SEMITIC MAGIC ITS ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT. I SEMITIC MAGIC ITS ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT. BY iC CAMPBELL THOMPSON, M.A. (Cantar). Attention Patron: This volume is too fragile iar any future repair. Please handle with great care. UnVBnnY OF MKHKAN UKAIY-OONSBRVA'nON ft BOOK REPAIR London: LUZAC & CO. 1908. iZ> PBINTBD BY XIY PKEFACE. It is almost unnecessary to say how much I am indebted to Robertson Smith's Religion of the Semites and Frazer's OoLden Bough for the many quotations bearing on this subject which I have taken from them ; to the Encyclopcedia BiMica and Jewish Encydopcedia ; to that storehouse of Arabic folklore, Doughty's Arabia Deserta ; to Curtiss' Primitive Semitic Religion ; to Skeat's Malay Magic ; and to King's various works on Assyrian religion. To my uncle, Frederic Thompson, I owe hearty thanks, not only for the care and trouble which he has taken in reading the proof - sheets, but also for many appropriate suggestions of which I have gladly availed myself. Such a book as this must necessarily be imperfect,, and not everyone will agree with the deductions that have been made. But, as Hume says in his discussion on Miracles, "a wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence ... he weighs the opposite experiments: he considers which side is supported by the greater number of experiments : to that side he indines with doubt and hesitation; and when at last he fixes his judgment, the evidence exceeds not what we properly call probability" R. Campbell Thompson. London. Jvtly^ 1908. CONTENTS. PA0B6. Introduction xvii-lxviii I. The Demons and GhostM 1-94 II. Demoniac Possesfdon and Tabu 95-141 III. Sympathetic Magic 142-174 IV. The Atonement Sacrifice 176-218 v. The Redemption of the Firstborn .... 219-244 Appendix 245-256 Index 257-283 List of Biblical Quotations 285-286 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. A.J.S.L. CI.S. C.T. DeviLi G.B. J.A. J.A.O.S. J.A.O. J.B.L. J.£.S. J.Q. K Maklu • O.TJ.C. P.E.F. P.S.B.A. a Surpu T.S.B.A. W.A.I. Z.A. Z.D.M.G. American Journal of Semitic Languages. Haupt, Akkadieche und Sumerische KeiUchri/Uexte, Gorpiii Inecriptionum Semiticarum. Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets (British Muaeum publications). ThomiKion, Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, Frazer, Oolden Bough. Journal Asiatique, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Journal of the Asiatic Society. Journal of Biblical Literature. Journal of the Ethnological Society. Jewish Quarterly. References to Koiiyuujik Tablets in the British Museum. The Maklu Series, published by Tallqvist, Die assyrische Beschworungsserie Maglu. Robertson Smith, Old Testament in the Jewish Church, Palestine Exploration Fund Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. References to Tablets in the British Maseiun found by George Smith. The Surpu Series, published by Zimmem, Die Beschworungs^ tafdn Surpu. Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. Rawlinson, Inscriptions of Western Asia. Zeitschrift jur Assyriclogie. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Oesellschaft. \ INTRODUCTION. ''Maoic and sorcery, though they lay outside of i;4igion and were forbidden arts in all the civilised states of antiquity, were yet never regarded as mere imposture.''^ The difficulty lies in distinguishing magic from religion, and we can best quote the broad definition laid down by Bobertson Smith, that the difference between religion and magic is that, while the former is the worship for the good of the community, magic is the supernatural relation for the individual.^ When it is remembered how great an influence the principle of Atonement has in the Levitical laws, and yet, on the other hand, that a Babylonian sorcerer will conjure a demon forth from a sick man with a little dough figure, just as though he were a vindictive wizard of the Middle Ages, using the selfsame word as the Hebrews as the name of his exorcism, the difficulty will at once be apparent. We have, therefore, to examine much more than the mere spell of an Arab sMkh for ' Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, 90. ' Martin Del Rio {Disquisitiones Magicce, 1699, i, 12) thus defines magic : '* Ut sit ars seu facultas, vi create, & non supernaturali, qusBdam mira & insolita efficiens, quorum ratio sensum & communem hominum captum superat." On the beliefis in magic current in the Middle Ages, the curious will find an exhaustive account in Horst's Zavher Bibliotkeky and it is refreshing to read even in a book published as late as 1898 {The Book of Sacred Magic of Ahramelin the Sage, ed. Mathers) the remarks which aire written by the editor who apparently expects to be taken seriously ; his explanatory Introduction is intended purely and solely as a help to genuine Occult students, and ends with his defiance, "that for the opinion of the ordinary literary critic who neither understands nor believes in Occultism, I care nothing. ' XVlll PRQSSTS AND WIZARDS. a lovesick Bedawi, or the amulet of some Syrian wise- woman against the Evil Eye ; the principles which underlie such wizardry go deep into the roots of religion itself, and for this reason, if for no other, magic and witchcraft deserve to be considered as something more than the impotent trickery of charlatans. As religious principles developed themselves among primitive savages, men began to learn something of the mysterious natural forces which would enable one tribal wizard to pit himself in ghostly combat against the warlock of another clan, and defeat him by his superior magic. When Elijah, priest of Yahweh, challenges the priests of Baal to a test of comparison between his god and theirs, he is only doing what medicine- men of different savage tribes always do ; ^ and in this intertribal warfare of witch-doctors we can see how different classes arose among those who wrought in spiritual matters. First, the priest who was the head of the profession, and ' after him a successive line of magic-workers in grades of decreasing power, until we arrive at the bottom rung of the ladder, the witch whose business it is to cast spells, or i make love-philtres or diet-drinks of herbs for a miserable ' price. Then, when the existence of this lower order of / 1 1 Kings xviii. Similarly, Pharaoh's magicians cast down their wands, which become serpents and are finally swallowed by Aaron's serpent, in the witch-doctor combat before the King of Egypt. Maury, La Magie et VAstrologiey 40, explains this (quoting Lane's Manners and Customs^ ii, 103) by a trick the magicians have of throwing a viper into a kind of trance through compressing its head, and making it appear as a rod. He quotes also Th. Pavie, Sur le$ HarviSy Remie des Deux Monday xlv, 461. Al-Beid&wi (quoted Sale, EoraUy Surah vii) says that these magicians imposed on the bystanders with pieces of rope and wood which they made to writhe like serpents. Other instances of Old Testament magic are contained in Exod. xv, 25, where the waters of Marah are made sweet by casting in a tree, or (xvii, 6) where the striking of the rock causes water to flow. CONJURING TRICKS. xix sorcerers is fully established and accredited, to whom the credulous or malicious poor will resort for aid in subterfuge, it behoves the priestly caste to set about defeating the machinations of such foes to law and order. For these lesser magicians, being able to invoke the powers of darkness, cause much of the tribute debit to the priests to find its way by illegal channels into their own pockets, and it is such upstart rivals who impoverish the temple. From this arise so many of the decrees against sorcerers who have dared to set themselves in opposition to the established caste. The men of old never mistrusted the power of the sorcerer merely because he was of low degree ; to them he was quite as capable of laying a spell as the priest was of removing it. Hence we find that, although mere conjuring is to-day reckoned the lowest depths to which magic can descend, one of the most blatant tricks possible is described in the Assyrian legend of the Creation itself. The gods assemble themselves to praise Marduk in chorus : ''Then they set in their midst a garment, and unto Marduk their first-born they spake : ' May thy fate, lord, be supreme among the gods to destroy or create; speak thou the word, and (thy command) shall be fulfilled. Command now and let the garment vanish, and speak the word again and let the garment reappear ! ' Then he spake with his mouth, and the garment vanished ; again he commanded it, and the garment reappeared." ^ In no wise more advanced is the story of the rod becoming a.serpent in Exodus iv, and Mohammedan tradition relates that Abraham himself was able to work similar magic ; ^ Creation Series, Tablet IV, ed. King, Seven Tablets of Creation, 61. CONJTJBING TBICKS. that when he cut the birds in pieces in his sacrifice — an eagle (or dove, as others say), a peacock, a raven, and a cock — ^he retained only their heads whole, and mixed the flesh and feathers, laying them in four parts on four mountains. Then, when he called to each by name, they rejoined themselves in their first shapes to their heads.