Examples like the above are not infrequent.  The Aztecs used for 10 the word matlactli, hand-half, i.e. the hand half of a man, and for 20 cempoalli, one counting.[89] The Point Barrow Eskimos call 10 kodlin, the upper part, i.e. of a man.  One of the Ewe dialects of Western Africa[90] has ewo, done, for 10; while, curiously enough, 9, asieke, is a digital word, meaning “to part (from) the hand.”

In numerous instances also some characteristic word not of hand derivation is found, like the Yoruba ogodzi, string, which becomes a numeral for 40, because 40 cowries made a “string”; and the Maori tekau, bunch, which signifies 10.  The origin of this seems to have been the custom of counting yams and fish by “bunches” of ten each.[91]

Another method of forming numeral words above 5 or 10 is found in the presence of such expressions as second 1, second 2, etc.  In languages of rude construction and incomplete development the simple numeral scale is often found to end with 5, and all succeeding numerals to be formed from the first 5.  The progression from that point may be 5-1, 5-2, etc., as in the numerous quinary scales to be noticed later, or it may be second 1, second 2, etc., as in the Niam Niam dialect of Central Africa, where the scale is[92]

   1. sa.
   2. uwi.
   3. biata.
   4. biama.
   5. biswi.
   6. batissa = 2d 1.
   7. batiwwi = 2d 2.
   8. batti-biata = 2d 3.
   9. batti-biama = 2d 4.
  10. bauwe = 2d 5.

That this method of progression is not confined to the least developed languages, however, is shown by a most cursory examination of the numerals of our American Indian tribes, where numeral formation like that exhibited above is exceedingly common.  In the Kootenay dialect,[93] of British Columbia, qaetsa, 4, and wo-qaetsa, 8, are obviously related, the latter word probably meaning a second 4.  Most of the native languages of British Columbia form their words for 7 and 8 from those which signify 2 and 3; as, for example, the Heiltsuk,[94] which shows in the following words a most obvious correspondence: 

2.  matl.       7.  matlaaus.
3.  yutq.       8.  yutquaus.

In the Choctaw language[95] the relation between 2 and 7, and 3 and 8, is no less clear.  Here the words are: 

2.  tuklo.      7.  untuklo.
3.  tuchina.    8.  untuchina.

The Nez Perces[96] repeat the first three words of their scale in their 6, 7, and 8 respectively, as a comparison of these numerals will show.

1.  naks.       6.  oilaks.
2.  lapit.      7.  oinapt.
3.  mitat.      8.  oimatat.

In all these cases the essential point of the method is contained in the repetition, in one way or another, of the numerals of the second quinate, without the use with each one of the word for 5.  This may make 6, 7, 8, and 9 appear as second 1, second 2, etc., or another 1, another 2, etc.; or, more simply still, as 1 more, 2 more, etc.  It is the method which was briefly discussed in the early part of the present chapter, and is by no means uncommon.  In a decimal scale this repetition would begin with 11 instead of 6; as in the system found in use in Tagala and Pampanaga, two of the Philippine Islands, where, for example, 11, 12, and 13 are:[97]