From certain passages in the astrological tablets, Thompson draws
the interesting conclusion that the Chaldean astronomers were
acquainted with some kind of a machine for reckoning time. He
finds in one of the tablets a phrase which he interprets to mean
measure-governor, and he infers from this the existence of a kind
of a calculator. He calls attention also to the fact that Sextus
Empiricus[13] states that the clepsydra was known to the
Chaldeans, and that Herodotus asserts that the Greeks borrowed
certain measures of time from the Babylonians. He finds further
corroboration in the fact that the Babylonians had a time-measure
by which they divided the day and the night; a measure called
kasbu, which contained two hours. In a report relating to the day
of the vernal equinox, it is stated that there are six kasbu of
the day and six kasbu of the night.

While the astrologers deduced their omens from all the celestial
bodies known to them, they chiefly gave attention to the moon,
noting with great care the shape of its horns, and deducing such
a conclusion as that "if the horns are pointed the king will
overcome whatever he goreth," and that "when the moon is low at
its appearance, the submission (of the people) of a far country
will come."[14] The relations of the moon and sun were a source
of constant observation, it being noted whether the sun and moon
were seen together above the horizon; whether one set as the
other rose, and the like. And whatever the phenomena, there was
always, of course, a direct association between such phenomena
and the well-being of human kind--in particular the king, at
whose instance, and doubtless at whose expense, the observations
were carried out.

From omens associated with the heavenly bodies it is but a step
to omens based upon other phenomena of nature, and we, shall see
in a moment that the Babylonian prophets made free use of their
opportunities in this direction also. But before we turn from the
field of astronomy, it will be well to inform ourselves as to
what system the Chaldean astronomer had invented in explanation
of the mechanics of the universe. Our answer to this inquiry is
not quite as definite as could be desired, the vagueness of the
records, no doubt, coinciding with the like vagueness in the
minds of the Chaldeans themselves. So far as we can interpret the
somewhat mystical references that have come down to us, however,
the Babylonian cosmology would seem to have represented the earth
as a circular plane surrounded by a great circular river, beyond
which rose an impregnable barrier of mountains, and resting upon
an infinite sea of waters. The material vault of the heavens was
supposed to find support upon the outlying circle of mountains.
But the precise mechanism through which the observed revolution
of the heavenly bodies was effected remains here, as with the
Egyptian cosmology, somewhat conjectural. The simple fact would
appear to be that, for the Chaldeans as for the Egyptians,
despite their most careful observations of the tangible phenomena
of the heavens, no really satisfactory mechanical conception of
the cosmos was attainable. We shall see in due course by what
faltering steps the European imagination advanced from the crude
ideas of Egypt and Babylonia to the relatively clear vision of
Newton and Laplace.


CHALDEAN MAGIC

We turn now from the field of the astrologer to the closely
allied province of Chaldean magic--a province which includes the
other; which, indeed, is so all- encompassing as scarcely to
leave any phase of Babylonian thought outside its bounds.

The tablets having to do with omens, exorcisms, and the like
magic practices make up an astonishingly large proportion of the
Babylonian records. In viewing them it is hard to avoid the
conclusion that the superstitions which they evidenced absolutely
dominated the life of the Babylonians of every degree. Yet it
must not be forgotten that the greatest inconsistencies
everywhere exist between the superstitious beliefs of a people
and the practical observances of that people. No other problem is
so difficult for the historian as that which confronts him when
he endeavors to penetrate the mysteries of an alien religion; and
when, as in the present case, the superstitions involved have
been transmitted from generation to generation, their exact
practical phases as interpreted by any particular generation must
be somewhat problematical. The tablets upon which our knowledge
of these omens is based are many of them from the libraries of
the later kings of Nineveh; but the omens themselves are, in such
cases, inscribed in the original Accadian form in which they have
come down from remote ages, accompanied by an Assyrian
translation. Thus the superstitions involved had back of them
hundreds of years, even thousands of years, of precedent; and we
need not doubt that the ideas with which they are associated were
interwoven with almost every thought and deed of the life of the
people. Professor Sayce assures us that the Assyrians and
Babylonians counted no fewer than three hundred spirits of
heaven, and six hundred spirits of earth. "Like the Jews of the
Talmud," he says, "they believed that the world was swarming with
noxious spirits, who produced the various diseases to which man
is liable, and might be swallowed with the food and drink which
support life." Fox Talbot was inclined to believe that exorcisms
were the exclusive means used to drive away the tormenting
spirits. This seems unlikely, considering the uniform association
of drugs with the magical practices among their people. Yet there
is certainly a strange silence of the tablets in regard to
medicine. Talbot tells us that sometimes divine images were
brought into the sick-chamber, and written texts taken from holy


<< previous page | next page >>

Jump to page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 |