ABSTRACT
Indian islanders ignorant of arithmetic as a science.—Employ foreigners as accountants, and count by cutting notches on slips of wood, or tying knots on cords.—History of the origin of numbers among them.— One system of numerals generally prevalent from Madagascar to New Guinea.—Binary scale.—Quaternary scale.—Quinary scale.—Senary scale.—Denary scale.—A thousand, the highest term generally known to the native languages.—Sanskrit terms borrowed, and error in doing so.— Ten thousand, the common limit of the numerical scale of the Indian islanders.—Javanese alone extend their terms as far as ten billions.—Principles on which the numerals of the ceremonial dialect of the Javanese are formed.—Origin of the ordinal numbers and fractions.—Indian islanders acquainted with the Hindu digits.—Principle on which the Javanese digits are fanned. — Vocabulary of the numerals of twelve languages.—Measures used by the Indian islanders.—Bulk, and not weight, the principle on which measure is estimated.—Example in the com measure of the Javanese.—Dry and liquid measures.—Measures by weight, introduced by foreigners, chiefly by the Chinese.—Description of these.—Gold measure.— Measures of extent still more imperfect than those of gravity.—Description of them.— Land measure of the Javanese.—Standards of exchangeable value.—Articles med by the ruder tribes for this purpose.— Introduction of metallic currency.—Tin coins.—Brass coins.—No silver coins anciently used.—Cold coins.— European coins.—Paper currency introduced by the European governments.
