Page:Atharva-Veda samhita.djvu/90

lxxxii some extent to control the errors of the copy. Occasional suspicions of error in the Collation were not unnatural, and they led Whitney to ask Roth to reexamine the manuscript upon certain doubtful points. Whitney's questions extend over books i. to v., and others were noted, but never sent. Roth's answers form a valuable supplement to his Collation, and end in April, 1894.

Roth's autograph nāgarī transcript (Dec. 1884).—The end of the Collation which Roth made for Whitney was reached, as just stated, June 25, 1884. After the following summer vacation. Roth made a new transcript from the birch-bark, as appears from his letter to Whitney, dated Jan. 11, 1893: "Von Pāippalāda habe ich devanāgarī Abschrift, aber nicht vollständig. Die mit Vulgata gleichlautenden Verse, die nur durch Fehler Eckel erregen, habe ich bios citiert, z.B. die vielen aus RV., nehme mir aber doch vielleicht noch die Mühe, sie nachzutragen. Ich habe an der Abschrift unermüdlich vom 19. Sept. bis 28. Dez. 1884 geschrieben und diese Leistung als eine ungewöhnliche betrachtet." This transcript is doubtless far more accurate than the one used for the Collation. The badness of the latter and the fragility of the birch-bark original were doubtless the reasons that determined Roth to make his autograph nāgarī transcript: see p. lxxxv, top.

The facsimile of the Tübingen birch-bark manuscript (1901).—A magnificent facsimile of the birch-bark manuscript has now been published by the care and enterprise of Bloomfield and Garbe. The technical perfection of the work is such as to show with marvellous clearness not only every stroke of the writing and every correction, but even the most delicate veinings of the bark itself, with its injuries and patches. Even if other things were equal, the facsimile is much better than the original, inasmuch as a copy of each one of 544 exquisitely clear and beautiful chromophotographic plates, all conveniently bound and easy to handle and not easily injured and accessible in many public and private libraries throughout the world, is much more serviceable than the unique original,