^ Still more puerile are the trivial performances of conjurers related in later Jewish literature; B. Ashi says that he saw a man scatter strips of silk from his nose,^ and B. Hyya is told the story of a rider of a camel who cut off the head of the camel with his sword, and thereafter rang a bell, and the camel stood up. B. Hyya answers, "Did you see, after it stood up, that the place was dirty from blood and dust? There was nothing. Hence it was only a dazzling of the eyes."' * Sale, Koran, Surah ii. ' Sanhedrin (ed. Rodkinson), vii, 197. ^ Ibid., 198. Even in the creation of man (in the Jehovist account) man is first fashioned from clay, a story expanded by Arab tradition, which relates that the Angel of Death took black, red, and white earth to God to form man, and for this reason men are of different colours (Mas^udi^ Prairies d*Or, i, 52). Gabriel, Michael, and Israfil were sent by God, one after another, to fetch seven handfiils of earth to create Adam (Korarif Surah ii). According to Berossus, the Babylonian tradition maintained that man was made of the blood of Bel mixed with earth, and the fragment of cuneiform tablet identified by Mr. King {Seven Tablets of Creation, Iviii) recounts that Marduk announces his intention of forming man from blood and fashioning bone. In the same way in the Gilgamish Epic (i, col. ii, 1. 33) Arum " forms a man of Anu in her heart" She washes her hands, kneads a piece of clay, and thus creates Ea-bani. In this method of changing one material to something more valuable we may see the prototype of that goal of every wizard of the Middle Ages, the Philosopher's Stone. Even in a Syriac story (Brooks, A Si/riac Fragment, Z.D.M.G., 1900, 217) we find it told of one Isaac, who had been appointed to Karrhai, and there entertained a strange monk. This monk, on leaving, told Isaac to bring him a piece of lead, and having melted it he took an elixir from a little wallet and poured it thereon, and it changed its colour and became gold. CLASSES OF PRIESTS. ZXl These tricks, hypnotic or otherwise^ represent the least effective side of magic, and have little bearing on the more serious uses to which it was put. Sorcerers in olden days were far more concerned with the utilitarian side of their craft than in working sterile wonders merely to please -a crowd of sightseers ; theirs was the graver duty of freeing mankind from tabus of uncleanness^ of casting out demons from possessed folk, or relieving them from some spell laid upon them by a malignant witch. Theirs, also^ was the power to ward off all hostile ghosts^ to lay troublesome spirits under a ban that they might not torment such mortals as lay within their reach. The priesthood in which such powers were vested formed a large class, particularly in the systematized methods of Babylonia, and their functions were manifold, allotted severally to different divisions of the caste, each with a descriptive name. In atfcient Mesopotamian lore we may class the ritual tablets into three categories, according to the priest who performed the ceremonies; one for the iarii-priests, or seers, a second for the o/tjpu-priests, who approximate to wizards, and a third for the zammaru-^neBts, or chanters. Zimmem has collected much material about them ; the ba)^ is met with as far back as the time of Hammurabi,^ and, according to Martin, he belonged to a special caste which tradition took back as far as Enmeduranki, King of Sippar, the town sacred to Samai. Enmeduranki had received from SamaS and Adad the initiation to mysterious rites, the art of the baru, and he communicated it to the diviners of Sippar and Babylon. The batUt > King, Letten of Hammurabi, 17, 14 ; 42, 14. zxu CLASSES OF PRIESTS. consults gods on the future by the inspection of the liver and entrails, and also by the observation of the flight of birds : " The observation of oil in water, the secret of Anu, Bel, and Ea; the tablet of the gods, the sachet of leather of the oracles of the heavens and earth, the (wand) of cedar dear to the great gods." ^ As among the Jewish priests, the baH^ (and asipu too) had their liturgical vest- ments, which they changed frequently during the ceremony.^ It is through these ftaril - priests that Agukakrime (1500 B.C.) makes an enquiry; in the Kutha creation legend the king asks of the gods through these same seers, before he goes out against the enemy. The Cultus- tablet of Sippar treats of the installation of a bari to the Sun Temple, of the renewal of the privileges of this seer under the succeeding king, and also of the appoint- ment of a successor (980-950 b.c). A$$umasirpal (884- 860 B.C.) mentions in his annals how, when he was besieging a hostile Aramean tribe, he captured a seer who went at the head of the enemy, and Sennacherib seeks through the barA-seera the causes of his father's violent death. It is they, also, who are the medium for the favourable oracle which Esarhaddon receives concerning his reconstruction of Babylon. The functions of the aitpu (which is probably synonymous with maitnasu) are different. He is the incantation-priest and exorcist who cleanses tabus of undeanness and removes bans, and he is the magician who chants the rites prescribed in such magical texts as the Surpu, Maklu, and Utukku series. In his hands also lies the power of performing * Martin, Textet Reliffieux^ 1903, xiv. * Ibid., xvi. EXORCISM OF DEVILS. ZXIU the atonement ceremony, to which a chapter will be devoted later.^ A more precise view of his functions may be gathered from the following quotations from the Assyrian exorcisms which are to be recited over sick people : — " Incantation : — (The man) of £a am I, (The man) of Damkina am I, The messenger of Marduk am I, My spell is the spell of Ea, My incantation is the incantation of Marduk, The circle' of Ea is in my hand. The tamarisk, the powerful weapon of Anu, In my hand I hold, The dAte-spathe, mighty in decision, In my hand I hold."' " Incantation : — He that stilleth all to rest, that pacifieth all, By whose incantation everything is at peace, He is the great Lord Ea, Stilling all to rest, and pacifying all. By whose incantation everything is at peace. When I draw nigh unto the sick man All shall be assuaged. I am the magician bom of Eridu, Begotten in Eridu and Subari. When I draw nigh unto the sick man May Ea, King of the Deep, safeguard me ! '' * " Incantation : — Ea, King of the Deep, to see . . . I, the magician, am thy slave. ^ The functions of the barH and {liipu are taken from Zimmem's description of them, Bittuiltafeln, 82 ff. See also Martin, Textes Religieux^ xiii, on the aHpu, ' L^surtu, i.e. the magic circle, or perhaps ban. ' See my Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, i, 23. * Ibid., i, 26. XXIV WIZARDS AND WITCHES. March thou on my right hand, Assist (me) on my left ; Add thy pure spell to mine, Add thy pure voice to mine, Vouchsafe (to me) pure words, Make fortunate the utterances of my mouth, Ordain that my decisions be happy, Let me be blessed where'er I tread. Let the man whom I (now) touch be blessed. Before me may lucky thoughts be spoken, After me may a lucky finger be pointed. Oh that thou wert my guardian genius, And my guardian spirit ! O Qod that blesseth, Marduk, Let me be blessed, where'er my path may be ! Thy power shall god and man proclaim ; This man shall do thy service, And I too, the magician, thy slave." ^ "Unto the house on entering . . . Samas (is) before me; Sin (is) behind [me], Nergal (is) at [my] right hand, Ninib (is) at my left hand ; /When 1 draw near unto the sick man, ( When I lay my hand on the head of the sick man, v^ay a kindly Spirit, a kindly Guardian, stand at my side." * It is with the ritual of the aiipu and maimaiu that the following chapters are chiefly concerned. Of the zammaru less is known .than of these other two, but from his name he sang or chanted the ceremonials allotted to him. On the other hand, the kaisapu and kaHaptu (in Hebrew kaSldph) are the wizard and witch who lay bans or cast spells on people, exponents of black magic, whose devices * Devils and Evil SpiriU of Babylonia^ i, 27. » Ibid., i, 15. WIZARDS AND WITCHES. XXV the more legitimate priest-magician combated.^ The second law of the Hammurabi code is framed against this pro- miscuous tampering with dangerous arts — *' If a man has charged a man with sorcery and has not justified himself he who is chained with sorcery shall go to the river, he shall plunge into the river, and if the river overcome him, he who accused him shall take to himself his house. If the river makes that man to be innocent, and he be saved, he who accused iiim shall be put to death. He who plunged into the river shall take to himself the house of him who accused him."' The Maklu series is devoted to charms and spells recited against hostile magicians who have practised their arts against the suppliant, who appeals for divine aid in the following terms: — " Incantation : — The witch that roameth the streets. Entering houses, prowling through towns. Going through the broad places, walking up and down. She standeth in thn street and tumeth her feet. Through the broad place she hindereth passage. Of the well-favoured man she snatcheth away the love. Of the well-favoured maid she stealeth away the fruit. By her glance she taketh away her desire. She looketh on a man, and snatcheth away his love, She looketh on a maid, and snatcheth away her fruit. A witch hath looked on me and pursued me, With her venom she hath hindered my passage. With her sorcery she hath stopped my way. My god and my goddess cry over my body."' He goes on to say that he has made an image of the witch, and calls on the Fire-god to burn it — 1 For a discussion on the meanings of the various words foi magicians in Hebrew, see Encycl. BiM,, 1116 ; Baudissin, Studienj 141. On the ideas in earlier times about Biblical sorcerers, see Martin Del Rio, DisqtasitioneSf bk. i, 14. ' Of. Num. zzii, 5, where Balak, the king of Moab, sends to Balaam asking him to curse Israel. » Maklu, Tablet III, 1 ff. XXVI WIZARDS AND WITCHES. " Incantation : — Whoever thou art, witch, In whose heart is the word of my misfortune, On whose tongue is bom my spell. On whose lip is bom my sorcery. In whose footsteps death standeth, witch, I seize thy mouth, I seize thy tongue, 1 seize thine eyes as they glance, I seize thy feet as they walk, I seize thy knees as they bend, I seize thy hands as they twist, I bind thy hand behind thee, May Sin destroy thy body in front. May he cast thee into an abyss of water and fire, witch, like the circlet of this seal, May thy face grow yellow and green." * "The wizard or witch Sits in the shade of the wall, Sits making spells against me, Fashioning images of me ; But I send against thee the ^a^^af^an-plant and sesame, To undo the spell. And force back thy words into thy mouth. May the magic thou hast made Recoil upon thyself, May the images thou hast fashioned Assume thy character. May the water thou hast hidden (?) Be thine own ! May thy incantation not draw nigh me, i May thy words not reach me! i By the command of Ea, Samas, Marduk, and Belit." ' » Maklu, Tablet III, 1. 