The same is true of the Hidatsa _pitika_, which signifies a smoothing out, or straightening.

The Pawnee 4, _skitiks_, is unusual, signifying as it does "all the fingers," or more properly, "the fingers of the hand." The same meaning attaches to this numeral in a few other languages also, and reminds one of the habit some people have of beginning to count on the forefinger and proceeding from there to the little finger.

Can this have been the habit of the tribes in question?
A suggestion of the same nature is made by the Illinois and Miami words for 8, _parare_ and _polane_, which signify "nearly ended." Six is almost always digital in origin, though the derivation may be indirect, as in the Illinois _kakatchui_, passing beyond the middle; and the Dakota _shakpe_, 1 in addition.

Some of these significations are well matched by numerals from the Ewe scales of western Africa, where we find the following:[148] 1.

de = a going, _i.e._ a beginning.