The new game which Lucafer wants to teach Neymes, is differently described in the two poems, there being no mention made in the Ashmol. MS. (ll. 2231 «et seq.») of the thread, needle, and coal, as spoken of in ll. 1998–2000 of the «Sowdan». [p-xxviii] In the «Sowdan», l. 2507, Laban, being engaged with his gods, seizes the image of Mahound and smashes it. This incident is omitted in «Syr Ferumbras» (ll. 3345). In the Ashmole MS., ll. 5760 «et seq.», Ferumbras tries to persuade his father to become a Christian, whilst Floripas urges Charles not to delay in putting him to death. In the «Sowdan», l. 3156 «et seq.», there is no mention of either of them interfering either for or against their father. Ashm. MS., ll. 130 «et seq.», differs greatly from the corresponding passage in the «Sowdan» (ll. 1647 «et seq.»). In the latter poem the knights are pulled up from their dungeon with a rope, whilst in the former they have their fetters taken off by means of a sledge-hammer, anvil, and tongs, &c. In the «Sowdan», l. 3044, Richard of Normandy is left back as a governor of Mantrible; in the Ashmole version, l. 4881 «et seq.», Raoul and Howel are ordered to keep that place, whereas Richard accompanies Charlemagne (cf. l. 5499). In the Ashm. MS., l. 5209, Neymes sees first Charles coming with his host; in the «Sowdan», l. 3083, it is Floripas who first discovers the banner of France. The prayer which Charlemagne, seeing Oliver in distress, addressed to Christ, in the «Sowdan», l. 1304 «et seq.», is not mentioned in the Ashm. version. The account of the duel between Oliver and Ferumbras differs considerably in the two versions. In the Ashmolean MS., l. 580, the incident of Oliver assisting Ferumbras to arm (cf. «Sowdan», 1158) is omitted, and it is not Oliver (as in the «Sowdan», l. 1270) who is disarmed, but Ferumbras, whom his adversary offers to accept his own sword back (Ashm. MS., l. 680). In the Ashmolean version, l. 102, Ferumbras offers to fight at once with twelve of Charles’s knights; in the corresponding passage of the «Sowdan», l. 1067, he challenges only six. In the «Sowdan», l. 1512 «et seq.», Floripas advises her father not to slay the captive peers, but to detain them as hostages that might be exchanged for Ferumbras. In the Ashm. MS., l. 1178, it is not Floripas, but Lamasour, who gives that advice to the amirant. [p-xxix]