The outer 工 frames 巫 top and bottom and serves as its indexing radical. Originally a picture of a carpenter's square or ritual implement, here it represents the shaman's ceremonial tool used to mediate between heaven and earth.
Two figures sandwiched inside the 工 frame depict dancers performing a rain-calling ritual. Together with 工 they form a compound ideograph: priests dancing with sacred implements between sky and earth — the ancient image of a shaman.
