to a laudable if excessive zeal. Finding the character 船, which is the
common word for "a ship," as indicated by 舟, the earlier
picture-character for "boat" seen on the left-hand side, one ingenious
Father proceeded to analyse it as follows:—

舟 "ship," 八 "eight," 口 "mouth" = eight mouths on a ship—"the Ark."

But the right-hand portion is merely the phonetic of the character; it
was originally 铅 "lead," which gave the sound required; then the
indicator "boat" was substituted for "metal."

So with the word 禁 "to prohibit." Because it could be analysed into two
木木 "trees" and 示 "a divine proclamation," an allusion was discovered
therein to the two trees and the proclamation of the Garden of Eden;
whereas again the proper analysis is into indicator and phonetic.

Nor is such misplaced ingenuity confined to the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1892 a Protestant missionary published and circulated broadcast what
he said was "evidence in favour of the Gospels," being nothing less than
a prophecy of Christ's coming hidden in the Chinese character 來 "to
come." He pointed out that this was composed of [Illustration] "a
cross," with two 人人 "men," one on each side, and a "greater man" 人 in
the middle.

That analysis is all very well for the character as it stands now; but
before the Christian era this same character was written [Illustration]
and was a picture, not of men and of a cross, but of a sheaf of corn. It
came to mean "come," says the Chinese etymologist, "because corn _comes"
from heaven."