In the vast majority of cases, the passage from the base to the next succeeding number in any scale, is clearly defined. But among races whose intelligence is of a low order, or--if it be permissible to express it in this way--among races whose number sense is feeble, progression from one number to the next is not always in accordance with any well-defined law. After one or two distinct numerals the count may, as in the case of the Veddas and the Andamans, proceed by finger pantomime and by the repetition of the same word. Occasionally the same word is used for two successive numbers, some gesture undoubtedly serving to distinguish the one from the other in the savage's mind. Examples of this are not infrequent among the forest tribes of South America. In the Tariana dialect 9 and 10 are expressed by the same word, _paihipawalianuda;_ in Cobeu, 8 and 9 by _pepelicoloblicouilini;_ in Barre, 4, 5, and 9 by _ualibucubi._[326] In other languages the change from one numeral to the next is so slight that one instinctively concludes that the savage is forming in his own mind another, to him new, numeral immediately from the last. In such cases the entire number system is scanty, and the creeping hesitancy with which progress is made is visible in the forms which the numerals are made to take. A single illustration or two of this must suffice; but the ones chosen are not isolated cases. The scale of the Macunis,[327] one of the numerous tribes of Brazil, is 1. pocchaenang. 2. haihg. 3. haigunhgnill. 4. haihgtschating. 5. haihgtschihating = another 4? 6. hathig-stchihathing = 2-4? 7. hathink-tschihathing = 2-5? 8. hathink-tschihating = 2 x 4? The complete absence of--one is tempted to say--any rhyme or reason from this scale is more than enough to refute any argument which might tend to show that the quinary, or any other scale, was ever the sole number scale of primitive man. Irregular as this is, the system of the Montagnais fully matches it, as the subjoined numerals show:[328] 1. inl'are. 2. nak'e. 3. t'are. 4. dinri. 5. se-sunlare. 6. elkke-t'are = 2 x 3. 7. t'a-ye-oyertan = 10 - 3, or inl'as dinri = 4 + 3? 8. elkke-dinri = 2 x 4. 9. inl'a-ye-oyertan = 10 - 1. 10. onernan. CHAPTER VII. THE VIGESIMAL SYSTEM.