148 W. THALBITZER. 
S 70. — When the Eastgreenlander wants to enumerate something 
or just to mention a number he must necessarily have recourse to his 
fingers, and if the numbers exceeds ten, to his toes also. First he lifts 
up his left hand in front of him bringing it to a level with his chest 
or mouth, with the palm turned downwards and the fingers bent 
down a little. Usually he lifts his right hand simultaneously with the 
palm turned upwards, so that the little finger of his right hand touches 
the thumb of his left hand. Holding his hands like that he starts the 
difficult task of counting (Fig. 12). | 
On naming number 1 he stretches out the little finger of his 
left hand. At 2 he stretches out the next finger, at 3 he lifts the 
middle finger, at 4 the forefinger, and at 5 he moves the thumb of 
the same hand. 
At 6 the numbers of the second hand begin, and he continues 
the counting by pointing with the left thumb at the fingers of the 
right hand, successively — from left to right, 1. e. from the little finger 
to the thumb — while naming the numbers from 6 to 10. 
The toes represent the numbers from 11 to 20, but the trouble 
of pulling off one’s boots is unnecessary: the Eskimo serves his 
purpose by pointing with the fingers towards the feet; or he stoops 
down and puts his fingers on them, or lifts one of his feet up 
towards the hand. 
At 20 the pointing ceases as this number is called ‘a man counted 
to the end’ e’ na’”tuartigo. 30 is called ‘а man counted to the end and 
10 on the other man. ‘Two men counted to an end’ indicates 40, 
but such high numbers will rarely have been used within the original 
Eskimo community. Anything beyond 20 is no doubt a hazy notion 
for the plain, uneducated Eskimo. They prefer to express any number 
exceeding 5 as many (amertaso:t), and any over 10 as ‘a great number, 
very, very many’, and that in an emphatic tone indicative of a high 
degree of wonder. However, imaginative and brave spirits have at- 
tempted to express higher numbers judging by the fact that there 
exists a word for 21 at Ammassalik: ci”n’a’, literally ‘the man’s 
balance, or number 20’s overrest.’ By continuing with the names of 
the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5 after cin'a: one may count up to 25, and 
further, over 40, е. g. e ata ci®n’a’ ‘the second man’s balance’ indic- 
ates 41. 
S 71. — Distributive and similar numerals are formed from the 
cardinal numbers by transforming them by means of verb suffixes, e. g. 
ata'"sera'rpoa ‘I get one at a time 
marte ra rpoa » » two » » » 
pipajora'rpoa » » three» » » 
