[The Number Concept by Levi Leonard Conant]@TWC D-Link book
The Number Concept

CHAPTER VI
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yowa-iktsi-bo = all the hands.
15.

kani-tao-mo = 1 foot alone.
20.

kani-pume = 1 man.
By the time 20 is reached the savage has probably allowed his conception of any aggregate to be so far modified that this number does not present itself to his mind as 4 fives.

It may find expression in some phraseology such as the Kiriris employ--"both hands together with the feet"-- or in the shorter "ended both feet" of the Zamucos, in which case we may presume that he is conscious that his count has been completed by means of the four sets of fives which are furnished by his hands and feet.

But it is at least equally probable that he instinctively divides his total into 2 tens, and thus passes unconsciously from the quinary into the decimal scale.


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