90 
POLYNESIAN RESEARCHES. 
however, so frequently employed by the people, as 
the word Sabbath. If a native wished to say he 
had been absent on a voyage or journey six weeks, 
he would generally say six Sabbaths, or one moon 
and two Sabbaths. 
Considering their uncivilized state, and want of 
letters, their method of computing time is matter 
of astonishment, and shews that they must have 
existed as a nation for many generations, to have 
rendered it so perfect. It is also an additional 
proof that they are not deficient in mental capa- 
city. 
Their acquaintance with, and extensive use of 
numbers, under these circumstances, is still more 
surprising. They did not reckon by forties, after 
the manner of the Mexicans and the Sandwich 
Islanders, but had a decimal method of calculation. 
These numerals were, 
Atahi, one. Aono, six. 
Arua, two. 
Atom, three. 
Amaha, four. 
Arima, five. 
Ahitu, seven. 
Avaru, eight. 
Aiva, nine. 
Ahuru, ten. 
Eleven would be Ahuru matahi, ten and one; 
and so on to twenty, which was simply Erua 
ahuru, two tens; twenty-one, two tens and one; 
and proceeding in this way till ten tens, or one 
hundred, which they called a Rau. The same 
method was repeated for every successive rau, or 
hundred, till ten had been enumerated, and 
these they called one Memo, or thousand. They 
continued in the same way to enumerate the units, 
ahurus or tens, raus or hundreds, and manos or 
thousands, until they had counted ten manos, or 
thousands; this they called a Manotini , or ten 
thousand. Continuing the same process, they 
