Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/56

40 which a crowd of the traits of Greek mythology are applied to Babylon by Arabian writers. If the name of Hermes appears here under a different form from that in which it is found in other Arabian authors, it should be remembered that nearly all the proper names in “The Book of Nabathæan Agriculture,” have the emphasised termination a. Ibn-Abi-Oceibia, wishing to describe the pronunciation of this word, writes it thus, &lrm;.

I have no doubt that many of the extraordinary names, which “The Book of Nabathæan Agriculture,” presents to us, might be traced, in the same manner, to Greek forms, if we had their true reading. Támithri who figures also in Ibn-el-Awwam’s writings, is, in the opinion of both Banqueri and Wenrich, identical with Demetrius. I believe, also, that Askolábita or Asbúlúbita, to whom is assigned the part of