Babylonian and Assyrian Literature Part 39

2 Place on the statues texts bound around them.

These must have been long strips like ribbons of parchment or papyrus. The following line is still clearer:

"In the night-time bind around the sick man's head a sentence taken from a good book."[10]

[Footnote 10: Similar to these were the phylacteries of the Jews, which were considered to be protections from all evil. Schleusner in his Lexicon of the New Testament says that they were "Strips of parchment on which were written various portions of the Mosaic law, for the Jews believed that these ligaments had power to avert every kind of evil, but especially to drive away demons. as appears from the Targum on the Canticles," etc.

We see that the Babylonian precept was to bind holy sentences "around the head" and others "right and left of the threshold of the door."

Cf. Deut. xi. 18: "Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes.

"And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house, and upon thy gates."]

HOLINESS OF THE NUMBER SEVEN

Innumerable are the evidences of this opinion which are found on the tablets. Two or three instances may suffice here:

THE SONG OF THE SEVEN SPIRITS [Footnote: "Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.," vol.

ii. 2 p. 58.]

1 They are seven! they are seven!

2 In the depths of ocean they are seven!

3 In the heights of heaven they 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 Rule they have not! Government they know not!

8 Prayers they hear not!

9 They are seven, and they are seven! Twice over they are seven!

This wild chant touches one of the deepest chords of their religious feeling. They held that seven evil spirits at once might enter into a man: there are frequent allusions to them, and to their expulsion, on the tablets. One runs thus:

1 The G.o.d (...) shall stand by his bedside: 2 Those seven evil spirits he shall root out, and shall expel them from his body.

3 And those seven shall never return to the sick man again!

But sometimes this belief attained the grandeur of epic poetry. There is a fine tale on one of the tablets [Footnote 2: "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," vol. iv. pl. 5.] of the seven evil spirits a.s.saulting heaven, and the G.o.ds alarmed standing upon the defensive, no doubt successfully, but unluckily the conclusion of the story is broken off.

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CHARMS

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

The following are specimens of the imprecatory charms with which the ancient Babylonian literature abounded, and which were supposed to be the most potent means in the world for producing mischief. Some examples are given in the first volume of the "Records of the Past," pp. 131-135 of the exorcisms used to avert the consequences of such enchantments. The original Accadian text is preserved in the first column with an interlinear a.s.syrian translation: the short paragraphs in Column III also give the Accadian original; but elsewhere the a.s.syrian scribe has contented himself with the a.s.syrian rendering alone. The charms are rhythmic, and ill.u.s.trate the rude parallelism of Accadian poetry. The a.s.syrian translations were probably made for the library of Sargon of Agane, an ancient Babylonian monarch who reigned not later than the sixteenth century B.C.; but the copy we possess was made from the old tablets by the scribes of a.s.sur-bani-pal. The larger part of the first column has already been translated by M. Francois Lenormant in "_La Magie chez les Chaldeens_" p. 59. The tablet on which the inscription occurs is marked K 65 in the British Museum Collection and will be published in the "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," Vol. IV, plates 7, 8.

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CHARMS

COLUMN I

1 The beginning[1]--The baneful charm[2] like an evil demon acts against[3] the man.

2 The voice _that defiles_ acts upon him.

3 The maleficent voice acts upon him.

4 The baneful charm is a spell that originates sickness.[4]

5 This man the baneful charm strangles like a lamb.

6 His G.o.d in his flesh makes the wound.

7 His G.o.ddess mutual enmity brings down.

8 The voice _that defiles_ like a hyena covers him and subjugates him.

9 Merodach[5] favors him; and 10 to his father Hea into the house he enters and cries: 11 "O my father, the baneful charm like an evil demon acts against the man."

12 To the injured (man) he (Hea) speaks thus: 13 "(A number) make: this man is unwitting: by means of the number he enslaves thee."

14 (To) his son Merodach he replies[6]

15 "My son, the number thou knowest not; the number let me fix for thee.

16 Merodach, the number thou knowest not; the number let me fix for thee.

17 What I know thou knowest.

18 Go, my son Merodach.

19 ... with n.o.ble hand seize him, and 20 his enchantment explain and his enchantment make known.

21 Evil (is to) the substance of his body,[7]

22 whether (it be) the curse of his father, 23 or the curse of his mother, 24 or the curse of his elder brother, 25 or the bewitching curse of an unknown man."

26 Spoken (is) the enchantment by the lips of Hea.

27 Like a signet may he[8] be brought near.

28 Like garden-herbs may he be destroyed.

29 Like a weed may he be gathered-for-sale.

30 (This) enchantment may the spirit of heaven remember, may the spirit of earth remember.

31 Like this signet he[9] shall be cut, and the sorcerer 32 the consuming fire-G.o.d shall consume.

33 By written-spells he shall not be _delivered_.

34 By curses and poisons he shall not be _moved_.

35 His property (and) ground he shall not take.

36 His corn shall not be high and the sun shall not remember (him).

[Footnote 1: The Accadian word is translated by the a.s.syrian "siptu"

("lip"), and may be translated "beginning" or "fresh paragraph."]

[Footnote 2: In the a.s.syrian version, "curse."]

[Footnote 3: In the a.s.syrian, "goes against."]

[Footnote 4: In the a.s.syrian, "(is) the cause of sickness."]

[Footnote 5: The Accadian G.o.d identified with Merodach by the a.s.syrian translator was "Silik-mulu-khi" ("the protector of the city who benefits mankind"). He was regarded as the son of Hea.]

[Footnote 6: The verbs throughout are in the aorist, but the sense of the original is better expressed in English by the present than the past tense.]