36 The Rev. J. H. Todd on an Ancient Irish Missal. 



desired to conceal or mask a mystery. Thus, Mabillon notices a MS. which 

 he found at St. Gall, and which was, most probably, of Irish handwriting, as he 

 speaks of its containing certain "barbara vocabula," which had baffled all 

 attempts at interpretation. In this MS. there is an Epistle " Hi-abani Archi- 

 episcopi ad Heribaldum Alcedronensis ecclesise Episcopum," in which the 

 following passage occurs: — 



"Quod autem interrogasti, utrum AY9CYPAKYH postquam consumitur 

 et in secessum emittitur more aliorum ciborum iterum redeat in naturam pris- 

 tinam quam habuerat, antequam in altari consecraretur:" — 



Here the word written in Greek characters, read from right to left, is 

 HYKAPYCGYA, or Eucharistia, which the writer, for an obvious reason, 

 desired, in the connexion in which it stands, to write in an occult form. 



The extract proceeds: — 



" Superflua est hujusmodi quEestio cum ipse Salvator dixerit in Evan- 

 gelic: Omne quod intrat in os, in ventrem vadit, et in secessum emittitur. 

 CAKPAMHN0Y ergo siroproc et siniugnas iud. ex rebus visibilibus et 

 corporalibus conficitur: sed invisibilem tam corporis quam animEe efficit 

 sanctificationem ." 



In this passage the word in Greek characters is to be read from left to 

 right, Saceamentum; but the words following in Eoman characters are to be 

 read from right to left, so that the meaning is " Sacramentum corporis et san- 

 guinis dni [i. e. Domini]." 



The remainder of this extract is as follows: — 



" Qua; est enim ratio, ut hoc quod stomacho digeritur, et in secessum emit- 

 titur, iterum in statum pristinum redeat, cum nullus hoc unquam fieri assuerit ? 

 Nam quidam nuper de ipso Sacramento corporis et sanguinis Domini non rite 

 sentientes dixerimt, hoc ipsum esse corpus et sanguinem Domini quod de 

 Maria Virgine natum est, et resurrexit de sepulcro. Cui errori, quantum 

 potuimus, ad Eigilum Abbatem scribentes de eroproc ospi quod vere creden- 

 dimi sit aperuimus." 



Here the words " eroproc ospi" are to be read from right to left, corpore 



ipso* 



In the Ogham writing this additional mode of rendering it occult, by writ- 

 • See Mabillon, Vetei-a Analecta (Ed. nov.), Paris, 1723. Fol. p. 17. 