89 ff. \ 2 Ibid., Tablet V, 1 ff. K. 10333 is an incantation which shows how evil may be repelled from the threshold of a house. " Repeat this incantation three times over the threshold and the evil foot . . . will not approach the house of the man." K. 9496 gives the line " When a man kii^i kak-kak (« uiepUyhi sorcery bewitches him," and goes on to give details for his release. I WIZARDS AND WITCHES. XXVll Or in Tablet I :— " Incantation : — The spell of my soroereaa is evil, Her word shall turn back to her own mouth, her tongue shall be cut off. May the gods of night smite her in her magic, May the three watches of the night loose her evil sorcery, May her mouth be fat, may her tongue be salt. May the word of my evil which she hath spoken be poured out like tallow. May the magic which she hath worked be crumbled like salt. Her knot is loosed, her work is destroyed. All her spells fill the desert. By the command which the gods of night have spoken. Perform the incantation. Incantation :— Earth, earth, O earth, Qilgamish is the lord of your ban ! All that ye do I know. All that I do ye know not, All that my sorceresses have done is broken, loosed without release. Perform the incantation. Incantation : — My city is Sappan, my city is Sappan, Of my city Sappan there are two gates, One to the east and one to the west. One towards the rising of the stm, the other towards its setting. I bear a box, a pot, (and) maitakal-^\&nty To give water to the gods of heaven. As I have brought ye purification. So do ye purify me." Perform the incantation. Incantation : — I am despatched, I come : I am sent, I bring the message : Marduk, the lord of magic, hath sent me against the might of my wizard and my witch, ... I have called ; hear the [word] of the earth ! '* • • • XXYIU WIZAUDS AND WITCHES. This incident of making a city is paralleled in Indian charms for a woman at childbirth. In order to avoid abortion, the sorcerer makes three small huts which lie west and east, each having two doors, one to the west and the other to the east. The woman, clad in a black robe, enters the westernmost by the western door. Water mixed with satnpAta is cast on the lead {" les plombs," see op. cit., 55) ; the woman walks on the lead, which is placed on a leaf of palAqa} The Assyrian text rans on — " Ho, my witch or tsorceress ! Thy bounds are the whole world, Thou canst pass over all mountains, Yet I know and have steadfast confidence ; In my street is watch kept. Near my door have I posted a servant. On the right and left of my door I have set Lugalgirra and Allamu, The gods of the watch that tear out the heart And wrench (?) the kidneys That they may kill my witch and I may live."' *' I cherish thee, myself, I cherish thee, my body. As the Plain-god cherisheth his cattle. Or the ewe her lamb, or the gazelle her young, or the ass her foal. Or as the water-ditch cherisheth the earth, And the earth receiveth her seed — I perform an incantation for myself That it may be favourable to myself And drive out the evil, And may the great gods remove the spell from my body.''* * The rites continue, and the curious will find them in Victor Henry, La MagU dans VInde Antique, 1904, 142. « Maklu, vi, 118. * Ibid., vii, 23. A charm similar to this is found in the medical text 0. T., xxiii, 4, 1. 9, and 10, 1. 26. WIZARDS AND WITCHES. XXIX It is quaint to see the witch of the old nursery tales who rides on a broomstick repeated in the Arab lore. *' ho, I saw four women, one of them riding upon a broom, and one of them riding upon a fan. I therefore knew, king, that they were enchantresses, who would enter thy city."^ The silver bullet is likewise resistless, and no known amulet will protect the wearer against this magic. Doughty^ tells of Metaab (Ibn Kashid), prince of Shammar after his brother Tellal, who wore a hyab against bullets, but it did not prevail against a silver one with which his nephews killed him. According to Mohammedans the wizard is an infidel and deserves death,' the fate threatened to sorceresses in Exodus,^ while Deuteronomy^ demands the expulsion of the sorcerer. Doughty has two stories of the power of Arabian witches ; one of a patient who was * fascinated,' and lamented " it is ne/s, a spirit, which besets me,'' adding that this sort of thing was common in their parts, the work of women with their sly philtres and maleficent drinks.® His description of the Eheybar witches is to the point : " How may a witch that has an husband gad abroad by night, and the goodman not know itP If she take betwixt her fingers only a little of the ashes of the hearth and sprinkle it on his forehead, the dead sleep will fall upon him till the morning." ^ ^ Story in Note 61 to chapter xzi, Laue, Arabian Nights, ' Arabia Deserta, i, 267. ' Klein, Religion of Islam^ 181. * xxii, 18. » xviii, 10. * Arabia DesertUy ii, 384. ^ Ibid., 106 ; see Sprenger, Malleus MaUficarum (1580), 84, Cur magis foeniina superstitiosoi reperiantur f XXX MAGIC IN THB NEW TESTAMENT. The Moghrebi (* Western ') is always recognized as a sorcerer in the Arab folk-tales, and even Psellus tells a story which bears witness to the power always ascribed to Moghrebi wizards. A man at Elason said he had learnt something of the black art 'Hhroagh a certain vagabond African/' who took him by night to a mountain, gave him a certain herb to eat, spat into his mouth, and anointed his eyes with an unguent. He was thereby enabled to see < Ed. Rodkinson, 228. XXXU ABAB WIZARDS. imbibed too freely, and after drinking his sixteenth cup he became confused and did not know how many he had drunk. So they saw to it that he drank an eyen number, and then succeeded in bewitching him. When he went into the street he was met by a certain merchant, who said, 'I see a murdered man walking before me.' Not being able to proceed farther, the drunken man embraced a tree for support, when the tree emitted a groan and dried up, and the man was killed." But even witchcraft has no effect against a heavenly decree, according to K. Hanina. There was a woman who tried to take earth (for sorcery) from beneath his foot, and he said, '^If you think you will succeed in affecting me with your witchcraft, go on and do so, as I am not afraid.''^ It is curious to see that there is an Arab tradition that magic will not work while he that works it is asleep. Sadiir and Ghadiir, who were two of the Egyptian magicians pitted against Moses, the sons of a famous sorcerer, were sent for to court, and their mother persuaded them to go to their father's tomb to ask his advice. The father answered their call and told them, among other things, that enchantments have no effect while the enchanter is asleep.^ Although the power of evil spirits was much feared, yet wise men could sometimes overreach Satan himself in cunning. Such tales exist, especially among the modern Arabs, who delight to relate such legends, particularly if they redound to the credit of local patriotism. Iblis once sent his son to an assembly of honourable people with a flint stone, and told him to have the flint stone woven. * Sankedrifiy ed. Rodkinson, vii, 197. * Sale, Koran, Surah vii. ARAB LEGENDS OF SATAN. XXXlll He came in and said, ''My father sends his peace, and wishes to have this flint stone woven." A man with a goat-beard said, ''Tell your father to have it spun, and then we will weave if The son went back, and the Devil was very angry, and told his son never to put forth any suggestion when a goat-bearded man was present, " for he is more devilish than we."^ Curiously enough, Kabbi Joshua ben Hananiah makes a similar request in a contest against the wise men of Athens, who have required him to sew together the fragments of a broken millstone. He asks in reply for a few threads made of the fibre of the stone.