Chinese and Sumerian

16 THE CHINESE CLASSIFICATION OF CHARACTERS

by a horned head, and the dog by an uplifted forepaw—a highly characteristic gesture of the animal. Similarly, in Sumerian, an wdaer represents a she-goat.)

(ii) Ché-ssi, ‘Pointing out something’; characters indicating local or numerical conditions, such as _[_ (the supposed original form of [-) ‘above’; or one stroke for the numeral ‘one’, two strokes for ‘two’, which we find also in Sumerian. (Giles renders the designation of this class ‘ Indicative or self-explaining characters’.) Few characters are assigned to this class.

(iii) Aewwd-7, ‘Combined meanings’, or “Suggestive Compounds’ (Giles) ; characters composed of two symbols belonging to Class (i), both of which contribute to the suggestion of the meaning without reference to the sound. Among the instances given are HA mzng, ‘brightness ’, composed of svn and F{ moon together, a parallel to which may be recognized in the Sumerian group 4Y >>] Eee CE] ID, ‘bright’, composed of *] sw and >>| ee QE] a title of the moon-god; # (antique An) to follow, composed of two men ((\ maz), one behind the other; {4 good faith, which is a compound of { man and = word, implying that man is naturally honourable ; gt warrior, composed of TE zo stop and %@ weapons (which the warrior stops or repels). There are plenty of examples of this kind of ideogram in Sumerian: such are AQT AVY exemy, composed of rar] fre and AY throw ; -T-] evil, hostile, compounded of <]> eye and Tr] dog.

_ Other instances of Hwzz-2 or Suggestive Compounds in Sumerian are such as VE! prayer, bless, an ideogram appropriately composed of El) KA, mouth, and =] SHU, Zand, the two organs concerned in the action denoted (see D. 198); >>] drink, composed of EP] mouth and YV¥ water (D. 205) ; >ETy] ea, composed of el mouth and Y food (D. 203) ; <\- EN] o/d, composed of > eye and EY meal (cf. D. 249 ¢. D. 469)—a reference to the defective sight characteristic of old age (Gen. xxvii. 1), and to the white specks or white surroundings of the cornea (arcus senilis) which cause it ; yEPY dead, which in cuneiform coincides with the character for wall (BAD), but in the primitive linear form is composed of EZEN, feas/, and DINGIR, god; a clear indication that the old Sumerians, like the Chinese, regarded the dead as ‘gods’ (2°77) or spirits to whom feasts or sacrificial offerings were due at stated times or anniversaries (D. 364 and 367; Br. 43831; 4311); Fe >>] Law, composed of FE stylus and >>¥_ God or Heaven, as though to suggest that laws were ‘written with the finger of God’; r= abundance, which no longer looks like a compound ideogram in its cuneiform shape, but in the ancient linear form is a vessel on a stand (see Sign-list, No. 51); TSE a slave, composed of EVE head (v.02. individual) and {> woman (see Lex. s.v. ER, ERI slave); x4} waste, steppe, desert, open country, which has become pat breast and *¥ warrior in cuneiform, but appears to be composed of the signs for mlk, Light, and place in the linear character (see D. 427f; of D. 417; 15; 254); perhaps referring to the sunny pastures of the wilderness. In this last instance we have an example of the tendency to make the