,524 On the invention of the Armenian Alphabet. [No. 163. 



without vowels, the want of which rendered the existing consonants of 

 little avail or practical utility. Koreun, another cotemporary writer, 

 says, that the Danielian characters were considered insufficient to link 

 syllables together, and to form words out of them. Hence these cha- 

 racters were allowed to sink into disuse, and in their stead, the Greek, 

 Syriac and Persian alphabets were used by the Armenians of those 

 days. 



The Danielian characters were twenty-two, or, according to other 

 writers, tweny-nine in number. The invention of the seven vowels, 

 1\> \j* i b ) C* * t* * fl ' ffc is only ascribed by Asolik to 

 St. Mesrop, while another historian asserts that he invented fourteen 

 letters, of which seven were consonants, and the other seven, the 

 foregoing vowels. Vardan, who flourished in the thirteenth century, 

 says: — "St. Mesrop invented and introduced the Armenian alphabet, 

 of which twenty-two letters are known by the designation of Danie- 

 lian characters, which were, from time immemorial, extant among the 

 Armenians. But these Danielian characters had become obsolete, in 

 consequence of their being incomplete and insufficient to combine the 

 syllables of words in the copious language of Haic. The Armenians 

 were, therefore, obliged to content themselves with the use of the 

 Greek, Syriac and Persian characters. St. Mesrop succeeded, by in- 

 spiration from above, in inventing fourteen letters, of which the form 

 was seen inscribed on a stone by an invisible hand ! This sacred gift 

 he obtained on the mount Balu, as Moses had received the Divine 

 tablets on the mount Sinai ! To this day vestiges of the stone, bear- 

 ing the miraculous inscription cf the letters, are visible on that spot, 

 which is held in veneration by the Armenians." That there were 

 Armenian letters anterior to the Christian era, was ascertained beyond 

 a doubt during the reign of the Armenian king Leo, when coins 

 were discovered, bearing inscriptions commemorative of the sovereign- 

 ty of pagan Armenian kings. But these letters were both inelegant 

 and imperfect, and our modern Ezra, St. Mesrop, brought them to 

 perfection. 



The fact of the existence of Armenian letters, prior to the beginning 

 of the fifth century, is further corroborated by the testimony of fo- 

 reign writers. Philostratus, who flourished during the reign of the em- 

 peror Severus, and who enjoyed the patronage of the empress Julia, 



