42 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



Kuthami, however, does not only make 

 allusions to Greece. I find also in " The 

 Book of Nabatheean Agriculture" evident 

 traces of Persian influence. The author 

 speaks of a people of Pehlevis (L^a^); he 

 describes the Pehlevian language as a Per- 

 sian dialect. 1 Dr. Chwolson gets out of this 

 difficulty by remarking that nothing posi- 

 tive is known as to the Pehlevian. But, 

 most assuredly, sufficient is known to prove 

 that this language did not exist fourteen 

 centuries before Christ. Prof. Chwolson 

 settles the matter by affecting to believe 

 that the passage cited is an interpolation. 

 I have already shown how unsatisfactory 

 is this style of defence, especially when it 

 is repeated and applied to every similar 

 characteristic passage. The progress which 

 criticism has effected during the last half 

 century consists precisely in discarding, in 

 the majority of cases, those very convenient 



of the translation of that work, rests on an error of Herbelot, who 

 seems to have confounded the work of Ktithami with that of Ibn- 

 ol-Awwam. (See the article Vahashiah.} 

 1 Page 40. 



