We tug our hammer-headed mules along the tourist trails of Petra, the fabled Nabataean capital cut from rock the color of living muscle.

[Charles Sanders] Peirce argues that common and proper nouns function typically as indices, whereas verbs and adjectives are typically icons and rhemes (MS 516:39). The noun camel is a rhematic index when it is interpreted and thus connected with real-life experience. The adjective green is a rhematic icon open to many interpretations because it says nothing about any object to which this color should be attributed.

“The sec'tary,” she whispered. And then, with a hug and a look which admonished and encouraged all at once, she slipped away, her white nightdress trailing behind her in a long comma.

[…] the Abbot ought to be informed of the fast, and bestow upon the Monk a corrective discipline; and that, if he did not mend his manners in consequence thereof, he ought to be expelled from the Society, as a scabby sheep, lest he should ruin others by his example.