358 SIGN LANGUAGE AMONG NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
With the gesture for drink may be compared Fig. 138, the Egyptian 
Goddess Nu in the sacred sycamore tree, pouring out the water of life 
to the Osirian and his soul, represented as a bird, in Amenti (Sharpe, 
from a funereal stelé in the British Mu- 
seum, in Cooper’s Serpent Myths, p. 49). 
The common Indian gesture for river 
or stream, water, is made by passing the 
horizontal flat hand, palm down, forward 
and to the left from the right side in a 
serpentine manner. 
The Egyptian character for the same 
is Fig. 139 (Champollion, Dict., p. 429). 
The broken line is held to represent the 
movement of the water on the surface of 
the stream. When made with one line less angular and more waving 
it means water. It is interesting to compare with this the identical 
character in the syllabary invented by a West African ne- AAAAjqy 
gro, Mormoru Doalu Bukere, for water, ~~~, mentioned AAW 
by TytLor in his Harly History of Mankind, p. 103. YY 
The abbreviated Egyptian*sign for water as a stream F1G. 139. 
is Fig. 140 (Champollion, loc. cit.), and the Chinese for the same is as 
in Fig. 141, 
In the picture-writing of the Ojibwa the Eyptian abbreviated charac- 
ter, with two lines instead of three, appears with the same sig- 
nification. 
The Egyptian character for weep, Fig. 142, an eye, | | | 
with tears falling, is also found in the pictographs of 
Fic. 40. — the Ojibwa (Schoolcraft, I, pl. 54, Fig. 27), and is also 
made by the Indian gesture of drawing lines by the index repeatedly 
downward from the eye, though perhaps more frequently made by 
the full sign for rain, described on page 344, made with the 
Fr back of the hand downward from the eye—“ eye rain.” 
The Egyptian character for to be strong is Fig. vee 
¥ic.142. 143 (Champollion, Dict., p. 91), which is sufficiently — Fis. 14s. 
obvious, but may be compared with the sign for strong, made by some 
tribes as follows: Hold the clinched fist in front of the right side, a lit- 
tle higher than the elbow, then throw it forcibly about six inches toward 
the ground. 
A typical gesture for night is as follows: Place the flat hands, hori- 
zontally, about two feet apart, move them quickly in an upward curve 
toward one another until the right lies across the left. “‘ Darkness coy- 
ers all.” See Fig. 312, page 489. 
== The conception of covering executed by deline- 
* 3 ating the object covered beneath the middle 
IED Ike point of an arch or curve, appears also clearly in 
the Egyptian characters for night, Fig. 144 (Champollion, Dict., p. 3). 
Fic. 141. 
