BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 23 



criticism. In the foreground appears the 

 chief personage of Babylonian literature, a 

 certain Yanbushadh, founder of natural 

 sciences and originator of a kind of Mono- 

 theism. He is separated from Kuthami by 

 four or five centuries. Some ages before 

 Yanbushadh, appears Daghrith, founder of 

 another school, which had some disciples, 

 even after Yanbushadh. This Daghrith 

 lived, according to Dr. Chwolson, two thou- 

 sand years before Christ ; and speaks of 

 various persons of Babylonian tradition in 

 a manner which shows that he then con- 

 sidered them as men of early antiquity. In- 

 deed, long before Daghrith, there is another 

 age of literature, of which the representa- 

 tives are Masi the Suranian, his disciple 

 Jernana, and the Canaanites, Anuha, Tha- 

 mithri, and Sardana (towards 2500). All 

 these sages appear at once as priests, 

 founders of religions, moralists, naturalists, 

 astronomers, agriculturalists (agronomes), and 

 as universally endeavouring to introduce a 

 worship freed from idolatrous superstitions. 



