He lays
it down that then pagan inhabitants of the island, desirous of sharing
in the benefits of Christianity which had already reached the mainland
but left untouched their lonely rock, sent a missive to the bishop
containing the two words DO DEKANUS: give us a deacon! The grammar is
at fault, he explains, because of their rudimentary knowledge of the
Latin tongue; they had only learnt, hitherto, the first person singular
and the nominative case--so he says; and then proceeds to demonstrate,
with unanswerable arguments, that Greek was the spoken language of
Nepenthe at this period. Several scholars have been swayed by his
specious logic to abandon the older and sounder interpretation. There
are yet other conjectures about the word Dodekanus, all more or less
fanciful. . . .
If the Crotalophoboi had not devoured the missionary Dodekanus, we
should assuredly never have heard of Monsignor Perrelli, the learned
and genial historian of Nepenthe. It was that story, he expressly tells
us, which inflamed him, a mere visitor to the place, with a desire to
know more about the island.
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