BABYLOXIAN LITERATURE. 37 



Dr. Chwolson, "when negative criticism was 

 still at its height, it would no doubt have 

 been concluded from this passage that 

 Masi lived after Alexander ; but now no 

 one would do so." I confess that I am 

 strongly tempted to draw the conclusion 

 which Prof. Chwolson rejects so disdain- 

 fully. How is it possible to place at an 

 ante-historical date a passage which betrays 

 so plainly that national rivalry, which was 

 the characteristic trait of the epoch of the 

 Seleucides, and which assuredly did not 

 exist before the Median war ; that is, earlier 

 than the fifth century before Christ ? 



The passages where the Yunanis are ex- 

 pressly mentioned are not the only ones 

 which prove that Kuthami had felt the 

 influence of the Greeks. There are other 

 passages more embarrassing still to scholars 

 who attribute to " The Nabatheean Agricul- 

 ture" a remote antiquity. In the chapter 



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