^ The good folk of Mosul, too, have ever prided themselves on a ready wit against the Devil. Time was, as my servant related to m€,^ when Iblis came to Mosul and found a man planting onions. They fell to talking, and in their fellowship agreed to divide the produce of the garden. Then, on a day when the onions were ready, the partners went to their vegetable patch and the man said, "Master, wilt thou take as thy half that which is above ground, or that which is below P" Now the Devil saw the good green shoots of the onions sprouting high, and so carried these off* as his share, leaving the gardener chuckling over his bargain. But when wheat time came round, and the man was sowing his glebe on a day, the Devil looked over the ditch and complained that he had made nothing out of the compact. " This time," quoth he, we will divide differently, and thou shalt take the tops"; and so it fell out. They visited the tilth together when the com was ripe, and the fellah reaped the field and » Baldensperger, P,KF., 1893, 207. ' Tabnudy BeJtoroth, 86, quoted JewUh EneycLy i, 289. » For the Arabic version see P,S.B,A.y January, 1908. XXXlY ASSYRIAN MAGIC. took away the ears, leaving the Devil stubbing up the roots. Presently, after he had been digging for a month, he began to find out his error, and went to the man, who was cheerily threshing his portion. "This is a paltry quibble,'' said Iblis, ''thou hast cozened me this twice." " Nay," said the former, " I gave thee thy desire ; and furthermore, thou didst not thresh out thine onion-tops, as I am doing with this." So it was a sanguine Devil that went away to beat the dry onion-stalks, but in vain ; and he left Mosul sullenly, stalking away in dudgeon, and stopping once in a while to shake his hand against so crafty a town. "Cursed be ye, ye tricksters! who can outmatch devilry like yours?" In the present book the Assyrian incantation-tablets are frequently used as a base for the various hypotheses put forward, this being the most logical method at present available. In the cuneiform tablets we have the actual wizardry in vogue at the time they were written, which runs at least from the seventh century onwards until the time when cuneiform ceased to be used. Moreover, in these texts we are dealing with no underhand sorcery surreptitiously carried on, but fair and open magic of which the value is attested by the excellent language in which they are couched, and the high regard in which the class which made such a profession theirs was held. Throughout the rest of the civilized world Chaldean magic was indeed a name to conjure by, particularly from its astrological side, which through its thoroughness had gained great repute. "Stand now," says Isaiah,^ "with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth ; ' xlvii, 12, 13. THE RENOWN OF THE CHALDEANS. XXXV if 80 be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from the things that shall come upon thee." The word Kasditn, ' Chaldeans/ in Assyrian Kaldu, a people dwelling on the Lower Euphrates and Tigris, assumes at the time that the Book of Daniel was written the significance of 'magicians.' The Syriac writers attest the same notoriety. '^Bardesan saith: 'Have you read the books of the Chaldeans which are in Babylon, in which are written what the stars efiect by their associations at the Nativities of men P ' " ^ Plutarch' quotes the Chaldeans as believing that, of the planets, two are beneficent gods, two are hostile, and three are neutral. The heading to a book in late Hebrew (called " The Wisdom of the Chaldeans '*) runs : ''This is the book used by the Chaldeans (which they composed) through their meditations and speculations in divine wisdom, and through the overflow of the spirit of prophecy upon them, by their strong adherence to their wisdom and to their meditations in the divine wisdom and their speculations concerning the spheres (planets) and the spirits that rule those spheres and move them.'*' Among Greek writers we find Strabo* (died A.D. 24) saying that the Chaldeans were skilled in astronomy and the casting of horoscopes, and ^lian^ (third century a.d.) quotes both Babylonians and Chaldeans as possessing a considerable knowledge of astronomy. ' Spicilegium, ed. Cureton, 16. * De hid., xlviii. ' Gaster, P,S,B,A., 1900, 338. * xri, i, 6. * Peri Zoon, A, xxii, ed. Hercher, Paris. XXXYl MODEHN HAGICAL BOOKS. Diodorus Siculus,^ a contemporary of Augustus, says that the Babylonian priests observed the position of certain stars in order to cast horoscopes, and that they interpreted dreams and derived omens from the movement of birds and from eclipses and earthquakes. Magic is said to have been introduced among the Greeks by (Ethanes, who came into Greece with Xerxes, and dispersed the rudiments of it wherever he had an opportunity. It was afterwards much improved and brought to perfection by Democritus, who is said to have learned it out of the writings of certain Phoenicians.^ Horace' voices the popular view — "Tu, ne qusesieris (scire nefas) quern mibi, quern tibi Finem di dedeiint, Leuconoe, nee Babylonios Temptaris numeros." Indeed, in modern times in the East, from Morocco to Mesopotamia, books of magic are by no means rare, and manuscripts in Arabic, Hebrew, Gershuni, and Syriac can frequently be bought, all dealing with some form of magic or popular medicine. In Suakin in the Soudan I was offered a printed book of astrology in Arabic, illustrated by the most grotesque and bizarre woodcuts of the signs of the Zodiac, the blocks for which seem to have done duty in other places. Such books existed in manuscript in ancient days, as is vouched for by the story of the Sibylline books or the passage in Acts xix, 19 : '' Not a few of them that practised curious arts brought their books together, and burned them in the sight of all.'^ It is to ASsurbanipal, King of Assyria B.C. 668-626, that we owe, in the main, our knowledge of cuneiform ' ii, 29. * Potter, Arch, Orac, i, 406. * Canninay i, 11. A BABYLONIAN LETTER. XXXVli magic, for during his reign book-collecting became a passion with him, and he had established a system of obtaining copies of the best tablets in all Irak. The great temple-cities in Babylonia afforded him an inexhaustible source to draw on for the formation of his library in Nineyehi and to this end many scribes were set to work to copy and translate the ancient tablets. For the temples of these cities were like the modern monasteries which still exist in the East, each having its library of manuscripts, and it was from these that the king obtained his material and made the base of his great work. By some happy chance there are still extant two duplicate copies of a letter which was written by a king to a city of Babylonia, ordering those in authority to search the hidden store of records laid in the shrines of the gods. These two date from the later Babylonian Empire, and it is quite possible that they are copies of the original letter that was sent by A$§urbanipal more than a hundred years previously, and preserved in Babylonia as a valuable record, for it is on the model of the royal letters of his period : — *' The word of the King unto Sadunu : I am well, mayst thou be happy. The day that thou seest this letter of minci take with thee Sum&, the son of Suma-ukina, Bel-etir, his brother, Aplft, the son of Arkat-il&ni, and such people of Borsippa as thou knowest, and seek out all the tablets which are in their houses, and all the tablets laid up in the Temple of Ezida, and collect the tablets of the ... of the King, of the tablets for the days of the month Nisan, the stone ... of the month Tisri, of the series Bit'8ala\^ the stone . . . ^ The IncaDtation BU-Sala* is kaown from K. 2832, a list of incan- tations published in King's Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, xiz. xxxvm THE INCANTATION SERIES. for * reckoning the day/ ^ the four stone . . . for the head of the royal bed and the royal . . . the woods urhurinnu and cedar for the head of the royal bed^ the series ^Incantation:— May Ea and Marduk complete wisdom/ all the series that there are relating to war, besides all their copious documents that there are, the series 'In battle a staff (P) shall not come near the man/ the series edin-na dib-bi-da e-oal tuk-ra, spells, prayers, stone inscriptions and those that are excellent for (my) royalty, the series (P) Takpirti ali igi-nioin-na (although this is a trouble) and whatever may be necessary in the palace, and seek out the rare tablets such as are to be found on your route, but do not exist in Assyria, and send them to me. I am sending the authority for the iatam and iaku officials. Thou shalt put them in thy strong-box. No one shall withhold tablets from thee ; and if there be any tablet or spell which I have not made mention of to you, and thou shalt learn of (it), and it is good for my palace, search for it and get it and send it to me."^ But in addition to the magical tablets from AsSur- banipal's library, many come from Babylonia, written during the later Babylonian Empire. Some of them date to the reign of Alexander and others are as late as the Arsacid period, and there is consequently no lack of material. These grimoire% were written in series of several tablets, each set being given some name. The best * On the phrase "reckoning the day" see my Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, xix. It refers to the calculation of the duration of the month, as to whether it will consist of twenty-nine or thirty days. ' B.M. Nos. 25676 and 25678. See my Late Babylonian Letters^ 3 ff. THE SUHFU' SERIES. XXXIX V known at present are the Maklu (' Burning '), Surpu (' Consuming 0, Utukki iimn&U ('Evil Spirits'), f»'» (' Headaches '), Asakki marsUti (' Fever Sickness ' ^), Labartu {* Hag-demon '), and Nii kati (' Raising of the hand '). There are also large classes of both ceremonial and medical texts which throw considerable light on the magical practices. The series Maklu contains eight tablets all giving directions, as has been shown earlier in this chapter, for incantations and spells against wizards and witches. The motive which runs through the whole series instructs the bewitched person how to make figures of his enemies and then destroy them with prayers.