The sign for none, nothing, sometimes used for simple negation, is made by throwing both hands outward from the breast toward their respective sides.
Fig. 1006.—Negation.
With these compare the two forms of the Egyptian character for no, negation, the two upper characters of Fig. 1006 taken from Champollion (d). No vivid fancy is needed to see the hands indicated at the extremities of arms extended symmetrically from the body on each side.
Also compare the Maya character for the same idea of negation, the lowest character of Fig. 1006, found in Landa (a). 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 Comanche 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.
Fig. 1007.—Hand.
Compare the Chinese character for the same meaning, the upper character of Fig. 1007. 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 crosscut, then the metacarpal bones, and last the fingers, pointing forward and downward.
Leon de Rosny (a) gives the second and third characters in Fig. 1007 as the Babylonian glyphs for “hand,” the upper being the later and the lower the archaic form.