the icon of a tongue; for through the image of the heart, they understood the Nile drawing a bounty of moisture from the bowels of the earth, just as the heart in the human body draws an abundance of blood and spirits to itself. Through the tongue, however, they represented the flood of rains flowing together from all sides, as the tongue is perpetually moistened by the fluid rushing toward it. We might add, following more recent inventions, that concord can be denoted by the image of two hearts joined by chains. The ancients also depicted the spleen to represent the public treasury, since when the spleen swells, the other limbs waste away.

Even the genitals are not excluded from hieroglyphics. The Egyptians signified magnanimity through the icon of the male member, as such an image is found carved on many ancient monuments to denote strenuous, warlike, and high-spirited men. To demonstrate the cause of human generation, they depicted their god Osiris in human form with the genitals obscenely aroused; by Osiris, they understood the Sun, who is held to be the cause of all generation. In another sense, to indicate effective speech, they represented a bearded Mercury with aroused genitals. Just as a mature Mercury possesses the faculty of generating, so must effective speech be able to deliberate and persuade. Conversely, to signify ineffective speech, this same Mercury was depicted as a youth with retracted genitals; for just as the prepubescent age lacks the power to procreate, so the speech flowing from the mouth of a youth possesses no efficacy and no power of persuasion.

These same Egyptian priests, to manifest continence, drew the male genitals restrained by a hand, believing that this gesture described a bridle on lust. Finally, through the image of the female genitals, they revealed a person to be sluggish and weak, since women appear timid, unversed in war, and utterly unsuited for battle.

It remains now for us to say something about the other external parts. Among the Egyptian priests, the human hand was a hieroglyphic for work. Indeed, the hand builds, collects all nourishment, stores it, brings it to the mouth, and performs every noble deed; therefore, it was rightly called the "tool of tools." However, with the hands tucked into the bosom, they expressed laziness, since nature equipped man with hands for business, not for idleness. For this reason, Anaxagoras called man the wisest of all animals because of his hands. Furthermore, to manifest a man useless in war, they depicted a hand without a thumb; since if this finger is removed, a man is rendered useless for tasks, and especially for battle. Finally, some modern writers have represented Dialectic as a hand with the fingers compressed into a fist, for Dialectic employs a brevity of arguments. Otherwise, they show the right and left hands as hieroglyphics for good and evil.

The fingers attached to the hands also have their own hieroglyphics. The Egyptians denoted measurement with the icon of a finger, for they believed measurement was the "daughter" of the fingers, since the system of measuring begins with them. A palm is formed by the width of four fingers, a foot is completed by four palms, and so on: feet make a pace, and paces make a mile. Likewise, through various gestures of the fingers, they revealed any number at all; on this matter, we refer the reader to Valeriano.

Furthermore, an index finger pressed to the mouth was a hieroglyphic for silence among many nations. However, among the Romans, the letter S was painted as a sign of silence in dining rooms and on the doors of chambers; by this sign, guests were instructed to be silent, since many things are uttered more licentiously than they should be while drinking. On the other hand, a depiction of the middle finger was a hieroglyphic for the stomach, because when this finger (being the longest) is thrust into the throat to induce vomiting, a stomach burdened by excessive food and drink is relieved. Indeed, the custom prevailed among the Egyptians that all bodily ailments were healed by vomiting and fasting. Alternatively, the middle finger extended while the others were contracted into a fist was a hieroglyphic for disgrace, as this image bears a certain resemblance to the male genitals. For this reason, when certain guests asked to know which one was Demosthenes, Diogenes pointed him out not with his index finger, but with his middle finger extended, so that he might mark him with a sign of ignominy.

The Egyptian priests established the ring finger as a hieroglyphic for the heart, because they were convinced that a certain nerve or vein from the heart directly to this part