* If they are to be burnt, then the Fire- god is the object of adoration — " O flaming Fire-god, mighty son of Ann, Thou art the fiercest of thy brothers ; Thou that canst give judgment like Sin and Samas, Judge thou my case and grant me a decision ! Burn up my sorcerer and sorceress ! O Fire-god, bum up my sorcerer and sorceress ! Fire-god, consume my sorcerer and sorceress ! O Fire-god, bum them ! O Fire-god, consume them ! Fire-god, overpower them ! O Fire-god, destroy them ! O Fire-god, carry them off ! " ' The series Surpu consists of nine tablets which contain prayers, incantations, and exorcisms against the Ban or tabu which lies on the man through some unknown sin or uncleanness. The priest recites a list of sins which 1 The exact translation is not certain. The reading asahku (and not aXakku) was shown to be correct by Morgenstem, Doctrine of Sin in Bab. Rd.y 1906, 18. ^ This is discussed more fully in the chapter on Sympathetic Magic. » Maklu, Tablet II, 1. 92. ■~ - ^-^ xl THE UTUKKI LIMNUTI- SERIES. the man may have committed, and so laid himself open to the Ban which is now plaguing him. " Hath he set a son at variance with a father, A father with a son, A daughter with a mother, A mother with a daughter,''^ and so on. A great many of the sins are those which are now reckoned as moral offences, all pointing to a very highly civilized community, and .include the use of false weights, the acceptance of money wrongfully earned, lying, stealing, adultery, and murder. But there is another stratum underlying them which decidedly points to a distinction between those persons who are ceremonially clean and those who are not; briefly, a proof of the existence of the tabu among the Babylonians. This question is discussed at length in the chapter devoted to the subject. The series utug-^ul-a-mes or Utukki Umniitij 'Evil Spirits,' is, as its name implies, a series of spells directed against the attacks of demons, goblins, and ghosts, and it consisted originally of at least sixteen tablets, of which we have now the third, fifth, and sixteenth in an almost complete form, and the greater part of four others, besides several large fragments of the remainder. They are for the use of priests or exorcists in driving out the devils from possessed persons, and the general tenor is the same throughout the whole text. Deyils are to be combated by invoking the gods to help, that they may be laid under a ban or divine tabu.^ The most important point is that » Surpu, Tablet II, L 20. ' Both gods and demons have the power of putting a ban on others ; Tiamat, in the Creation Legend, when attacked by Marduk, " recited an incantation, pronounced her spell" (King, Seven Tablets, 71, Tablet IV, 1. 91). THE ASAKKI MAR8UT1 AND TY' J- SERIES. xli a categorical description shall be giyen of the particular demon in question, and to this end, as it is obviously impossible for the magician to make an exact diagnosis, he runs through long lists of the names and descriptions .of evil spirits. / Two series, written for the purpose of curing various / bodily ills (the Aaakki marsuti and Ti'i) are similar to the preceding in many points. These ailments are treated as , devils, and exorcised frequently with ' atonement '-offerings ; ; that is to say, sympathetic magic is at the base of the ! treatment, and the evil influence is transferred to a wax ^ figure representing the sick man, or even the carcase of a pig or kid.^ The Aaakki tnara&ti originally consisted of at least twelve tablets, while the Ti'i ended at the ninth tablet. The series called '' The Baising of the Hand " (i.e. prayer) is another devoted to magic. It consists of prayers and incantations to various deities, sometimes being intended to remove the evils attendant on eclipses. These powers are often accompanied by directions for certain ceremonies and rites, such as placing a censer and burning incense. The series Labat^tu, as its name implies, concerns the evil spirit or ' hag-demon ' which gives its name to these texts, a kind of female devil who attacks children especially. Three tablets are at present extant, giving directions for making figures of the labartu and the incantations to be repeated over them.' The Babylonian ritual was as elaborate as the Jewish. Bitual ceremonies consisted, with the Babylonians as with ^ This is discussed more fully in the chapter on the Atouemeut Sacrifice. ' See the next chapter for a fuller description of the lahartu, and the methods employed against her. • xlii THE RITUAL TABLETS. other nations, of interminable repetitions and tedious directions for the proper number of censers, tables, wine- jugs, and other furniture used in making sacrifices, of instructions for the different sorts of food, flesh, and wine which must be used, and how each is to be treated. The following is a specimen: — "Before the rising of the sun thou shalt prepare one offering for Samas : One censer thou shalt place before Samas, One censer thou shalt place before Adad, One censer thou shalt place before Marduk, One censer thou shalt place before Aa, One censer thou shalt place before Bunene, One censer thou shalt place before Kettu, One censer thou shalt place before Mesaru, One censer thou shalt place before the god of the man, A table thou shalt place behind the censer which is before Samas : Thou shalt place thereon four jugs of sesame wine, Thou shalt set thereon three times twelve loaves made of wheat, Thou shalt add a mixture of honey and butter, and sprinkle with salt : A table thou shalt place behind the censer which is before Adad, A table thou shalt place behind the censer which is before Marduk." » And so on. The medical texts are also of great help in the study of Assyrian demonology, inasmuch as the physician was always receptive of aid from the sister art. Hence, inter- spersed among prescriptions of drugs and herbs, we find short incantations scattered through the pharmacopoeia, for the Babylonian medicine-man was but a witch-doctor with a herbalist's knowledge of simples combined with 1 Zimmem, BahylonUche Religion, ii, 1, 105 ; see also Gray, in AMyrian and Babylonian Literature (ed. R. F. Harper), 403. Many similar tablets have been published by Zimmem, loc. cit. THE LEGEND OF THE WORM. xliii an ingenuous belief in abracadabra. These spells, brief though they be, often reveal some little superstition, some remnant of folk-tale, which sometimes reappear in the traditions of the dwellers in modern Irak. The belief in little worms that eat the teeth is current in Mesopotamia, in China, and among the Malays, and yet it can be shown to have existed in Babylonia two thousand years ago and more. This is the cuneiform legend: — "After Anu [had created the Heavens], The Heavens created [the Earth], The Earth created the Rivers, The Rivers created the Canals, The Canals created the Marshes, The Marshes created the Worm. Came the Worm (and) wept before the Sun-god, Before Ea came her tears. * What wilt thou give me for my food, What wilt thou give me for my devouring * ? ' * I will give thee ripe figs,' And scented . . . wood." * What are these ripe figs to me. Or scented . . . wood ? Let me drink among the teeth, And set me on the gums(?). That I may devour* the blood of the teeth. And of their gums (?) destroy the strength (?),* Then shall I hold the bolt of the door. * Since thou hast said this, worm, £a shall smite thee with the might of his fist. » Literally destroy.* ' In my translation in Devils and Evil SpiriU this was probably incorrectly translated as ' dried bones.' is-ma is the word in question, and I read it as a Semitic word u-ma, connected with DltV. * bone.' More probably it should be regarded as an ideogram for tittu (see Muss-Amolt, Dictionary^ sub voce), i.e. H^KJ^ . ' The line. is difi&cult because of an unusual ideogram. ^ Kusadj unknown elsewhere. xliv THE HEART-PLiiNT. Prayer for the Toothache. Ritual for this : — Mix fermented drink, the plant salcilhir^ and oil together, repeat the incantation three times, (and) put it on his tooth." » In Mosul I was given some dried henbane berries, which had been brought down from the hills, and was told on good native authority that a man with toothache would fumigate his teeth with them until the * worm ' dropped out of his mouth.^ The same principle of 'developed' magic is apparent in the charm of the 'Heart-plant/ which is presumably the Hyo8cyamu8 muticus, which grows in Sinai (Makan), the Arabs calling it sakran, ' drunken * — ** The Heart-plant sprang up in Makan, and the Moon-god [rooted it out and], [Planted it in the mountains] ; the Sun-god brought it down from the mountains [and] [Planted it in] the earth ; its root filleth the earth, its horns stretch out to heaven. [It seized on the heart of the Sun-god when] he . . . , it seized on the heart of the Moon -god in the clouds, it seized on the heart of the ox in the stall, [It seized on the heart of the goat] in the fold, it seized on the heart of the ass in the stable, [It seized on the heart of the] dog in the kennel, it seized on the heart of the pig in the stye, [It seized on the heart of the] man in his pleasure, it seized on the heart of the maid in her sleeping-chamber, [It seized on the heart of N.], son of N., . . . " ' 1 Devils a'iid Evil Spirits, ii, 160. 3 In Les Plantes Magiques, ed. S^ir, 1902, it is recommended to rub the gums with Senecio vulgaris and then replant it. » KUchler, Beitr. zur Kenntnis der Assyr.