BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 25 



tion; and it is in that distant period that 

 Professor Chwolson places Kamash-Nahari, 

 the author of a work on agriculture ; the 

 saints and favourites of the gods, Aami, 

 Sulina, Thuluni, Besai, Kermana, etc. ; and 

 finally the martyr Tammuzi, the first to 

 found the religion of the planets, who was 

 put to death, and afterwards lamented by 

 his followers. Dr. Chwolson stops here : 

 he acknowledges that before that period all 



fades into the mist of fabulous antiquity. T m ^ ~7 



Certainly, to many persons, the promul- 

 gation of such a system would be its surest 

 refutation. Indeed, the assertions of Prof. 

 Chwolson assume an aspect to which per- 

 sons who adopt the usual principles of 

 criticism are quite unaccustomed. Such, 

 however, is the singular chain of evidence 

 which has led Dr. Chwolson to adopt this 

 system ; so great is the authority which his 

 opinion seems to derive from that of M. 

 Quatremere ; that it becomes the duty of 

 criticism to examine his assertions step by 

 step, without resting on the improbability 



2 



