Note 13 — THE FOURTH PAPYRUS

Several words in these documents are not to be found in my lexicons. On pronouncing them aloud, however, at a time when they worried me dreadfully, I discovered that they were mere phonetic traliterations, e.g. ΡΕΒΟΛΒΕΡ is evidently “revolver,” and I take ΟΥΑΔΤϹ for “watch.” Though, why Mr. Crabbe could not have continued to call these conveniences a “death-spitter” or a “fire-ball-spitter” and a “time-teller,” respectively, is something of a mystery to me. Perhaps we shall be safe in assuming that his attention, to the form of matter which he dictated, varied in intensity from time to time. It does so with the best of us. Nec semper tendet arcum Apollo. I surmise that Mr. C.’s “death-parcels” were cartridges, and (from another indication in the papyri) it may be asserted that they were tipped with an article or convenience called a “dumdum.” A. H.