Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/36

20 on Canals (Canalisation), there is not a single allusion to Nebuchadnezzar, who did so much for the irrigation of the country; not one word of the Jews, who, in the beginning of that monarch’s reign, filled so important a part in the East. A Canaanite dynasty, resulting from some recent conquest, reigned in Babylon in Kúthámí’s time. Kúthámí frequently alludes to this main point. The founder of this Canaanite dynasty was Númrúda, whom Dr. Chwolson considers identical with the Nimrod of the Book of Genesis. The Canaanites are represented as a people originally inhabiting the South of Syria and the country of Jordan. The author speaks of these conquerors with marked reserve; at times he even appears to wish to flatter them, and to soften the prejudices which his own countrymen entertain against them. He gives the names of the Canaanite kings, Númrúda, Zahmúna, Súsikyá, Salbámá; he quotes Canaanite authors, Anúhá, Thámithri, etc. At what epoch, then, must