the negro tribes of South Africa[15] the little finger of the right hand is used for 1, and their count proceeds from right to left.  With them, 6 is the thumb of the left hand, 7 the forefinger, and so on.  They hold the palm downward instead of upward, and thus form a complete and striking exception to the law which has been found to obtain with such substantial uniformity in other parts of the uncivilized world.  In Melanesia a few examples of preference for beginning with the thumb may also be noticed.  In the Banks Islands the natives begin by turning down the thumb of the right hand, and then the fingers in succession to the little finger, which is 5.  This is followed by the fingers of the left hand, both hands with closed fists being held up to show the completed 10.  In Lepers’ Island, they begin with the thumb, but, having reached 5 with the little finger, they do not pass to the other hand, but throw up the fingers they have turned down, beginning with the forefinger and keeping the thumb for 10.[16] In the use of the single hand this people is quite peculiar.  The second 5 is almost invariably told off by savage tribes on the second hand, though in passing from the one to the other primitive man does not follow any invariable law.  He marks 6 with either the thumb or the little finger.  Probably the former is the more common practice, but the statement cannot be made with any degree of certainty.  Among the Zulus the sequence is from thumb to thumb, as is the case among the other South African tribes just mentioned; while the Veis and numerous other African tribes pass from thumb to little finger.  The Eskimo, and nearly all the American Indian tribes, use the correspondence between 6 and the thumb; but this habit is by no means universal.  Respecting progression from right to left or left to right on the toes, there is no general law with which the author is familiar.  Many tribes never use the toes in counting, but signify the close of the first 10 by clapping the hands together, by a wave of the right hand, or by designating some object; after which the fingers are again used as before.

One other detail in finger counting is worthy of a moment’s notice.  It seems to have been the opinion of earlier investigators that in his passage from one finger to the next, the savage would invariably bend down, or close, the last finger used; that is, that the count began with the fingers open and outspread.  This opinion is, however, erroneous.  Several of the Indian tribes of the West[17] begin with the hand clenched, and open the fingers one by one as they proceed.  This method is much less common than the other, but that it exists is beyond question.