In view of these facts, and of the extreme readiness with which a tribe would through its finger counting fall into the use of the quinary method, it does not at first seem improbable that the quinary was the original system.  But an extended study of the methods of counting in vogue among the uncivilized races of all parts of the world has shown that this theory is entirely untenable.  The decimal scale is no less simple in its structure than the quinary; and the savage, as he extends the limit of his scale from 5 to 6, may call his new number 5-1, or, with equal probability, give it an entirely new name, independent in all respects of any that have preceded it.  With the use of this new name there may be associated the conception of “5 and 1 more”; but in such multitudes of instances the words employed show no trace of any such meaning, that it is impossible for any one to draw, with any degree of safety, the inference that the signification was originally there, but that the changes of time had wrought changes in verbal form so great as to bury it past the power of recovery.  A full discussion of this question need not be entered upon here.  But it will be of interest to notice two or three numeral scales in which the quinary influence is so faint as to be hardly discernible.  They are found in considerable numbers among the North American Indian languages, as may be seen by consulting the vocabularies that have been prepared and published during the last half century.[324] From these I have selected the following, which are sufficient to illustrate the point in question: 

  QUAPPA.

   1. milchtih.
   2. nonnepah.
   3. dahghenih.
   4. tuah.
   5. sattou.
   6. schappeh.
   7. pennapah.
   8. pehdaghenih.
   9. schunkkah.
  10. gedeh bonah.

  TERRABA.[325]

   1. krara.
   2. krowue.
   3. krom miah.
   4. krob king.
   5. krasch kingde.
   6. terdeh.
   7. kogodeh.
   8. kwongdeh.
   9. schkawdeh.
  10. dwowdeh.

  MOHICAN

   1. ngwitloh.
   2. neesoh.
   3. noghhoh.
   4. nauwoh.
   5. nunon.
   6. ngwittus.
   7. tupouwus.
   8. ghusooh.
   9. nauneeweh.
  10. mtannit.

In the Quappa scale 7 and 8 appear to be derived from 2 and 3, while 6 and 9 show no visible trace of kinship with 1 and 4.  In Mohican, on the other hand, 6 and 9 seem to be derived from 1 and 4, while 7 and 8 have little or no claim to relationship with 2 and 3.  In some scales a single word only is found in the second quinate to indicate that 5 was originally the base on which the system rested.  It is hardly to be doubted, even, that change might affect each and every one of the numerals from 5 to 10 or 6 to 9, so that a dependence which might once have been easily detected is now unrecognizable.