But he did not know, as we do in the cases cited, that the objects he saw were really a collection of distinct individuals.

He would naturally consider them as all one, just as children would think a field of grass or corn to be one great plant until they were told otherwise.

But there was no one to tell him, nor any means by which he could find out his mistake.

He had no plural number, and no definite or indefinite articles.

Whether he saw one or a hundred tigers together, he could only describe them by the one word tiger.