288 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.- 



scribe copying from C,' and, therefore, do not prove that a and /3 were not 

 derivatives of C. But the remaiader are not of this character. "We conclude, 

 therefore, that C, a, and j8 had a common archetype, which we may call -y. 



We can now illustrate the relation between the different members of the 

 group by a diagram, iu which Greek letters indicate lost aiss. 



r " 



^ \ 



B S 



From this diagram it is clear that A is separated from -y by a greater 

 number of ascertained steps in the process of transmission than C. But we may 

 go further. For the deviations of A from j are not only more numerous than 

 those of C ; they are of a much more serious character. Xow, the scribe of 

 A was singularly careful and accurate. It seems to me impossible that he 

 could have fallen into the serious errors which disfigure his text in Pss. xxxvi 

 (admonstrans), xliv, xlv, 1, Ixxmi," if the manuscript from which he copied 

 had been free from them. But none of them was in a. Hence at least one 

 MS. must have intervened between A and a. In like manner it might be 

 argued, though with less security, that /3 was not the immediate exemplar of 

 n ; for three important errors of a (Pss. xl\'i, lxx\Tii, eiii) appear to have been 

 absent from /3. Thus the line of descent from -y to A had probably at least 

 foui- or five stages. But, on the other hand, it is fairly clear that from y to 

 C was but one stage. For the scribe of C, whatever his normal habit may 

 have been, was not in this case an accurate worker. Tet the sis readings in 

 which he certainly differs from y for the worse are not errors of the most 

 serious kind, and they are quite in his manner. One consists of the omission of 

 a couple of letters (Ivii : den for desen) ; two of the omission of a word (I xxx i i ) 

 or two words (Ixxx^'i) ; one of ihe repetition of four letters (xciii : deiv.) — all 

 characteristic sMps which have many parallels iu the text of the psalms ; and 

 one of the substitution of one word for another not very unlike it in 

 appearance (Ixxxiii^.' These are such mistakes as one might expect the scribe 

 of (J to make : we should not have been surprised if he had made more of 

 the same kind. We may be fairly confident, therefore, that 7 was his 

 immediate exemplar. 



' Pss. Ixxxii, xciii, and perhaps Ivii. 



- 1 confine myself here to the 6C psalm-hcadings in which comparison with C is 

 possible. 



^ Ps. xlviii would supply a more serious error if C differed in it from 7 ; but it is not 

 probable that 7 agreed with B. 



