observation among the Zuñi Indians of the Southwest: "Primitive man when
abroad never lightly quit hold of his weapons. If he wanted to count, he
did as the Zuñi afield does to-day; he tucked his instrument under his left
arm, thus constraining the latter, but leaving the right hand free, that he
might check off with it the fingers of the rigidly elevated left hand. From
the nature of this position, however, the palm of the left hand was
presented to the face of the counter, so that he had to begin his score on
the little finger of it, and continue his counting from the right leftward.
An inheritance of this may be detected to-day in the confirmed habit the
Zuñi has of gesticulating from the right leftward, with the fingers of the
right hand over those of the left, whether he be counting and summing up,
or relating in any orderly manner." Here, then, is the reason for this
otherwise unaccountable phenomenon. If savage man is universally
right-handed, he will almost inevitably use the index finger of his right
hand to mark the fingers counted, and he will begin his count just where it
is most convenient. In his case it is with the little finger of the left
hand. In the case of the child trying to multiply 3 by 6, it was with the
thumb of the same hand. He had nothing to tuck under his arm; so, in
raising his left hand to a position where both eye and counting finger
could readily run over its fingers, he held the palm turned away from his
face. The same choice of starting-point then followed as with the
savage--the finger nearest his right hand; only in this case the finger was
a thumb. The deaf mute is sometimes taught in this manner, which is for him
an entirely natural manner. A left-handed child might be expected to count
in a left-to-right manner, beginning, probably, with the thumb of his right
hand.

To the law just given, that savages begin to count on the little finger of
the left hand, there have been a few exceptions noted; and it has been
observed that the method of progression on the second hand is by no means