viii INTRODUCTION and coincidences respectively occur in the presentation of the same facts by a number of documents which for the most part are either copied one from the other or traceable to a single source. One not only learns something of the accuracy or inaccuracy of the particular facts stated—a small matter as a rule—but is also enabled to gauge more confidently the degree of reliability which is likely to attach to native manuscripts in general when circumstances do not admit of the application of the comparative test.

H. A. M.

5 October, 1921