3. inoaka yekaini = 2 and 1.
4. geyenknate = toes of an ostrich.
5. neenhalek = a five coloured, spotted hide,
or hanambegen = fingers of 1 hand.
10. lanamrihegem = fingers of both hands.
20. lanamrihegem cat gracherhaka anamichirihegem = fingers of both
hands together with toes of both feet.

That the number sense of the Abipones is but little, if at all, above that
of the native Australian tribes, is shown by their expressing 3 by the
combination 2 and 1. This limitation, as we have already seen, is shared by
the Botocudos, the Chiquitos, and many of the other native races of South
America. But the Abipones, in seeking for words with which to enable
themselves to pass beyond the limit 3, invented the singular terms just
given for 4 and 5. The ostrich, having three toes in front and one behind
on each foot presented them with a living example of 3 + 1; hence "toes of
an ostrich" became their numeral for 4. Similarly, the number of colours in
a certain hide being five, the name for that hide was adopted as their next
numeral. At this point they began to resort to digital numeration also; and
any higher number is expressed by that method.

In the sense in which the word is defined by mathematicians, _number_ is a
pure, abstract concept. But a moment's reflection will show that, as it
originates among savage races, number is, and from the limitations of their
intellect must be, entirely concrete. An abstract conception is something
quite foreign to the essentially primitive mind, as missionaries and
explorers have found to their chagrin. The savage can form no mental
concept of what civilized man means by such a word as "soul"; nor would his
idea of the abstract number 5 be much clearer. When he says _five_, he
uses, in many cases at least, the same word that serves him when he wishes