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oguei, or hugent ; forty, berroguei, or daouhgent ; 

 sixty, iruroguei, or trihugent. It is interesting*, 

 to trace the formation of the small groups of 

 five, ten, or twenty of these systems of numera- 

 tion in their different gradations ; all neverthe- 

 less presenting that same uniformity of feature, 

 by which all the inventions *bf mankind in the 

 first ages of its social existence are characte- 

 rized. 



Mr. Duquesne has made various etymological 

 researches on the words, which denote numbers 

 in the Chibcha language. He asserts, " that 

 all these words are significant ; that all depend 

 on roots, which relate, either to phases of the 

 Moon in its increase or wane, or to objects of 

 agriculture or worship." As no dictionary of 

 the Chibcha language exists, we cannot verify 

 the justness of this assertion ; we cannot be too 

 mistrustful of etymological researches, and shall 

 satisfy ourselves with here presenting the signifi- 

 cations of the numbers from one to twenty, as 

 they are given in the manuscript which I brought 

 from Santa Fe. We shall only add, that P. 

 Lugo, without entering into other discussions, 

 relates, in his grammar of the Chibcha language, 

 that the word gue denotes a house ; and that he 

 finds it unaltered in gue-ata (by syncope gueta), 

 twenty, one house ; gue-bosa, two twenties, forty, 

 or two houses ; gue-hisca, five twenties, a hun- 

 dred, or five houses. 



