Page f77v of the Voynich manuscript has five figures of naked women standing in "bathtubs", with water to their knees and their hands stuck into "tubes" from where "water" flows.
(The bathtubs actually look more like organs, and the tubes could be veins or bowels. In particular, the top figure is reminiscent of an uterus, complete with Fallopian tubes and ovaries. But who knows...)
Some of the figures have labels, which are barely readable in the scanned image I got. Jim Reeds provided the following transcription into Currier:
Currier FSG HOP Comments
----------- ----------- ----------- -----------------------------
OFAN/AFOE ODAN ADOE oHam aHoe North figure; NE of left lady
OPOE/ZC89 OHOE SC89 oHoe zcc8a North figure; under left vein
OEFS8OE OEDT8OE oeHcc8oe North figure; NE of center lady
OPOEOR OHOEOR oHoeor North figure; under right vein
ORSC8AE ORTC8AE orccc8ae North figure; NW of right lady
2ORORAE 2ORORAE zororae West figure; above lady
OECOC8N OECOC8N oecoc8m West figure; on bathtub
OFA ODA oHa East figure; above lady
The FSG and HOP translations are mine; the latter is the error-tolerant encoding which I happen to be using these days.
I have searched for references to these labels in the main text of the biological section (f75r--f84v; Currier's language B, hand 2). Below is a report on what I have found.
For each label word, and for some similar words, I have printed: the word, the total number of occurrences in the "bio" section, and a string of digits. Each digit is the number of occurrences of the word in each block of 100 consecutive words, as in the word distribution map that I posted previously. The corresponding VMs page numbers are indicated above the digit string. Keep in mind that the figures are on page f77v.
The word oHam is very common. It doesn't occur in f77v, but has a major cluster in the next few pages.
The word aHoe doesn't occur at all; but it may be a misreading of oHoe, which occurs 11 times in the text, and is also part of the next label (see below).
75r 75v 76v 78v 79v
-----------------------------------------------------------
oHam 105 .1.121223223.3.12.1..21.133422653535141114..3..43.33.12.111
oHoe 11 ......1......1..........1.1...111.....1.............1....11
The word oHoe occurs 11 times: 4 times followed by ccc8a, once preceded by zcc8a, once followed by 8ae zcc8a.
The word zcc8a is one of the most common.
75v 76v 78v 79v
-----------------------------------------------------------
oHoe 11 ......1......1..........1.1...111.....1.............1....11
zcc8a 233 3362314964524.854555723254313.11335332325362432445686576476
Here are the occurrences of oHoe in context:
qoHcc8a ??? oeHoe ocHcca zcc8a oHoe ??? e8a // oHczcca oeHc8a
ccc8a qoHam ccc8a Ham cccHcc8a oHoe oHa // zam oHam zccHcc8a
// ??? qoe zcc8a oeHc8a oHoe ccc8a qoHam 8ae // cccca
// ??? qoHzcc8a qoHam ??? oHoe zcccoe ??? ccoHa oHcccaz //
8aHam oHc8a 8Hcca Har oe oHoe ??? // ??? ??? Har
qor cccca Ham cce oe oHoe 8am oHam oe oHcc8a qoHcm
zcc8a qoHca ??? qoHar cccHca oHoe Hcoe zccoe qoHae oeHam cccHca
??? oe ar zccHca eHoe oHoe ccc8a qoHam cccHca qoHae //
// a zcca oHccc8 ar oHoe 8ae zcc8a qoHaea // ???
oe zcc8a qoHc8a // qoHcca oHoe ccc8a ??? // 8zccca qoHcc8a
// zor ??? 8oe Hc8a oHoe ccc8a // =
The word oeHcc8oe does not occur at all. However, oeHcc occurs once, right after the picture, on the facing page.
The similar words oeHcc8, oeHcc8a, oeHcc8ae occur a few times later on (except for one early occurence of oeHcc8a on f75r).
The word 8oe appears first on f76r, and is fairly frequent later on.
75r 76r 78r 79r 84r
-----------------------------------------------------------
oeHcc 1 .....................1.....................................
oeHcc8 1 .......................................................1...
oeHcc8a 15 ..1........................1.11....11......2..121...11..1..
oeHcc8ae 1 ....................................................1......
8oe 26 ..........1.1..1.1..11.2...111...1..1.1.1.1.111....2....221
The word oHoeor doesn't occur. However, oHoe occurs 11 times (see above), and or is quite common. Its distribution is lumpy, and there is a cluster beginning on f77v.
