t was corrected in later editions. It is here
mentioned only because of the wide diffusion of the error, and the interest
it has always excited.[217]

Aside from our common decimal scale, there exist in the English language
other methods of counting, some of them formal enough to be dignified by
the term _system_--as the sexagesimal method of measuring time and angular
magnitude; and the duodecimal system of reckoning, so extensively used in
buying and selling. Of these systems, other than decimal, two are noticed
by Tylor,[218] and commented on at some length, as follows:

"One is the well-known dicing set, _ace_, _deuce_, _tray_, _cater_,
_cinque_, _size_; thus _size-ace_ is 6-1, _cinques_ or _sinks_, double 5.
These came to us from France, and correspond with the common French
numerals, except _ace_, which is Latin _as_, a word of great philological
interest, meaning 'one.' The other borrowed set is to be found in the
_Slang Dictionary_. It appears that the English street-folk have adopted as
a means of secret communication a set of Italian numerals from the
organ-grinders and image-sellers, or by other ways through which Italian or
Lingua Franca is brought into the low neighbourhoods of London. In so doing
they have performed a philological operation not only curious but
instructive. By copying such expressions as _due soldi_, _tre soldi_, as
equivalent to 'twopence,' 'threepence,' the word _saltee_ became a
recognized slang term for 'penny'; and pence are reckoned as follows:

oney saltee 1d. uno soldo.
dooe saltee 2d. due soldi.
tray saltee 3d. tre soldi.
quarterer saltee 4d. quattro soldi.
chinker saltee 5d. cinque soldi.
say saltee 6d. sei soldi.
say oney saltee, or setter saltee 7d. sette soldi.
say dooe saltee, or otter saltee 8d. otto soldi.
say tray saltee, or nobba saltee 9d. nove soldi.
say quarterer saltee, or dacha saltee 10d. dieci soldi.
say chinker saltee or dacha oney saltee 11d. undici soldi.
oney beong 1s.
a beong say saltee 1s. 6d.
dooe beong say saltee, or madza caroon 2s. 6d. (half-crown, mezza
corona).

One of these series simply adopts Italian numerals decimally. Bu