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193
found out she said he had better look for a nohalia for himself. In the latter case we would have to do with the abstract noun, which evidently is used in a metaphorical, or ad hoc, sense here. As such it can have several meanings (note in this connection Omar. navhält, quoted by Turner, CDIAL 7004, which means 'first fruit of the season' as well as 'prime of youth'). The first sentence may, for instance, contain a reference to the man's old age or even impotence. Hopefully for him the humour is of a milder kind, navaphalika referring to 'children'. The woman says then that her husband does better to invest his energies in her than in the kur abaka-tree.
In the second line I have adopted tuha hasai suhaa of Ma, Tp and S (see also Ę: tava hasati subhaga). The order in Bh, R, K and y, tuha suhaa, with tuha immediately preceding the vocative suhaa, appears more logical, which, however, at the same time serves as an argument to consider it as secondary. Note in this connection eya tu (for khu) hasai tuha suhaa in Bh, which still contains traces of the reading of Ma, Tp and S.
In some of the other cases where such a broken-up sentence is found (note also tuha (c)...jaa (d) here) it appears to be due to the particuIar circumstances under which the words are spoken (see the note to *20). The form of the sentence in this Gāthā might then be explained by assuming that the messenger, who is laughing about the 'joke' made by the wife, is incapable of formulating a coherent sentence.
For valia turned (as ide)' Ma reads vili(y)a. Evidently this is a scribal error or a reading mistake made by the copyist of the transcript Ma. The meaning of vilia 'disappeared' (see 53 paccakkhadifthavilia 'clearly disappeared') hardly makes sense here.
7( 7 Ma, 8 Tp; 6 Bh, 7 R; K, V, B, Y, P, G, 5; 238 T; 40 S) Missing in W.
tāvijjanti asoeki sahai ko vi kassa vi
hi ladahavilaão daiavirahammi pāapahār aṁ pahuppato.
In Ma lacuna upto pāapahārań. tāvijjintiñ K -- asohim Tp; asochin K
--
ledaha Tp; land aha K
--
