books were placed on the walls and bound around the sick man's
members. If these failed, recourse was had to the influence of
the mamit, which the evil powers were unable to resist. On a
tablet, written in the Accadian language only, the Assyrian
version being taken, however, was found the following:

1. Take a white cloth. In it place the mamit,
2. in the sick man's right hand.
3. Take a black cloth,
4. wrap it around his left hand.
5. Then all the evil spirits (a long list of them is given)
6. and the sins which he has committed
7. shall quit their hold of him
8. and shall never return.


The symbolism of the black cloth in the left hand seems evident.
The dying man repents of his former evil deeds, and he puts his
trust in holiness, symbolized by the white cloth in his right
hand. Then follow some obscure lines about the spirits:

1. Their heads shall remove from his head.
2. Their heads shall let go his hands.
3. Their feet shall depart from his feet.

Which perhaps may be explained thus: we learn from another tablet
that the various classes of evil spirits troubled different parts
of the body; some injured the head, some the hands and the feet,
etc., therefore the passage before may mean "the spirits whose
power is over the hand shall loose their hands from his," etc.
"But," concludes Talbot, "I can offer no decided opinion upon
such obscure points of their superstition."[15]

In regard to evil spirits, as elsewhere, the number seven had a
peculiar significance, it being held that that number of spirits
might enter into a man together. Talbot has translated[16] a
"wild chant" which he names "The Song of the Seven Spirits."

1. There are seven! There are seven!
2. In the depths of the ocean there are seven!
3. In the heights of the heaven there are seven!
4. In the ocean stream in a palace they were born.
5. Male they are not: female they are not!
6. Wives they have not! Children are not born to them!
7. Rules they have not! Government they know not!
8. Prayers they hear not!
9. There are seven! There are seven! Twice over there are
seven!

The tablets make frequent allusion to these seven spirits. One
starts thus:

1. The god (---) shall stand by his bedside;
2. These seven evil spirits he shall root out and shall expel
them from his body,
3. and these seven shall never return to the sick man
again.[17]


Altogether similar are the exorcisms intended to ward off
disease. Professor Sayce has published translations of some of
these.[18] Each of these ends with the same phrase, and they
differ only in regard to the particular maladies from which
freedom is desired. One reads:

"From wasting, from want of health, from the evil spirit of the
ulcer, from the spreading quinsy of the gullet, from the violent
ulcer, from the noxious ulcer, may the king of heaven preserve,
may the king of earth preserve."

Another is phrased thus:

"From the cruel spirit of the head, from the strong spirit of the
head, from the head spirit that departs not, from the head spirit
that comes not forth, from the head spirit that will not go, from
the noxious head spirit, may the king of heaven preserve, may the
king of earth preserve."

As to omens having to do with the affairs of everyday life the
number is legion. For example, Moppert has published, in the
Journal Asiatique,[19] the translation of a tablet which contains
on its two sides several scores of birth-portents, a few of which
maybe quoted at random:

"When a woman bears a child and it has the ears of a lion, a
strong king is in the country." "When a woman bears a child and
it has a bird's beak, that country is oppressed." "When a woman
bears a child and its right hand is wanting, that country goes to
destruction." "When a woman bears a child and its feet are
wanting, the roads of the country are cut; that house is
destroyed." "When a woman bears a child and at the time of its
birth its beard is grown, floods are in the country." "When a
woman bears a child and at the time of its birth its mouth is
open and speaks, there is pestilence in the country, the Air-god
inundates the crops of the country, injury in the country is
caused."

Some of these portents, it will be observed, are not in much
danger of realization, and it is curious to surmise by what
stretch of the imagination they can have been invented. There is,


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