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but in Roman characters ; and these additional signs were to 
be employed for tbe expression of vocal sounds which the 
abecedarium could not supply. Had books of the period been 
preserved, doubtless we should have had examples in abund- 
ance of what we observe in our MSS. and in the alphabet of 
"Wulfila, some Theodisc characters occurring amongst Latin 
or Greek letters ; but Chilperic's work was an unavailing 
attempt to arrest the progress of Latin literature, a surrender 
of the old system of writing, for the sake of preserving the 
purity of the language. The first part of his instructions, 
which related to the erasure of the old writing may well have 
been complied with ; but perhaps there was not sufficient 
interest felt to secure the transcription of the books generally 
into Latin characters, and so Latin literature advanced, and 
in the end prevailed, to the utter extinction of the primitive 
Frankish tongue. The old books of the Franks are lost for 
ever ; their only memorial is in this passage of Gregory of 
Tours ; the only relics of the futhorc in Frankish literature 
are those we have noticed in Hildebrand's lay, and the 
"Weissenbrun hymn. Yet these precious monuments would 
of themselves have been sufficient to prove that the Franks 
had a futhorc before they adopted the abecedarium. 
"We have, indeed, a contemporary notice of the Runic as a 
recognized system of writing in the works of Yenantius 
Fortunatus, in the beginning of the 7th century. It is 
certainly of some Teutonic race he speaks whenever he uses 
the word barbanis, for it is always in concord with Teutonic 
words, such as kudus a "song," harpa a "harp," or where 
Germany is his subject. Writing then to his friend Flavus, 
complaining of his neglect, he playfully suggests a variety of 
expedients to take away all excuse for his not writing. If it 
were distasteful to him to write in the Roman character he 
might choose the Hebrew letters, the Achaemenian signs, or 
the Barbaric rune; and if paper were scarce, beech bark 
