The only numerals calling for any special note are those for 11 and 9.  For 9 we should naturally expect a word corresponding in structure and meaning to the words for 7 and 8.  But instead of the “four brought to and held up with the rest,” for which we naturally look, the Zuni, to show that he has used all of his fingers but one, says “all but all are held up with the rest.”  To express 11 he cannot use a similar form of composition, since he has already used it in constructing his word for 6, so he says “all the fingers and another over above held.”

The one remarkable point to be noted about the Zuni scale is, after all, the formation of the words for 1 and 2.  While the savage almost always counts on his fingers, it does not seem at all certain that these words would necessarily be of finger formation.  The savage can always distinguish between one object and two objects, and it is hardly reasonable to believe that any external aid is needed to arrive at a distinct perception of this difference.  The numerals for 1 and 2 would be the earliest to be formed in any language, and in most, if not all, cases they would be formed long before the need would be felt for terms to describe any higher number.  If this theory be correct, we should expect to find finger names for numerals beginning not lower than 3, and oftener with 5 than with any other number.  The highest authority has ventured the assertion that all numeral words have their origin in the names of the fingers;[69] substantially the same conclusion was reached by Professor Pott, of Halle, whose work on numeral nomenclature led him deeply into the study of the origin of these words.  But we have abundant evidence at hand to show that, universal as finger counting has been, finger origin for numeral words has by no means been universal.  That it is more frequently met with than any other origin is unquestionably true; but in many instances, which will be more fully considered in the following chapter, we find strictly non-digital derivations, especially in the case of the lowest members of the scale.  But in nearly all languages the origin of the words for 1, 2, 3, and 4 are so entirely unknown that speculation respecting them is almost useless.

An excellent illustration of the ordinary method of formation which obtains among number scales is furnished by the Eskimos of Point Barrow,[70] who have pure numeral words up to 5, and then begin a systematic course of word formation from the names of their fingers.  If the names of the first five numerals are of finger origin, they have so completely lost their original form, or else the names of the fingers themselves have so changed, that no resemblance is now to be detected between them.  This scale is so interesting that it is given with considerable fulness, as follows: