The Philippine Journal of Science, 



D. General Biologj', Etlinology and Anthropology. 



Vol. VI, No. 1, February, 1011. 



ON A QUINARY NOTATION AMONG THE ILONGOTS OF 

 NORTHERN LUZON. 



By Otto Sctieerer. 



Within the area of Austronesian languages there are represented, in 

 a pure or in a modified form, all those systems of numeration which are 

 designated as quinarj^ decimal, or vigesimal notations, according as 

 they are based upon the counting of the digits of only one hand, of both 

 hands, or of both hands and feet. 



From the Philippines in particular none but decimal systems have 

 hitherto been recorded, not excepting such tribes as the Negritos, 

 Tagbanwas and similar people of low culture.^ 



In view of this general use of decimal series of numerals in the Phil- 

 ippines it will be of interest here to make known a ease of quinary 

 notation in northern Luzon as found by me some time ago in an old 

 Egongot (i. e., Ilongot) catechism dating from 1792, and declared by its 

 authors, three Spanish missionaries, to be a revision of a still older text.^ 



As is to be supposed, the catechism does not give the Egongot numerals 

 bj' way of demonstration. They occur in the text mostly in the form 

 of ordinals in such places as "The ten commandments," "The articles of 

 faith," and the like. Collecting these ordinals I obtain the following list : 



Ta onhucoiig 



the first 



Ta catamhiang no siyet 



the sixth 



Ta cadua 



the second 



Ta catamhiang no dua 



the seventh 



Ta cat go 



the third 



Ta catamhiang' notgo 



the eighth 



Ta caapat 



the fourth 



Ta catamhiang no apat 



the ninth 



Ta catamMang 



the fifth 



Ta catampopoo 



the tenth 



' For a full treatise on the numerals of these systems see the praiseworthy 

 paper of Professor Frank R. Blake in Journ. Am. Or. Soc. (1907), 28: Contribu- 

 tions to Comparative Philippine Grammar, Part II. 



' "Cateeismo de doctrina eristiana en Egongot, escrito por el M. R. P. Fray 

 Francisco de la Zarza, 0. S. F. Dado k luz por Fernando Blumentritt, . . . y 

 aumentado por el mismo editor eon equivalencias del texto egongot 6 ilongote 

 en castellano, tagalog y moro de Maguindanao." (Vienna, 1893). As will 

 be shoAvn, the form '"Egongot" for "Ilongot" represents an idiomatic pronunciation 

 of this word among at least that section of the Ilongots whose dialect is used 

 in this catechism. For this reason it is employed by me in this paper as a term 

 distinctive for that dialect. 



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