-BabyL Medizin, 9. * Stable,* * kennel,' * stye,* * pleasure,' * sleeping-chamber' are all a little doubtful as translations. On the Hyoscyamus see preface to Devils, i. CEREMONY FOE REBUILDING A TEMPLE. xlv The principle is adopted in other forms of magic — " When the wall of a temple falls (it is necessary) to dig the foundation. The haril'Beer shall bless (?) the place of this house. In a favourable month, on a fortunate day, in the night, they shall light an abra for Ea and Marduk, Make offerings to Ea and Marduk ; the priest shall make a prayer. The singer shall sing a dirge : in the morning over the beams of that house, Three offerings thou shalt offer to Ea, Samas, and Marduk, 360 cakes of wheat meal, dates, (and) a^er-meal thou shalt offer, Honey-syrup, butter, and sweet oil {senine) [thou shalt offer], Three oc^o^r-vessels thou shalt place, [and fill (?) them] with wine, A brazier thou shalt place . . . Thou shalt sacrifice two lambs . . . V The priest shall sing before [Ea], Samas, and Marduk, [Several lines brokenJ] ... a censer the priest shall bring. And shall pour forth the [honey-syrup], butter, milk, sesame-wine,. wine, and sweet oil. And he shall repeat the incantation 'When Anu created the heaven ^ in front of the brickwork. 'When Anu created the heaven, Ea created the Ocean, his dwelling, Ea in the Ocean pulled off a piece of clay. He fashioned the God of Brickwork for the renewal . . . He formed reeds and oanebrakes for the use of building. 1 n It goes on to describe the various gods, etc.^ who take part in building. The reference to ancient occurrences, when cures are being effected, occur likewise in Egyptian magic. For inflammations there was a remedy among the Egyptians, compounded with the milk of a woman that had borne a man-child, and over this a charm to be recited : '' my son Horus! it bums on the hills; no water is there, na * Weissbach, Bab. MiseelleUy 32. xlvi THREE COMPONENTS IN AN INCANTATION. helper is there; bring water over the flood (i.e. the water of the inundation) to put out the fire.'' Wiedemana explains this as a myth of universal conflagration, and just as Horus had extinguished the flames on that occasion so would he subdue the inflammation.^ In all magic three things are necessary for the perfect exorcism. First, the Word of Power, by which the sorcerer F 'invokes divine or supernatural aid to influence the object of his undertaking. Secondly, the knowledge of the name or description of the person or demon he is working his charm against, with something more tangible, be it nail- parings or hair, in the human case. Thirdly, some drug, to which was originally ascribed a power vouchsafed by the gods for the welfare of mankind, or some charm or amulet, or, in the broadest sense, something material, even \ a wax figure or 'atonement' sacrifice, to aid the physician in his final effort. Almost all incantations can be split up into three main divisions, each with its origin in these three desideratives. The Word of Power consists in its simplest form of t\\e name of some divine being or thing, called in to help thb magician with superhuman aid. In the New Testaments its use is obvious. "Master, we saw one casting ouft devils in thy name " ^ exactly expresses the beliefs of all time, and more instructive still is the rebuke which the Pharisees brought down on themselves by saying, " This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." ^ Just as a Christian monk, Rabban Hormizd the Persian, banned ''the devils of the impure 1 Wiedemann, Religion^ 273, quoting Pap. EberSy pi. Ixix, 1. 3 ff. * Mark ix, 38 : cf. also Matt, vii, 22 ; Luke ix, 49. 3 Matt, xii, 24. THE WOKD OF POWER. xlvii Ignatius" with the words "By Jesas Christ I bind you, ye trembling horde/' ^ so would an Assyrian magician, a thousand years earlier, end his spells against demons by saying, " By heaven be ye banned ! by earth be ye banned ! " > But the Assyrian exorcisms show a far more elaborate growth. Ea and Marduk are the two most powerful gods in Assyrian sorcery, the latter, as the son of Ea, being appealed to by the magician to act as intermediary with his father, who is learned in all spells. In numerous incantations it is recognized as a regular formula to repeat the legend of Marduk going to his father Ea for advice ; and this was such a common procedure that the later scribes abbreviated the incident by putting the initial words of the three principal phrases in the story : " Marduk hath seen " ; " What I " ; " Go, my son." The full recital is as follows : — " Marduk hath seen him (the sick man), and hath entered the house of his father Ea, and hath said : ' Father, headache from the underworld hath gone forth.'' Twice he hath said unto him, 'What this man hath done he knoweth not ; whereby may he be relieved P ' Ea hath * Budge, Uistones of Rabban Homiizd, 474. * To bind ' is simply to lay under a ban. It runs through all Assyrian magic : it is said of the Sun-god ki iukmra tapattar, "him that is bound thou loosest'' (Gray, iSannaS Religious Texts, 18-19, 1. 17), and cUtama mvdt riksihmu muhallik raggi mupaUir NAM-BUL-Bi-e, "thou knowest their bonds, destroying evil, making release" {W.A,I.^ iv, 17, rev. 14). ^ Christian priests in the Orient were capable of turning their power of 'banning' to practical account, as is clear from Jacob of Edessa, Qtu AlI^ *' Concerning a priest who writes a curse and hangs it on a tree that no man may eat of the fruit " (Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, 164). * This line is always varied, it being the first line of the tablet xlviii PABALLELS FROM TUB MALAYS. answered his son Marduk, '0 my son^ what dost thou not know, what more can I give thee P Marduk, what dost thou not know, what can I add to thy knowledge P What I know, thou knowest also. Go, my son Marduk . . . ' " ; and Ea then gives his son the prescription to be used in healing the patient. This method of quoting at length such an episode is merely the development of the Word of Power.^ Malay ceremonies are very similar in principle to those of the Babylonians. To make a ' neutralising ' charm the magician must say — ''Not mine are these materials, They are the materials of KSmal-ul-hakim ; Not to me belougs this neutralising charm, To Malim Saidi belongs this neutralising charm. It is not I who apply it, It is Malim Karimun who applies it."^ In an Assyrian medical text the parallel is complete — "(The sickness) will not return unto N., son of N. The Incantation is not invented of mankind, It is the Incantation of Ba'u and Quia, The Incantation of Nin-aha-kuddu, the lord of incantation : It is the J who have performed, And I have adopted."' The story of Marduk going to his father Ea for a prescription is duplicated in Hermes Trismegistus, in * Jastrow says {Religion, German ed., 275) that from the fact that Ea and Eridu are so often mentioned, the theory is suggested that we may ultimately trace many incantations to the temple of Ea that once stood in Eridu ; and that when Qirru and Nuzku are mentioned the incantations must be referred to the authority of the priests of the temples of these goda On the gods of the incantation see ibid., 289. ' Skeat, Malay Magic, 427. » P,S.B.A,, February, 1908. The text is from my copy in C.T,, xxiii, 3, 13 ff., and 10, 20 ff. I TBEASURES GUAHDED BT SACBED WORDS. xlix his dialogues with his son : " In Hermes it is said, / am afraid, Father, of the enemy in my home : To whom he made answer^ Son, take the Dog of Corascene, and the bitch of Armenia, and joyn them together,*' etc.^ In Egypt, as far back as 3500 b.c., it is stated in the Pyramid texts of Unas that a book with words of magical power was buried with him. In Egyptian lore a demon coidd do no more mischief to a man who called him correctly by name in the Underworld, and if the deceased named a gate it flew open before him.' It is only ''Open, sesame" in another form. Treasures are kept locked by means of- sacred words. It is said that Hermes Abootat built treasure-chambers in Upper Egypt, and set up stones containing magic inscriptions, which he locked and guarded by the charm of a certain magic alphabet "extracted from the regions of darkness." This story (with the alphabet) is given in the Ancient Alphabets of Ahmad ibn Abubekr.' In an Ethiopic work. The Magic Book of the Disciples, it is said : " And everybody who believes and invokes and reads [the long list of names], by these names of Christ let him be saved from sin, and from all bad and wicked and treacherous men, and from all di8ease[s] of soul and body, and from all demons and evil spirits."^ In late Hebrew charms the sorcerer calls on angels or other heavenly powers to help him : " Ye holy, powerful angels, I adjure you, just as this pot is burnt in the fire, so shall ye » Salmon, Kaltd, 1707 (in his Medicina Pract, 299). 