fingers closed after being counted; and "ner" signifies "foot". Mr.
George Bertin suggests that when 6x10 fingers gave 60 this number was
multiplied by the ten toes, with the result that 600 was afterwards
associated with the feet (ner). The Babylonian sign for 10 resembles
the impression of two feet with heels closed and toes apart. This
suggests a primitive record of the first round of finger counting.

In India this Babylonian system of calculation was developed during
the Brahmanical period. The four Yugas or Ages, representing the four
fingers used by the primitive mathematicians, totalled 12,000 divine
years, a period which was called a Maha-yuga; it equalled the
Babylonian 120 saroi, multiplied by 100. Ten times a hundred of these
periods gave a "Day of Brahma".

Each day of the gods, it was explained by the Brahmans, was a year to
mortals. Multiplied by 360 days, 12,000 divine years equalled
4,320,000 human years. This Maha-yuga, multiplied by 1000, gave the
"Day of Brahma" as 4,320,000,000 human years.

The shortest Indian Yuga is the Babylonian 120 saroi multiplied by
10=1200 divine years for the Kali Yuga; twice that number gives the
Dvapara Yuga of 2400 divine years; then the Treta Yuga is 2400 + 1200
= 3600 divine years, and Krita Yuga 3600 + 1200 = 4800 divine years.

The influence of Babylonia is apparent in these calculations. During
the Vedic period "Yuga" usually signified a "generation", and there
are no certain references to the four Ages as such. The names "Kali",
"Dvapara", "Treta", and "Krita" "occur as the designations of throws
of dice".[332] It was after the arrival of the "late comers", the
post-Vedic Aryans, that the Yuga system was developed in India.[333]

In _Indian Myth and Legend_[334] it is shown that the Indian and Irish
Ages have the same colour sequence: (1) White or Silvern, (2) Red or
Bronze, (3) Yellow or Golden, and (4) Black or Iron. The Greek order
is: (1) Golden, (2) Silvern, (3) Bronze, and (4) Iron.

The Babylonians coloured the seven planets as follows: the moon,
silvern; the sun, golden; Mars, red; Saturn, black; Jupiter, orange;
Venus, yellow; and Mercury, blue.

As the ten antediluvian kings who reigned for 120 saroi had an astral
significance, their long reigns corresponding "with the distances
separating certain of the principal stars in or near the
ecliptic",[335]) it seems highly probable that the planets were
similarly connected with mythical ages which were