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we may conceive how, in languages rich in figu- 

 rative expressions, the words two, three, and 

 seven, may be applied to the ideas of a yoke 

 (j'ugum), of all powerful (trimurti of the Hin- 

 doos), of enchantment, and misfortune : but is it 

 possible to admit, that, when man in an uncul- 

 tivated state first feels the necessity of reckonings 

 he calls four a black thing (muyhica) ; six, har- 

 vest (to); and twenty, a house {gue or gueta); 

 because in the arrangement of a lunar alma- 

 nack, from the recurrence of the ten terms of a 

 periodical series, the term four precedes by one 

 day the conjunctions of the Moon ; or because the 

 harvest is reaped six months after the winter 

 solstice ? In all languages a certain independ- 

 ence is observed between the roots which desig- 

 nate the numbers, and those which express 

 other objects of the natural world ; and we must 

 suppose, that, wherever this independence dis- 

 appears, two systems of numeration exist, one 

 of which is posterior to the other ; or that the 

 etymological affinities, which were presumed to 

 be discovered, are only apparent, because they 

 rest on figurative significations. P. Lugo, who 

 wrote in 1618, informs us indeed, that the Muys- 

 cas had two modes of denoting the number 

 twenty ; and that they said either gueta, house, 

 or quihicha ubchihica, foot ten ; but we shall 

 enter no farther into discussions foreign to the 

 object of this work. What we know with cer- 



