74 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



123. I have had occasion to call attention to the distinction be- 

 tween North- and South-Coptic; here is one more example of the 

 result of its neglect. At [29 y z] he edits the following : 



wmag'os Seal tin /also mago, 



adding in a note that it means un mago hugiardo, " a lying magician". 

 But, in South Coptic, the word for "falsehood" is col, not cal; and 

 he has entirely ignored the next word, which is mutilated at the end, 

 viz., ho[,..J. Here there arises a diflS.culty ; it was not simply 

 wmagos cal, concerning which he has put an utterly futile note^ 

 even if it had been correct, but it was wmagos ncal ho . . ., which 

 must be emended: it was not even cal at all, but cap-hof, "a 

 serpent-catcher", "snake-charmer" (!) 



The rest of the story, which is unfinished, is much mutilated, but 

 even what is given, is unsatisfactory in many places. 



124. The following Text treats of the Martyrdom of Ama Heraei, 

 It is only a fragment, and there are many lacunse, which make its 

 reproduction difficult enough, even without any additional errors of 

 conjecture. At [36^ 27] is a quotation from Jerem. x. 11, which he 

 emends: mpwtamfio] tpe instead of tamie tpe or tamio ntpe; 

 he has tlien ignored the connexion of the clauses, and rendered tako 

 by " dispersi (dalla terra)", which it does not mean, but "let the 

 gods also have not created heaven and earth perish". 



125. I do not see how he contrives to extract his translation from 

 the words of the text he has edited at [37 a 14] : 



wltw[i iityjklie ( non e ahhattnta la statua 



katalye ( della Fortuna ? 



I suppose him to have imagined kwi , "little", "a little one of 

 fortune" {Tvxq), but how he got the non e, I do not see. In other 

 words, his rv^q is an invention, which has nothing to recommend it ; 

 his " statue" has no existence at all ; and the negative interrogative is 

 nowhere. 



If he had conjectured dpx^ instead of tu^^, he would have had 

 better chance of a tolerable phrase, and then perhaps ovkovv might not 

 have appeared too difficult to conjecture. Surely, when the Governor 

 bade her sacrifice to the great gods, Zeus and Apollo, it was more 

 natural for her to retort in words involving the use of KaraXueiv a.p)(rjVy 

 than to say, " is not the statue of Fortune thrown down "? 



