Looking at your own hands, what did you see?
Two hands together had ten fingers, and thus the decimal system was born.
Excluding the thumbs, each index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger had three joints. Four fingers together had twelve joints, and thus the duodecimal system was born. The Sumerians used base twelve to calculate time from seconds to years.
In ancient China, the left hand was considered superior. The index finger, middle finger, and ring finger of the left hand together formed a nine-square grid. Apart from the middle joint of the middle finger, the lower joint of the left index finger, arranged clockwise, corresponded to Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, Dui, Qian, and Kan—the Eight Trigrams of the Earlier Heaven. More complicated methods used four fingers to represent the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. It was hollow in the middle as well; the lower and middle joints of the middle and ring fingers were not used.
Pomona was not heartless enough to use China's Qimen Dunjia against this group of young wizards. She had merely borrowed a little from it.
In Qimen Dunjia, only the Gate of Life allowed one to safely reach the destination. The other paths were littered with mechanisms; not only were they dangerous, they did not lead to the destination.
The Triwizard Tournament maze was the reverse. Only one path led to the center of the maze, and that path contained many obstacles. The other paths had no traps, since her purpose was not to guard treasure and trap intruders inside until they died.
If they truly could not find their way out, they could set off a flare, and someone would come to rescue them on a flying broomstick. But that meant withdrawing from the competition.
A real Qimen Dunjia