and the thought underlying the words may probably be expressed by the
paraphrases, "1 on the third score, 2 on the third score, 3 on the third
score," etc. Similarly, 61 is 1 on the fourth score, 81 is one on the
fifth score, 381 is 1 on the nineteenth score, and so on to 400. At 441
the same formation reappears; and it continues to characterize the system
in a regular and consistent manner, no matter how far it is extended.[64]

The Yoruba language of Africa is another example of most lavish use of
subtraction; but it here results in a system much less consistent and
natural than that just considered. Here we find not only 5, 10, and 20
subtracted from the next higher unit, but also 40, and even 100. For
example, 360 is 400 - 40; 460 is 500 - 40; 500 is 600 - 100; 1300 is
1400 - 100, etc. One of the Yoruba units is 200; and all the odd hundreds
up to 2000, the next higher unit, are formed by subtracting 100 from the
next higher multiple of 200. The system is quite complex, and very
artificial; and seems to have been developed by intercourse with
traders.[65]

It has already been stated that the primitive meanings of our own simple
numerals have been lost. This is also true of the languages of nearly all
other civilized peoples, and of numerous savage races as well. We are at
liberty to suppose, and we do suppose, that in very many cases these words
once expressed meanings closely connected with the names of the fingers, or
with the fingers themselves, or both. Now and then a case is met with in
which the numeral word frankly avows its meaning--as in the Botocudo
language, where 1 is expressed by _podzik_, finger, and 2 by _kripo_,
double finger;[66] and in the Eskimo dialect of Hudson's Bay, where
_eerkitkoka_ means both 10 and little finger.[67] Such cases are, however,
somewhat exceptional.