60 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



[26 y], and the first page of his version, p. 77, gives at least a dozen, 

 phrases or clauses which are not in the Coptic text. 



80. The very first lines of this Coptic text are given wrongly, 

 and without note or (?), and the translation is neither from the Latin 

 nor the Coptic : 



' ' ecco un demone in forma d'uomo saltargli sul dorso, e 

 percuotendo &c." 



I do not know whence he has this ' demon in human shape ', for the 

 Latin has : insiliit dorso ejus festinus gladiator, and the Coptic text, 

 which, is quite unintelligible as he has given it, reads thus : 



afomkf ehrai he leapt \_ecco saltargli'\ 

 ejii tefjise on Ms back [sul dorso], 

 n.ei w.niskbos 



What is to he made of the last line ? It is clear that the Editor had 

 no notion whatever, but there is no warning given of difficulty either 

 in text or translation. The Coptic was probably 



nthe nw-77vto;(os 



^'lihe a driver^ he leapt on his back, dug his heels into his flanks, 

 and struck his head." 



81. On the same page [7 y foot], his text gave him a word sof , 

 concerning which he has composed a note as follows: "the words 

 tcowne de ethioof mpfsofs eneh (&c.) are the literal transla- 

 tion of St. Jerome's saccumque semel fuerat indutus, nunquam 

 lavans (&c.)"; a note leading to his observation: "as an instance 

 of words with a new meaning I note specially the root sof, which 

 in the dictionaries of Peyron and others is rendered destruere, desolare, 

 and in our text evidently means lavare^\ 



But that is reducing the Coptic text to the position of a mere- 

 word-for-word rendering, which it is not. And if it comes to 

 dictionaries, we find mutare also given as the meaning of sof, and 

 that meaning is quite close enough here: "he did not change his 

 sackcloth"; so that the "new meaning" asserted is certainly not 

 proved by this quotation. 



82. At [9 a 18], the translation exhibits the same vagueness, for 

 there is no attempt to interpret coj nf sahpf , though it is evidently 

 the Copt's explanation of Jerome's sorhitiunculae ; cf . Ezek. xxxiv, 3 

 eis perote atetnsahpf, tSou to yaXa KaTecrdere . 



