NUMERALS.
1 (One)--An-tow' zig.
2 (Two)--Mok'-o, Mud'-el-roc.
3 (Three)--Ping'-ah-su-eet.
4 (Four)--See'-tah-mut.
5 (Five)--Ted'-el-e-mut.
6 (Six)--Ok'-bin-uk.
7 (Seven)--Ok'-bin-uk-mok'-o-nik.
8 (Eight)--Ok'-bin-uk-mok'-a-sun-ik.
9 (Nine)--Ok'-bin-uk-see'-tah-mut.
10 (Ten)--Ko'-ling.
20 (Twenty)--Mok'-ko-ling.
They have little idea of numbers beyond the number of their fingers,
and such as they can borrow by calling attention to their neighbors'
fingers. Any sum that calls for more than that is to them amasuet
(many) or amasuadelo (a great many).
NO IDEA OF LENGTH OF YEARS.
It is not at all singular, then, that they have no idea of their ages
when they get beyond the number of years that the mother can keep upon
one of the wooden or ivory buttons that hold her belt in place. It is
impossible, therefore, to tell whether they are a long-lived race.
There are many among them who bear the marks of advanced age, but such
may have resulted more from hardships and exposure than from the
accumulation of years. There is a gray-haired old dame with the Iwillik
tribe at Depot Island who was a grown woman at the time of Sir William
Edward Parry's visit there in 1821, and remembers the circumstances
with all the distinctness that marks the early reminiscences of the old
in every country.
Pages:
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325