NOtES. 
255 
llie Hindoos and the Thibetans. The same writer as- 
serts, that Cecrops and Pythagoras were acquainted with 
this system of Egyptian numeration ; and that it took 
its origin from the lineary hieroglyphical arithmetic, in 
which perpendicular strokes have a value of position, 
while several rows of horizontal bars denote tens, and 
the multiples of ten (Gatterer, Weltgeschichte bis 
Cyrus, p. 586). According to this hypothesis, the nota- 
tion peculiar to the Hindoos would have been introduc- 
ed for the second time into Europe by the Arabians ; but 
these assertions do not seem to rest on very solid foun- 
dations (Kircher, Obel. Pamph., p. 46 1). We know, 
that among the Romans, whose numerical system is in- 
finitely more imperfect than that of the Greeks, the 
unit changes its value according as it is placed before 
or after the signs of five or of ten. A real value of 
position is found in the notation, which, according to 
Pappus, Apollonius made use of for the myriads, (De- 
lambre, Arith. des Grecs dans les Oeuvres d’Archimede, 
1807, p. 578) : but none of the nations, of which we 
have authentic accounts, appear to have attained this 
simple and uniform method, which was followed from 
remote antiquity by the Hindoos, the Thibetans, and 
the Chinese. 
Page 128. Twelve Su7ias, The inhabitants of Ota- 
heite divide the year, not into twelve, but into thirteen 
months, or moons, to which they give the names of the 
sons of the Sun (Missionary Voyage to the Pacific 
Ocean, 1799, p* 341 — 344), This division by thirteen 
is very extraordinary no doubt ; but we know, that peo- 
ple far advanced in civilization have long stopped in 
their calendar at numbers the least fitted for the divi- 
sion of time. See the valuable researches of Mr. Nie- 
