Eay & Haddon — The Languages of Torres Straits — II. 163 



repetitions of one to nine. The names are simply those of parts of the 

 body themselves, and are not numerals.^ 



An unexplained word laelo is used, with numerals in Mk. vi. 7. 

 See Yocabulary. 



This system could only have been used as an aid to counting, like 

 using a knotted string, and not as a series of actual numbers. In a 

 question of trade a man would remember how far along his person a 

 former number of articles extended, and by beginning again on the left 

 little finger he could recover the actual number. 



Only the old men are acquainted with this method of enumeration, 

 and it is now superseded by the European system. 



All the numerals now in use are borrowed from the English. 

 Simple arithmetic is taught in the Mission Schools, and the ciphers 

 are all introduced. 



SEASOlfS. 



" There was no division of the year into months or days, and the 

 years were never counted. Time was usually reckoned by suns or 

 days, and by moons or months." — {Ethnography, p. 303.) 



The year wato is divided into two seasons — aibu, the period of the 

 south-east winds, and huki, the season of the north-west monsoons- 

 Macgillivray gives aibow, summer or dry season ; kuM, winter or rainy 

 season. With regard to other seasons there is some uncertainty, and, 

 perhaps, a confusion of names. Macfarlane gives hiM, spring ; and h^ct^, 

 autumn, as divisions of the year sa%iwaur. In the Gospel (Mark, xiii. 

 18) winter is translated aigi tonar, foodless time ; summer (Mark, xiii. 

 28) is dokal natizo • and harvest, hurugomel (Mark, iv. 29). Macgil- 

 livray gives also malgui {i.e. growing) as spring and autumn, and 



' A similar system of counting is found in parts of New Guinea. Chalmers' 

 "Pioneering in New Guinea," p. 75, gives fourteen numerals of Kaevakuku 

 Elema as follows: — 1. harohapo, small finger of left hand; 2. orahoka, next 

 finger ; 3. irohiho, middle finger ; 4. hari, fore finger ; 5. hue, thumb ; 6. 

 ukova, wrist; 7. para, fore arm; 8. ari, elbow; 9. /ifff?, upper arm; 10. hero, 

 shoulder; 11. korave, neck ; 12. avaku, ear; 13. icbuhai, eye; 14. uvira, nose. 

 It is then continued down the right side to the small finger of the right hand. 

 Also in describing the Orokolo (Elema coimtry) counting he says : — "In counting 

 they begin with the small finger on the left hand and go up to the arm— by the 

 neck, ear, eye, and nose— to the other side, then down the right arm, ending at the 

 small finger thereof." (" "Work and Adventure," p. 163). 



