84 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



The perplexity which, one experiences in 

 certain chapters of Masoudi or Ibn-Abi- 

 Oceibia, whenever the subject relates to 

 Greece and Assyria, is scarcely less than 

 that which "The Book of Nabathsean Agri- 

 culture" occasions. There are the same 

 difficulties in seeking to establish the list 

 of forty-two Babylonian kings, beginning 

 with Nimrod, and ending with Darius, 

 which is given by the first of these 

 authors, as in finding the key to the his- 

 tory contained in the work of Kutharai. 

 The geography of "The Book of Naba- 

 theean Agriculture," which one would 

 imagine must be more easy to settle, is 

 not a bit less obscure. It is impossible to 

 form equally sound deductions from such 

 faulty records, as from faithful docu- 

 ments. Besides which, nearly the same 

 effect is produced on historical facts by 

 the poverty and scantiness of Arabic prose, 

 as by their alphabet or proper names. Not 

 one of the circumstances which they have 

 handed down to us respecting Greece is 



