Attention should be drawn to the fact that the mouth and the hand play an exceptionally important part in the formation of the symbols.
Men were more accustomed then than now to the language of signs by the use of these organs. Perhaps three-twentieths of the existing characters are formed by their help as one element.
This large use of the mouth and hand in forming characters is, as we may very reasonably suppose, only a repetition of what took place when the words themselves were made.
There is likely to be a primitive connection between demonstratives and names for the hand, because the hand is used in pointing.
Fig. 983 is a copy of a colored petroglyph on a rock in the valley of Tule river, California, further described on page [52], et seq., supra.
a, a person weeping. The eyes have lines running down to the breast, below the ends of which are three short lines on either side. The arms and hands are in the exact position for making the gesture for rain. See h in Fig. [999], meaning eye-rain, and also Fig. [1002]. It was probably the intention of the artist to show that the hands in this gesture should be passed downward over the face, as probably suggested by the short lines upon the lower end of the tears. It is evident that sorrow is portrayed.
Fig. 983.—Rock painting. Tule river, California.
b, c, d, six persons apparently making the gesture for “hunger” by passing the hands towards and backward from the sides of the body, suggesting a gnawing sensation. The person, d, shown in a horizontal position, may possibly denote a “dead man,” dead of starvation, this position being adopted by the Ojibwa, Blackfeet, and others as a common device to represent a dead body. The varying lengths of head ornaments denote different degrees of status as warriors or chiefs.