117 



units are extended to five, which has a peculiar 

 sign, as well as fifty, and five hundred*. Among 

 the Zamucas, as well as among the Muyscas, 

 eleven are calledjbot-one ; twelve, foot-two ; but 

 the remainder of the numeration of these nations 

 is of a fatiguing length, because, instead of sim- 

 ple words they mafce use of puerile circumlocu- 

 tions. They say, for instance, the hand finished, 

 for five ; one of the other (hand), for six ; the two 

 hands finished, for ten ; and the feet finished, for 

 twenty. This last number is sometimes identical 

 with the word man, or person, to indicate, that 

 the two hands and feet constitute the whole indi- 

 vidual. Thus, among the Jaruroes, noenipume, 

 derived from noen i, two, and canipume, man, sig- 

 nifies two men, and also the number forty. The 

 Sapiboconoes have no simple expression for a 

 hundred, or a thousand : they say for ten, tunca ; 

 for a hundred, tunca-tunca ; and for a thousand, 

 tunca-tunca-tunca. They form squares and cubes 

 by reduplication, as the Chinese form their plural, 

 and the Biscayans their superlative. Finally, the 

 groups of twenty units, or the twenties of the 

 Muyscas, of the Mexicans, and so many other 

 nations of America, are found in the old world 

 among the Biscayans, and the inhabitants of 

 Armorica. The first reckon : one, hat, or unan ; 

 two, hi, or daou ; three, iru, or tri ; twenty, 



* Hervas, p. 28, 96, 102, 105, 112, 1 16, and 127 . Mungo 

 Park's Travels, French translation, torn, i, p. 25 and 95. 



