910 Dynamic Theory. 



pressing down, form an appropriate metaphor to express such feeling, 

 however produced. Perhaps, or doubt, is having two hearts. The 

 Aztecs use the same conceit in their verbal language ; ome signifying 

 "two" is combined with yolli "heart," forming the verb omeyolloa "to 

 doubt." The sign language exhibits, as the vocal languages do, the pau- 

 city of original simple ideas, and the tendency in language construction 

 to make the most of these by expanding and compounding. Capt. Clark 

 gives the signs for about 850 expressions ; but of these about 400 only 

 are simple expressions, or roots as they might be called, the rest being 

 compounds. Thus the sign for night is simple, and so is that for sun ; 

 but the conception of moon is that of a sun shining at night, and the 

 gesture expression is a compound of night and sun ; just as the German 

 for glove is hand-shoe and for thimble is jlnger-hat. 



Sign language is to be considered as picture writing in the air, and from it 

 to picture writing is a short and obvious step. The first writing is always 

 picture writing. Whether in the old world or the new, in Egypt or in 

 Mexico, or among the savage redskins, the original conception of writing 

 is a representation of the thing itself as exactly as possible. The idea of 

 substituting symbols or arbitrary characters to take the place of these 

 pictures, probably did not occur to the Eg}^ptians until picture writing 

 had been in use for thousands of years. But still the Egyptians had 

 accomplished this and invented an alphabet at least as early as the 5th 

 dynast} T , say 4,250 years ago. A document on papyrus written at this 

 period is still in existence. From this ancient alphabet the Phenicians 

 derived theirs, and gave it to the Greeks, and from them it passed to all 

 Europe. With the Egyptians, alphabetic writing did not supersede the 

 pictures. The hieroglyphics continued to be used and studied by the 

 privileged classes, as scholars now study a dead language that has be- 

 come sacred. 



The hieroglyphic writing contained direct representations of things 

 as far as possible. The picture of the sun's disc meant the sun, the 

 crescent, the moon; a male and female figures signified man and woman 

 when separate, but when drawn together meant mankind. The Egyp- 

 tians were under the same necessity as our Indians to resort to trope 

 and metaphor to assist their expression of ideas of which no picture 

 could be made. Thus, heaven and a star stood for night ; a leg in a 

 trap for deceit ; a pen and inkstand for writing, and to write as well as 

 a scribe ; a man breaking his own head with an ax or a club meant the 

 wicked, suicide being considered the most wicked act possible. Again, 

 the sun represented a day, the moon a night; a } r outh with his finger to 

 his mouth, a child ; a man armed with bow and quiver, a soldier ; a man 

 pouring out a libation from a vase, or (later) merely the vase itself, a 

 priest. The ground plan of a house, instead of a full picture, became 



