGE SUKVIVALS 



executed in the City of Mexico as late as 1873. 



Many savage races cannot comprehend num- 

 bers greater than five or six, and are unable to 

 solve the simplest mathematical problems without 

 using the fingers. A savage cannot do mental 

 arithmetic. He hasn't the machinery. 



The mind of the savage is concrete. It is able 

 to deal with actual things only. Abstract ideas, 

 such as those of numbers, are foreign to the sim- 

 ple sense intelligence of the savage. "They puz- 

 zle very much after five in counting," says a 

 writer in speaking of the Damara negroes, ''be- 

 cause no spare hand remains to grasp and secure 

 the fingers that are required for units. Yet they 

 seldom lose oxen. The way they discover the loss 

 of one is not by the number of the herd being di- 

 minished, but by the absence of a face they know. 

 When bartering is on, each sheep must be paid for 

 separately. Thus, suppose two sticks of tobacco 

 to be the price of one sheep. It would sorely 

 puzzle a Damara for one to take two sheep and 

 give him four sticks." This same writer says in 

 another place: "A Damara may know the road 

 perfectly from A to B, and again from B to C, 

 but he w^ould have no idea of a straight cut from 

 AtoC." 



A study of the implements and weapons of sav- 

 ages shows that these implements and weapons 

 have been the products of many thousands of 

 years of improvement. They have not been in- 

 vented. They have arisen by small modifications 



