THOMAS] DISCUSSION AND COMPARISONS 995 
Kulanapan family; the Achomawi in the Palaihnihan family, and the 
Konkau and Nishinam in the Pujunan family. 
Without referring to other examples it may be stated in general 
terms that while the yigesimal system has not been found in-use east 
of the Rocky mountains, except in Greenland and among some tribes 
in the northwestern cis-montane portion of British Columbia, it pre- 
vailed to a considerable extent on the Pacific slope from Mexico north- 
ward to the Arctic ocean, and it may also be added that it is found 
among the eastern tribes of Siberia and was the method adopted by 
the Aino. Conant’ says that the Tschukschi and Aino systems are 
‘‘among the best illustrations of counting by twenties that are to be 
found anywhere in the Old World.” These have been given in the 
preceding chapter for comparison. 
The count of the minor numbers in the Aino is based, as will be seen, 
on the following score, as in the Mayan group. Whether the equiva- 
lents added are correctly given is somewhat doubtful, as the proper 
interpretation of the name for 30 may be 10 on the second score; that 
for 50, 10 on the third score, etc., as we have indicated in parenthesis. 
In the Tschukschi the addition is to the preceding score—thus 30 is 
formed by adding 10 to 20. 
These and additional facts of the same character tend to show that 
in North America the vigesimal system of counting, like some other 
customs, was confined almost exclusively to that area which I have 
in a previous work” designated the ‘* Pacific section,” which includes 
the Pacific slope north of Mexico and all of Mexico and Central 
America. This fact and the additional fact that the system prevails 
in northeastern Asia, while it is rare in other parts of that grand 
division, except an area in the Caucasus region, and is wanting in the 
Atlantic slope of North America, are interesting and of considerable 
importance in the study of the ethnology of our continent. 
It would be interesting in this connection to inquire into the rang 
of this numeral system in South America, but we have not the data at 
hand necessary for this purpose. Conant says in general terms that 
it prevailed in the northern and western portions of the continent, 
thougk it is known that on the Pacific slope it did not extend south- 
ward farther than the borders of Peru, where the decimal system 
prevailed. It appears to have been in use among the Chibchas or 
Muyscas, a group extending both north and south of the Isthmus. It 

is or was in use among some of the tribes on the Orinoco, in eastern 
Brazil, and in Paraguay. However, the range of the system in South 
America is as yet unascertained.* 


1Number Concept, p. 191. 
2Twelfth Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., pp. 723-24. 
3 Professor W J McGee suggests that it may possibly hold true in a general sense that the barefoot 
or sandal-wearing habit accompanied the use of this system of counting. 
