BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 37 



Dr. Chwolson, "when negative criticism was 

 still at its height, it would no doubt have 

 been concluded from this passage that 

 Masi lived after Alexander ; but now no 

 one would do so." I confess that I am 

 strongly tempted to draw the conclusion 

 which Prof. Chwolson rejects so disdain- 

 fully. How is it possible to place at an 

 ante-historical date a passage which betrays 

 so plainly that national rivalry, which was 

 the characteristic trait of the epoch of the 

 Seleucides, and which assuredly did not 

 exist before the Median war ; that is, earlier 

 than the fifth century before Christ ? 



The passages where the Yunanis are ex- 

 pressly mentioned are not the only ones 

 which prove that Kuthami had felt the 

 influence of the Greeks. There are other 

 passages more embarrassing still to scholars 

 who attribute to "The Nabathsean Agricul- 

 ture " a remote antiquity. In the chapter 



;u 



