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NOTES 273 this judgment. Learning where the property was kept, he took an armed band, murdered all in the house where the treasure was, and even carried off the flocks and herds. " On hearing this," says Gregory, " we were greatly vexed and in conjimction with the judge we sent messengers to them to come to our presence and make a reasonable settlement and depart in peace, that the quarrel might not breed greater trouble." Gregory even offered to advance the church's money to pay the fine of the guilty one, if the latter had not money himself. But Chramsind, the representative of the family Sichar had murdered in the last incident, refused to accept settlement, and hearing later a false report that Sichar had been killed by one of his own slaves, he took up the feud anew, " summoned his kinsmen and friends," plundered Sichar 's house, and killed all the slaves on his estate. The settlement of this tangled feud is extremely interesting, since it shows how the courts of the period were straining every effort to overcome the time-honored custom of the blood feud. " Then the two parties were summoned before the judge in the city and pleaded their causes, and the verdict was found by the judges that he [Chramsind] who had been unwilling to accept a money payment before and had burned the houses, should lose half of the award which [otherwise] would have been ad- judged to him, — this was done contrary to the law if only peace coidd be restored — but Sichar was to pay the other half of the fine. Then the church gave money to the amount of the verdict ; Sichar paid his fine and received a receipt for it, each party swearing to the other that at no time should one party go muttering things against the other. And thus the strife ended." It did not end, however, as the nineteenth chapter of the ninth book shows. P. 189, c. 1-7. For a discussion of Gregory's attitude toward Gunthram see S. Hellmann, Studien zur mittelaUerlichen Geschichtschreibung, Hist. Zeit., vol. 107, p. 23 f. P. 189, 1. 6. Gunthram was frequently threatened with assassination. See pp. 174, 176, 178, 205. On this occasion he seems to have felt more confidence. P. 189, 1. 20. The Syrians were the distributors of eastern Mediterranean commodities in Gaul. The name seems to have been applied to a number of eastern peoples. In this connection it may be recalled that a Syrian, Euse- bius, was bishop of Paris, and another, Theodore of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury. P. 191, 1. I. Gunthram had held Saintes from 567 to 576, when it was taken from him by Chilperic's son Clovis. P. 197, 1. 20. Daemonii meridiani instinctu. Cf . Interea accedentibus hariolis et dicentibus eum meridiani daemonii incursionem pati {De Virtut. S. Martin. IV, 36). A sudden seizure in the heat of the day would be diagnosed as pos- session by a mid-day demon. P. 198, 1. 22 f. See Frazer, Golden Bough, vol. 8, p. 280, for an explanation of this matter. An image of a noxious creature was supposed to rid a locaUty of it. P. 206, 1. 2. Errore nigromantici ingenii. The spelling of nigromantici reveals a popular etymology {niger), " the black art." Cf. Bonnet, p. 218.