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THE TREASURE OF ABBOT THOMAS
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the more exact localizing of them had been a puzzle. They represented—will you be surprised to hear it?—Job Patriarcha, Johannes Evangelista, Zacharias Propheta, and each of them held a book or scroll, inscribed with a sentence from his writings. These, as a matter of course, the antiquary had noted, and had been struck by the curious way in which they differed from any text of the Vulgate that he had been able to examine. Thus the scroll in Job's hand was inscribed: 'Auro est locus in quo absconditur' (for 'conflatur')[1]; on the book of John was: 'Habent in vestimentis suis scripturam quam nemo novit'[2] (for 'in vestimento scriptum,' the following words being taken from another verse); and Zacharias had: 'Super lapidem unum septem oculi sunt'[3] (which alone of the three presents an unaltered text).

A sad perplexity it had been to our investi-

  1. There is a place for gold where it is hidden.
  2. They have on their raiment a writing which no man knoweth.
  3. Upon one stone are seven eyes.