18 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
tiate them from the fifth, carrying the same distinction up to the 20th, 
this latter one constituting the initial number of the progressive series. 
They did not take the 5 for a basis in the way we use 10, as has been 
supposed. According to Ramirez, from the careful examination of a 
manuscript, it is clearly made out that the Nahoas formed the number 5 
by the act of summing up the four fingers of one hand with its corre¬ 
sponding thumb. 
The question arises, then, did the Nahoas use the fingers of both hands 
and the toes of both feet to construct the first perfect series of 20, as 
believed by Orozco y Berra ? Evidently not; nor does it seem that they 
even employed the fingers of both hands. The whole procedure seems 
to have been confined to the use of one hand. Chavero furnishes the 
evidence of this statement, taking into consideration the etj'mology of 
the very words employed to designate the numbers. 
In modern times we speak of the appendices of the hand as the little 
finger, the ring finger, the middle finger, the index finger, and the thumb, 
referring to their uses, their size, or their position in that extremity. It 
appears that the Nahoas named the digits on a similar basis. 
Chavero’s explanation of the formation of the first perfect series of 
numerical notation is so scientifically plausible, that I, for one, accept it 
as the true one. It is as follows: The various fruits being among the 
primitive articles of food employed by the Nahoas, as among other peo¬ 
ples in the first stages of their civilization, it is reasonable to suppose 
that they designated them by single names, in accordance with the abso¬ 
lute necessity of conveying an idea as to the size, stage of ripeness, and 
taste of such fruits. For instance, the Nahoas called a fresh and green 
fruit by the name of ceceltic", the ripe fruit they designated by the term 
omacic; and when the fruit had a good taste, they spoke of it as being 
yectli. To qualify a person or thing of a regular or an average size, the 
Nahoas employed the word nahuatile. It appears that the words just 
referred to were the basis upon which the Nahoas built their S 3 r stem of 
phonetic classification of numerals. Thus, the little finger the}^ called 
ce, from ceceltic , comparing it to the first stage of a fruit, this being small 
in size and green in condition. When the fruit is almost ripe, it assumes 
a larger size, and, therefore, from omacic they took the particle ome, to 
mean No. 2, to designate in this case the second finger, which is larger 
than the first. The fully developed fruit, thoroughly ripe, exhibits at 
this time its most agreeable taste; hence to the middle finger corresponds 
the No. 3, or yei, from yectli , a good thing. The fourth finger is not so 
large as the third or middle finger; it is of an average size, and, there¬ 
fore, naliui , from nahuatile was employed to designate the No. 4 or the 
fourth finger. It can be said, then, that the names of the first four num¬ 
erals were practically the same words used to designate the size of the 
