BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



CHAPTEE I. 



"THE Book of Nabathsean Agriculture," first 

 referred to in Europe by St. Thomas Aquinas, 

 was first known among Christian scholars, 

 thanks to the quotations made from it by 

 Jewish writers of the middle ages, particu- 

 larly by Moses Maimonides in his "More 

 HeYOchim." The impression formed of it, 

 from this source of information, was, how- 

 ever, very imperfect. Some supposed that 

 the book treated of the religion of the 

 JS"abathreans, the word rn'QJ?, by which the 

 Hebrew translator of Moses Maimonides 

 rendered A^Is, permitting the double sense 

 of cultus, or cultura. Others supposed there 

 were two distinct works, one on Nabathaean 

 Agriculture, and one on the Eeligion of the 

 Kabatha?aiis. Moreover, by a confusion easily 

 made between the name of the Copts 



