Unnumbered pageScan 91 of 97
Continued from scan 90
… analogous to that of the Syriac rite of the blessing of the waters, "Who didst stablish the dispensation (or government) [handwritten: 620] of created things which existed in all generations, and the food which should support the life of species of divers kinds"
Although the four animals in the bath are in all probability eating or about to eat, yet the rabbit in the middle stands out from the birds on either side because of the broader, more distinctive frame in which he is placed. It is like part of the border around Ζωπηία. We are probably not wrong then in applying a special signigance x to the rabbit above that of the birds. There are two similar interpretations of the rabbit, one in the Physiologus proper and the other in the Pseudo-Basil. Both are, Ixxx think, applicable to the rabbit in the bath. In the Physiologus proper, the description is as follows: [handwritten: Ἐστι γὰρ ὁ λαγωὸς Ϭρομεύς]
Handwritten: Καὶ πτήγει, καὶ ὅταν ἐκφεύγῃ τὸν κυνηγόν, ἐαν
Handwritten: ὁρνίθῃς πῦρας τοὺς ὁρνίθους ἀγκέναι, ποτιοῦσιν οἱ
Handwritten: κύνες ἀνα τοῦ κυνηγοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἰσχύουσι
Handwritten: κυνηγῆσαι αὐτὸν, εἰ δὲ κατὰ ῥάδιας ὁρνίθῃ,
Handwritten: Ταχέως κυνηγᾶται.
Handwritten: Καὶ δὲ οὖν, ὁπτὲ ἀνδρωπε, ἐαν ὁρνίῃς ἐαν ὁρνίθα. ἴρα τοὺς
Handwritten: τὰ ἄνω [ὄρη, ἅπερ καὶ ὁ Δαυὶδ ἐλεγεν· ἔρα τοὺς
[handwritten: ὀφθαλμούς μου εἰς τὰ ὄρη ὅθεν ἥξει ὁ βοηθός μου], τοῦτέστιν [εἰς] τὰς ἀρέτας καὶ ἐνδέους πολιτείας,
Handwritten: κοπούσιν αἱ ἑναντίαι δυνάμεις ἀπὸ τοῦ κυνηγοῦ
65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain