Atkinson — On Prof. Rossih South-Coptic Texts. 83 



quite a different idea, pek-hae (?), but the text can hardly be 

 emended, as it breaks off directly after. Only, the Coptic Dictionary 

 is not to have additions of this sort made to it : ixrj yeVotro. 



150. The confusion in the prepositions continues, thus [55 y 13] : 

 " ship, laden with every evil ! For what evil wilt thou seek, that 

 thou dost not find in iV ; here he has separated two clauses, which 

 are to be joined, and he has utterly spoilt the construction by rendering 

 erof, "in it". The words mean : " o ship, what evil wilt thou [the 

 ship] seek, so that thou dost not find it, (and not find it)". 



151. Here is another absurdity [56 a foot] : 



•wnte peijoi ha questa nave 



benhaucal mpenipe dneore di ferro. 



alia auvrot hwe Ma furono piu prestanti {?) 



heneift mpe X8 dei chiodi di Crista. 



The last clause is a complete mystery : " this ship has anchors of 

 iron. But they were more excellent than the nails of Christ." What 

 form must the Coptic language assume to make itself clear ? The 

 text edited by Prof. Rossi is as bad as bad can be, and the translation 

 quite corresponds. His text has indeed all the letters, but he could 

 not sort them! The words mean: "this ship has anchors of iron, 

 lut they melted them down into nails for Christ", 



not, auwot hwe heueift, 



but, au-woth-w e-heii-eift 



152. The text continues: "the ship had a mast, but the devil 

 sawed it (for the cross)", and then it adds [56 y8 14] : 



a niwdai ale erof salirono l_siilla nave] i giudei 



auruht ehwn hn tpetra V aggravarono con pietre 



auuius e la immersero 



hits tmntatnahte neW incredulitd. 



"The Jews ascended the ship, overloaded it with stones, and sunk 

 it in incredulity" ! 



Nothing of the kind : " they were dashed against the rock and were 

 drowned, oiving to their unbelief". It is impossible to translate the 

 Coptic words in any other way than as I have rendered them. Prof. 

 Rossi has no feeling whatever for the passive construction of the verbs, 

 any more than for the sphere of meaning of the prepositions. 



153. At other times, the memories of hieroglyphic pronominal 

 suffixes are too strong for the editor, and he forthwith breaks away 



6 2 



