The Church became the dominant power in literature, and if it is true on the one hand that the Armenian people lost intellectual independence, it is also true on the other that they gained that religious zeal and strength which enabled them as an entitya united raceto survive the fatal day of Avarair, where, under the shadow of hoary Ararat, the Armenian Marathon was fought and lost, and Vartan, their national hero, died.

And at Avarair, too, it is said that the lament of the nightingales is ever, "Vartan, Vartan."

And at Avarair, too, it is said that the lament of the nightingales is ever, "Vartan, Vartan."

The examples of Armenian proverbs and folk-lore included in this volume show, as is usual, the ethnological relationship that is so easily traced between the fables of Aesop, of Bidpai, of Vartan, and of Loqman.