Atkinson — On a South-Coptic Text of M. Bouriant. 257 



said [182, 7] : ' the Son of Man cometh. that lie maij find [= and will 

 find] faith, upon the earth '." It certainly is not a question here. 



84. And on the same page [182, y], he has fallen into a very 

 ohjectionable mistake. As Yictor's mother was expostulating with him, 

 she uses the argument, that she has got a bride for him; to this he 

 replies, rudely enough, one might say, if M. Bouriant' s version were 

 correct, ^' c[u^est-ce qu^ une fiancee" ? 



But the young martyr did not say any such thing ; his words are, 

 according to M. Bouriant, 



aseleet w eine, what^s a hride? 



I cannot divine how he c/ot that meaning even ! 



The Coptic text should be : a seleet weine, a tmntfro 

 ters parage nahrai, and means: ^'hride hath passed away, and 

 the kingdom hath passed away before me". And then he con- 

 tinues in the same exalted strain, "aye, and the whole world with 

 its vain glory hath passed away before me, and this woild with 

 all therein is a nothing". Here, too, the translation has a wrong 

 turn given to it by the hypothetical form of the clause, quand on 

 me donnerait tout V empire &c., le monde et ce quHl renferme ne sont 

 rien. 



85. Occasionally on the other hand the dry prose of the Copt is 

 bedewed with a ' suspicion ' of sentimentality, as for instance, Ve7iez, 

 ofemmes qui avez connu le doux laiser des enfants. That is charming, 

 but, the Copt did not say it. His words are [183, 10], ameitn 6 

 nehiome terw iitauji pira mpehloc nensere; and how did this 

 furnish le doux haiser ? Was the literary reminiscence too strong, or 

 did the Editor really conceive the possibility of pi, *a kiss', and 

 mpehloc, ' of sweetness ' ? I am afraid he did, but then what about 

 the syllable ra? was this, too. North Coptic ra = 'mouth' ? It was 

 an unlucky word to stumble on, for neither was it pi 'kiss', nor ra 

 ' mouth ', nor was it Coptic at all, but the Greek jreXpa, after the 

 Coptic ji "to take', "ye who have (ji-peira) experie^iced the sweet- 

 ness of children". Of course, hut for the frequent errors in the 

 handling of the text, I should never have doubted that it was 

 simply a question of literary taste. 



86. The following paragraphs contain matter for thought. The 

 words ayant pris place d la tribune do not, of themselves, elucidate the 

 mystery of his text [185, 2] afhmo OS eraf pro bematos. lean 

 only conjecture that he intended eraf, 'at', pro, 'the door', 

 bematos, firjjji.aTO'i (in genit.), but there my imagination fails me. 



K.I.A. PKOC, SEK. III., VOL. III. T 



