66 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



assist us in fixing yet more precisely the 

 character of the singular work which en- 

 gages our attention. 



It is Dr. Chwolson himself who shall fur- 

 nish the means of our doing so. One of 

 Dr. Chwolson' s merits indeed is to have 

 drawn attention to the fact that " The Book 

 of Nabathsean Agriculture " is not the only 

 work of its kind, 1 and that we possess three 

 other works of the same nature, all trans- 

 lated by Ibn "Wahshiya. The first of these 

 books, the ^^Jl c->^ or u Book of Poisons ;" 

 is composed of three works, which accord- 

 ing to Dr. Chwolson, have been blended 

 together by Ibn "Wahshiya. The authors 

 of the three works are Suhab-Sath, Yar- 

 buka, and Eewatha; Suhab-Sath is more 

 ancient than Yarbuka, and Yarbuka is 

 quoted in " The Book of Nabathaean Agri- 

 culture." All the peculiarities, therefore, 

 which, denote Yarbuka to be an author of 



1 M. Weyers had previously given this bibliographical infor- 

 mation most fully. (" Specimen criticutn exhibens locos Ibn 

 Khacanis," Lugd. Bat., 1831, pp. 100, 101, note. 



