BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 81 



The names of the Babylonian kings fur- 

 nished by Nabatheean writings cause at first 

 the greatest astonishment. Here are the seven- 

 teen names of kings which I have gathered 

 from Dr. Chwolson : Abed-Fergila, Bedina, 

 Salbama, Ilarmati, Hinafa, Kamash, Mari- 

 nata, Numruda, Kerusani, Kijama, Riccana, 

 Sana, Shamaja, Shemuta, Susikya, Thiba- 

 tana, Zahmuna. Only one of these names 

 positively corresponds with those known to 

 us elsewhere, and that is Numruda, which, 

 as we have seen, carries us back to a fabu- 

 lous antiquity. Another name, that of Ke- 

 rusani, may possibly, I think, correspond 

 with pre-historical traditions. A hero, 

 common to the literature of the Vedas, 

 and in the Zend-Avesta, and who there- 

 fore may be carried back to ancient Arian 

 mythology, is Kerusani, who, like Nimrod, 



Gnosticism. He thinks (and a similar idea had already occurred to 

 me) that Jesus Christ is concealed under the name of Azada ; that 

 Saturn arrayed in black (Chwolson, pp. 115, 135) is the God of the 

 Jews, the Sathaneal of the Anti-Christiun i,nu>stirs ; that the pre- 

 tended Babylonian anchorites (Chwolson, p. 159) are Christian 

 monks ; so that the antipathy of the Gnostics to the Christiana 

 betrays itself in many places. 



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