I love learning about how other cultures count.
The Chinese have their own single hand counting system. It’s pretty much the same for the first 5 as most of the USofA counts but then they have other signs for 6-10.
You can count up to 144 if you count, using your thumb, each bone in your fingers once and keep track on the other hand’s finger bones. Bonus points because you get to learn your 12 times tables.
In some cultures they use base 27 because they count starting with the fingers and then up the arm, around the head and shoulders, back down the other shoulder and arm and then the other hand’s fingers. In this type of system you just use the word for the body part for the number since they’re usually the same.
I’m currently learning Chinese, and this was really interesting to learn about in class
Beer? You’ve spent too much time on the frontier, frater!
In the same letter, the decurion asks for orders, whether he was to take all or just half his men to a particular location. Perhaps more urgently, at least as far as the troops were concerned, he informed his commander that “My fellow soldiers have no beer. Please order some to be sent.”
