38 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



which treats of the cultivation of beans, 

 these words occur : " This is why Ar- 

 misa (Iwu^l) (Hepmes) and Aghathadimun 

 (g^cdiUt) (Agathodcemon 1 ) have forbidden 

 persons of their country the use of fish and 

 beans, and have strongly insisted on this 

 prohibition." 2 Here Dr. Chwolson admits 

 the difficulty, and tries various solutions of 

 it ; but all equally unsatisfactory. He who 

 rebutted so energetically elsewhere, in the 

 case of the composition of " The Book of 

 Nabathaean Agriculture," all idea of succes- 

 sive compilation, has recourse this time to 

 the hypothesis of an interpolation. Then, 

 falling back on this concession, he volunteers 

 a high antiquity to the philosophical and 

 religious part of Hermes and Agathodeemon, 

 though it is obvious that these are Neo- 

 Platonic fictions, adopted, among others, by 

 the Sabians or Modern Babylonians. 3 Finally, 



1 For the part assigned to Agathodsemon in Arabian traditions, 

 which are but an echo of Sabian fables, see Ibn-Abi-Oceibia, in 

 the "Journal Asiatique," August- September, 1854, p. 186, in Dr. 

 Sanguinetti's translation. 



2 Pp. 93, 94. 



3 Ibn-Abi-Oceibia says that the Nabathaans looked upon Hermes 



