every-day words of each; and among these words one may look with a good
degree of certainty for the 1, 2, 3, etc., of the number scale. So fruitful
has been this line of research, that the attempt has been made, even, to
establish a common origin for all the races of mankind by means of a
comparison of numeral words.[51] But in this instance, as in so many others
that will readily occur to the mind, the result has been that the theory
has finally taken possession of the author and reduced him to complete
subjugation, instead of remaining his servant and submitting to the
legitimate results of patient and careful investigation. Linguistic
research is so full of snares and pitfalls that the student must needs
employ the greatest degree of discrimination before asserting kinship of
race because of resemblances in vocabulary; or even relationship between
words in the same language because of some chance likeness of form that may
exist between them. Probably no one would argue that the English and the
Babusessé of Central Africa were of the same primitive stock simply because
in the language of the latter _five atano_ means 5, and _ten kumi_ means
10.[52] But, on the other hand, many will argue that, because the German
_zehn_ means 10, and _zehen_ means toes, the ancestors of the Germans
counted on their toes; and that with them, 10 was the complete count of the
toes. It may be so. We certainly have no evidence with which to disprove
this; but, before accepting it as a fact, or even as a reasonable
hypothesis, we may be pardoned for demanding some evidence aside from the
mere resemblance in the form of the words. If, in the study of numeral
words, form is to constitute our chief guide, we must expect now and then
to be confronted with facts which are not easily reconciled with any pet
theory.

The scope of the present work will admit of no more than a hasty
examination of numeral forms, in which only actual and well ascertained
meanings will be considered. But here we are at the outset confronted with