Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1901 — Curious. [ARTICLE]

Curious.

The Indians of Guiana have a curious system of numeration. They count by the hand and its four fingers. Thus, when they reach five, instead of saying so, they call it a “hand.” Six is fore a “hand and first finger;” seven, a “hand and second finger.”*Ten is “two hands;” but twenty, Instead of being “four hands,” Is a “man.” • Forty is “two men," and thus they go on by twenties. Forty-six is expressed, “two men, a hand, and first finger.”