Foucault's pendulum - Umberto Eco [17]
But he might have played with the Italian transcription, which contained two vowels. With six letters—lahveh—he had seven hundred and twenty permutations at his disposal. The repetitions didn’t count, because Diotallevi had said that the two hes must be taken as two different letters. Belbo could have chosen, say, the thirty-sixth or the hundred and twentieth.
I had arrived at Belbo’s at about eleven; it was now one. I would have to write a program for anagrams of six letters, and the best way to do that was to modify the program I already had written for four.
I needed some fresh air. I went out, bought myself some food, another bottle of whiskey.
I came back, left the sandwiches in a corner, and started on the whiskey as I inserted the Basic disk and went to work. I made the usual mistakes, and the debugging took me a good half hour, but by two-thirty the program was functional and the seven hundred and twenty names of God were running down the screen.
iahueh
iahuhe
iahtuh
iahehu
iahhve
iahhev
iauheh
iauhhe
iauehh
iauehh
iauhhe
iauhih
iaehuh
iaehhv
iaeuhh
iaeuhh
iaehhu
iaehuh
iahhu*
iahhev
lahuhe
iahueh
iahehv
iaheuh
ihaueh
ihauhe
ihaeuh
ihaehu
ihahue
ihahcu
i hwaeh
ihuahe
ihueah
ihueha
ihuhae
ihuhea
iheauh
iheahv
iheuah
iheuha
Ihehau
ihehva
ihhaue
ihhaev
ihhuae
ihhuea
ihheau
ihheua
iuaheh
iuahhe
iuaehh
iuaehh
iuahhe
i uahth
iuhaeh
i uhahe
iuehah
iuehha
iuhahe
iuhaeh
i uhhae
iuhhea
iuheah
iuheha
itahuh
i eahhu
ieavhh
ieauhh
ieahhv
ieahuh
iehauh
iehahu
iehuah
iehuha
iehhau
iehhua
itvahh
ieuahh
ievhah
ieuhha
iiuhah
ieuhha
iehahu
iehauh
iehhau
iehhva
iehwah
iehMha
lhahue
ihaheu
ihauhe
ihaueh
ihaehv
ihaeuh
ihhaue
i hhaeu
ihhuae
ihhuea
ihheau
ihheua
ihuahe
ihuaeh
ihuhae
ihuhea
ihueah
ihueha
iheahu
iheauh
ihehau
ihehua
iheuah
iheuha
aihueh
ai huhe
ai heuh
aihihu
ai hhue
aihheu
ai uheh
ai uhhe
aiuehh
aiuehh
aiuhhe
aiuh«h
aiehuh
aiehhv
aieuhh
aieuhh
ai ehhu
ai ehuh
aihhue
aihheu
aih-uhe
aihueh
ai hehu
aiheuh
ahiueh
ahiuhe
ahieuh
ahiehu
ahihue
ah i hew
ahuieh
ahu i he
ahueih
ahuehi
ahuh ie
ahvhei
ahe i uh
aheihu
ahe u i h
aheuhi
aheh i u
ahehui
ahhii/B
ahhieu
ahhuie
ahhye i
ahhei v
ahheu i
auiheh
aui hhe
auiehh
auiehh
au ihhe
auiheh
auh i eh
auhihe
auheih
auhehi
auhhie
auhhei
aueihh
auei hh
aueh ih
auehh i
auehih
auehhi
auhihe
avhieh
auhhie
aMhhei
auhe ih
auhehi
aeihuh
aeihhu
aeiuhh
aeiuhh
aeihhu
aeihuh
aehiuh
aeh i hu
aehuih
aehuhi
aehhiu
avhhu i
aeu i hh
aeuihh
aeuh i h
aeuhhi
aeuhih
a>uhhi
aehihu
aehi uh
aehhiu
aehhui
aehuih
aehuh i
ahihue
ahiheu
ahiuhe
ahiueh
ahiehu
ah iewh
ahhiue
ahhieu
ahhuie
ahhuei
ahheiu
ahheu i
ahu i he
ahy ieh
ahuhie
ahuhe i
ahue i h
ahuehi
ahe i hu
aheiuh
aheh i u
ahehui
ahevih
aheuhi
I took the pages from the printer without separating them, as if I were consulting the scroll of the Torah. I tried name number thirty-six. And drew a blank. A last sip of whiskey, then with hesitant fingers I tried name number one hundred and twenty. Nothing.
I wanted to die. Yet I felt that by now I was Jacopo Belbo, that he had surely thought as I was thinking. So I must have made some mistake, a stupid, trivial mistake. I was getting closer. Had Belbo, for some reason that escaped me, perhaps counted from the end of the list?
Casaubon, you fool, I said to myself. Of course he started from the end. That is, he counted from right to left. Belbo had fed the computer the name of God transliterated into Latin letters, including the vowels, but the word was Hebrew, so he had written it from right to left. The input hadn’t been IAHVEH, but HEVHAI. The order of the permutations had to be inverted.
I counted from the end and tried both names again.
Nothing.
This was all wrong. I was clinging stubbornly to an elegant but false hypothesis. It happens to the best scientists.
No, not the best scientists. To everyone. Only