L.N. Dembitz.--_Jewish Services in Synagogue and Home_ (Jewish Publication Society of America, 1898), p. 44. FABLES. J. Jacobs.--_The Fables of Æsop_ (London, 1889), I, p. 110 _seq._ Read also Schechter, _Studies in Judaism_, p. 272 [331]; and _J.Q.R._, (Kohler), V, p. 399; VII, p. 581; (Bacher) IV, p. 406; (Davis) VIII, p. 529; (Abrahams) I, p. 216; II, p. 172; Chenery, _Legends from the Midrash_ (_Miscellany of the Society of Hebrew Literature_, Vol. II). CHAPTER V THE LETTERS OF THE GAONIM Representative Gaonim: Achai, Amram, Zemach, Saadiah, Sherira, Samuel, Hai. For several centuries after the completion of the Talmud, Babylonia or Persia continued to hold the supremacy in Jewish learning. The great teachers in the Persian schools followed the same lines as their predecessors in the Mishnah and the Talmud. Their name was changed more than their character. The title _Gaon_ ("Excellence") was applied to the head of the school, the members of which devoted themselves mainly to the study and interpretation of the older literature. They also made original contributions to the store. Of their extensive works but little has been preserved. What has survived proves that they were gifted with the faculty of applying old precept to modern instance. They regulated the social and religious affairs of all the Jews in the diaspora. They improved educational methods, and were pioneers in the popularization of learning. By a large collection of Case Law, that is, decisions in particular cases, they brought the newer Jewish life into moral harmony with the principles formulated by the earlier Rabbis. The Gaonim were the originators or, at least, the arrangers of parts of the liturgy. They composed new hymns and invocations, fixed the order of service, and established in full vigor a system of _Minhag_, or Custom, whose power became more and more predominant, not only in religious, but also in social and commercial affairs.