(of some animal).
.01^4, shi = thread.

In addition to these, some of the lower fractional values are described by
words meaning "very small," "very fine thread," "sand grain," "dust," and
"very vague." Taken altogether, the Japanese number system is the most
remarkable I have ever examined, in the extent and variety of the higher
numerals with well-defined descriptive names. Most of the terms employed
are such as to defy any attempt to trace the process of reasoning which led
to their adoption. It is not improbable that the choice was, in some of
these cases at least, either accidental or arbitrary; but still, the
changes in word meanings which occur with the lapse of time may have
differentiated significations originally alike, until no trace of kinship
would appear to the casual observer. Our numerals "score" and "gross" are
never thought of as having any original relation to what is conveyed by the
other meanings which attach to these words. But the origin of each, which
is easily traced, shows that, in the beginning, there existed a
well-defined reason for the selection of these, rather than other terms,
for the numbers they now describe. Possibly these remarkable Japanese terms
may be accounted for in the same way, though the supposition is, for some
reasons, quite improbable. The same may be said for the Malagasy 1000,
_alina_, which also means "night," and the Hebrew 6, _shesh_, which has the
additional signification "white marble," and the stray exceptions which now
and then come to the light in this or that language. Such terms as these
may admit of some logical explanation, but for the great mass of numerals
whose primitive meanings can be traced at all, no explanation whatever is
needed; the words are self-explanatory, as the examples already cited show.

A few additional examples of natural derivation may still further emphasize
the point just discussed. In Bambarese the word for 10, _tank_, is derived
directly from _adang_, to count.[158] In the language of Mota, one of the
islands of Melanesia, 100 is _mel nol_, used and done with, referring to
the leaves of the cycas tree, with which the count had been carried
on.[159] In many other Melanesian dialects[160] 100 is _rau_, a branch or
leaf. In the Torres Straits we find the same number expressed by _na won_,
the close; and in Eromanga it is _narolim narolim_ (2 x 5)(2 x 5).[161]
This combination deserves remark only because of the involved fo