orefinger from the three remaining fingers of the left hand, and bringing
the thumb of the right hand close to them, says: "3 from each side." For 7
he either subtracts from 10, saying: "there are still 3 of them," or he
brings the thumb and forefinger of the right hand up to the thumb of the
left, and says: "on one side there are 4 of them." He calls 8 by the same
name as many of the other Canadian tribes, that is, two 4's; and to show
the proper number of fingers, he closes the thumb and little finger of the
right hand, and then puts the three remaining fingers beside the thumb of
the left hand. This method is, in some of these particulars, different from
any other I have ever examined.

It often happens that the composition of numeral words is less easily
understood, and the original meanings more difficult to recover, than in
the examples already given. But in searching for number systems which show
in the formation of their words the influence of finger counting, it is not
unusual to find those in which the derivation from native words signifying
_finger, hand, toe, foot_, and _man_, is just as frankly obvious as in the
case of the Zuni, the Arawak, the Eskimo, or the Montagnais scale. Among
the Tamanacs,[74] one of the numerous Indian tribes of the Orinoco, the
numerals are as strictly digital as in any of the systems already examined.
The general structure of the Tamanac scale is shown by the following
numerals:

5. amgnaitone = 1 hand complete.
6. itacono amgna pona tevinitpe = 1 on the other hand.
10. amgna aceponare = all of the 2 hands.
11. puitta pona tevinitpe = 1 on the foot.
16. itacono puitta pona tevinitpe = 1 on the other foot.
20. tevin itoto = 1 man.
21. itacono itoto jamgnar bona tevinitpe = 1 on the hands of another
man.

In the Guarani[75] language of Paraguay the same method is found, with a
different form of expression for 20. Here the numerals in question are

5. asepopetei = one hand.
10. asepomokoi = two hands.
20. asepo asepi abe = hands and feet.

Another slight variation is furnished by the Kiriri language,[76] which is
also one of the numerous South American Indian forms of speech, where we
find the words to be

5. mi biche misa = one hand.
10. mikriba misa sai = both hands.
20. mikriba misa idecho ibi sai = both hands together with the feet.

Illustrations of this kind might be multiplie