e compare the two forms of the Egyptian character for _no_,
_negation_, Fig. 118, taken from Champollion, _Grammaire Egyptienne_,
_Paris_, 1836, p. 519.

[Illustration: Fig. 118.]

No vivid fancy is needed to see the hands indicated at the extremities
of arms extended symmetrically from the body on each side.

[Illustration: Fig. 119.]

Also compare the Maya character for the same idea of negation, Fig.
119, found in Landa, _Relation des Choses de Yucatan_, _Paris_, 1864,
316. The Maya word for negation is "_ma_," and the word "_mak_,"
a six-foot measuring rod, given by Brasseur de Bourbourg in his
dictionary, apparently having connection with this character, would
in use separate the hands as illustrated, giving the same form as the
gesture made without the rod.

Another sign for _nothing_, _none_, made by the Comanches, is: Flat
hand thrown forward, back to the ground, fingers pointing forward
and downward. Frequently the right hand is brushed over the left thus
thrown out.

[Illustration: Fig. 120.]

Compare the Chinese character for the same meaning, Fig. 120. This
will not be recognized as a hand without study of similar characters,
which generally have a cross-line cutting off the wrist. Here the
wrist bones follow under the cross cut, then the metacarpal bones, and
last the fingers, pointing forward and downward.

[Illustration: Fig. 121.]

[Illustration: Fig. 122.]

[Illustration: Fig. 123.]

The Arapaho sign for _child_, _baby_, is the forefinger in the mouth,
i.e., a nursing child, and a natural sign of a deaf-mute is the same.
The Egyptian figurative character for the same is seen in Fig.
121. Its linear form is Fig. 122, and its hieratic is Fig. 123
(Champollion, _Dictionnaire Egyptien_, _Paris_, 1841, p. 31.)

[Illustration: Fig. 124.]

[Illustration: Fig. 125.]

[Illustration: Fig. 126.]

[Illustration: Fig. 127.]

These afford an interpretation to the ancient Chinese form for _son_,
Fig. 124, given in _Journ. Royal Asiatic Society_, I, 1834, p. 219,
as belonging to the Shang dynasty, 1756, 1112 B.C., and the modern
Chinese form, Fig. 125, which, without the comparison, would not be
supposed to have any pictured reference to an infant with hand
or finger at or approaching the mouth, denoting the taking of
nourishment. Having now suggested this, the Chinese character for
_birth_, Fig. 126, is understood as the expression of a common gesture
among the Indians, particularly reported fro