312* THE SERI INDIANS [ethannM? 



The giveu forms of the Serian digit "six" areevideutly mere variauls of a common 

 original, which seems quite naturally to have been composed of the stem -apka of the 

 numeral "three", and of lioth a preiis and a suffix. The jjrefixes, for there are two, 

 are, to judge from the one in imaj'^asho, demonstrative in character. It may he 

 compared with ini- in imfc', "he"; imfce, "that"; imkove, "they"; iinfci, "that", in which 

 it appears to be a directive prefix. And the initial ji- and sn- may be cognate in 

 origin. But the final -snl;, -'schoch, -shox', -sho, and -shroj, according to the audition 

 or otosis of the collector, must mean " repeated, doubled, again", etc, or an equiva- 

 lent. Hence, the Seri number "six" would be literally "three repeated". 



In the Yuman column at least eight dift'erent elements are involved in the forma- 

 tion of the digit "six" in the several dialects of the grouj). The digits "two" and 

 "tliree" compose the larger portion of the forms, resulting in such outlines as 

 hamhoke, hootnahooh, hiimhoke, liiimliuiiiie, xe»ix«7.-, kiimhok. Hamol; (10), "three", is a 

 characteristic form of this digit, and hooak (23), liabick (4), and hiidka (19), oak (14), 

 uake (2), are characteristic outlines of the digit "two". Compare these two lists. 

 The final -k of the numeral " three " is elided in comjiosition, as it is merely a predi- 

 cative element, as has been indicated in discussing the Yuman digit " three " ; hence, 

 ham- or hum-, symbolizing "three", with the suffixion of such forms as hooak, hudka, 

 or Hate, "two", readily becomes hiimhoke or hamhoke, literally "two threes". In 

 such forms as gtahhe (2), despe (18), and iiiuguahbai (14) there occurs a common ele- 

 ment -shbe, -spe, or -shbai, which evidently signifies "added, over, plus", just as 

 -elceijai does in m'sig-eleepai (23), "six", literally "one added, one more than". The 

 ge- or -g- in (2) is evidently the final // of the Kiliwi form of the numeral one, mesig, 

 m'sig, which may have at one time been the digit "one" in the Tonto (2); so that 

 geslibc or g-eshbe stands for an earlier mrsig-esUbe, "six", literally "one added (to 

 five)". The term de-sjyt' is evidently a contracted form of siiiita-spc, "one added", as 

 the other similar forms show. Compare ta-she-k (10) and siinia (9) and siginta (G), in 

 the last two of which the suflix is wanting or at least overlooked by the collector. 

 In ichkgum-kabiak (I) the digit kabiak, "three", occurs, so that ichkgum must mean 

 "repeated, again, iterated", just as it was shown in the remarks on the digit four. 

 Now, the form maike-sin-keiiaich is, perhaps, an ordinal and not a cardinal. The 

 initial maike- signifies "more, over, added, plus", the final -kenaich is the doubtful 

 part, and the middle portion -sin- is a contracted form of sinta, sihita, "one", as 

 may be seen in the list of the Y'nmau forms of the digit "one". One other form 

 remains to be considered. The Diegueno (14) of Dr Loew has niu-nii-shbai (the 

 syllabication is the writer's, showing the elements of the combination). An exam- 

 ination of the digits "seven", "eight", and " nine" reveals the fact that the initial 

 niii- has the value of "added, over, plus, in addition to", five. But it has been seen 

 that the ending -shbai has a like signification. The only reasonable explanation of 

 this anomaly is that like the Tonto (2) g-eshbe, it owes its origin to the term repre- 

 sented by the Kiliwi mesig: and, moreover, it seems to be a dialectic loan-word. If 

 the term geshbe (2) was adoptecf as meaning six, supplanting, it may be, an earlier 

 form like hamhoke, the force of analogy, to assimilate this to the other forms, namely, 

 of "seven", "eight", and "nine", would aflix the regular dialectic prefix nin- (or 

 nio-). These explanations and analyses of the diverse forms of the numeral "six" 

 reveal no relationship between the Serian and the Yuman groups. 



Serian 



A. kahkwuu 



B. kachcjhue 

 pjkaA-k^uc 



Uomkaxkue 

 D. tomkujkcui 



Ttiman 



22. hawake-zpi> 



18. hcwakc-sp(^ 

 10. hoage-shbe-k 



2. hoage-shbe 



19. huakc-shpi' 

 j^lhwag-spi- 



I hwagn-spi" 



