·     Variously transliterated as AHIIN, AJIIN, AYIIN, AYIN, AIN.

·     There is basically only one variant, although the appearance within that one variant can be very different. While most instances are “round” (or squarish with curved corners), there is a sub-variant which is much more rectangular (e.g. K&L.p17.#1.5).

·     Features:

o A “scrolly” nose, curling upwards.

o Two or three fangs.

o A large round eye, divided into two halves by a horizontal line:

§ Top half: a few vertical ticks along the floor.

§ Bottom half: crossed bands in an X.

o One to three “bony plates” = ovals with three non-touching dots in the middle of the long axis of the oval.

o (Optionally) a “reptile scroll” inside the head, on the bottom middle to right, to the right of the end of the mouth.

·     There may be one rare variant – a crocodile with an open mouth (instead of the closed mouth of the familiar form).

o I am tentatively equating MHD.ALA with Bonn’s 1614st.

o Both share the open mouth.

o Both share the eye divided into two halves, with crossed bands in the lower half (in this case, the “left”, because the open month causes the eye to be rotated by 90 degrees, making the top and bottom half of the eye into the left and right halves.

o MHD has tentatively assigned the reading of AHIIN? (with a question mark) to MHD.ALA (whereas Bonn has refrained from assigning 1614st a reading).

o Bonn’s drawing of 1614st has two “bony plates” – two ovals, each with three non-touching dots inside – very characteristic of AHIIN.

o MHD’s Catalog example for MHD.ALA has no bony plates at all. Some glyph occurrences in monuments that MHD reads as ALA do have them (though this is not a large percentage – most do not have the “bony plates”).

o The divided eye with crossed bands should probably be seen as a more important diagnostic than the bony plates, for reading this open-mouthed reptile head as AHIIN.

I’m allowing the “working assumption” that these two examples are AHIIN (despite the fact that they don’t have the slightly upturned snout characteristic of crocodiles – I allow the other factors to weigh more heavily).

If these are indeed the open-mouth variant of AHIIN, then don’t confuse them with the visually similar open-mouth variant of CHAN (snake):

o The open mouth variant of AHIIN has crossed bands in the lower half of the eye, while the open mouth variant of CHAN (snake) has a scroll in the eye.

o The uncertainty in having these as a variant of AHIIN can be seen from the fact that MHD assigns the reading with a question mark, and Bonn does not assign a reading at all.

·     Helpful diagnostic: while not always guaranteed to be present, the “crossed bands in the lower half of the eye” element is very often present. This can help to distinguish it from:

o XOOK – with which it can share the characteristics of an upturned nose and/or two or more teeth.

o CHAPAAT – with which it can share the characteristic of two fangs.