Page:Queen Moo and the Egyptian Sphinx.djvu/84

 glance will suffice to satisfy us that the drawing is intended to represent a woman's breast, with its nipple and areola. Any one inclined to doubt that such is the case will soon be convinced by examining the female figures portrayed in the Troano MS.

Yes, imix is the breast, the bosom, called to-day simply im, the word having suffered the apocope of its desinence ix, which is a copulative conjunction and the sign of the feminine gender.

But bosom is also an enclosed place. We say "the bosom of the deep," le sein de la terre, el seno de los mares. It was in that sense, indeed, that the Maya sages, who invented the characters and symbols with which to give their thoughts a material form, made use of it. This fact becomes apparent if