252 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



fois ^-c. ! The point is quite missed ; St, James "v^as holding forth, 

 about the tongue as an unmanageable member ; and the Thief reflected 

 that though he had in previous hours uttered curses, it was still in 

 his power to voice f orthi a blessing, which, the editor calls ' una parole 

 excellente ' ; ' Come, let me utter a good word concerning this man'. 



But further, what is the next clause ? I may here ' phrase ' the 

 words so as to show il. Bouriant's conception [169, 5] : — 



au6 kan mpei et pour moi qui n'ai point 



pathe mpetnanwb fait le Men [il est juste), 



mere pethow tahoi teos, qi'.e le mal retombe sur moi 



nhwo epeti nhetf plutot que sur lui. 



And I cannot for the life of me make out how that translation 

 has been come by ! 



(«) How can path e^ (7rao-;)(e(,j') be rendered, 'I have not ^o?ie good'? 



(l) How can mere be ignored ? 



(c) What meaning is given to kan, or to teos ? 



(d) How can nhwo epeti nhetf mean plutot que sur lui? 



These queries will need satisfactory answers before M. Bouriant's 

 translation can be looked at in any other light than as a suggestion 

 of what the thief ought to have said ! 



69. The Psalmist does not seem to have left a deep impression on 

 M. Bouriant's mind ; it is curious how the old words have taken upon 

 themselves new forms on being passed through the Editor's crucible ! 

 Here is a curiosity of the kind, [170, 9], mais je suivrai la hi de mon 

 Seigneur jour et nuit, [so far we feel on solid ground : it is evidently 

 Ps. I. 3 ; but the translator continues] et je ne serai pas comme Varhre 

 plants dans un lieu hattu par les flots. That has a plausibility about 

 it, and a ring of novelty, at least : he is to be firmly fixed, not like a 

 tree whose roots are having their earthy subsistence continually washed 

 away by the floods ! 



But now the Psalmist had said, ws to ivXov to 7re(f>vTevfievov 

 irapa tols 8teE68ovs twv iSdroiy, which is exactly what the Coptic says : 

 nta f the mpsen etret hijn mmaiihote nnemow, for the man - 

 hote are just the Ste|oSot of waters, the decursus aquarum ; cf. hate, 

 'to flow', Job xxix. 6 ; Ezek. xxxii. 14; Jltlingarelli, 119 a 1. And 

 nta f is ut sim ; whence did he imagine je 7ie serai pas ? 



1 Without disputing that pathe may be used in Coptic as the stem for iraffx^^v, 

 I should like to see examples of its use as such. 



