Counting sheep
How many sheep are there, here?
Two, of course. You didn’t have to count them to know that. You could
tell at a glance. And you probably don’t have to count these sheep
either, to know that there are four.
But, without counting, can you tell how many sheep there are in this
circle?
You can’t? Well, don’t be disappointed. Very few people could tell at a
glance. In fact, if there are more than five things to look at, all
crowded together, most people can’t tell how many there are without
counting.
And that’s why counting began. You see, long ago, in prehistoric times,
people had no need for counting. They didn’t have to be able to count in
order to hunt the animals they used for food and clothing. They had no
such things as hours, weeks, or months to keep track of. They didn’t own
much. They had the clothes they wore, and probably a spear and a stone
knife. So the idea of numbers was not important. They simply didn’t have
anything to count.
But a time finally came when people did need to count. Perhaps it was
when they learned to tame animals and keep herds. People who looked
after the herds needed some way to make sure no animals had been lost. A
person with only three or four sheep could easily keep track of them, of
course. But a person with ten or twelve sheep would have just as hard a
time telling how many there were as you did in trying to tell how many
sheep were in the circle.
So, counting was invented to keep track of large numbers of things.