75r 76r 77v
-----------------------------------------------------------
or 66 13..3.2..14.1.....1.231235312.15....1412.2..1.....1..213112
The word orccc8ae does not occur. But or is fairly common (see above), and ccc8ae occurs thrice, roughly at the right place:
76r 77v
-----------------------------------------------------------
ccc8ae 3 ..........1.1......1.......................................
Here are the occurrences of ccc8ae in context:
ccae zcc8 qoHcc8a ??? oHae ccc8ae // 8ae or ccc8a qoeam
qoccHcc8a 8cc8a // Hccc8a ezccc8a ccc8ae ccc8a ccccHcca // Poezc8ae oHc8aw
qoHcca ??? // Hzcc8a qoHam ccc8ae Pccc8a cccHa zam ccc8a qoHam
The word zororae does not occur. The words zor occurs 13 times, with no obvious clustering, and orae occurs once. The similar word oroe occurs 6 times, but not particularly in the right spot.
However, or occurs in the right place (see above), and ae does occurs in three clusters, one of them on f78v.
76r 77v 78v 80r
-----------------------------------------------------------
zor 13 ...11......1......1..1...1........2....11........11.......1
or 66 13..3.2..14.1.....1.231235312.15....1412.2..1.....1..213112
ae 20 ......311.22.111.........11..........112.1................1
orae 1 ................................................1..........
oroe 6 ....1.1..........................1.1...1...............1...
Here are the occurrences of zor in context:
??? cccPcca qoHak z // zor zccHa qoHam oHae 8ae oeccc8a
qoe zcccHca qoHc8a qoHc8a qoHaea zor ccc8a qoHa oezcHa qoHa8a //
??? oHcc8a oHae // zaeHcca zor zcccHca 8am oHar ccPccc8a cPcca
ccc8a qoe cc8a eak // zor zccoe cc8a qoHcc8a 8ar zcc8a
Hoe 8a qoHcc8a ??? // zor ccccHca or cccHc8a 8oe Hc8a
oHae oeHae qoHar ??? // zor ar or 8ccor oHam oHam
oe zcca ??? aeok // zor oeHa qoHa Ha Hor ???
qoHam ccccHca qoHam oe // zor zcccHca qoHar ccccHca oHam zcccHca
cc8a e8oe 8ar ae // zor ??? zcHam zcar oHzcca 8aear
oe // e zcc8a qoHc8a zor oeHar oe Ham oe Hzc8a
zam ccHa eae ??? // zor zcc8a qoHam ccHam zccHcca qoHc8a
cccHa oHccoe oHam cc8a // zor am zca zcca ezcc8a qoHa
eHcoe8a 8am oeHc8a aHam // zor ??? 8oe Hc8a oHoe ccc8a
The occurence of zor ar or is on f78v, line 31; and that of aeok zor is on f80r, line 27. (That is the only occurrence of aeok in the text).
The word oecoc8m does not occur. Indeed, the sequence coc occurs only twice in the bio section, and oc8 doesn't occur at all.
So, the o may be a misreading. The sequences cac and ac8 don't occur, either. If we read it as oeccc8m, we get some close matches:
76r 77v
-----------------------------------------------------------
oeccc8 1 .......................................1...................
Poeccc8 1 ............................................1..............
qoeccc8a 6 1....1.11..........................1................1......
oeccc8a 24 ...2.31...2.2....11....11.......1.....1....11..11.1...1...2
The word oHa is fairly common, with a cluster of occurrences at the right spot. Its "inflected forms oHam, oHae, oHar are even more common, with suggestive clustering.
76r 77v
-----------------------------------------------------------
oHa 31 ..11...1.231.2......1111...1.12.12..1..2.1.1..21......1....
oHam 105 .1.121223223.3.12.1..21.133422653535141114..3..43.33.12.111
oHae 43 ..11.11...21......1.1.21123.1..1111122..1111..2.11...12..22
oHar 40 214211.113121.......2.11.3...12.1.1..1.2..1....1......11.1.
I view these statistics as mildly encouraging: most of the labels can be found in the text, and in several cases there is a cluster of occurrences on page f77v or soon thereafter.
On the positive side, I think this data supports the hypothesis that Voynichese is a natural language (as opposed to a complex cypher or random text), and that the "words" are indeed words (i.e. units of meaning).
On the negative side, I am worried by the apparent inconsistency in spelling and word spacing in the manuscript itself. These observations give some more weight to the "ignorant scribe" hypothesis (that the Beinecke VMs is a copy, made by one or more scribes who could not understand the original).