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CHAPTER 111
BOWER MANUSCRIPT.
xxi
as a rule, in the middle of the.margin, but in folios 25, 31, 32 it appears in the top of the margin, facing the third or fourth line of the text; and it must have occupied the same position on folios 1, 11, 27, where the top of the margin is mutilated,52
Part III, again, is a mere fragment. Its commencement is marked, as usual, by the sacred symbol of ôi on the obverse of the first leaf; but it breaks off abruptly on the obverse of the fourth leaf. But the noteworthy circumstance is that it breaks off, not at the bottom, but in the middle of that side of the leaf. This circumstance certainly suggests that the original scribe left off writing at that point, and never completed his work. Subsequently, the manuscript came into the possession of the writer - Part IV, who commenced the writing of that Part on what was then the blank reverse of the fourth folio of Part III. Ultimately the whole manuscript, that is, the unfinished Part III and the subsequently added Part IV, came into the possession of a third person, viz., the writer of Parts V and VII, who proceeded to write a remark of his own on the space left blank by the original writer on the lower portion of the obverse side of the fourth folio of Part III (Plate XXXVIII). This curious case will be the subject of further consideration with additional details in Chapter III (p. xxxv), where it will be shown that the writer of Part III must have written also Parts I and II, In connection with this latter circumstance the query suggests itself whether Parts I and II, no less than Part III, might not have been incomplete at the time when Part III came into the possession of the writer of Parts V-VII; that is to say, that already at that time Parts I and II extended no further than they do at present. It might be surmised that the seribe who made the copies of Parts I-III died before he had finished his task, and that his unfinished copies passed on, in turn, to the writers, or owners, of Part IV and Parts V and VII. There is nothing in the Parts concerned to decide one way or the other about this hypothesis, but in any case the hypothesis has no concern whatever with the losses of fols, 21, 22 and 30 of Part II. or the fractures (e. g., of fols, 16 and 17) and exfoliations which have been referred to. For injuries of an exactly similar kind are observable in every one of the Parts of the Bower Manuscript, with the exception of Part VI which is written on birch-bark of a superior and durable quality. All these injuries occurred at a date subsequent to the hypothetical transmission of Part I and II to its later owners. The second of the four folios of Part III is the only one which bears pagination. In the others the margin is defcctive.
Of Parts IV and V, which are two tracts on divination, the former is practically complete, 63 while the latter secms to be considerably defective (see Chapter VIII). Neither of them shows any pagination. As they are very small manuscripts, of five (strictly four and a half) and six folios respectively, it is possible that they never had any; but as the margins are more or less defective, the numbers may be lost; and this alternative seems more probable. The obverse of the first leaf of Part V is blank, just as in the case of Part I. Its reverse is inscribed only with the introduction to the treatise, which does not cover the whole of its surface. It bears only five lines, and there is a blank space left, sufficient for, at least, one additional line: all the other leaves have six or seven lines to the page.
Part VI, which is a treatise on a charm against snake bite, is complete. Being written on a superior quality of birch-bark, it is the best preserved portion of the Bower Manuscript. The left-hand margins of all its four folios are in good condition, and bear the pagination,
52 The numbers marked on the reverses of folios 17, 21 and 33 are not original, but were inscribed by myself for guidance.
$ On Part IV see my article in the Journal, A. S. B., 1892, p. 129.
