pearances, served mankind in
general, in the first ages, for the measurement of time. What is here
said of the Otaheitans confirms his observations. We are told too, in
another work, that the natives of the Pellew Islands reckon their time
by months, and not by years; in which, however, we see they are inferior
to the former as to extent of science. Now there are two sorts of lunar
month, called in the language of astronomers, synodical and periodical;
the first is the time from new moon to new moon, consisting of 29 days,
12 hours, 44 min. 3 seconds, which is the month most commonly used by
the early observers; the second, consisting of 27 days, 7 hours, 43 min.
5 seconds, is that portion of time which the moon takes to finish her
course round the earth. Neither of these multiplied by 13 will make up
the solar year exactly. In what manner then the Otaheitans reckon, it is
not easy to comprehend. The probability is, that they have no notion of
the periodical month.--E.]

In numeration they proceed from one to ten, the number of fingers on
both hands; and though they have for each number a different name, they
generally take hold of their fingers one by one, shifting from one hand
to the other, till they come to the number they want to express. And in
other instances, we observed that, when they were conversing with each
other, they joined signs to their words, which were so expressive that a
stranger might easily apprehend their meaning.

In counting from ten they repeat the name of that number, and add the
word _more_; ten, and one more, is eleven; ten, and two more, twelve;
and so of the rest, as we say one-and-twenty, two-and-twenty. When they
come to ten and ten more, they have a new denomination, as we say a
score; and by these scores they count till they get ten of them, when
they have a denomination for two hundred; and we never could discover
that they had any denomination to express a greater number: Neither,
indeed; do they seem to want any; for ten of these amount to two
thousand, a greater number than they can ever apply.[24]

[Footnote 24: The reader cannot but be pleased with what Goguet says on
the practice of numbering with the fingers, so common in most nations,
and adopted we see by the Otaheitans. "Nature has provided us with a
kind of arithmetical instrument more generally used than is commonly
imagined; I mean our fingers. Every thing inclines us to think, that
these were the first instruments use