Indian Antiquary Vol 26

SR No.: 032518
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 223

August, 1897.)
NOTES ON THE NICOBARESE.
217
NOTES ON THE NICOBARESE. BY E, H, MAN, C. I. E.
No. 1.
Numerio System and Arithmetio. In consequence, no doubt, of the long-established trade in coconnuts and their acqanintance with foreign traders, the Nicobarese possess an adequate system of numeration, more than sufficient for their own requirements. Especially is this the case with the Car Nicobarese, who, having a word (vis., Idle, denoting 20,000 (really 10,00 pairs), are able to express any multiple of that number.
Travellers tell us in reference to the art of counting," which is the foundation of science," that it is common to find the primitive method of counting by fingers and toes still in practical use, while in many languages some of the very terms employed in numeration are traceable to this peculiarity. That the Nicobarese system of numeration originated in the practice of counting by means of the fingers, is evidenced by the fact that, while tai and kane-tai denote the hand or finger); oal-tai the palm; ok-tai the back of the hand; we have tanas indicating 5; inai a score; and dòktai 200 (also, in certain circumstances, 10). When, however, a modern Nicobarese counts he never make use of pebbles, cowries, grains, or other objects, and only occasionally, or for emphasis, of his fingers. Usually he names the nameral which he desires to express without any such aid. Bat, when a Nicobarese, possessing more than three or four children, brothers, sisters, etc., is asked their number, he will, before com. mitting himself to a reply, almost invariably enumerate them on his fingers by turning down the fingers of one hand with the fore-finger of the other, commencing with the little finger.
In his transactions with ship-traders the Nicobarese keeps a tally of the quantity of cocoanuts promised or delivered, by means of strips of cane or bamboo, called lenkyk ngoát. At intervals of about one-third of an inch along these strips, nicks are made by bending the fibre over the thumb-nail, each nick thus formed representing a score (really 10 pairs) of nuts either dne or delivered. As this is the only system of keeping tally which they possess, they have no method of recording any lower numeral than & score of nuts. I have, too, known a Nicobarese in enumerating from memory the huts in a village employ a similar strip of cane, making a nick for each but he called to mind, and, on noting the last, count all the nicks he had made. It is hardly necessary to add that no figures or cyphers are in use. The Car Nicobarese also on certain occasions maintain a calendar of wood (styled kenrāta), resembling in most cases a sword-blade, on which incisions are made, each of which signifies a day.?
The Nicobarese system of numeration is that known as the vigesimal, the peculiarities and irregularities of which, are soon mastered. A striking peculiarity is that, in counting cocoanuts, money, and edible birds'-nests, the natives of the Central and Southern Groups (both coast and
1 It should be borne in mind that, except where otherwise stated, the remarks and Nicobarese words in those papers refer to the dialect spoken by the natives of the Central Group of islands (vix., Camorta, Nanoowry, Trinkut, and Katchal), where the Indian Government established a station in 1860.
This is doubtless derived from the Malay laksa (10,000) which has its souroe in the Sanskrit laksha (100,000). The more extensive individual transactions in cocoanuts with ship-traders at Car Nicobar--the exports from which probably exceed the aggregate of the rest of the group - Acoounts for the employment at that island alone of a term of such magnitude. (Derivatives of laksha are common all over the Far East with senses varying between a thousand and a million. -ED.)
There is no specifio word distinguishing the "hand" from the "Anger." Ante, Vol. XXIII. p. 109,
• At Car Nicobar notchos are out in a stick in seta of five, each notoh indicating a score of nuts. This tally stick is styled linkal-kok,
• Ante, Vol. XXIII. p. 133.
1 Another praction of reokoning time by days is to be observed in the use of the knotted cane strip, styled tinlõala (ante, Vol. XXIII. p. 109).