Page:Hausa Proverbs.djvu/117

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System of Numeration 105 [ansa use uses the same for less one. Songhai and Hausa use the same form, and Kanuri Hausa 18 ashirin biu babu SONQHAI 18 waranka hinka si, i.e. twenty two not Hausa 19 ashirin daia babu SONGHAI 19 waranka afo si, i.e. twenty one not Kanuri 29 piasku tilo bawo, i.e. thirty one not Again, the words for 100 and 1,000 are the same in Hausa and Songhai. Hausa 100 zango Songhai 100 djongo Hausa 1000 zambar Songhai 1000 djomber In all the languages which have been mentioned, Songhai, Kanuri, Bolewa, &c., the numbers for 20, 30, 40, &c., are formed by saying " ten two," " ten three," &c. Hausa must have had a similar system, but it has now been entirely replaced by the Arabic. It is worth remarking again, in this connection, that in Bolewa, when forming the numbers for 20, 30, &c._, the word for 10 is Izo. Again, in the ordinary transactions with cowries both Hausa and Songhai have special words for a heap of cowries (20), Hausa hauia, Songhai tohoij, and both carry on the system mentioned above of "less one," " less two," in the tens. The cowrie was current in Songhai in the fourteenth <ientury (Ibn Batuta), and the Hausa 2iri is probably derived from the Songhai otmi.