Page:An Essay on the Age and Antiquity of the Book of Nabathaean Agriculture.djvu/98

82 fills the part of an archer and a hunter. It is even very possible, that Kerúsaní, like Zohak (the Persian Ajdáhák), and like Zoroaster himself, may be a personage of the Iranian mythology, adopted by Babylonia. As to the other names, they are too obscure to allow either of objections or proofs to invalidate the authority of Kúthámí. Shámajá and Súsikyá have an Hebrew look; Abed-Fergílá, Salbámá, Kijámá, and Riccána, appear Shemitic. With the exception of these, it would be difficult to find a series of names which are so obscure to the philologist and the historian.

It is doubtful whether all these singularities will be explained even by an acquaintance with the entire “Book of Nabathæan Agriculture.” It is well known that one fatal circumstance throws a grievous uncertainty