Part 5 (1/2)

8. pargen. 8. tolu.

9. parbai. 9. fa.

10. panim. 10. lima.

Such examples are, I believe, entirely unique among primitive number systems.

In numeral scales where the formative process has been of the general nature just exhibited, irregularities of various kinds are of frequent occurrence. Hand numerals may appear, and then suddenly disappear, just where we should look for them with the greatest degree of certainty. In the Ende,[101] a dialect of the Flores Islands, 5, 6, and 7 are of hand formation, while 8 and 9 are of entirely different origin, as the scale shows.

1. sa.

2. zua.

3. telu.

4. wutu.

5. lima 6. lima sa = hand 1.

7. lima zua = hand 2.

8. rua butu = 2 4.

9. trasa = 10 - 1?

10. sabulu.

One special point to be noticed in this scale is the irregularity that prevails between 7, 8, 9. The formation of 7 is of the most ordinary kind; 8 is 2 fours--common enough duplication; while 9 appears to be 10 - 1. All of these modes of compounding are, in their own way, regular; but the irregularity consists in using all three of them in connective numerals in the same system. But, odd as this jumble seems, it is more than matched by that found in the scale of the Karankawa Indians,[102] an extinct tribe formerly inhabiting the coast region of Texas. The first ten numerals of this singular array are:

1. natsa.

2. haikia.

3. kachayi.

4. hayo hakn = 2 2.

5. natsa behema = 1 father, _i.e._ of the fingers.

6. hayo haikia = 3 2?

7. haikia natsa = 2 + 5?

8. haikia behema = 2 fathers?

9. haikia doatn = 2d from 10?

10. doatn habe.

Systems like the above, where chaos instead of order seems to be the ruling principle, are of occasional occurrence, but they are decidedly the exception.

In some of the cases that have been adduced for ill.u.s.tration it is to be noticed that the process of combination begins with 7 instead of with 6.

Among others, the scale of the Pigmies of Central Africa[103] and that of the Mosquitos[104] of Central America show this tendency. In the Pigmy scale the words for 1 and 6 are so closely akin that one cannot resist the impression that 6 was to them a new 1, and was thus named.

MOSQUITO. PIGMY.

1. k.u.mi. ujju.

2. wal. ibari.

3. niupa. ikaro.

4. wal-wal = 2-2. ikw.a.n.ganya.

5. mata-sip = fingers of 1 hand. b.u.muti.

6. matlalkabe. ijju.

7. matlalkabe pura k.u.mi = 6 and 1. b.u.mutti-na-ibali = 5 and 2.

8. matlalkabe pura wal = 6 and 2. b.u.mutti-na-ikaro = 5 and 3.