Fig. 33.—The “Spectacles.”
Fig. 34.—The Ear.
The human ear has been represented by No. 2, Fig. [34], as has been proved by de Rosny and Thomas. No. 1 (Cod. Cort., p. 16) is either an ear or an ear ornament. It is not the ordinary ear-ring, which is clearly shown in Figs. [12], [17], etc. This latter is often used as an affix, and has been confused with the serpent rattle, and with No. 3, which is the lower jaw bone, cham or camach. (See Cod. Cort., pp. 35, 36, etc.)
The ear is xicin, which also means “shell.” Ear-rings are tup, a word which as a verb signifies “to stop up, to cover over, to extinguish.”[[112]]
The group of signs, Fig. [35], beginning with a person seated, are, in the opinion of Seler, all derivatives from “man.” Nos. 2, 3, and 4 he calls “eyes,” and Nos. 5–11 outlines of the mouth, jaws, and face, with a general value, “person.” Other suggestions are, that the crescentic outlines, Nos. 6, 7, 11, refer to a crescent moon, or an ear (Schellhas), or to a serpent’s mouth (Allen); while No. 10 may be an eye and eyelashes (Allen), a comb (Valentini), a claw, a feather, part of a plant, etc. It may be called the “comb sign.”[[113]]
Fig. 35.—Crescentic Signs.
My belief is that some of these affixes show the necklace on which beads and precious stones were strung. This was called u, which is also the word for moon, and in sound is akin to uil, food.[[114]]