Remarkable as this list may appear, it is by no means as extensive as that derived from many of the other British Columbian tribes.  The numerals of the Shushwap, Stlatlumh, Okanaken, and other languages of this region exist in several different forms, and can also be modified by any of the innumerable suffixes of these tongues.[140] To illustrate the almost illimitable number of sets that may be formed, a table is given of “a few classes, taken from the Heiltsuk dialect.[141] It appears from these examples that the number of classes is unlimited.”

+-----------------------+-------------+--------------+-

-------------+
|                       | One.        | Two.         | Three.       |
+-----------------------+-------------+--------------+------

--------+
|Animate.               |menok        |maalok        |yutuk         |
|Round.                 |menskam      |masem         |yutqsem       |
|Long.                  |ments’ak     |mats’ak       |yututs’ak     |
|Flat.                  |menaqsa      |matlqsa       |yutqsa        |
|Day.                   |op’enequls   |matlp’enequls |yutqp’enequls |
|Fathom.                |op’enkh      |matlp’enkh    |yutqp’enkh    |
|Grouped together.      |----         |matloutl      |yutoutl       |
|Groups of objects.     |nemtsmots’utl|matltsmots’utl|yutqtsmots’utl|
|Filled cup.            |menqtlala    |matl’aqtlala  |yutqtlala     |
|Empty cup.             |menqtla      |matl’aqtla    |yutqtla       |
|Full box.              |menskamala   |masemala      |yutqsemala    |
|Empty box.             |menskam      |masem         |yutqsem       |
|Loaded canoe.          |mentsake     |mats’ake      |yututs’ake    |
|Canoe with crew.       |ments’akis   |mats’akla     |yututs’akla   |
|Together on beach.     |----         |maalis        |----          |
|Together in house, etc.|----         |maalitl       |----          |
+-----------------------+-------------+--------------+------

--------+

Variation in numeral forms such as is exhibited in the above tables is not confined to any one quarter of the globe; but it is more universal among the British Columbian Indians than among any other race, and it is a more characteristic linguistic peculiarity of this than of any other region, either in the Old World or in the New.  It was to some extent employed by the Aztecs,[142] and its use is current among the Japanese; in whose language Crawfurd finds fourteen different classes of numerals “without exhausting the list."[143]

In examining the numerals of different languages it will be found that the tens of any ordinary decimal scale are formed in the same manner as in English.  Twenty is simply 2 times 10; 30 is 3 times 10, and so on.  The word “times” is, of course, not expressed, any more than in English; but the expressions briefly are, 2 tens, 3 tens, etc.  But a singular exception to this method is presented by the Hebrew, and other of the Semitic languages.  In Hebrew the word for 20 is the plural of the word for 10; and 30, 40, 50, etc. to 90 are plurals of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.  These numerals are as follows:[144]