The Number Concept - Its Origin and Development by Levi Leonard Conant
page 22 of 286 (07%)
page 22 of 286 (07%)
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and 3 for 4, 1 and 1 and 3 for 5. Counting above 10 is, however, entirely
inconceivable to them, and any number beyond that limit they indicate by _tohaine_, many. The Conibos,[26] of the same region, had, before their contact with the Spanish, only _atchoupre_, 1, and _rrabui_, 2; though they made some slight progress above 2 by means of reduplication. The Orejones, one of the low, degraded tribes of the Upper Amazon,[27] have no names for number except _nayhay_, 1, _nenacome_, 2, _feninichacome_, 3, _ononoeomere_, 4. In the extensive vocabularies given by Von Martins,[28] many similar examples are found. For the Bororos he gives only _couai_, 1, _maeouai_, 2, _ouai_, 3. The last word, with the proper finger pantomime, serves also for any higher number which falls within the grasp of their comprehension. The Guachi manage to reach 5, but their numeration is of the rudest kind, as the following scale shows: _tamak_, 1, _eu-echo,_ 2, _eu-echo-kailau,_ 3, _eu-echo-way,_ 4, _localau_, 5. The Carajas counted by a scale equally rude, and their conception of number seemed equally vague, until contact with the neighbouring tribes furnished them with the means of going beyond their original limit. Their scale shows clearly the uncertain, feeble number sense which is so marked in the interior of South America. It contains _wadewo_, 1, _wadebothoa_, 2, _wadeboaheodo_, 3, _wadebojeodo_, 4, _wadewajouclay_, 5, _wadewasori_, 6, or many. Turning to the languages of the extinct, or fast vanishing, tribes of Australia, we find a still more noteworthy absence of numeral expressions. In the Gudang dialect[29] but two numerals are found--_pirman_, 1, and _ilabiu_, 2; in the Weedookarry, _ekkamurda_, 1, and _kootera_, 2; and in the Queanbeyan, _midjemban_, 1, and _bollan_, 2. In a score or more of instances the numerals stop at 3. The natives of Keppel Bay count _webben_, 1, _booli_, 2, _koorel_, 3; of the Boyne River, _karroon_, 1, _boodla_, 2, _numma_, 3; of the Flinders River, _kooroin_, 1, _kurto_, 2, _kurto kooroin_, 3; at the mouth of the Norman River, _lum_, 1, _buggar_, 2, |
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