In the Muralug Island, in the western part of Torres Strait, a somewhat remarkable method of counting formerly existed, which grew out of, and is to be regarded as an extension of, the digital method.  Beginning with the little finger of the left hand, the natives counted up to 5 in the usual manner, and then, instead of passing to the other hand, or repeating the count on the same fingers, they expressed the numbers from 6 to 10 by touching and naming successively the left wrist, left elbow, left shoulder, left breast, and sternum.  Then the numbers from 11 to 19 were indicated by the use, in inverse order, of the corresponding portions of the right side, arm, and hand, the little finger of the right hand signifying 19.  The words used were in each case the actual names of the parts touched; the same word, for example, standing for 6 and 14; but they were never used in the numerical sense unless accompanied by the proper gesture, and bear no resemblance to the common numerals, which are but few in number.  This method of counting is rapidly dying out among the natives of the island, and is at the present time used only by old people.[18] Variations on this most unusual custom have been found to exist in others of the neighbouring islands, but none were exactly similar to it.  One is also reminded by it of a custom[19] which has for centuries prevailed among bargainers in the East, of signifying numbers by touching the joints of each other’s fingers under a cloth.  Every joint has a special signification; and the entire system is undoubtedly a development from finger counting.  The buyer or seller will by this method express 6 or 60 by stretching out the thumb and little finger and closing the rest of the fingers.  The addition of the fourth finger to the two thus used signifies 7 or 70; and so on.  “It is said that between two brokers settling a price by thus snipping with the fingers, cleverness in bargaining, offering a little more, hesitating, expressing an obstinate refusal to go further, etc., are as clearly indicated as though the bargaining were being carried on in words.

The place occupied, in the intellectual development of man, by finger counting and by the many other artificial methods of reckoning,—­pebbles, shells, knots, the abacus, etc.,—­seems to be this:  The abstract processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and even counting itself, present to the mind a certain degree of difficulty.  To assist in overcoming that difficulty, these artificial aids are called in; and, among savages of a low degree of development, like the Australians, they make counting possible.  A little higher in the intellectual scale, among the American Indians, for example, they are employed merely as an artificial aid to what could be done by mental effort alone.  Finally, among semi-civilized and civilized peoples, the same processes are retained, and form a part of the daily life of almost every person who has to do with counting, reckoning,