.. assigning one
of his fingers to each, and it was not until after many failures, and
consequent fresh starts, that he was able to express so high a number,
which he at length did by holding up his hand three times, thus giving me
to understand that fifteen was the answer to this most difficult
arithmetical question." This meagreness of knowledge in all things
pertaining to numbers is often found to be sharply emphasized in the names
adopted by savages for their numeral words. While discussing in a previous
chapter the limits of number systems, we found many instances where
anything above 2 or 3 was designated by some one of the comprehensive terms
_much_, _many_, _very many_; these words, or such equivalents as _lot_,
_heap_, or _plenty_, serving as an aid to the finger pantomime necessary to
indicate numbers for which they have no real names. The low degree of
intelligence and civilization revealed by such words is brought quite as
sharply into prominence by the word occasionally found for 5. Whenever the
fingers and hands are used at all, it would seem natural to expect for 5
some general expression signifying _hand_, for 10 _both hands_, and for 20
_man_. Such is, as we have already seen, the ordinary method of
progression, but it is not universal. A drop in the scale of civilization
takes us to a point where 10, instead of 20, becomes the whole man. The
Kusaies,[110] of Strong's Island, call 10 _sie-nul_, 1 man, 30 _tol-nul_, 3
men, 40 _a naul_, 4 men, etc.
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