68 A Note on some Hill Tribes [No. 169. 



The past tense is expressed by the affix bauk; as kai tchek bank, " I 

 have gone." » 



The imperative is expressed by the simple root, and is distinguished 

 from the present tense by having no nominative case. 



Mon, or maun, are interrogative particles. 



With reference to the negation of sentences, there appear to be vari- 

 ous negative particles. B' is used to negative the substantive verb : 

 as kai b'au, " I am not." Mok, mauk, auk, au, dm6n, are all variously 

 used as particles of negation, the first two are prohibitive. 



They do not appear to have an affix of number for verbs ; the noun 

 which is the nominative being sufficient to shew the time of the verb ; 

 as kai tchek gd ndk, " I go, or will go;" kai tehee tchek gd ndk, " we 

 go, or will go." 



In the formation of sentences, the nominative comes first, the objective 

 next, and the verb last. There are however some cases in which this 

 order appears varied. 



NUMBERS. 



We now come to the mode of numeration, and in this dialect it pre- 

 sents some interesting peculiarities. The numeral system of the Khumis 

 is emphatically decimal ; of the ten fingers. It is moreover so intricate 

 as to be somewhat difficult of explanation. This fact admits us into 

 a very peculiar phase of " savagery." We are apt to consider the mode 

 of reasoning and every thing appertaining to an uncivilized race, as 

 necessarily bearing the impress of simplicity : and this may be said to be 

 generally the case, but at times the savage mind seems to take to itself 

 flights of intricate and almost obfuscated reasoning. 



The first peculiarity which we shall notice is, that the decades, or 

 multiples of ten, up to hundreds have two names ; thus as they count 

 on their fingers when they get to " twenty," they call it first hore laik 

 hord, which means literally " ten and ten," and then throwing their fin- 

 gers on an imaginary heap they exclaim apdng re*, " a score," and so 

 on. Rd is an affix used with numbers, and implies " full." 



The next circumstance to be noticed is, the number of different 

 terms used to convey the idea of " and, more." 



1 , hndk. 2, nu, (u, like the simple French u). 3, t'hoon. 4, p'lu. 5, pdng. 

 6, t'ru. 7, s'ru. 8, tdya. 9, t'khau. 10, ho, or hore. 11, hore laik hndk. 



