Atkinson — On Prof. Bossi's South-Coptic Texts. 99 



at pef-ran, "His name", and tlie following word nhello, is 

 not adjectival to pef-ran, "his old name", but it is vog. pi.: 

 "■ye aged, do not be remiss &c."; and tben the next words flow 

 on with a suitable meaning referring to the hoariness of their 

 intelligence, which of conrse was quite unintelligible to the editor, 

 and has occasioned his (?) after perfetti ; for his translation runs 

 thus : 



il Signore Iddio e il suo name vecchio. Non fare che 

 tardino ad appoggiarsi stcl hastone della loro co7isolazione, 

 perfetti (?) nella canizie della loro prudenza. 



Phrases, about which there can be no douht ? 



Here I shall conclude my examination of the texts. The remainder 

 of this Fasciculus is too fragmentary to make it worth while to dis- 

 coTer by divination what the papyri may really contain in addition to 

 the parts which Prof. Possi has deciphered. It is past doubt, how- 

 ever, that the whole of these texts as published so far will have to be 

 gone over again by competent scholars, before science can be satisfied 

 that the papyri have yielded all they are capable of giving. 



It was my fate, twenty years' ago, to show that knowledge of 

 the modern form of a language was not a sufficient qualification for 

 undertaking the task of editing texts in the older form of the 

 language : the converse is now my lot, to show that a knowledge of 

 the ancient form, of itself, will not sufB.ce to enable an editor to 

 handle the later form of the same speech. It cannot be permitted 

 that even a Professor of Egyptology should, with impunity, play 

 "hieroglyphics" with the Coptic language. 



H 2 



