I Have Heard
Mr. Dawes Hint His Belief Of Their Using A Dual Number, Similar To The
Greeks, But I Confess That I Never Could Remark Aught To Confirm It.
The Method By Which They Answer A Question That They Cannot Resolve Is
Similar To What We Sometimes Use.
Let for example the following question
be put:
'Waw Colbee yagoono?' - Where is Colbee to-day? 'Waw, baw!' - Where,
indeed! would be the reply. They use a direct and positive negative,
but express the affirmative by a nod of the head or an inclination
of the body.
Opinions have greatly differed, whether or not their language be copious.
In one particular it is notoriously defective. They cannot count with
precision more than four. However as far as ten, by holding up the
fingers, they can both comprehend others and explain themselves. Beyond
four every number is called great; and should it happen to be very large,
great great, which is an Italian idiom also. This occasions their
computations of time and space to be very confused and incorrect. Of the
former they have no measure but the visible diurnal motion of the sun
or the monthly revolution of the moon.
To conclude the history of a people for whom I cannot but feel some share
of affection. Let those who have been born in more favoured lands and who
have profited by more enlightened systems, compassionate, but not despise
their destitute and obscure situation. Children of the same omniscient
paternal care, let them recollect that by the fortuitous advantage
of birth alone they possess superiority:
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