82 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



fills the part of an archer and a hunter. 1 

 It is even very possible, that Kerusani, like 

 Zohak (the Persian Ajdahak), and like 

 Zoroaster himself, may be a personage of 

 the Iranian mythology, adopted by Baby- 

 lonia. As to the other names, they are 

 too obscure to allow either of objections 

 or proofs to invalidate the authority of 

 Kuthami. Shamaja and Susikya have an 

 Hebrew look; Abed-Fergila (^...-fty)? $ a l- 

 bama, Kijama, and Biccana, 2 appear She- 

 mitic. With the exception of these, it 

 would be difficult to find a series of names 

 which are so obscure to the philologist and 

 the historian* 



It is doubtful whether all these singula- 

 rities will be explained even by an acquaint- 

 ance with the entire "Book of Nabathsean 

 Agriculture . " It is well known that one fatal 

 circumstance throws a grievous uncertainty 



1 Weber, Indische Studien, II. pp. 313-314 ; Kuhn, Die Herab- 

 kunft des Feuers, pp. 131, 138 ff., 146, 147, 171 ff. 



2 Compare the name of the Babylonian sage Nafiovpiavts 

 (|nnU3) in Strabo, (XVI. i. 6). But this name of Riccana, ac- 

 cording to Prof. Chwolson, must be much more modern than the 

 others, and of the period of the Arsacides. 



