BABYLONIAN LITEEATURE. 93 



libraries, in Greek no less than in Arabic 

 manuscripts, contain considerable fragments 

 of Nabathsean literature. I will only offer 

 one example, because it presents the sin- 

 gular instance of a discovery made with 

 extraordinary penetration, by a scholar of 

 the great French school of the early part of 

 the seventeenth century, and which, buried 

 in oblivion for nearly two hundred years, 

 has acquired an unexpected importance 

 from the researches of modern criticism. 

 In the preface x to his treatise, De Annis 

 Climactericis et Antiqua Astrologia (Leyde, 

 1648), Salmasius, after having quoted Ten- 

 kelusha according to Xasireddm Tousi, adds : 

 " lS»j&J autem sive Tenkelus ille Babylonius 

 quern memorat Nasirodinus, is omnino est 

 qui Teuxpog BafioKcovios Grsecis vocatur, et 

 fortasse in scriptis Grseeorum perperam 

 hodie legitur Tsvxpog pro Tevxpog, idque 

 deflexum ex illo nomine Babylonio Tenclus. 

 Nisi sit verius Grsecos ad nomen sibi 

 familiare propter adfinitatem soni vocabulum 



1 This preface is not paged ; the catch word of the leaf is c. 3. 