3 Wiedemann, Realms of Egyptian Dead, 62. * Ed. Hammer, 1806, 6. It is curious to see the belief of the modem Arabs that the Jinn are guardians of a hidden treasure (see p. 62) « Littmann, J,A,0,S., xxv, 26. d 1 KNOWLEDGE OF THE NAME IN MAGIC. burn in fire the heart of N., son of N. (to follow), after N., the son (or daughter) of N." ^ In the Talmud there is a story of B. Joshua and R. Akiba, who, on going to the baths, saw a magician who uttered a magic word and held them prisoners. In return, B. Joshua pronounced the word of power that he knew, and immediately the door barred the way for the magician's egress.' Enough has been said on this use of magical names as words of power; the second component of the perfect charm was that the magician should know something, eyen if only the name, of the person or demon whom he hoped to bring into subjection. The origin of this would appear to have arisen in the beliefs about hair, rags, or nail- parings, which are collected and wrought into the charm as the connecting links between it and the victim. If these are wanting, then the name alone will be enough, for want of anything better; in the case of a demon it is obviously the only emanation that the sorcerer can 1 See my article Tha Folklore of Mossotd, RS.B.A., 1907, 170, No. 9. This is particularly the case with the name iao (see Baudissiu, Sttidien, 189). Hebrew magic was always respected by Qentile nations, as is testified to by the way in which the Hebrew divine names are used as words of power. In the Greek incantations this use is prevalent (sec Leemans, Papyri GhrcBci), and even in Demotic Egyptian it is found. To prevent a shipwreck a Demotic papyrus prescribes the following : ** Ce nom, ei tu Tinvoques au-devant d'(une) tempdte, elle sera sans naufrage, k cause des nomes des Dioskoros qui (sont) dedans, afin qu'il sauve tu crieras : Anuk, Adonai, la formule (est d'une langue) ^trang^re, il donnera une grande force (et) il n'y aura pas de d^sastre" (Groff, Etudes 8ur la Sorcellerie, mimoires prisentis d Vinstitut igt/ptien, Cairo, 1897, iii, fasa iv). Groff sees in this Anuk Adonai a possible emendation for ^^HK HSK in Jonah. In the Greek papyri the Assyrian name EreSkigal has been found under the form EpttrxiyaX. This was pointed out first by Legge {P.S,B.A.y February, 1901, 47). * Sankedrin, vii (19). CEREMONIES. li obtain of him, and hence to learn the name came to be regarded as the equivalent of obtaining something more tangible.^ This is the reason for the long catalogues of devils that the Babylonian wizard repeats in the hope that he may hit on the correct diagnosis of the disease demon, who will straightway come forth when he perceives that his name is known. ''Whether thou art an evil Spirit, or an evil Demon, or an evil Ghost, or an evil Devil, or an evil God, or an evil Fiend, or sickness, or death, or Phantom of Night, or Wraith of Night, or fever, or . evil pestilence, be thou removed from before me," ^ or even longer catalogues of ghosts of people who have died unnatural deaths, or have been left unburied, who have returned to torment the living that the rites necessary to give them rest may be paid.' The third and last part of the spell, as we have already mentioned, is the ceremony with water, drugs, amulets, wax figures, etc. The simplest form that this can take is pure water with which the demoniac is washed, plainly with the principle of cleansing lying underneath it.^ When\ a man has fallen sick of a headache, the Assyrian magician takes water from two streams, at the spot where they runi into one another, which, 1^ the cross-roads, is always e^ place for magic. With this water he sprinkles the patient, adding due enchantments.^ For some other form of disease the priest will cleanse him with water in which certain herbs have been steeped,* a custom still prevalent among the Malays. After childbirth among the Malays a part * This is more fully discussed in the chapter on the Atonement. » DeviU and EvU Spirits, i, 16, 17, IL 164 ff. « Ibid., xxx ff. ^ On the holiness of water see Baudissin, Stttdien, ii, 148. » Denis, ii, Tablet * ?,' 1. 66 ff. • Ibid, Tablet * T,' L 30 ff. lii THE INCANTATION OF ERIDU. of the ceremony consists in administering an extraordinary mixture^ called in Selangor the 'Hundred Herbs/ but in Malacca merely 'pot-herbs/ which is concocted from all kinds of herbs, roots, and spices. The ingredients are put into a large yessel of water and left to soak, a portion of the liquor being strained off and given to the patient as a potion every morning for about ten days.^ Anotiier Assyrian spell is still more explicit — ''May all that is evil ... [in the body] of N., [be carried off] with the water of his body and the washings of his hands, and may the river carry it away down-stream."^ The explanation of the phrase "perform the Incantation of Eridu," which is so often prescribed, must be some simple ceremony of this kind, for Eridu is the home of Ea, the sea-god. It is not probable, as an alternative explanation, that the doctors recommended a frequent use of the ceremony which begins "In E^ridu groweth the kiikanii^*' ^ the possibility being that the scribe, as usual, refers to the spell by part of its first line. It is very elaborate, however, to be merely an adjunct to the main exorcism, and further, in this same text mention is made of an " Incantation of the Deep," which is probably a purification of a similar kind. The following treatment is interesting : — " [Marduk hath seen :] * What I ' ; Go, my son, Against the (fever-)heat and cold unkindly for the flesh, Fill a bowl with water from a pool that no hand hath touched, Put therein tamarisk, moLitakal^ ginger (?), homed alkali, mixed (?) wine, ^ Skeat, Malay Magic, 347. * W.AJ.y ii, 516, 11. 1 ff. For the evil influences washed away by water see footnote to p. 129. » Devils, i. Tablet * K,' L 183 ff*. The Sumerian begins with the word NUN-Ki, i.e. Eridu. WATER IN MAGIC. liii Put therein a shining (?) ring, Give him pure water to drink, Pour the water upon this man, Pull up a root of saffron, Pound (?) up pure salt and pure alkali. Fat of the mcUku-hird, brought from the mountains put therein, and Anoint (therewith) the body of that man seven timea*' ^ Elsewhere the rabiau-deTaon is thus washed away : ' < Cf. Martin Del Rio, Disquisitionesy bk. i, 59 : " Hue referendum, si iiguram attendunt, quod Hispahicis pueris ex Gagate ad coUum deligant, manu in derisum inserto intra digitos primores pollice con- formate, Higam vocant." This was probably due to Moorish influence. CORNELIANS AS AMULETS. Ixiii S. 504 is an incantation of the same kind — V SiptU, KI-KI-KI ZU-ZU-ZU KA-KA-KA-KA EN-EN-EN-EN-EN-EN-EN .... BUR-BUR-BUR-BUK It is not infrequent to find that a natural desire to calculate the efficacy of amulets leads to tests such as artificers will subject their armour-plate to. The Magharby of the Sinaitio Peninsula make an amulet of a strip of parchment, the same length as the man for whose protection it is intended, and coyered with writing. It is then fastened on an animal as a trial of its potency, and a bullet fired at it. If the animal escapes, the charm has proved its worth, and can be trusted against anything but a silver bullet, against which no amulet is known.^ I heard of similar tests in Mosul, the writing being tied to a fowl, and the fowl shot at.^ Judging by the average Arab markmanship with a revolver (or rifle, for that matter, unless fired from a rest), the amulet should prove satisfactory in nine cases out of ten. In Egypt and the Soudan, and probably still further eastward, small pierced cornelians in the shape of arrow- heads are worn threaded on necklets. I believe that this is a superstition that can be traced to the Assyrian medical texts. In these latter incantations there are directions given for threading certain stones on hair to be worn by the patient who is apparently suffering from rheumatism. The name of these signifies * wheat-stones,' and they » W. E. Jennings-Bramley, P.KF,, 1906, 198. « Folklore of Mououl, P,S.B.A., 1906, 81. Ixiy LOYE CHABHS. are further described in a historical inscription as *' wheat- stones, whereof the shape is fashioned as the seeds of cucumberSy such as are held in price for necklets, a stone that granteth (?) the obtaining of favour and confidence, that no sickness draw near to man.'' The comparison with corn and seeds of cucumber is too obvious to be missed.^ The Assyrian prescription runs — '^Spin together hair from a dog and hair from a lion (and) thread three cornelians (thereon), [bind it on, and he shall recover]. '^ Love-philtres and charms for hatred are frequent in the magical books. Even the staid historian Josephus relates a story of a love-potion.^ And to go back still further, the mandrakes of Genesis ' were to have the same effect. In later Eastern magic, love-charms are made of the brain of the hoopoe pounded up and administered in a cake with proper ceremony,^ or of magic wicks inscribed with invocations and burnt in a lamp.^ The bones of a frog, buried for seven days and then exhumed, would, if cast into water, automatically show themselves good for either love or hatred ; if they sank, they would form the base of a charm for hate, but if they floated they were 1 See my article, P,S.B,A,f February, 1908. In this text is a case of the Assyrian physician burning his patient on the affected place, just as his modem Arab descendant does. " Hold the flesh of his loins in the flame of a torch '' are the directions followed by the barbarian of the present day. ' Jewish War J i, zxx, § 1. Compare the discussions in Sprenger, MaUeus Maleficarum, 1580 : " An malefici mentes horainum ad amorem, vel odium valeant immutare " (p. 98) ; " An generativam potentiam seu actum Venereum malefici impedire possunt quod Male- ficium in bulla continetur'' (p. 114). ' XXX, 14. ♦ Folklore of Mossotd, P.S.B.A,, November, 1907, 286, No. 41. » Ibid., December, 1907, 330, No. 92. HATE CHABM6. IxY to aid lovers.