The Descent of Man

Botocudos, who inhabit the finest parts of Brazil.
The evidence that all civilised nations are the
descendants of barbarians, consists, on the one
side, of clear traces of their former low condition
in still-existing customs, beliefs, language,
etc.; and on the other side, of proofs that savages
are independently able to raise themselves
a few steps in the scale of civilisation, and have
actually thus risen. The evidence on the first
head is extremely curious, but cannot be here
given: I refer to such cases as that of the art of
enumeration, which, as Mr. Tylor clearly shews
by reference to the words still used in some
places, originated in counting the fingers, first
of one hand and then of the other, and lastly of
the toes. We have traces of this in our own decimal
system, and in the Roman numerals,
where, after the V, which is supposed to be an
abbreviated picture of a human hand, we pass
on to VI, etc., when the other hand no doubt