silk-fang; “fragrant” was
herbs-fang; “to inquire” was
words-fang; “an embankment,” and hence “to guard against,” was
mound-fang; “to hinder” was
woman-fang. This last example may seem a little strange until we remember that man must have played the principal part in the development of writing, and that from the masculine point of view there is something essentially obstructive and unmanageable in woman’s nature. It may be remarked, by the way, that the element “woman” is often the determinative in characters that stand for unamiable qualities, e.g.