,[[8]] both the Ram and the cranelike bird being called ba. Some have cleverly inferred that the Egyptians thought that the soul was of a birdlike form, and others have not hesitated to consider ba as expressive of the cry of the ram. The odd thing is that only the ram has this name, not the sheep or the lamb, who nevertheless indulge in the same cry. The truth is that in spite of appearances the word ba is not onomatopoeic here. Whether applied to the ram or to the heron, the word is expressive of human action and signifies ‘digging through, cleaving, piercing, splitting.’ The hieroglyphic variants are very expressive:
,
