You can't see something ingenious with probably illiterate people using a different base to multiply numbers?
While it's a nice trick, it's a circuitous route to get to the answer, and requires considerably more stones than the number you're trying to count to. Simply laying out X stones per Y items and counting them uses no methods that the shaman's system doesn't already use, requires less stones, and doesn't require any 'good' or 'evil' silliness.
Besides, if a trick works, but it isn't understood why it works, then the users of it lose the 'ingenious' tag, methinks.
Given that they speak of "evil numbers", I think it is reasonable to assume that the Shamans did not understand how the algorithm works. The inventor may have, but it seems likely that the users did not.
While it's a nice trick, it's a circuitous route to get to the answer, and requires considerably more stones than the number you're trying to count to. Simply laying out X stones per Y items and counting them uses no methods that the shaman's system doesn't already use, requires less stones, and doesn't require any 'good' or 'evil' silliness.
Besides, if a trick works, but it isn't understood why it works, then the users of it lose the 'ingenious' tag, methinks.