Atkinson — On Prof. Bmsi^s South-Coptic Texts. 89 



There is no reason why the (?) should appear after veste, because 

 it is obviously to the "garment of the wedding-festival" that reference 

 is made; but why should the first word emn have been omitted? 

 Then the next clause : " His door is quickly shut,'''' is not a translation 

 of the Coptic words at all, because ro means "mouth" (not "door", 

 which is ro) , and the verb tom does not mean " to shut a door", 

 (which is stam) , but " to shut the mouth". One would have thought 

 that the expression tm ro was common enough in Coptic, but it is old 

 Egyptian just as well. And it is a quotation also, being simply the 

 Coptic of 6 S' icju/xuiOr] of Matth. xxii. 12, with which may be com- 

 pared the version Prof. Rossi has here printed : "the nuptial garment 

 which is in thee. His door is soon shut, and he will be given &c." (!) 



169. In fact, the quotations are often the worst treated passages ; 

 of, the following instances. 



The text begins, "the Parhoimiastes says," but the editor has 

 made no attempt to find out what the writer of the Proverbs did say, 

 and edits [73 a 6] : 



Ju mmos dice: 



efcnarike Jiniisorp cereando querela sin da principio. 



je enentak .... .... 



e[t]slecldc pe 



But the word slecloc is not so very common a word as to have 

 made a search for it in the Proverbs an impossibility : it is found at 

 ii. 20, a comparison with which will be instructive to the editor. 



170. Just below [a 20], he renders: "those who abandon the 

 right and chosen ways for the oblique ways . . .", though his text has 

 the word nau, which should certainly have given him pause: his 

 text must be altered into eu-s6tp nau, " choosing /or themselves 

 the crooked ways" ; this also is a quotation, Pro v. ii. 13. 



171. And a little further on, [y 2] he renders oltre le frodi^ 

 showing that he did not comprehend his text khoris si nkrof, 

 "false measures'''' ; cf. the use in Prov. xx. 23, where we have si snau 

 and mase nkrof mentioned. 



172. I shall finish my criticism on this Fasciculus with an exami- 

 nation of five passages in the last two pages of his text. 



{a) At foot of [75 ^], his translation runs thus : 



"... little children, he is angry and smites them. Some do not 

 die (?) ; the Spirit of God departs from them, and gives them into the 

 hands of evil spirits that they may torment them, saying : if my spirit 

 dwells in . . ." 



