There can be little doubt that it was the rhymed Latin poetry, as used in the services of the Roman Catholic Church, which suggested to the German converts the idea of rhymed verses. The pagan poetry of the Teutonic races had no rhymes. It was what is called alliterative. In the German dialects the accent remained mostly on the radical syllable of words, and thus served to shorten the terminations. Hence we find fewer full-bodied terminations in Gothic than in Latin, while in later Teutonic dialects, in English as well as in German, these terminations dwindled away more and more. Thus, we say _Di’ chter_ when the Romans would have _Dicta’ tor_, _Pre’ diger_ for _prœdica’ tor_, _cha’ ncel_ for _cance’ lla_. In order to bind their poetical lines together the German poets had recourse to initial letters, which had to be the same in certain places of each verse, and which, if pronounced with strong stress or strain, left the impression of the words being knitted together and belonging together. Here is a specimen which will show that the rules of alliteration were very strictly observed by the old German poets, far more strictly than by their modern imitators. The old rule was that in a line of eight arses there should be two words in the first and one in the second half beginning with the same letter, consonant or vowel, and always in syllables that had the accent. Here is a line from the old “Song of Hildebrand,” dating from the eighth century:— =H=iltibraht joh =H=adhubrant =H=iltibraht and =H=adhubrant Untar =h=arjum tuâm, etc. Between =h=osts twain, etc. Rückert has imitated this alliterating poetry in his poem of “Roland”:— =R=oland der =R=ies =I=m =R=athhaus zu Bremen =S=teht er im =S=tandbild =S=tandhaft und wacht. Kingsley has attempted something like it in his “Longbeard’s Saga,” but with much greater freedom, not to say licence:— =S=caring the wolf cub, =S=caring the horn-owl, =S=haking the snow-wreaths Down from the pine boughs.