The Voynich Ninja

Koen, Sam et.al.

Just a thought - perhaps the beige thing is meant for a calabash or some similar container.  Handy to rinse your hair or have an instant shower along with the bath.

This picture shows the ordinary sort of jug-like calabash (centre, back row), and also the double gourd that is pictured onYou are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.. I'm sure about the double-gourd's being intended on f.4v, but not so sure that the beige thing under the nymph's arm was intended to be seen as the jug-like type. The double, still on its vine, is pictured in the Tacuinum Sanitatis though whether they were easily grown in Europe, I don't know. Today, various types of gourd/calabash are still used - from Africa, and southern Arabia, to as far as southern China.

Diane: it does look like she may be filling some kind of water vessel, but it's exceptionally hard to tell in this case since all we have is a beige spot.

Might it be relevant that this figure looks pregnant, more so than the others?

Here's a nymph with both a beige stripe and dots in the arm hollow, from f71v:



In this case the stripe is contained entirely within the arm hollow and does not connect to the back of the nymph's head, so there's basically no chance that it's an attempt to depict hair or anything of the sort.

Looking at all the examples from the Zodiac section considered so far, what's interesting is that the arm hollow may be:

1) Empty
2) Filled with dots
3) Filled with a beige stripe
4) Filled with both a beige stripe and dots

This is not too different from the way the stars the nymphs are holding are filled in.  So there seems to be some kind of connection or similarity between the arm hollows and the stars.

And what about this one then? f83r, it almost looks like some kind of cape 

Another possibility might be that, if the barrels were full of a substance, the dots under the arms might indicate that the substance is dripping off the arms of the nymphs emerging from it.

(18-11-2016, 04:24 PM)Koen Gh. Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.And what about this one then? f83r, it almost looks like some kind of cape 

Good question.  I'm not sure, but it's interesting that that pattern looks like the patterns found on some of the tubs in the Zodiac section.  It might be something like a cape, or it might be purely symbolic, as I have suggested for many of the other patterns found in arm hollows (or just under the arms, in this instance).

(18-11-2016, 05:47 PM)VViews Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Another possibility might be that, if the barrels were full of a substance, the dots under the arms might indicate that the substance is dripping off the arms of the nymphs emerging from it.

Perhaps... but why are some of the arm hollows empty even when the interiors of the barrels contain dots?  And how do we account for the beige stripes?