"Then there is [Greek: agtinêa], that you must relate to [Greek: agti]
and [Greek: naos], _she who holds herself before the_ [Greek: naos],
the [Greek: naos] of the temple, _she who is opposite the sanctuary,_
therefore priestess. An interpretation which would enchant Girard and
Renan.

"Next we have [Greek: agtine], from [Greek: agti] and [Greek: neos],
new, which can mean two things: either _she who is the contrary of
young_, which is to say old; or _she who is the enemy of novelty_ or
_the enemy of youth_.

"There is still another sense of [Greek: gati], _in exchange for,_
which is capable of complicating all the others I have mentioned;
likewise there are four meanings for the verb [Greek: neô], which
means in turn _to go, to flow, to thread_ or _weave, to heap_. There
is more still.... And notice, please, that I have not at my
disposition on the otherwise commodious hump of this mehari, either
the great dictionary of Estienne or the lexicons of Passow, of Pape,
or of Liddel-Scott. This is only to show you, my dear friend, that
epigraphy is but a relative science, always dependent on the discovery
of a new text which contradicts the previous findings, when it is not
merely at the mercy of the humors of the epigraphists and their pet
conceptions of the universe.

"That was rather my view of it," I said, "But I must admit my
astonishment to find that, with such a sceptical opinion of the goal,
you still do not hesitate to take risks which may be quite
considerable."

Morhange smiled wanly.