You misrepresented the structure of the message; there is a layer of encapsulation that you didn't mention. That's the cause of your confusion.
The structure of that message is: MESSAGE/RFC822 (message id [EMAIL PROTECTED]) 1 MESSAGE/RFC822 (message id [EMAIL PROTECTED]) 1.1 MESSAGE/RFC822 (message id [EMAIL PROTECTED]) MULTIPART/MIXED 1.1.1 TEXT/PLAIN;NAME=test1.txt 1.1.2 TEXT/PLAIN;NAME=test2.txt That is, there is a multipart message, encapsulated within a single part message, encapsulated within a single part message. [] entire [EMAIL PROTECTED] [HEADER] header of [EMAIL PROTECTED] [TEXT] text of [EMAIL PROTECTED] (single part) [1] entire [EMAIL PROTECTED], same as [TEXT] [1.HEADER] header of [EMAIL PROTECTED] [1.TEXT] text of [EMAIL PROTECTED] (single part) [1.1] entire [EMAIL PROTECTED], same as [1.TEXT] [1.1.HEADER] header of [EMAIL PROTECTED] [1.1.TEXT] text of [EMAIL PROTECTED] (multipart) [1.1.1] test1.txt part of [EMAIL PROTECTED] [1.1.2] test2.txt part of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Now, let's suppose that the first part of [EMAIL PROTECTED] was itself a (nested) multipart with two parts, that is: MESSAGE/RFC822 (message id [EMAIL PROTECTED]) 1 MESSAGE/RFC822 (message id [EMAIL PROTECTED]) 1.1 MESSAGE/RFC822 (message id [EMAIL PROTECTED]) MULTIPART/MIXED MULTIPART/MIXED 1.1.1.1 TEXT/PLAIN;NAME=testa.txt 1.1.1.2 TEXT/PLAIN;NAME=testb.txt 1.1.2 TEXT/PLAIN;NAME=test2.txt We would then have: [] entire [EMAIL PROTECTED] [HEADER] header of [EMAIL PROTECTED] [TEXT] text of [EMAIL PROTECTED] (single part) [1] entire [EMAIL PROTECTED], same as [TEXT] [1.HEADER] header of [EMAIL PROTECTED] [1.TEXT] text of [EMAIL PROTECTED] (single part) [1.1] entire [EMAIL PROTECTED], same as [1.TEXT] [1.1.HEADER] header of [EMAIL PROTECTED] [1.1.TEXT] text of [EMAIL PROTECTED] (multipart) [1.1.1] first part of [EMAIL PROTECTED] (multipart) [1.1.1.1] testa.txt part of nested multipart [1.1.1.2] testb.txt part of nested multipart [1.1.2] test2.txt part of [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum.