How different culture have leaned to count.
Some count “one,” two,” then, “three or more,”
No matter if it is a hundred, or four;
Some do not think numbers are really abstract:
The words for the numbers express the true facts,
Different words are for things changing in time,
Like the number of years; or a trolleycar line,
Or a train or a bus, or a dwelling,
So counting becomes quite precise and compelling.
There's a tribe in Australia, who are so keenly learned
In the Earth's four directions that they count in those terms:
They'll say. “Move your baskets two paces Northwest!”
And everyone will understand the request
When you ask their child, ”What is one minus two?”
H'll find such a sum quite simple to do:
One step, say, to the North., two the other way,
Leaves one step to the South, he will instantly say...
So counting sounds easy for you and for me,
But it gets quite involved, as you easily see...