Altogether, the reasons that have in the past been adduced in favour of this form of arithmetic seem trivial.
There is no record of any tribe that ever counted by eights, nor is there the slightest likelihood that such a system could ever meet with any general favour.

It is said that the ancient Saxons used the octonary system,[220] but how, or for what purposes, is not stated.

It is not to be supposed that this was the common system of counting, for it is well known that the decimal scale was in use as far back as the evidence of language will take us.

But the field of speculation into which one is led by the octonary scale has proved most attractive to some, and the conclusion has been soberly reached, that in the history of the Aryan race the octonary was to be regarded as the predecessor of the decimal scale.

In support of this theory no direct evidence is brought forward, but certain verbal resemblances.