f '^5 : ) 
we now leave out, and by that means ’tis reftored to 
its antient Form. And now we have no Figure left 
but the Indian V (7) to derive the modern 6 from, 
to which it feems to have no manner of relation : 
I jfliali only obferve, that it feems not unlikely to 
be compounded of th tlndian 0.(5) and the 1, as 
thus* 6 ; for of the two antient Characters o g (for 
five) the o is Indian , and the §i s Arabian-, this 
lalt being nothing more than the Arabian Letter Q 
inverted, which in the Arabian Alphabet denotes 
the fme Number, and is, as ’tis fuppofed, ufed by 
the Arabians only. 
The Reman Characters have likewife undergone 
Alterations ; for it is found that 1000 was reprefent- 
ed by the Antients by this Character as like- 
wife by jjsfy ; whence is derived the modern M. for 
that Number : Alfo 5000 was reprefented by , and 
50000 by 5 and hence the modern Characters 133 
and 1303 for the fame Number. We find alfo in 
antient Infcriptions ^ or yb ftand for io,. and 30, 
the Letter X being itwice exprefs’d in the one, and 
three times in the other, which the Moderns write 
fingie,, as XX and XXX, only the Timber-Merchants 
ufe the antient Characters # and ^ to this Day. 
