Baron Humboldt, speaking of the Muysca Indians of South America, says that their word for eleven is _quihicha ata_, that is, “foot one;” meaning that they have counted all their fingers, and are beginning their toes. He proceeds to compare the Persian words, _pentcha_, hand, and _pendj_, five, as being connected with one another, and gives various other curious instances of finger-numeration. We may carry the theory further. The Zulu language reckons from one up to five, and then goes on with _tatisitupe_ (“take the thumb”), meaning _six_; _tatukomba_ (“take the pointer,” or forefinger), meaning _seven_, and so on. The Vei language counts from one up to nineteen, and for twenty says _mo bande_—“a person is finished”—that is, both fingers and toes. I venture to add another suggestion. Eichhoff gives a Sanskrit word for finger, “daiçini” (taken apparently from _pra-deçinî_, forefinger), and which corresponds curiously with “daçan,” ten; and we have the same resemblance running through many of the Indo-European languages, as δεκα and δακτυλος, _decem_ and _digitus_; German, _Zehn_ and _Zehe_, and so on. Here the Mexican numerals will afford us a new illustration. Of the meaning of the first four of them—_çe, ome, yei, nahui_—I can give no idea, any more than I can of the meaning of the words one, two, three, four, which correspond to them; but the Mexican for _five_ is _macuilli_, “hand-depicting.” Then we go on in the dark as far as _ten_, which is _matlactli_, “hand-half,” as I think it means, (from _tlactli_, half); and this would mean, not the halving of a hand, but the half of the whole person, which you get by counting his hands only. The syllable _ma_, which means “hand,” makes its appearance in the words five and ten, and no where else; just as it should do. When we come to twenty, we have _cempoalli_, “one counting;” that is, one whole man, fingers and toes—corresponding to the Vei word for twenty, “a person is finished.” I think we need no more examples to show that people—in almost all countries—reckon by fives, tens, or twenties, merely because they began to count upon their fingers and toes. If the strong man who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, had invented a system of numeration, it would have gone in twelves, nearly like the duodecimals which our carpenters use; unless, indeed, he had been stupid after the manner of very strong men, and not gone beyond sixes. We see how the Romans, though they inherited from their Eastern ancestors a numeration by tens up to _decem_, and then beginning again _undecim_, &c., yet when they began to write a notation could get no farther than five—I., II., III., IV., V.; and then on again, VI., VII., up to ten, from ten to fifteen, and so on.