Karel Hynek Macha; Karel Sabina; Cikáni; Benford's Law; first significant digit; authorship attribution; stylometry; MFW analysis

The paper deals with the long-standing stylometric problem of Czech fiction - the authorship of the novel Cikani. Although the text has been usually attributed to K. H. Macha, there is a widespread hypothesis that its final shape was substantially influenced by a friend of his, K. Sabina. To solve the problem, we have exposed the works by Macha (Cikani) and Sabina (Hrobnik and Ozivene hroby) to the novel statistical attribution method, which takes into account the usage of numerals in texts. To provide a contrast to the new procedure, we have also employed a more conventional MFW analysis. The results, which are rather contradictory, are accounted for by various interpretations. The goal of the article is to show the soundness of the new method and check its applicability on Czech pieces of literature.