Vaccari etimo – 私

Oreste Vaccari e consorte nel loro libro:
Pictorial Chinese-Japanese characters
a new and fascinating method to learn ideographs
propongono un metodo per imparare i kanji associandoli alla loro (presunta con studio) origine.
Eccone uno che mi ha incuriosito:

私, shi, watashi, I – The left component of the characther represents a sheaf of rice, which cereal was and is still considered in Asiatic countries as the most important food. The right part of the character represents a person’s nose facing the sheaf.
The nose, the most noticeable part of man’s face, has been considered, since ancient timesboth in China and Japan, the expression of his individuality, his very “I”
In Western countries, when a man wants to emphasize upon himself, his own assertions or deed, he is apt to touch his chest with his hand or with one of his fingers (generally the index), and would say for instance: I am, do, did. In similar cases, both Chinese and Japanese would touch their nose with the index of their right hand.
The idea then of combining the sketck of a nose facing a sheaf of rice to indicate the personal pronoun I, was that rice being the most important item of food for Oriental people its possession meant a very valuable thing to have, so that if a man (in this character represented by the nose) could say  “I possess the rice” or “This rice belongs to me” (touching his nose) he asserted his right to ownership. Before this character was used to represent the presonal pronoun I, only the symbol for the nose was used for the same purpose. The addition of the sheaf was made in less ancient times.