The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-09-02
An Indian Tribe which Can't Count Two
-Deceiving an Explorer.

An Indian Tribe which Can't Count Two
-Deceiving an Explorer.
1 don't know how far the Damaras
themselves can count. The Chiquitos of
| America, very low Indian tribe, can't
count beyond one. For any larger sum
than that their simple language used
| terms of comparison alone-sis many rs
ones eyes, as many as crows toes, as
many as the fingers on one hand, and so
forth UP to six or seven. The Tasman-
ians could get as far as two. Beyond
that they stopped short. Their simple
scheme OF enumeration was merely this:
One, two, a great many. The Australian
black fellows in Queensland go a step
farther; they reckon thus: zone, two,
twO-one o., two-two a., and after that
they say more than four" meaning
thereby an indefinite number.
One South African tribe easily beats
this rudimentary record and knows how
to count up to ten. But eleven, both
hands and one over, it regards as the ne
plus ultra of human computation. When
a British detachment once marched
against it, the scouts brought in word
to the elders of the tribe that an i'm
mense army was coming to fight them
IAN immense army; eleven white sol
diersl" On the other hand, some saw
ages have really very advanced systems
of enumeration; for example, the Ton
gans, whose native enumeration goes up
as far as 100000. Even this degree of
proficiency, however, did not quite sat
! isfy the devouring mathematical passion
of Labilhardiere, who asked them what
they called ten times that number, and
so ON, until he had finally made them
give him names for all the subsequent
decimal stages, up even to one thousand
billion.
The polite Tongans, anxious to oblige
benevolent and scientific gentleman in SO
unimportant matter, proceeded at once
20 supply him with words, which the
unsuspecting explorer Immediately wrote
down, and duly printed as mathematical
terms in the accounts of his travels. But,
alas for the duplicity and the unscrupu-
lousness of savages! The supposed nu-
merals in their higher ranges were really
the rudest and naughtiest words in the
Tongan language, with which, as mis-
sionaries subsequently, discovered, the
evil-dispOsed Polynesians had success
fully imposed on the bland and childlike
innocence of a scientific stranger. Such
are the dangers of leading questions adj
dressed in an imperfectly understood
tongue to the wicked minds of the chill
dren of nature. The children of nature
promptly respond in the precise spirit of
an east-end Arab.-Cornhill Magazine.
Natural Stone Troughs and Indian Mills.
What are called the ~stone troughs"
are found in coming up the Trukee river
from the lakes, and are a natural forna-
ton of a sort of limestone. They are often
seen ten feet long, four or five feet wide
and several inches deep, with the sides
two or three inches in thickness, accord
ing to size-the small ones thinnest.
They ara shaped like the sheet iron pans
used in stoves for baking break, are quite
hard, ard ring like a piece of pottery
when struck. All are found filled with
sand.
Down about the lake in the valley are
found many stone troughs of a different
kind. These are undoubtedly artificial,
andzSvere made by the Indians to be
used in grinding grass seeds. Some of
these look as if they had been in use for
hundreds of years. A few of the smaller
ones are portable, but the majority have
been formed III huge fragments or solid
lodges of porphyry or granite, just as the
Digger Indians of California make NOR
tars in granite reefs in which to pound
their acorns. Here, however, the seeds
are ground into flour by being rubbed,
not beaten, as are the acorns; therefore,
instead of the cavity in the rock being
a round pot hole, it is a long, shallow,
trough-shaped cavity. Some of these
grinding troughs are several feet long
and near them are found the stones use
in grinding. They are large and heavI,
and appear to have been pushed back
and forth by persons seated at opposite
ends of the troughs, by means of stout
pole lashed to them in such a way as to
form two handles.
A few portable mills are found. They
are of two kinds. One has a cavity
which is perfectly round and the muller
used in grinding is as round as cannon
ball. Those of the other style are oblong
and have muller or grinding stone of
about the size and shape of an old-fash-
toned smoothing iron. These mills were
used in former times. Since the Piutes
have made the acquaintance Of the white
mans flour they no longer have any
stomach for flour made of the seeds of
bunch grass and the wild sunflower.-
Dan de guile in New York Sun.
Literature and English Lords.