706 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY. 



Maha-vansa. — In the edition of 1908 (see p. LVI), the Burmese 

 mss. are designated by B, the Cingalese by S, and the Kambodian by C. 



Group-letter, without exponent, for a group of mss. — It is a 

 very considerable advantage of the system proposed by me, that a 

 group-letter may be used, without the exponents, to designate collect- 

 ively all the manuscripts of that group. Thus, in the forthcoming 

 Visuddhi-magga, Bl and B2 represent two Burmese mss., and Bo a 

 Burmese printed text ; while B, without exponents, is the simple and 

 natural designation of all three Burmese authorities collectively. 

 Similarly Cl, C2, C3, C4 represent four Cingalese mss., and C9 the 

 Colombo printed text ; while C alone means all these five authorities. 

 In like manner, when occasion arises, K may be used alone for all the 

 Kambodian authorities, and S for all the Siamese. 



At first I thought of this advantage merely as one incidental to the 

 use of the system of group-letters ; but I now deem this simple and 

 natural way of designating all the mss. of a group collectively to be an 

 essential and very valuable part of the system. The presence or 

 absence of exponents is therefore also- an essential matter. The ques- 

 tion then arises, What shall we do when a single ms. forms a " group " ? 

 When an editor has only one ms. of a given group (Burmese, for 

 instance), so that that ms. alone constitutes the entire group, it seems 

 at first blush immaterial whether he calls it Bl or B; but for this 

 case I propose the following rule : If he cites the ms. as an individ- 

 ual ms., let him cite it with an exponent, thus, as Bl or Ba ; if he 

 cites it with other groups (for example, with CKS) as a group, let him 

 cite it without an exponent. Thus BCKS would mean each and every 

 authority of all four groups. 



Feer, in the Sarjyutta, I. (1884), p. xii., uses SS. as a designation of 

 S 1 , S 2 , S 3 , taken collectively. Morris,* in the Ailguttara, I. (1885), 

 p. 102 and later, uses SS. and later S.S., apparently to designate his 

 Cingalese authorities collectively. He gives no explanation that I 

 can find, but seems to be following Feer. Since, in designating an 

 individual ms., an exponent should always be used with the group- 

 letter, it follows that the use of the group-letter without an exponent 

 is amply sufficient and characteristic as a designation for all the mss. 

 df that group collectively. Feer's duplication of the group-letter is 

 therefore needless. 



In the Maha-varjsa of 1908 (see pages V, VI, VII, LVI), the editor 

 comprehends his Burmese mss. Bl and B'2 under the designation X ; 

 his Cingalese mss. Si, S2, S3, S4, S5, and S6 under the designation Y ; 

 and his Kambodian mss. Cl and C2 under the designation Z. In 

 practice, this is extremely confusing. The confusion in the use of 



