旬
=
勹
+
日
:
Mnemonic symbol: to fast for ten days.
Xu Xian (xu) has been fasting for ten days now (旬). He tries to get by just by absorbing the sun's (日) energy, but as he is sun bathing in the encampment's kitchen ((e)n2) and a fat elephant (勹) walks by he cannot help but bite the elephant's leg.
年
=
午
+
丨
+
一
:
Nefertiti (ni) is having lunch (午) in the anthill's kitchen (an2). Unfortunately they didn't have any cutlery left so she has to use a dinosaur bone (丨) and a flute (一) instead of fork and knife. It will take her a whole year (年) to finish her lunch this way.