e with any well-defined law.
After one or two distinct numerals the count may, as in the case of the
Veddas and the Andamans, proceed by finger pantomime and by the repetition
of the same word. Occasionally the same word is used for two successive
numbers, some gesture undoubtedly serving to distinguish the one from the
other in the savage's mind. Examples of this are not infrequent among the
forest tribes of South America. In the Tariana dialect 9 and 10 are
expressed by the same word, _paihipawalianuda;_ in Cobeu, 8 and 9 by
_pepelicoloblicouilini;_ in Barre, 4, 5, and 9 by _ualibucubi._[326] In
other languages the change from one numeral to the next is so slight that
one instinctively concludes that the savage is forming in his own mind
another, to him new, numeral immediately from the last. In such cases the
entire number system is scanty, and the creeping hesitancy with which
progress is made is visible in the forms which the numerals are made to
take. A single illustration or two of this must suffice; but the ones
chosen are not isolated cases. The scale of the Macunis,[327] one of the
numerous tribes of Brazil, is

1. pocchaenang.
2. haihg.
3. haigunhgnill.
4. haihgtschating.
5. haihgtschihating = another 4?
6. hathig-stchihathing = 2-4?
7. hathink-tschihathing = 2-5?
8. hathink-tschihating = 2 x 4?

The complete absence of--one is tempted to say--any rhyme or reason from
this scale is more than enough to refute any argument which might tend to
show that the quinary, or any other scale, was ever the sole number scale
of primitive man. Irregular as this is, the system of the Montagnais fully
matches it, as the subjoined numerals show:[328]

1. inl'are.
2. nak'e.
3. t'are.
4. dinri.
5. se-sunlare.
6. elkke-t'are = 2 x 3.
7. t'a-ye-oyertan = 10 - 3,
or inl'as dinri = 4 + 3?
8. elkke-dinri = 2 x 4.
9. inl'a-ye-oyertan = 10 - 1.
10. onernan.

CHAPTER VII.

THE VIGESIMAL SYSTEM.

In its ordinary development the quinary system is almost sure to merge into
either the decimal or the vigesimal system, and to form, with one or the
other or both of these, a mixed system of counting. In Africa, Oceanica,
and parts of North America, the union is almost always with the decimal
scale; while in other parts of the world the quinary and the vigesimal
systems have shown a decided affinity for each other. It is