100 The Birds of the Assyrian Monuments and Records. 
connected, and read as avusse and a-vu-se respectively. This 
name is probably to be referred to the Aramaic tift.N avvfoh, 
" personare," perstrepere, " sonum edere," a fit name for the 
noisy crowing cock. 1 The avnse in W.A.I., II, pi. 42, 1. 18, 
comes just before the 'e-zi-zu, and like it is called the dilbat 
>~<), " the announcer." The name may, however, be of 
Aceado-Sumerian origin ; g = Sumerian m or v. 
(e.) Another name, *pyy^z ^f^T ^ sag-gus-u, perhaps has 
reference to the cock's comb or crest; ^yy^z JpF^T ^ s "the top 
of the head," and ^ is given as having as one of its significa- 
tions, a " peak"; the idea of elevation seems to be implied in 
the form of the character when turned up, ; ^ or ^ may 
be explained in one of its most general significations as 
" lord." The bird's name would read, " top of the head," or 
"head" + "lord" : a suitable name for the proud cock, as he 
struts about with uplifted head — 
" How high his highness holds his haughty head " ! 
(/.) The a-vu-se has also as an equivalent the name 
tz^y *~^~] *?f~ 'e-na-nu, to which reference has already been 
made. The cock is the " diviner * or "soothsayer" as 
presaging coming events from the appearance of its viscera, or 
for other reasons. All these names occur in pi. 42, Vol. II, of 
W.A.I.,andall have the D.lP. of "food" 0^^) before them. 
(39.) The ostrich is one of the few birds whose figures 
Occur on the monuments to which I have alluded. It 
was known to the Assyrians by the names of Sa-ka-tuv 
(4S >M S^HO a ~ rik tEf It d^H) and gam- 
gam-mu 
(\ \ ^)» this latter 
name being borrowed from 
the Accadian GAM GAM (A-<^^^ ^C^^^k)' Another 
1 It is to be noted that we have, at present, no onomato-poetic name for a 
n cock," like our cock-a-doodle-doo, of which " cock " is simply an abbreviation ; 
cf. "Soph. Frag.," 900, kokko($6g,q bpvig, 6 akeKrpvojv^ "the cock, the bird that 
cries coc "; but the idea, if not the actual voice, of the bird, is manifest in the 
word a-vu-se, just as the old English word Hana ( = " Cock "), is to be compared 
with the Latin canert, the Sanskrit Hf^ST, Jcvan-, "to Sound." The Sanskrit 
kuJcJcuta (cfi'lE'S'), " a cock," is clearly onomato-poetic. 
