Page:Smith - Number Stories of Long ago (1919).djvu/20

 that Ching, even though he was the son of a king, could only count “one, two,” everything beyond that being a “lot.” This was as far as people needed to count when Ching was playing in the forest at the foot of Mount Yu, for money was not invented, and we use our numbers to-day chiefly in buying the things we need. But in those days kings had many slaves and made them work, and sent them to kill animals, and made them bring back skins for clothing and meat for food. Few people needed to count, and only these few ever learned. Even the wisest men did not know much about the numbers that we use every day, because they had no need to do so.

At the time that Ching was growing up in China there lived on the plains of Mesopotamia (mĕs′ṓ pṓ tā′mĭ ȧ), in southern Asia, a boy named An-am. He was the son of Bel, a shepherd of the country afterwards called the land of Babylon. Bel tended the sheep, and drove away the wolves that prowled about at night, and kept a careful watch to see that not one of his flock should wander away. One day Bel called out to An-am, “There 3