40 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



which a crowd of the traits of Greek my- 

 thology are applied to Babylon by Arabian 

 writers. If the name of Hermes appears 

 here under a different form from that in 

 which it is found in other Arabian authors 

 (u*~*/0, it should be remembered that nearly 

 all the proper names in " The Book of !N~a- 

 bathaean Agriculture " haye the emphasised 

 termination a. Ibn-Abi-Oceibia, wishing to 

 describe the pronunciation of this word, 

 writes it thus, ^r*j\ . l 



I have no doubt that many of the ex- 

 traordinary names, which " The Book of 

 Nabathaean Agriculture" presents to us, 

 might be traced, in the same manner, to 

 Greek forms, if we had their true reading. 

 Tamithri (^f^lL) who figures also in Ibn-el- 

 Awwam's writings, is, in the opinion of 

 both Banqueri and "Wenrich, identical with 

 Demetrius. 2 I believe, also, that Askolabita 

 or Asbulubita, to whom is assigned the part of 



1 "Journal Asiatique," August-Sept. 1854, p. 95. 



2 Wenrich, De Auct. Grcec. vers. p. 93. Banqueri, Libro de 

 Agricultural, t. 1, p. 61 of the introduction, 9, etc. 



