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From: John Cowan <cowan@ccil.org>
Subject: Re: Feathery bumpit (a number system for counting sheep)
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Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 20:20:56 GMT
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Dara Connolly wrote:
 
> Does anyone know of an unusual counting system used by sheep farmers in Wales
> or the West Country?  I came across it only once, in a children's book years
> ago.  Since then I have been unable to find reference to it.  All I remember
> is that the words for nine and ten (or possibly nineteen and twenty) were
> 'feathery' and 'bumpit'.  These I remember because these words were used as
> the heading for the page in the book in question, and because the words, taken
> as a phrase, are very pleasing and memorable to the childish ear.

The scheme I saw was "Yan, tyan, tethera, methera, pimp, sethera,
lethera,
hovera, dovera, dick", which is plainly just counting in Welsh, with
some
corruptions.  You use it to count sheep passing into or out of a
paddock.

-- 
John Cowan						cowan@ccil.org
			e'osai ko sarji la lojban
