made his Collation; but as there was no prospect of their being of any use, Whitney has not given them in this work.
One of Roth's first tasks, after the arrival of the birch-bark original, was doubtless to find the place therein corresponding to the beginning of each leaf of his Kashmirian nāgarī transcript. These places he has indicated by writing over against them on the side margin of the bark leaf the number of the leaf (with a or b) of that transcript.
This was most fortunate; for the added numbers, in Roth's familiar handwriting, although sometimes faint or covered up by a patch used in repairing the edges of the bark leaf, are for the most part entirely legible in the facsimile: and it has given me much pleasure during the last few days (to-day is April 21, 1904) to assure myself of the fact which I had previously surmised, that these pencilled numbers afford us an exceedingly useful, albeit roundabout, means of finding the place of any Kashmirian parallel in the facsimile,—useful at least until they are superseded by the hoped-for edition of an accurate transliteration of the facsimile with marginal references to the Vulgate. Whitney's pencilled reference-numbers were arranged by Dr. Ryder in the form of a table, which I have recast and given below: see pages 1013 ff.
What ought an "edition" of the Kashmirian text to be?—This question was privately discussed by Whitney and Roth in the letters[1] exchanged between them in 1893. Whitney hoped that all that was peculiar to the Kashmirian text might be printed in transliteration in the Kashmirian order and interspersed with references to the Vulgate parallels of the remainder, also in the Kashmirian order, the whole to form an appendix
- ↑ Under date of Feb. 14, Whitney suggests to Roth: "Why not give a Pāipp. text, as an appendix to our volume ["our volume" means the present work], noting in their order the parallel passages by reference only, and writing out in full, interspersed with the former, the remainder?"—Roth makes answer, March 14: "Ich will nur wünschen, dass Ihre Gesundheit so lange Stand halte, um das Werk zu Ende zu führen. Weil das aber als ein glücklicher Fall zu betrachten ist, nicht als eine sichere Voraussicht, so wünschte ich alle Erschwerungen, also auch die Frage von einer Publikation der Paippal. Rec. gänzlich beseitigt zu sehen."—Whitney, June 16, expresses the hope that Roth may reconsider the matter, 1. because "a text of such primary importance will and must be published, in spite of its textual condition," and 2. because "there will, so far as I can see, no other opportunity present itself of producing it so modestly and unpretendingly, or in a method adapted to its imperfect state: the occasion is an ideal one."—Roth answers, July 2: "Mein lieber Freund, das ist kein erfreulicher Bericht, welchen Ihr Brief vom 16. Juni über Ihre Erlebnisse erstattet. Und ich sehe namentlich daraus, dass Sie die Geduld sich erworben haben, die durch Uebung im Leiden kommt....In einer Ausgabe der Pāipp. müsste das ganze gedruckt werden, von A bis Z....Wie wird sich das Kauderwelsch gedruckt ausnehmen? ganze Zeilen so unsicher, dass man nicht einmal die Wörter trennen kann....Daran bessern, was ja das einzige Verdienst wäre, dürfte man nicht....Für Sie wird die einzige angemessene Sorge in diesem Augenblick sein, wieder gesund zu werden, alsdanu die zweite, den Atharvan ans Licht zu bringen."—Whitney writes, Aug. 25: "I give up with reluctance the hope of the further inclusion of Pāipp. in our edition; but I will not bother you further with remonstrances or suggestions."
