PREFACE. XXXIX
fast us into others yet more painful. And while thon wast . aying for me, straightway the Lord commanded those WW 10 were scourging me, and they took out the iron gag y aich they had put in my month and set me free. and I cme to thee. Behold now | have told thee what I have siftered. Pray for me, O my master and father, that a isle rest may be given to me, and that they may not cast re into that place again.” My father said, “The Lord is yerciful, and He will show mercy unto thee, Lie down and
jeep until the general resurrection im which every one siall arise, and thou also shalt arise with them.”
_ In the winter of 1885 I wrote to Prof. Ignazio Guidi of Rome asking him if it would be possible to obtain a opy of the Sahidic fragment of the Martyrdom of Saint George preserved in the Vatican. He mentioned my wish ito Prof. Henri Hyvernat, Professor of Assyriology and ‘ igyptology in Rome, who immediately sent to me his copy f the fragment which he had made some time before. He Jave me permission to publish it, and most kindly offered 6 collate the ‘proofs’ with the origmal. As soon as Prof. Hyvernat knew that Iwas printing the martyrdom and miracles of Samt George from the Bodleian manuscript, he sent to me, unasked, his copy of the encomium of Theo- dotus, Bishop of Ancyra, upon Saint George, and promised that if I printed it he would collate the proofs with the manuscript. This offer I gladly accepted, and not only I, but all lovers of Coptic literature, and all who are interested
1 Amélineau, Ktude sur le Christianisme en Egypte, pp. 147—150,
