discovered. The agent employed by him in their purchase was an Arab
"who would steal his mother-in-law for a few piastres," and who would
probably be even less scrupulous about a few blackened slips of ancient
or modern sheepskin. The value placed by Mr. Shapira on the fragments
is, however, a cool million sterling, and at this price they are offered
to the British Museum, where they have been temporarily deposited for
examination.

Dr. Ginsburg, the well-known Semitic scholar--whose receipt of a grant
of L500 from the Prime Minister toward the production of his important
work on the "Massorah" we announced with much satisfaction yesterday--is
now busily engaged in deciphering the contents of the fragments and
examining their genuineness. On this latter question we refrain from
pronouncing an opinion. When Dr. Ginsburg's report appears, we shall be
able to judge whether these extraordinary fragments are really 2,500
years old, or have been compiled within the last few years.

No complete account of the contents of the fragments can yet be given.
To decipher them is a work of time and of infinite patience and skill,
as will readily be inferred from the account we have given above of the
appearance and condition of the slips. But enough has been deciphered to
show that the text employed in them exhibits discrepancies of the most
remarkable and important character as compared with that of the received
version of the Mosaic books.

In the first verse of the ninth chapter of Deuteronomy, where the
received version reads, "Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in
to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself," the corresponding
passage of the fragments substitutes the plural for the singular, "Ye"
for '"Thou," while for "_g'dolim_," the word translated "greater," it