280 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



prefixes a perfectly inexplicable sa7isl Thus he translates [249, 3] 

 Daniel a passe 25 jours dans la fosse atix lions sans desirer manger ni 

 hoire. "Where did he leani that DaniePdid not desire to eat or drink 

 during that period ? But he evidently thinks that is the analysis of 

 the word, for he repeats it immediately below, sans Touloir manger ni 

 hoire ! 



He does this even with the simplest words. Thus [252, z] he 

 has ta tete a eti coupee, where there was no decapitation at all, 

 euhook mmok, meaning merely, while torturing {scraping thee)\ 

 And what has possessed him to give such a turn to the phrase as he 

 has done in (twice) rendering tpolis mpmerit, la ville d'amour'^. 

 St. Yictor had been exalted to "the city of The Beloved^'', [253, i ; 

 254, 7]. And what is gained by describing Yictor as ceint d'une epee 

 d'or, when the text [256, 12] has majh, dialectic for mojh, 

 " girdle " ? Neither is there any advantage in rendering saje erok, 

 a toi q^ue je parle [252, 11], instead of, "while I am speaking con- 

 cerning thee". And [253, 13] il leur accorde la guerison, et sHls se 

 rendent a sa chapelle, leur cceur trouve le repos, is the version given of 

 the text: nsebok epeuei ere peuhet matn; but these words 

 mean, " so that they go to their house, with their heart light ". 



And again, cf. [258,6] tesomnt mmahe, in the sentence which 

 he has rendered il saisit le magon a trois coudees du sol. The mason 

 had fallen from the wall, but St. Yictor suddenly appeared, and held 

 him up, mpatefpoh epkah sa tesomnt mmahe, "before he 

 had gone to the ground except [=more than] three cubits ". According 

 to his text, te- would be the article before mahe, which is masc, as 

 his own text somnt shows, or he may cf. Deut. iii. IP; Ezek. xl. 

 1, 9. It was the prep., sate (somnt mmahe); but how did he 

 come to the meaning a trois coudees dxi sol? 



Once more, [258, x] mais sije ne puis les redire tous . . . . du moins 

 fen conterai quelques-uns dontfai Stetemoin. The last words are quite 

 impossible: tinataue henkwi ntaho eroi; here too, the verb 

 taho, 'to overtake,' mnst have flitted before him, but lam absolutely 

 incapable of guessing hoiv he proposed to handle it. The words meant, 

 "so that I may content myseK", nta-ho eroi; cf. Eccl. v. 9 nim 

 pentaf-ho erof, tl^ rjydTrrjcrev; Gen. xxxiii. 13 ho eroi, " it suf- 

 fices for me ": cf. his own text 263, 10. 



The next section has some strange misconceptions. The translator 

 begins thus : II y avail, dans cette ville, im homme de qxialite qui n^avaii 

 pense pendant toute sa vie qu^d hoire et a manger. On looking to see 

 the Coptic for un homme de qualite qui n' avail pense, we find [258, z] 



