Certain Australians proceed in a similar manner.[251] If these tribes had been able to continue the same process beyond this point they would have arrived at the duodecimal system; what they lacked for that were objects which should always be within their reach to assist them in this mode of calculation. Peoples who thought of distinguishing by special words the first five figures had at once, in their fingers, an aid to enable them to set up a decimal system. Many South American Indians, Caribs, Tupis, and Tamanacas of the Orinoco count by the fingers, hands, and feet, employing thus the decimal system; instead of five they say “a hand”; instead of ten, “two hands”; instead of twelve, “two hands and two fingers”; instead of fifteen, “two hands and one foot”; instead of twenty, “a man”; and so forth. With the development of civilisation the fingers of the hand are replaced by objects, by little stones, seeds or shells, which are arranged in boxes representing units, tens, etc. From these were derived the abaci of the Chinese and Russians.
Geometry—Calculation of Time.—Measures of distances, surfaces, etc., which gave birth to geometry, are found again among certain uncivilised peoples. The Indians of Veragua find the height of a tree by measuring the distance from which they see it, turning their back and bending the body in such a way that the head is between the outstretched legs; the ancient Egyptians measured the surfaces of their lands empirically by means of geometric figures, etc. The measurement of time by the movement of the stars exists among all peoples, the succession of day and night, and the phases of the moon, being the things easiest to observe. Thus days and months or “moons” are nearly everywhere equal. But it is not the same with regard to the year. It is the succession of vegetation or seasons which determines periods longer than months. Thus the Andamanese count by successions of three seasons (cold, dry, and wet); the Papuans by successions of two seasons (corresponding to the prevailing monsoons), but the epochs at which these seasons arrive do not coincide exactly with lunar divisions, and tallying computation becomes more difficult. Thus, as soon as writing was invented, the more intelligent of the nomadic tribes, especially, turned their attention towards noting coincidences of the position of the sun in relation to the constellations, according to the seasons, for the principal constellations, especially the Great Bear, Orion, the Southern Cross, are known by almost all the peoples of the earth, who have emerged from the state of savages dependent on the chase.
The verification of the time when the year begins (coinciding generally with some commemorative festival) became later the business of State astronomers (Egypt, India), who were at the same time astrologers or magicians.
Calendars and Clocks.—There are yet in China astronomers who periodically harmonise the lunar with the solar year, though, for the ordinary purposes of life, other peoples make use of the solar year calculated either from a reign (as in ancient Egypt), or day by day in a cycle of sixty years, formed by the combination of ten kou (stock) and twelve tchi (branches), as in the Hindu calendar. A similar calendar is found among the ancient Mexicans.[252] In regard to the divisions of the days into hours, they are somewhat uncertain among the Andamanese and Australians, and they begin to assume a definite character only with the introduction of the sundial, as for example among the Zuñi Indians, who have before nearly every cabin a pillar, the shadow of which serves to indicate the hours. In China and in Corea the use of the candle which burns a certain time is a remnant of the mode of calculating time according to the duration of the fire.[253] The running of water and sand has been utilised, as we know, in the construction of clepsydras and other primitive clocks of classic antiquity and of the Middle Ages.
FIG. 72.—Eskimo geographical map.
(After Holm.)
Geography and Cartography.—We can only indicate summarily what primitive navigators and half-civilised nomads know of geography. Orientation according to the cardinal points is known even to peoples as primitive as the Fuegians and the Andamanese, but cartography is only developed among those who draw. The Australians can draw maps on the sand very accurately, except as regards distances; we have even maps drawn on weapons, like that of figure [79], F, representing a lagoon and an arm of Broken River, between which is situated the territory of the tribe to which the owner of the weapon belonged.[254] The Micronesians of the Marshall Islands construct with bamboo rods geographical maps in which these rods represent the direction of the currents, and the shells or seeds attached to their intersections, the different islands.[255]
But it is the Eskimo who excel in the cartographic art, as may be seen from the specimen which I reproduce from S. Holm.[256] This consists of two wooden tablets (Fig. [72]). One of them (A) represents all the fiords, bays, and capes of that part of the coast of Eastern Greenland comprised between Kangerdenarsikajik (a) and Sicralik (b); we must read the names of these places in the direction of the arrow. The second tablet (B) represents the islands off the coast; situated opposite to different bays. By bringing it near to, or removing it from the first, we have the distance between the coast and each of the islands. The ancient Mexicans had topographical maps, marine charts, and even cadastral plans, much more perfect than those of the ancient Egyptians. The Chinese maps still further surpass these models, and remind one already of our coasting pilot books in their use of orientation by means of the compass.[257]
I should take up the whole chapter if I were to give an account, even in an abridged form, of everything concerning primitive medicine.[258] I will merely point out that, according to their animistic conception of the world, “savages” have no other idea of disease than as a malevolent manifestation of a spirit who enters into the man, of a demon who “possesses” him. Thus, fetich-men and shamans are the first doctors. They know how to “drive” from the body of the patient the evil spirit who torments him, to “draw out” the disease in the form of a pebble, or some other object deftly concealed before the operation. Moreover, the bones, mummified portions of the body of sick persons, or of fetich-men themselves, may become after their death relics possessing miraculous healing power, etc. For the matter of that, even among civilised peoples diseases are often attributed to the “evil eye,” to “spells” (France), to “Jettatura” (Italy), etc. Among the Indians of North America there are also special healers (medicine-men) who are held in great esteem, and who sometimes form a corporation (Mide), into which admission can only be gained after a professional examination in the “doctors’ cabin” (Schoolcraft, Hoffmann). Along with incantations and magical proceedings, with dancing and music, the principal remedies of the Australian healers and the American medicine-men are scarifications, blood-letting, and blood-sucking. Negroes show a preference for cupping-glasses. The processes of advanced surgery among certain peoples go as far as ovariotomy (Australians), laparotomy and the cæsarian operation (Negroes of Uganda); but not as far as the amputation of limbs, the fingers excepted. Trepanning, known from the quaternary period in Europe, is also employed among Negroes, Persians, New Hebridians, etc., for nervous diseases, epilepsy, etc. The clyster, the great remedy of our ancestors, is hardly used, except by the Dakota Indians and the Negroes of the west coast of Africa, where also the doctor squirts the drug into the sick person from his mouth through the medium of a calabash (Monnier).[259] Attenuation of virus is even practised by, for example, the Bushmen, who use it to cure the bite of scorpions and serpents.[260]