Note 107 — Chapter XIV

According to Spix and Martius, “The Coroados Indians in the interior of Brazil have their language, in respect to numbers, very imperfect. They generally count only by the joints of the finger, consequently only to three; every greater number they express by the word ‘many.’ Their calculation of time is equally simple—merely according to the returning season of the ripening of the fruits, or according to the phases of the moon,—of which latter, however, they can express in words only the appearance, without any reference to the cause.”—Travels in Brazil, 8vo. Eng. Transl. vol. ii. p. 255.