80 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



ventional words, by which, in the East, 

 it was often sought to escape from getting 

 embroiled with suspected powers ; something 

 in the way in which the Jews successively 

 designated the nations which persecuted 

 them by the name of Edomites or Ama- 

 leMtes, and the capitals of nations which 

 were hostile to them by that of Babylon. 

 The reserve with which Kuthami speaks of 

 the Canaanites, confirms this hypothesis. 

 The histories of the Jews, Samaritans, Men- 

 daites, Harranians, Nbsairis, and Yezidis, 

 offer examples of this kind of falsification. 

 Possibly, too, many of the singular names 

 which surprise us in "The Book of Naba- 

 thaean Agriculture," proceed from some 

 form of the cabbala or secret writing. 

 The use of these forms is very ancient in 

 the East ; since we find at least two very 

 probable examples in the text of Jeremiah. 1 



1 Since the completion of this memoir, I have received some 

 communications from M. Kunik, Member of the Academy at St. 

 Petersburgh, which confirm me in this hypothesis. M. Kunik is 

 tempted to believe that the Mussulmans appear in the " Agricul- 

 ture" under some pseudonyme. He has taken up some extremely 

 ingenious views as to the part which must there be assigned to 



