IN HIGHER PEOPLES 187 



are the circumstances which produced and fas- 

 tened upon us for probably all time our numerical 

 system of tens. 



If man had had four fingers on each hand in- 

 stead of five, we would today probably have a sys- 

 tem of eights instead of a system of tens. And a 

 system of eights would have been just as good as 

 a system of tens, or perhaps a little better. And, 

 if man had had six fingers on each hand instead of 

 five, there is no doubt but we would today have a 

 system of tivelves, a duodecimal system, which 

 would have been a considerably better system 

 than the one we have. 



A system of twelves would be a much more flex- 

 ible system than a system of tens. Ten is divisible 

 by 2 and 5 only, while twelve is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 

 and 6. Counting in a decimal system must be 

 either by ones, twos, fives, or tens, or by some 

 multiple of ten; but in a duodecimal system we 

 could count by ones, twos, threes, fours, sixes, 

 twelves, or multiples of twelve. 



When we speak of ** three-score and ten," we 

 are counting by the old vestigial finger-method, 

 each score standing for 20, or, as a Mexican or 

 Carib Indian would put it, for ''one man," that is, 

 for the number of fingers and toes that one man 

 has. 



Greek and Latin are vestigial languages — lan- 

 guages which have gone out of use, but which have 

 not yet gone out of existence. 



Silent letters are the vestigial parts of words. 



