DEFICIENCIES IN NUMERATION. 467 



count up to ten, and that some individuals cannot go beyond 

 five. The Dammaras " in practice, whatever they may 

 possess in their language, certainly use no numeral greater 

 than three. When they wish to express four, they take to 

 their fingers, which are to them as formidable instruments of 

 calculation as a sliding rule is to an English schoolboy. 

 They puzzle very much after five, because no spare hand 

 remains to grasp and secure the fingers that are required 

 for units."* Mr. Crawfurd, to whom we are indebted for an 

 interesting paper on this subject, f has examined no less than 

 thirty Australian languages, and it appears that none of the 

 tribes in that vast continent can count beyond four. Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Scott Nind, indeed, the numerals used by the 

 natives of King George's Sound reach up to five ; but the 

 last is merely the word "many." The Brazilian Indians 

 count only up to three ; for any higher number they use the 

 word u many."J The Cape Yorkers (Australia) can hardly 

 be said to go beyond two ; their numerals are as follows : 



One Netat. 



Two Naes. 



Three Naes-netat. 



Four Nacs-naes. 



Five Naes-naes-netat. 



Six Naes-naes-naes. 



Again, in the state of their religious conceptions, or rather 

 in the absence of religious conceptions, we get another proof 

 of extreme mental inferiority. It has been asserted over 

 and over again that there is no race of men so degraded 

 as to be entirely without a religion without some idea of a 

 deity. So far from this being true, the very reverse is the 

 case. Many, we might almost say all, of the most savage 



* Gallon's Tropical Africa, p. 133. 



f Ethnological Society's Transactions, New Series, vol. ii., p. 84. 



J Spix and Martins, vol. i., p. 387. 



