While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Counting. Two systems of counting were formerly in use
among the Indians of North America, the decimal and the vigesimal. The latter,
which was used in Mexico and Central America, was also in general use N. of
Columbia r. , on the Pacific slope, while between that area and the border of
Mexico it was employed by only a few tribes, as the Pomo, Tuolumne, Konkan,
Nishinam, and Achomawi. On the Atlantic side the decimal system was used by all
except the Eskimo tribes. Both systems, based apparently on the finger and hand
count, were as a rule fundamentally quinary. There are some indications,
however, of a more primitive count, with minor tribal differences. In Siouan and
Algonquian the word for 2 is generally related to that for arms or hands, and in
Athapascan dialects to the term for feet. In a few languages, the Siksika,
Catawba, Gabrieleno, and some others, 3 is expressed by joining the words for 2
and 1. In many others the name for 4 signifies 2 and 2, or 2 times 2, as in most
of the Shoshonean dialects, and in Catawba, Haida, Tlingit, and apparently
Kiowa; the Pawnee formerly applied a name signifying all the fingers, or the
fingers of the hand, thus excluding the thumb. Five has usually a distinct name,
which in most cases refers to one hand or fist. The numbers from 6 to 9 are
generally based on 5, thus, 6=5+l, 7=5+2, etc.; or the names refer to the
fingers of the second hand as used in counting; thus, among the Eskimo of Pt
Barrow 6 is 'to the other hand 1', 7 'to the other hand 2' , and in many
dialects 6= '1 on the other hand'. There are exceptions to this rule, however;
for example, 6 is 3 and 3 in Haida and some other dialects; in Bellacoola the
name signifies 'second 1', and in Montagnais (Algonquian), '3 on each side'.
Although 7 is usually 'the second finger on the second hand', in some cases it
is based on 4, as among the Montagnais, who say '4 and 3'. Eight is generally
expressed by 'the third finger on the second hand'; but the Montagnais say '4 on
each side', and the Haida '4 and 4'; in Karankawa it signifies '2 fathers', and
in the Kwakiutl and some other languages it is '2 from 10'. In a number of
languages the name for 9 signifies 1 from 10, as with the Kwakiutl, the Eskimo
of N. w. Alaska, the Pawnee, and the Heiltsuk.
The numbers from 11 to 19 are usually formed in both systems by adding 1, 2, 3,
4, etc., to 10; but in the Vigesimal the quinary count is carried out, 16 being
15 + 1, 17 = 15+2, etc., or, in some dialects, 17=104-5+2. Many of the Indians
could count to 1,000, some by a regular system, while in a number of languages,
as Tlingit, Cherokee, etc., its signification is great 100. In Ottawa the
meaning was one body; in Abnaki, one box; in
Iroquois dialects, ten hand-claps,
that is, ten hundreds; in Kiowa, the whole hand hundred. Baraga and Cuoq give
terms for figures up to a million or more, but it is doubtful if such were
actually in use before contact with Europeans.
The common Indian method of counting on the hands, as perhaps is usual with most
savage or uncivilized peoples, was to "tell off" the fingers of the left hand,
beginning with the little finger, the thumb being the fifth or 5; while in
counting the right hand the order was usually reversed, the thumb being counted
6, the forefinger 7, and so on to the little linger, which would be 10. The
movement was therefore sinistral. Although the order in counting the first 5 on
the left hand was in most cases as given above, the order of counting the second
5 was subject to greater variation. It was a common habit to bend the fingers
inward as counted, but there were several western tribes whose custom was to
begin with the clenched hand, opening the fingers as the count proceeded, as
among the Zuņi. Among the tribes using the
vigesimal system, the count of the second 10 was practically or theoretically
performed on the feet, the 20 making the "complete man," and often, as among the
Eskimo and Tlingit, receiving names having reference to the feet. The Zuņi,
however, counted the second 10 back on the knuckles.
Indians often made use of numeral classifiers in counting, that is, the number
name was modified according to the articles counted; thus, in the Takulli
dialect of Athapascan tha means 3 things; thane, 3 persons;
that, 3 times; thatsen, in 3 places; thauh, in 3 ways;
thailtoh, all 3 things, etc. Such classifiers are found in many dialects,
and in some are quite numerous.
Certain numbers have been held as sacred by most tribes; thus 4, probably owing
to the frequent reference to the cardinal points in ceremonies and religious
acts, has become sacred or ceremonial. Among the
Creeks, Cherokee, Zuņi,
and most of the Plains tribes, 7 is also considered a sacred number. For the Zuņi,
Gushing says it refers to the 4 cardinal points plus the zenith, nadir, and
center or ego. Some of the Pacific coast Indians regard 5 as their sacred
number. Although 13 appears in most of the calendar and ceremonial counts of the
cultured nations of Mexico and Central America, its use as a sacred or
ceremonial number among the Indians N. of Mexico was rare, the Pawnee, Hopi, and
Zuņi being notable exceptions.
Consult Brinton, Origin of Sacred Numbers, Am. Anthrop., 1894; Conant,
Number Concept, 1896; Gushing, Manual Concepts, Am. Anthrop., 1892;
Hayden, Ethnog. and Philol. Mo. Val., 1862; McGee, Primitive Numbers,
19th Rep. B. A. E., 1900; Thomas, Numeral Systems of Mexico and Central
America, ibid.; Trumbull, Numerals in American Indian Languages,
Trans. Am. Philol. Assn, 1874; Wilson, Indian Numerals, Canad. Ind., i,
272, 1891. (C. T.)
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includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
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Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
