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BRIEF NOTES
A remark on Egyptian r 'part'
It is a well-known fact, that in Egyptian the word for mouth,
r, has also the meaning 'part.' Difficulty, however, arises as soon
as an attempt is made to explain the change of meaning. Sethe,
in his brilliant monograph Von Zdhlen und Zdhlworten bei den
alien Aegyptern, Strassburg, 1916, p. 86, takes into account a
few possibilities that might have been instrumental for this
change. According to him, it may have been considered a
'mouthful,' analogous to the Hebrew yad, which was used to
express the fractions, and which as such a designator may have
been thought of as a 'handful' ; or else as 'part' of the body, like
Greek pepos, or as 'edge', 'rim' or 'side.' Apart from this use
of r 'part' in the designation of fractions, the use of r 'mouth'
in a metaphorical sense for 'chapter,' 'saying,' as a 'part' of a
literary production is very common.
In an entirely unique way I find this word in my perusal of
Erman's 'Reden, Rufe und Lieder auf Graeberbildern des Alten
Reiches' {Abh. der Preus. Akad. der Wissenschaften) , Berlin,
1919. On page 18 we read that a man calls to the butcher,
'Free me from him! this steer is mighty.' The answer, which
the butcher returns, concerns us here. He calls back : ndr sw r
mrih m r-k. Erman renders this by 'Halt ihn ordentlich mit( ?)
deinem ' But this sentence allows no other transla-
tion than: 'Hold him properly for thy part!' The use of
the preposition m particularly favors this translation. The
answer contains thus a slight rebuke to the man, who sits between
the horns of the steer and holds him down for slaughter. The
sense is thus: 'Instead of calling for my help, tend to your own
part of the work well. '
H. F. Lutz
University of Pennsylvania
Bharata's treatise on dramaturgy (Natya-sastra)
Some of the members of our Society will be interested to learn
of certain items from letters written from Poona, India, by Pro-
fessor Belvalkar. He has in hand an edition and annotated ver-
360 Brief Notes
sion of this ancient and exceedingly important treatise. The
items illustrate clearly some of the enormous advantages which
native Indianists have over us Indianists of the Occident.
He tells me that his article upon the material available for a
critical edition of this treatise (see Sanskrit Research, 1. 37-) has
brought fruitful replies from various parts of India: 1. Report
of a complete ms. of the text at Chidambaram (otherwise, Chil-
ambaram : South Arcot, Madras, a few miles south of Cuddalore) ;
2. Report of the discovery in Malabar of an almost complete ms.
of Abhinavagupta's commentary on the text; 3. Information as
to 93 fine images painted on the inner walls of a temple of the
XIII. century, illustrating the various dancing postures enumer-
ated in chapter 4, stanzas 33 to 53 of our treatise. What is more :
above each picture is a description of each posture, the descrip-
tion (in Grantha characters) agreeing word for word with those
given in our treatise, chapter 4, stanzas 99-. The pictures enable
us to understand Bharata clearly.
Charles R. Lanman
Harvard University
PERSONALIA
Dr. B. Laufer, curator of anthropology in the Field Museum
of Chicago, was elected an honorary member of the Finnish
Archaeological Society of Helsingfors on the occasion of the fif-
tieth anniversary of this Society on November 6, 1920, and a cor-
responding member of the Societe des Amis de l'Art Asiatique,
Hague, Holland. He was recently appointed also Honorary
Curator of Chinese Antiquities in the Art Institute of Chicago.
In commemoration of the labors of Prof. Friedrich Hirth,
of Columbia University, who attained the age of 75 years in April
of this year, a 'Festschrift fur Friedrich Hirth' is announced
by the Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Kultur und Kunst des fernen
Ostens (Oesterheld & Co., Berlin).
The Rev. C. H. "W. Johns, M.A., Litt.D., late Master of St.
Catharine's College, Cambridge University, and Assyriologist,
died in August.
Prof. Richard Gottheil, of Columbia University, is attached
to the University of Strasbourg for the present academic year.
Dr. Henry Schaeffer has become Professor of Old Testament
Exegesis in the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Chicago.
