Strange to say it results in the following monstrous figment:--that the fruit of Herod's incestuous connexion with Herodias had been a daughter, who was also named Herodias; and that she,--the King's own daughter,--was the immodest one[48] who came in and danced before him, 'his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee,' as they sat at the birthday banquet. Probability, natural feeling, the obvious requirements of the narrative, History itself--, for Josephus expressly informs us that 'Salome,' not 'Herodias,' was the name of Herodias' daughter[49],--all reclaim loudly against such a perversion of the truth. But what ought to be in itself conclusive, what in fact settles the question, is the testimony of the MSS.,--of which only seven ([Symbol: Aleph]BDL[Symbol: Delta] with two cursive copies) can be found to exhibit this strange mistake. Accordingly the reading [Greek: AUTOU] is rejected by Griesbach, Lachmann, Tregelles, Tischendorf and Alford. It has nevertheless found favour with Dr. Hort; and it has even been thrust into the margin of the revised Text of our Authorized Version, as a reading having some probability. This is indeed an instructive instance of the effect of accidental errors--another proof that [Symbol: Aleph]BDL cannot be trusted. Sufficiently obvious are the steps whereby the present erroneous reading was brought to perfection. The immediate proximity in MSS. of the selfsame combination of letters is observed invariably to result in a various reading. [Greek: AUTESTES] was safe to part with its second [Greek: TES] on the first opportunity, and the definitive article ([Greek: tes]) once lost, the substitution of [Greek: AUTOU] for [Greek: AUTES] is just such a mistake as a copyist with ill-directed intelligence would be sure to fall into if he were bestowing sufficient attention on the subject to be aware that the person spoken of in verses 20 and 21 is Herod the King. [This recurrence of identical or similar syllables near together was a frequent source of error. Copying has always a tendency to become mechanical: and when the mind of the copyist sank to sleep in his monotonous toil, as well as if it became too active, the sacred Text suffered more or less, and so even a trifling mistake might be the seed of serious depravation.] Sec. 5. Another interesting and instructive instance of error originating in sheer accident, is supplied by the reading in certain MSS. of St. Mark viii. 1. That the Evangelist wrote [Greek: pampollou ochlou] 'the multitude being very great,' is certain. This is the reading of all the uncials but eight, of all the cursives but fifteen. But instead of this, it has been proposed that we should read, 'when there was again a great multitude,' the plain fact being that some ancient scribe mistook, as he easily might, the less usual compound word for what was to himself a far more familiar expression: i.e. he mistook [Greek: PAMPOLLOU] for [Greek: PALIN POLLOU].