memory supplied, for he knew every particular drawer, though he had a
great many, as well as if their faces had been painted upon them; he had
innumerable figures to signify what he would have written, if he could;
and his shelves and boxes always put me in mind of the Egyptian
hieroglyphics, and nobody understood them, or any thing of them, but
himself.

It was an odd thing to see him, when a country-chap, came up to settle
accounts with him; he would go to a drawer directly, among such a number
as was amazing: in that drawer was nothing but little pieces of split
sticks, like laths, with chalk-marks on them, all as unintelligible as
the signs of the zodiac are to an old school-mistress that teaches the
horn-book and primer, or as Arabic or Greek is to a ploughman. Every
stick had notches on one side for single pounds, on the other side for
tens of pounds, and so higher; and the length and breadth also had its
signification, and the colour too; for they were painted in some places
with one colour, and in some places with anther; by which he knew what
goods had been delivered for the money: and his way of casting up was
very remarkable, for he knew nothing of figures; but he kept six spoons
in a place on purpose, near his counter, which he took out when he had
occasion to cast up any sum, and, laying the spoons in a row before him,
he counted upon them thus:

One, two, three, and another, one odd spoon, and t'other | | | | | |

By this he told up to six; if he had any occasion to tell any farther,
he began again, as we do after the number ten in our ordinary
numeration; and by this method, and running them up very quick, he would
count any number under thirty-six, which was six spoons of six spoons,
and then, by the strength of his head, he could number as many more as