My dear Smyly,
I was very sorry to
hear you were feeling overworked
though hardly surprised, as I feared
we took it out of you too much
in the summer. Of course we have
a reserve of fresh air to draw upon,¹
but it is very different with you .
You had certainly much better take
a good holiday this Xmas and not

worry about the infernal conundrums
such as land ἐν ἐπιστάσει. It would
have been nice to have had another
talk, but we must do the best
we can. There will still be
a loophole, for the introduction
to 60² has been thrown overboard,
i.e. put into an appendix³ to
be written after our return (early in
April I hope). Perhaps, if the time
suits you will be able to pay
us a visit in April or we might
even come to Dublin; but it will
be a frightful scurry when we come

back, as I have now three⁴
appendices to do and the index
will be a lively gjob for H.
— and we have contracted to
bring out Oxyrhynchus III by
the end of 1902.
An Italian called Salluzzi has
sent me a paper on prices in the
Ptolemaic period which is useful
and Svoronos has been plunging
on Ptolemaic coins⁵
De Ricci turned up here yesterday.
His last scheme is a corpus of
Latin papyri, which has more sense

then another corpus of ostraca.
But he is quite mad.
Love to Mahaffy.