sing down also the first finger of that hand indicates two;
and so on with the other fingers of the right hand, till you reach
the closing down of the thumb and all the fingers of the right hand,
which indicates five. Then, keeping all the right hand closed, they
begin with the left hand also. Closing down only the thumb indicates
six; and so on as before, until the thumbs and all the fingers of
both hands are closed, which indicates ten. [96]

Then they go to the feet. They keep both hands closed and together,
and with the right fist they point to the toes, beginning with the
big toe of the right foot, and so along the other toes of that foot,
and then go to the big toe of the left foot, and so along the other
toes of that foot, thus reaching the enumerative total of twenty. They
do not, when wishing to indicate a number, simply place their fingers
and hands and feet simultaneously in the requisite position for doing
so. They always go through the whole process of finger and toe counting
from the beginning. For example, to indicate eight, they turn in the
thumb and all the fingers of the right hand, and afterwards the thumb
and two fingers of the left hand, separately, and one alter another,
until the right position is reached; and similarly as regards numbers
over ten, they solemnly turn down all the fingers one after another,
and then point to the toes one after another, until they get to the
right one for indicating the desired number. When the fingers and
toes of the person counting are exhausted, he has recourse to those
of another person, if he wishes to count further, although he has
then passed the limit of numerical phraseology. For the purpose of
counting big numbers they are always sitting, and as in counting they
exhaust hands and feet, the latter are put together, If, for example,
they reach eighty, there are four men sitting, with all their hands
and feet crowded together; and if the number be eighty-three, there
is also a fifth man with a thumb and two fingers of his right hand
closed up. Sometimes a number above ten, but not over twenty, is
indicated with the hands only by counting up to ten in the ordinary
way, and then opening all the fingers and counting again, until they
reach the requisite amount in excess of ten.

I do not think it can be said that these people have in their minds any
real abstract idea of number, at all events beyond twenty. Each finger
turned down and toe pointed to, in success