In the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1915, p. 22, Mr. Minns published two Greek documents of the Parthian period acquired by Dr. Sa'id Khan from Avroman in Kurdistan, together with the facsimile of a third, not in Greek, which was found at the same place. As the writing of this third document (on parchment) seemed to be Aramaic in character, he very kindly sent me a photograph of it at the time, and has since given me additional information. The following note represents mainly what I then made out of the text, but it has lain in a drawer ever since because the results seemed hardly worth publishing.

The vicissitudes of a Jewish secretary, whom his master, an Emir in Damascus, compelled to adopt Islām and to accompany him on his pilgrimage to Medinah and Mekkah, are described in a number of skilfully wrought Hebrew poems printed here for the first time. They are extant in two manuscripts, Oxford MS. Heb. f. 3 and 4 (see Neubauer-Cowley's Catalogue of Hebrew MSS. at the Bodleian, vol. ii, Nos. 27262–4 and 2766). They are designated as Ḳaraite hymns (so on the backs of the binding), but have really no connexion whatever with this sect. The handwriting seems to be of the fourteenth century, but furnishes no conclusive evidence.

In the March issue of the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 1911, I published a paper entitled “Enlil and Ninlil, the Older Bel and Beltis”, one of a series of papers dealing with the gods of Babylonia from unnoticed or unusual points of view. In this contribution to the subject of Babylonian mythology appears, among other things, a transcription and translation of a British Museum tablet dealing with these deities as the “youthful hero and handmaid” of the Babylonian city of Niffur (Niffer, also, it is said, pronounced Noufar), identified by the Hebrews of Rabbinical times with the Calneh of the 10th chapter of Genesis.

The parchment fragment reproduced on Plate I was acquired some twenty years since by the British Museum, where it is numbered Or. 6201 C (1). It lay among a large quantity of Coptic papyrus and parchment MSS., the dialect, scripts, and incidental names of which confirm the seller's statement that all were bought together at Ashmunain. The ages of these manuscripts vary greatly; some of the parchment uncials should belong to the 5th or 6th century, others and some of the papyri to the 9th or 10th. The large majority of the latter are, however, of the 7th or 8th century. Obviously, from such facts none but the vaguest conclusions can be drawn.

Among the MSS. which came into the possession of the library of Jews' College from the collection of the late Rev. Dr. A. Löwy there is one bearing the superscription “Geez and Falasha MS. brought [and] presented to A. L¨wy from Dr. Athé, traveller in Abyssinia”. To judge from the paper the MS. is of comparatively recent date, probably late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It consists of thirty leaves, 6½ by 4½ inches, with between 22 and 32 lines on each page. On the first two pages is to be found a number of pencil notes in German, probably by either of the late owners.