BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 51 



way into Babylon. The same influence is 

 met with in a more indirect, but not less 

 unmistakeable form, in other passages of 

 "The Book of Nabathsean Agriculture." I 

 have not the least doubt, in fact, that 

 most of the personages, adduced as ancient 

 sages of Babylon, and whose names are 

 strikingly like those of the Hebrew patri- 

 archs, are those very patriarchs themselves. 

 Dr. Chwolson denies it; but his efforts ap- 

 pear to me quite inadequate to disprove this 

 identity, which has so forcibly struck both 

 M. Quatremere 1 and Prof. Ewald. 2 Let me 

 endeavour to prove that Adam, Seth, 

 Enoch, Noah, Abraham, are to be found in 

 "The Book of Nabatluean Agriculture, " 

 with legends analogous to those which they 

 have in the apocryphal writings of Jews 

 and Christians, and subsequently in those 

 of the Mussulmans. 



One of the ancient sages who fills the 



1 "Memoire sur les Nabateens," p. 109 ff. "Journal des 

 Savants," Mars, 1857, p. 147. 



2 Jahrbucher der Biblischen Wissenchaften, 1857, pp. 153, 

 290, 291. 



