Note 334 — DEMOTIC CHARACTERS (continued 4)

“De este número en adelante los mas incultos se confunden y no saben decir mas que: muchos y muchísimos; pero los que tienen algun ingenio siguen la numeracion diciendo: una mano y uno, una mano y dos, etc. Para espresar diez, dicen: Naganná ignimbal demuejueg, esto es, todas las manos: para quince dicen las manos y un pié, y para veinte las manos y los piés, cuyo número es el término de la aritmética cochimí. Los que han aprendido el español saben nuestro modo de contar.”

“From this number onward the most ignorant are confused and are only able to say many and very many; but those who have some ingenuity continue the numeration by saying one hand and one, one hand and two, etc. To express ten they say, naganná ignimbal demuejueg, that is, all the hands; for fifteen they say the hands and a foot, and for twenty the hands and the feet, at which number ends the Cochimi arithmetic. Those who have learned Spanish know our method of counting.” (Clavigero, Historia, etc., p. 22.)

In this citation Padre Clavigero succinctly portrays the cumbersome number series of the Cochimi and other Amerinds of the Californian peninsula. Moreover, the Cochimi terms of Clavijero and those cited from Hervas by Herr Buschmann seemingly suggest a common source of information.

Ducrue (in Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, Nürnberg, 1787, vol. XII, pp. 294) expresses doubt as to the nauwi of the Laymon column, not knowing whether it is Nahuatlan or vernacular to the Laymon language. It certainly has an alien aspect. Of Laymonic number names Ducrue says that the Laymon can count singly to five, and then they repeat themselves.

The following citation may be of interest here:

“The Californians know very little of arithmetic, some of them being unable to count further than six, while others can not number beyond three, insomuch that none of them can say how many fingers he has. They do not possess anything that is worth counting, and hence their indifference. It is all the same to them whether the year has six or twelve months, and the month three or thirty days, for every day is a holiday with them. They care not whether they have one or two or twelve children, or none at all, since twelve cause them no more expense or trouble than one, and the inheritance is not lessened by a plurality of heirs. Any number beyond six they express in their language by much, leaving it to their confessor to make out whether that number amounts to seven, seventy, or seven hundred.”—Jacob Baegert, in Smithsonian Report, 1864, p. 388.