touched with the forefinger of his right hand the thumb, forefinger, and
middle finger successively of his left hand. Then returning to his
starting-point, he told off a second three in the same manner. This process
he continued until he had obtained 6 threes, and then he announced his
result correctly. If he had been a few years older, he might not have
turned so readily to his thumb as a starting-point for any digital count.
The indifference manifested by very young children gradually disappears,
and at the age of twelve or thirteen the tendency is decidedly in the
direction of beginning with the little finger. Fully three-fourths of all
persons above that age will be found to count from the little finger toward
the thumb, thus reversing the proportion that was found to obtain in the
primary school rooms examined.

With respect to finger counting among civilized peoples, we fail, then, to
find any universal law; the most that can be said is that more begin with
the little finger than with the thumb. But when we proceed to the study of
this slight but important particular among savages, we find them employing
a certain order of succession with such substantial uniformity that the
conclusion is inevitable that there must lie back of this some well-defined
reason, or perhaps instinct, which guides them in their choice. This
instinct is undoubtedly the outgrowth of the almost universal
right-handedness of the human race. In finger counting, whether among
children or adults, the beginning is made on the left hand, except in the
case of left-handed individuals; and even then the start is almost as
likely to be on the left hand as on the right. Savage tribes, as might be
expected, begin with the left hand. Not only is this custom almost
invariable, when tribes as a whole are considered, but the little finger is
nearly always called into requisition first. To account for this
uniformity, Lieutenant Gushing gives the following theory,[10] which is
well considered, and is based on the results of careful study and