2. It is no less remarkable, however, that such syllables as those last mentioned, which undoubtedly bear a secondary accent, are never used by Orm to form the catalectic end of the septenary verse, evidently because they would in consequence of their specially strong accent annul or at least injure the regular unaccented feminine verse-ending. On the other hand, inflexional endings and unaccented terminations containing an _e_ are generally used for that purpose, as on account of their lightness of sound they do not endanger in any way the feminine ending of the catalectic section of the verse. In any case, inflexional syllables following upon long root-syllables cannot have the same degree of stress, and cannot be used for the same rhythmic functions, as the end-syllables of disyllabic compounds, which undoubtedly bear a secondary accent. The _regular_ rhythmic employment of the two last-mentioned groups of syllables proves their characteristic difference of stress--the former being wholly unaccented, the latter bearing a secondary accent. Further inquiry into the _irregular_ rhythmic employment of the two similar classes of inflexional endings, those following upon long root-syllables, and those following upon short ones, tends to prove no less precisely that they do not differ in degree of stress, and so that they are both unaccented. For it is easy to show that with regard to syncope, apocope, elision, and slurring they are treated quite in the same way. Elision of the final _-e_ before a vowel or an _h_ takes place quite in the same way in those inflexional syllables following upon long root-syllables as it does in those less numerous syllables which follow upon short ones, e.g. _Annd ȝétt ter tákenn marẹ inóh_ Orm. 37; _Wiþþ állẹ swillc rímẹ alls hér iss sétt_ ib. 101; _For áll þat ǽfrẹ onn érþẹ is néd_ ib. 121; _a wíntrẹ and éc a lóre_ Moral Ode 1; _Wel lóngẹ ic hábbe chíld ibíen_ ib. 3; _Icc háfẹ itt dón forrþí þatt áll_ Orm. 115, &c. It is the same with apocopation: _Forr gluternésse wácneþþ áll Galnésses láþe strénncþe, Annd állẹ þe flǽshess kággerleȝȝc Annd álle fúle lússtess_ Orm. 11653-6; cf. also: _þatt hé wass hófenn úpp to kíng_ ib. 8450, and _wass hófenn úpp to kínge_ ib. 8370; _o fáderr hállf_ ib. 2269, and _o fáderr hállfe_ 2028, &c.; similarly with syncopation, cf. _ȝiff þú seȝȝst tátt_ ib. 5188, and _annd séȝȝest swíllc_ ib. 1512; _þet scúlen bén to déaþe idémd_ Moral Ode 106; _for bétere is án elmésse bifóren_ ib. 26, &c.; and again with the slurring of syllables following upon long as well as upon short root-syllables, as the following examples occurring in the first acatalectic sections of septenary verse will show sufficiently: _Ál þet bétste þét we héfden_ Moral Ode 51; _Gódes wísdom ís wel míchel_ ib. 213, &c.