243 



lages where they are preserved among the poor 

 labourers of Peruvian and Mexican race, in- 

 dividuals are found, who cannot count beyond 

 that number ? The singular opinion, that so 

 many American nations reckon only as far 

 as five, ten, or twenty, has been propagated 

 by travellers, who were ignorant, that, accord- 

 ing to the genius of the different idioms, men 

 stop, under every climate, at groups of five, ten, 

 or twenty units, (that is, at the fingers of one 

 hand, or of both hands, or at the fingers and 

 toes taken together) ; and that six, thirteen, or 

 twenty, are differently expressed, by five one, ten 

 three, and foot ten * Can it be asserted, that 

 the numbers of the Europeans do not extend 

 beyond ten, because we stop after having form- 

 ed a group of ten units ? 



The construction of the languages of Ame- 

 rica is so opposite to that of the languages de- 

 rived from the Latin, that the Jesuits, who had 

 thoroughly examined every thing that could con- 

 tribute to extend their establishments,introduced 

 among their neophytes, instead of the Spanish, 

 some Indian tongues, very rich, regular, and 



* See my American Monuments, vol. ii, p. 229 — 237. 

 The savages, to express great numbers with more facility, 

 are in the habit of forming groups of five, ten, or twenty 

 grains of maize, according as they reckon in their language 

 by fives, tens, or twenties. 



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