Babylonian and Assyrian Literature Part 31

A light now breaks across her beauteous face; She, turning, says to him with Heavenly grace:

"Dear Izdubar, thou knowest how I love Thee, how my heart my love doth daily prove; And, oh, I cannot let thee go alone.

I know not what awaits each soul there gone.

Our spirits often leave this glorious land, Invisible return on earth, and stand Amidst its flowerets, 'neath its glorious skies.

Thou knowest every spirit here oft flies From earth, but none its secrets to us tell, Lest some dark sorrow might here work its spell.

And, oh, I could not see dark suffering, woe There spread, with power none to stop its flow!

"I saw thee coming to us struck with fire, Oh, how to aid thee did my heart desire!

Our tablets tell us how dread sorrow spreads Upon that world and mars its glowing meads.

But, oh, so happy am I, here to know That they with us here end all sorrow, woe.

O precious Izdubar! its sights would strike Me there with sadness, and my heart would break!

And yet I learn that it is glorious, sweet!

To there enjoy its happiness,--so fleet It speeds to sorrowing hearts to turn their tears To joy! How sweet to them when it appears, And sends a gleam of Heaven through their lives!

"No! no! dear heart! I cannot go! It grieves Thee! come, my dear one! quick to us return; We here again will pair our love, and learn How sweet it is to meet with joy again; How happy will sweet love come to us then!"

She rests her head upon his breast, and lifts Her face for Love's sweet kiss, and from them drifts A halo o'er the s.h.i.+ning gesdin-trees And spreads around them Heaven's holy rays.

He kisses her sweet lips, and brow, and eyes, Then turns his gaze toward the glowing skies:

"I bless thee, for thy sweetest spirit here!

I bless this glorious land, that brings me near To one that wafts sweet Heaven in my heart; From thy dear plains how can my soul depart?

O Mua, Mua! how my heart now sings!

Thy love is sweeter than all earthly things!

I would I were not crowned a king!--away From this bright land--here would I ever stay!

As thou hast said, I soon will here return; The earth cannot withhold me from this bourne, And soon my time allotted there will end, And hitherward how happy I will wend!"

"And when thou goest, how my love shall there Guard thee, and keep thy heart with Mua here.

Another kiss!"

Her form doth disappear Within the garden, gliding through the air.

He seats himself upon a couch and rests His head upon his hand, and thought invests Him round. His memory returns again To Erech's throne, and all the haunts of men.

He rises, turns his footsteps to the halls, And thoughtful disappears within its walls.

CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS

[_Translated by various Babylonian and a.s.syrian Scholars_]

CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS

BABYLONIAN EXORCISMS

TRANSLATED BY REV. A.H. SAYCE, M.A.

The charms translated below will ill.u.s.trate the superst.i.tion of the a.s.syrians and Babylonians. Like the Jews of the Talmud, 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 the drink that support life. They counted no less than 300 spirits of heaven and 600 spirits of earth. All this, with the rest of their mythology, was borrowed by the a.s.syrians from the primitive population of Babylonia, who spoke an agglutinative language akin to the dialects of the Finnic or Tatar tribes. The charms are written in this ancient language, but a.s.syrian translations are appended in a column to the right of the tablet. The legends are lithographed in the "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," Vol. II, plates 17 and 18. They have been translated by M.

Oppert in the "_Journal Asiatique_" of January, 1873, and an a.n.a.lytical rendering of them is given by M. Fr. Lenormant in his "_Etudes Accadiennes_" II, I (1874).

TRANSLATION OF THE EXORCISMS

TABLET I

The noxious G.o.d, the noxious spirit of the neck, the neck-spirit of the desert, the neck-spirit of the mountains, the neck-spirit of the sea, the neck-spirit of the mora.s.s, the noxious cherub of the city, this noxious wind which seizes the body (and) the health of the body. Spirit of heaven remember, spirit of earth remember.

TABLET II

The burning spirit of the neck which seizes the man, the burning spirit of the neck which seizes the man, the spirit of the neck which works evil, the creation of an evil spirit. Spirit of heaven remember, spirit of earth remember.

TABLET III

Wasting, want of health, the evil spirit of the ulcer, spreading quinsy of the gullet, the violent ulcer, the noxious ulcer. Spirit of heaven remember, spirit of earth remember.

TABLET IV

Sickness of the entrails, sickness of the heart, the palpitation of a sick heart, sickness of bile, sickness of the head, noxious colic, the _agitation_ of terror, flatulency[1] of the entrails, noxious illness, lingering sickness, nightmare. Spirit of heaven remember, spirit of earth remember.

[Footnote 1: Literally, "opposition."]

TABLET V

He who makes an image (which) injures the man,[1] an evil face, an evil eye, an evil mouth, an evil tongue, evil lips, an evil poison. Spirit of heaven remember, spirit of earth remember.

[Footnote 1: Here we have a reference to a custom well known in the Middle Ages. A waxen figure was made, and as it melted before the fire the person represented by it was supposed, similarly to waste away. It will be remembered that Horace ("Sat." i, 8, 30 sq.) speaks of the waxen figure made by the witch Canidia in order that the lover might consume away in the fires of love. Roman and mediaeval sorcery had its origin in that of ancient Accad.]

TABLET VI