Possibly these remarkable Japanese terms may be accounted for in the same way, though the supposition is, for some reasons, quite improbable.

The same may be said for the Malagasy 1000, _alina_, which also means "night," and the Hebrew 6, _shesh_, which has the additional signification "white marble," and the stray exceptions which now and then come to the light in this or that language.

Such terms as these may admit of some logical explanation, but for the great mass of numerals whose primitive meanings can be traced at all, no explanation whatever is needed; the words are self-explanatory, as the examples already cited show.
A few additional examples of natural derivation may still further emphasize the point just discussed.

In Bambarese the word for 10, _tank_, is derived directly from _adang_, to count.[158] In the language of Mota, one of the islands of Melanesia, 100 is _mel nol_, used and done with, referring to the leaves of the cycas tree, with which the count had been carried on.[159] In many other Melanesian dialects[160] 100 is _rau_, a branch or leaf.

In the Torres Straits we find the same number expressed by _na won_, the close; and in Eromanga it is _narolim narolim_ (2 x 5)( 2 x 5).[161] This combination deserves remark only because of the involved form which seems to have been required for the expression of so small a number as 100.
A compound instead of a simple term for any higher unit is never to be wondered at, so rude are some of the savage methods of expressing number; but "two fives (times) two fives" is certainly remarkable.