6 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



da?an devoted his life to their translation, and 

 thus created a Nabathseo-Arabic library, of 

 which three complete works — to say nothing 

 of the fragments of a fourth — have de- 

 scended to onr days. The three complete 

 works are, first, <LkJ! ^iall c->ti£ ' The 

 Book of Nabathsean Agriculture;" second, 

 »j*J\ l^jVJ "The Book of Poisons;" third, 

 JjU\ liji&j c^b£ "The Book of Tenkeluska 

 the Babylonian." The incomplete work is 

 j+'i\\* fju^J^\ JjJ\ LJ<& "A work on the Secrets 

 of the Sun and Moon." l Of these four books, 

 "The Book of Nabathaean Agriculture" is 

 by far the most important and the most 

 interesting. It is this one which will now 

 principally occupy our attention. 



1 The first is a cyclopaedia of agriculture, containing also remarks 

 and dissertations on subjects incidentally mentioned, and it is these 

 which give it the pre-eminence. The second, which is older than 

 the first, treats of poisons and their antidotes. The third is a 

 genethlialogic work. The fourth treats of plants and metals. — 

 Translator's note. 



