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3. * The Principle of Picture Puzzles*

The early logo-syllabic scripts functioned like picture puzzles, based
on the rebus principle. Each sign was originally a picture, denoting the
object represented by it. For example, the picture of an arrow meant
'arrow.' But because many things, especially abstract concepts, are not
easy to draw as pictures in a simple and unambiguous manner, another
expedient was resorted to. The meaning of the pictograms was extended
from the name of the depicted object to all of its homonyms, that is,
words with a similar phonetic shape but a different meaning.

For example, in the Sumerian script the picture of arrow meant 'arrow'
as well as 'life' and 'rib,' because all three words were pronounced
alike in the Sumerian language: ti . Homophonies like this have often
given rise to etiological myths. Thus the identity of the Sumerian words
for 'life' and 'rib' is behind that part of the Sumerian paradise myth
in which the goddess Nin-ti 'Mistress of Life' heals the rib of the sick
god Enki.

Puns are language specific, but etiological myths based on them can
travel from one folk to another. If the Sumerian myth just mentioned was
not known, it would be difficult to understand why Eve was created from
Adam's rib. The Hebrew name of Eve, Hawwa , means 'life' (cf. Genesis
3:20, "And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother
of all living"), but it has no resemblance to the Hebrew word for 'rib',
sela. On the other hand, we know from the Bible that the Virgin Mary did
not become pregnant from a berry eaten in the forest. Undoubtedly, this
peculiar version of the Biblical story in the ancient Finnish folklore
owes its origin to the homonym marja 'berry' that the Finnish language
has for the proper name Maria .
 


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