may be consulted.

Taken as a whole, the Australian and Tasmanian tribes seem to have been
distinctly inferior to those of South America in their ability to use and
to comprehend numerals. In all but two or three cases the Tasmanians[39]
were found to be unable to proceed beyond 2; and as the foregoing examples
have indicated, their Australian neighbours were but little better off. In
one or two instances we do find Australian numeral scales which reach 10,
and perhaps we may safely say 20. One of these is given in full in a
subsequent chapter, and its structure gives rise to the suspicion that it
was originally as limited as those of kindred tribes, and that it underwent
a considerable development after the natives had come in contact with the
Europeans. There is good reason to believe that no Australian in his wild
state could ever count intelligently to 7.[40]

In certain portions of Asia, Africa, Melanesia, Polynesia, and North
America, are to be found races whose number systems are almost and
sometimes quite as limited as are those of the South. American and
Australian tribes already cited, but nowhere else do we find these so
abundant as in the two continents just mentioned, where example after
example might be cited of tribes whose ability to count is circumscribed
within the narrowest limits. The Veddas[41] of Ceylon have but two
numerals, _ekkame[=i]_, 1, _dekkameï_, 2. Beyond this they count
_otameekaï, otameekaï, otameekaï_, etc.; _i.e._ "and one more, and one
more, and one more," and so on indefinitely. The Andamans,[42] inhabitants
of a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, are equally limited in their
power of counting. They have _ubatulda_, 1, and _ikporda_, 2; but they can
go no further, except in a manner similar to that of the Veddas. Above two
they proceed wholly by means of the fingers, saying as they tap the nose
with each successive finger, _anka_, "and this." Only the more intelligent