rua-li-dok = 10 - 2.
9.

ruathim-thuon = 10 - 2 + 1.
Many years ago a statement appeared which at once attracted attention and awakened curiosity.

It was to the effect that the Maoris, the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand, used as the basis of their numeral system the number 11; and that the system was quite extensively developed, having simple words for 121 and 1331, _i.e._ for the square and cube of 11.

No apparent reason existed for this anomaly, and the Maori scale was for a long time looked upon as something quite exceptional and outside all ordinary rules of number-system formation.

But a closer and more accurate knowledge of the Maori language and customs served to correct the mistake, and to show that this system was a simple decimal system, and that the error arose from the following habit.