Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 51.djvu/542

528 use. For example, the Abipones of the Paraguay region express 4 by "toes of an ostrich," and 5 by "neenhalek," a, five-colored, spotted hide. Nevertheless, some attempts have been made to discover these etymologies.

Below is given a list which includes, besides those for 3 and 4, some etymologies that have been suggested for the higher numerals. I quote from the work of Gow already referred to, page 3, footnote: "The common derivations, taken chiefly from Bopp, are set out in Morris's Historical Outlines of English Accidence, page 110, note. The following only need be cited:

In commenting on these etymologies Gow says (pages 3 and 4): "When they say that pankan and saptan, ‘five’ and ‘seven,’ mean ‘following,’ because they follow ‘four’ and ‘six’ respectively, they suggest no reason why any other numeral above 1 should not have been called by either or both of these names; so when they say that navan, ‘nine,’ means new (νέος, etc.) because it begins a new quartette, they assume a primeval quaternary notation, and do not explain why ‘five’ was not called navan; so, again, when they say navan means ‘last’ (νέατος, etc.) because it is the last of the units, they evidently speak from the point of view of an arithmetician who has learned to use written symbols." The objections offered by Mr. Gow to these etymologies seem to me to be quite valid, with the exception of the last. It is not at all uncommon to find "9" expressed by some such phrase as "approaching completion," the fingers forming the natural scale, and serving the purpose of written numerals. The savage would be therefore in this respect in the position of an "arithmetician who has learned to use written symbols." In the Jiviro scale 9 is "hands next to complete" (Conant, page 61); in the Ewe scale it is "parting with the hands" (ibid., page 92), and in the Chippeway dialect the same numeral is shangosswoy, which is akin to chagissi, "used up" (ibid., page 162).

The derivations of the last six of the first ten numerals suggested by Gow are as follows: "Their original names appear to have been pankan or kankan (5), ksvaks or ksvaksva (6), saptan (7), aktan (8), navan (9), and dakan or dvakan (10). Some allusion to finger-counting may well underlie these words. Ever