80 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



form of the verb, taJie, be conceivably used here ? The "word means : 

 "on him ivho is itttoxicated", e-pettahe. 



142. So at [46 a 14], he has completely missed the point of the 

 passage : 



etrefpoht Sodoma e [Gomorra) U ridusse 



ebolhS wmhaau in tma tomba. 



Here Prof. Eossi evidently thinks that the words refer to the destruc- 

 tion of Sodom and Gomorrha : "he reduced them into a tomb ". 

 That is one of the most curious blunders ever committed ; there is 

 nothing about reduced, nor them, nor into, nor a tomh f The Coptic 

 vfriter Tvas referring to Lot, and the melancholy circumstances 

 connected with his intoxication, and the words literally mean: " to 

 make him Ik-^^eciv [cf. Lev. xiv. 41 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 3, 10] in a cave^\ 

 I need not write a commentary on this ; but assuredly the contrast 

 between Prof. Eossi' s text and his translation of this passage is^ to 

 say the least of it, noteworthy ! 



143. The same page exhibits another example [46 y foot] : 



nthe nwsen al modo di un alhero, 



eautocf die piantato 



esanti mow erof in un terreno inaffiato 



nfauxane tai[o cresce rigoglioso ; 



5]te the cosi e 



nepithymia dei desideri ^c. 



The text says: "like a tree which men have planted and watered 

 that it may grow, such is the way of desire ". In place of this^ 

 Prof. Eossi introduces a terreno, which is not to be found, and 

 apparently renders taio = "rigoglioso" "(grows) vigorously ^^ \ I 

 fear there is no doubt that he read it so, for he has distinctly 

 tai[o 5]te the , i.e. he made taio an adverb, joining the o to 

 tai; he conjectured n before the te, whereas tai is the demon- 

 strative, and te is the copula! But if he did mean tai "this", his 

 text is still unintelligible : why not have edited o n , -n-aXiv ? He 

 had previously conjectured [45 y 7] tai the, with wo copxila; could 

 he here have meant tai o nte the, with two copulas ? 



And the last three lines of his fragment he did not venture to 

 touch at all : 



esje mmon;, et Se ^77, 



sotni tatikneue mmos listen, that I may show it ; 



for the mysterious tikneue is, of course, 8et/cvvetv. 



