60 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



trines which he enunciates, and the facts 

 which he relates ; here, on the contrary, 

 throughout the whole composition we find 

 pitiful squabbles, polemics, a class of 

 writings belonging to those forms of litera- 

 ture which mark the decay of human intel- 

 lect. A great number of controversial books 

 are mentioned in " The Book of Nabathaean 

 Agriculture:'' Masi, the Suranian, at least 

 two thousand years before Christ, according 

 to Dr. Chwolson, addresses an epistle in 

 verse to his son Kenked: 1 Tamithri, the 

 Canaanite, writes a book against Anuha, 

 the Canaanite : Dewanai, three thousand 

 years before Christ, wrote against the 

 Syrian Mardaiad, who gave Syria the 

 preference over Babylonia; and threatened 

 him with a speedy death if he did not 

 retract this impious heresy : 2 Masi and 

 Tamithri are in scientific correspondence 

 with one another; and in another place are 

 made to write against each other. 3 Kuthami, 



1 Pp. 60, 90. 



2 Page 91, note. The Syrian name Mardaiad ( . . . *aJSd) ap- 

 pears less ancient. 3 Pp. 60, 90. 



