Thursday, October 21, 2010

Mane, Tekel, Peres

This passage about a code written in invisible ink refers to mysterious words from the Book of Daniel:
Slowly, as if an invisible hand were writing 'Mane, Tekel, Peres,' I saw some marks emerge one by one on the white side of the sheet as William moved the the lamp, and as the smoke that rose from the top of the flame blackened the recto; the marks did not resemble those of any alphabet, except that of necromancers. —Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
Mane, Tekel, Peres can be translated as "numbered; reckoned up; carried away."

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