4. erin.
5. arun.
6. efa.
7. edze.
8. edzo.
9. esan.
10. ewa.
11. okanla = great 1.
12. edzila = great 2.
13. etala = great 3.
14. erinla = great 4, etc.
40. ogodzi = string.
200. igba = heap.

The word for 40 was adopted because cowrie shells, which are used for
counting, were strung by forties; and _igba_, 200, because a heap of 200
shells was five strings, and thus formed a convenient higher unit for
reckoning. Proceeding in this curious manner,[106] they called 50 strings 1
_afo_ or head; and to illustrate their singular mode of reckoning--the king
of the Dahomans, having made war on the Yorubans, and attacked their army,
was repulsed and defeated with a loss of "two heads, twenty strings, and
twenty cowries" of men, or 4820.

The number scale of the Abipones,[107] one of the low tribes of the
Paraguay region, contains two genuine curiosities, and by reason of those
it deserves a place among any collection of numeral scales designed to
exhibit the formation of this class of words. It is:

1. initara = 1 alone.
2. inoaka.