24 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



A short time before them Ishitha flourished, 

 the founder of a religion which Kuthami 

 vehemently opposes, though he acknow- 

 ledges that it exercised, in his own time, 

 a salutary influence. Before Ishitha, Adami 

 appears as the founder of agriculture in Ba- 

 bylon, acting the part of a civilizer (civili- 

 sateur) and hence named " The Father of 

 Mankind." Before him we find Azacla, the 

 founder of a religion which the higher 

 glasses persecuted, but which was cherished 

 by the lower ; Ankebutha, Samai-Xahari, 

 the poet Huhushi, whose attention was 

 already directed to agricultural science ; 

 Askulebitka, a benefactor of mankind and 

 the earliest astronomer; and finally Dewanai, 

 the most ancient lawgiver of the Shemites, 

 who had temples, was honoured as a god, 

 and was called "Master of Mankind." The 

 age of Dewanai is, according to Dr. Chwol- 

 son, strictly historical, and Babylon was 

 already, at that time, a completely or- 

 ganised state. There are indications, before 

 Dewanai, of great efforts towards civiliza- 



