This work has been prepared with a view to the needs of those who are giving instruction or supervising the work in arithmetic in the elementary schools.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.

Ten stories explaining how and why the ancients created numbers.

Yoshio Mikami was an authority on wasan, native Japanese mathematics, and published multiple works on the topic in different languages. A colleague of David Eugene Smith suggested he work with Mikami to produce this volume.