^ Charms^ too, were made for the girls who were not sought in marriage,' for the love of disdainful women,' and, still more diplomatic of aU, " for love, when thou wishest that a woman should come after thee, and thou shouldst please her father and mother/'^ In the Syriac Paradise of the Holy Fathers^ there is a story told of an Egyptian who had fallen in love with another man's wife, and, his suit being unavailing, he has recourse to a magician to make the woman love him or the husband hate her. The magician transforms the wife into a mare, which causes complications in the household, and finally she is restored to her former shape by the holy man Macarius, who takes water, blesses it, and throws it over her head. Another demand which sorcery supplied was to put hatred between the members of a family. This is mentioned in the Eoran,^ which says that men learnt from Harut and Marut a charm by which they might cause division between a man and his wife; ''but they hurt none thereby unless by Qod's permission.'^ In later Hebrew magic the result was attained if the egg of a black hen boiled in urine were given half to a dog and half to a cat, with the .charm " As these hate one another, so may hatred fall between N. and N."^ The hatred between cat and dog is an old legend in Palestine. Once upon a time, when the world was young, to each and » Folklore of Mossoul, PS.B.A,, November, 1907, 287, No. 59. » Ibid., No. 56. » Ibid., December, 1907, 329, Nos. 83, 84. * Ibid., November, 1907, 286, No. 43. » Ed. Budge, 1907, i, 115. • Surah ii ' Folklore of Mossoul, P,S,B.A., November, 1907, 287, No. 60. There is a Syriac charm for "reconciliation in the household" given in Gollancz, Selection of Charms^ 94. Ixvi CHARMS TO ESCAPE FROM PRISON. every kind of animal a duty was assigned. The dog and the cat were relieved from menial duty, because of the faithfulness of the one and the cleanliness of the other, and a written document was given them in attestation thereof, and the dog took charge of it. He buried it where he kept his stock of old bones, but this privilege of exemption so roused the envy of the horse, ass, and ox that they bribed the rat to burrow underground and destroy the charter. Since the loss of this document the dog has been liable, on account of his carelessness, to be tied or chained up by his master, and what is more, the cat has never forgiven him.^ Escape from prison was to be obtained from charms. In Ethiopic legend a certain man who lay bound in prison for the sake of Christ appealed to the Virgin, and she appeared in the form of a bird and flew out of the prison with him.' This was doubtless modelled on the story in the New Testament of Peter's release from gaol.' In later magic, the prisoner must get hold of three fresh eggs laid that day, boil them hard, shell them, and write on each three magic words and eat the eggs, " and he shall go forth by God's help."* To be invisible was another attainment also to be sought after. From directions in the late Hebrew MSS., a ring of copper and iron engraved with certain magic signs and worn on the person would secure this result ; or the heart of a black cat dried and steeped in honey, and worn either at the beginning of the month or with the waning » Hanauor, Palestinian Animal Folklore^ P.E.F.^ 1904, 265. ' Budgo, Lives of Mahd Sey6n and Qahra KristSs, btxi. ' Acta xii, 7 ft*. * FoU'lore of Mossoul^ P.SM,A.^ December, 1907, 327, No. 68. CHARMS TO DRY UP WATER. Ixvii moon.^ In the Greek papyrus pabliabed by LeemanSy^ if a man take a hawk's egg and gild one-half, and smear the other half with cinnabar, he will be invisible if he carry this with him and pronounce the magio word over it. Just as we find charms for sowing dissension in the family circle, which is accounted a breach of tabu in the Surpu list, so also to tamper with a neighbour's water-channels (a serious misdeed in a hot country, and one reckoned as tabu also by the Assyrians) can be effected by magic. These charms are an indirect source for increasing our knowledge of tabu, and for this reason, if for none other, they are well worth the trouble of collecting. Reinaud describes an Arabic talismanic plaque meant to make water disappear from a cistern or weU. Ibn Khaldun refers to this practice, saying that in Africa people who wish to obtain this result use the figure of a man drawing a bucket vrith a cord in his hands from the bottom of a well. On his chest the letter s is marked three times, and W between the legs, which, as Reinaud remarks, is exactly what occurs on the plaque. Ibn Khaldun adds that a bird must be sacrificed and the talisman rubbed with the blood; then sandarach, incense, and myrrh must be burnt to fumigate it. After this it should be covered with silk bound with two woollen threads, the auspicious moment for doing all this being when Leo rises on the horizon.' The mixture of silk and woollen threads is a con- firmation of the theory that the Levitical law ^ " neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon » Folklore of Moumd, P.S.B.A.^ November, 1907, 286, Nos. 47 and 49. ' Papyri Orceci^ 98. ' Reinaud, Monumens Afusulmans du Due de Blacasj ii, 334. * xix, 19. Ixviii SUMMARY. thee " is due to an aversion to magic. A Hebrew charm *' to dry up a river ** is to write a magical name on a stone from the same water on the Sabbath, and cast it into the stream.^ Many such charms are to be found in the Sepher Eaziel and the Sword of Moses, The former contains methods for turning the heart of a woman, putting love between husband and wife, filling the house with smoke and fire, and many other receipts of the same nature. Enough has been said, however, on the magicians and their literature and powers. Their warfare against the goblins and ghosts demanded a knowledge of certain prescribed rules which made their magic efiectual when properly performed. Their :personal risk from demoniac attacks was small, and in many cases the magic circle was a safeguard, although it seems to have been used more to protect the sick man in early times than the priest. But provided that they knew the proper word of power, displayed an ostentatious knowledge of their ghostly assailant, nothing further was wanting to a successful issue than some concrete charm as an effective aid to the demon's expulsion. ' Folklore of Mossouly P.S.B.A.,, December, 1907, 327, No. 73. I. THE DEMONS AND GHOSTS. Throughout the Near East, from prehistoric times down to the present day, the inhabitants haye been firmly convinced that supernatural beings, to use a general expression, are capable of inflicting grievous hurt upon them, and that the maladies and bodily ills to which they are subject are directly due to this baneful power. The modern natives of Irak, Syria, and Barbary have inherited from their forebears a legacy of superstitions and beliefs which show little variation from their pristine simplicity, and throw new light on many ancient Semitic ideas. Although in most instances the specific names for the demons of one Semitic dialect have no etymological connection with those of another (and the few cases in Hebrew and Syriac which are in opposition to this statement seem to have been borrowed at a comparatively late period) the ideas which are still current show us that the more ancient forms of hobgoblins, vampires, spooks, and devils exist imder various titles^ with the several attributes that were assigned to them by the Babylonians, who cultivated one of the most elaborate and intricate systems of ancient magic that we know. In making an examination into the ancient witchcraft we shall therefore avail ourselves of ^ For the names of demons in late Hebrew see Schwab, VocabtUaire de V Angelologie^ and the lists in The Book of Sacred Magic, ed. Mathers ; in Egyptian, Wiedemann, Der OStter- und Daemonennamen ; in Greek, Leemans, Paptfri Oroeci ; Dieterich, Papyrus Magica ; Legge, P,S,B.A.y Feb. 1901, 41. B 2 CLASSES OP SPIRITS. as much of modem folklore as may serve to elucidate the older superstitions, and by a comparison of the magic of the ancients with that of their descendants try to obtain some glimpse of the beliefs of the primitive Semite. It will be admitted readily that, when once a system of demonology has been evolved, at loait tbreo chlsses of spirits must be recognized. The simplest and most universal form of these was the disembodied spirit, the souls of men or women who, having died, had changed their earthly shape for an incorporeal one. Second to thiscomes the supernatural being who never was earthly, a phantom or demon, often of such grotesque or horrid shape as savage imagination might invent. Lastlyj we have a class of demons half-ghostly, half-human, the offspring of inter- marriage between human beings and the spirit world, just as we find demigods of half divine origin in all mythologies. Taking each of these classes in turn, we shall be able, by a comparison of the different ideas prevailing among the Semitic and other peoples of the East, to form some substantial basis for a critical insight into this phase of theology. Inasmuch as the Assyrian incantations show a systematized demonology, which is at the same time the earliest at our disposal, the several Assyrian names for devils form an excellent starting- point in the various species. The first class, then, is that of the disembodied spirit. The main idea concerning this ghost is that it returns to this world from the place of the departed spirits, making its presence observed either by a visible appearance as it was in the flesh, or by making an unseen attack on some man so that he is stricken down by disease. The reasons for its restlessness are many : the soul finds GHOSTS. 3 no peace if its corporeal shape is unburied^ or if its descendants cease to feed it by paying it its due rites, libations, or sacrifices, or for a hundred other causes which are frequently set forth at length in the cuneiform incantations. Among the Assyrians the word used for this ghost was edimmu,^ and like other nations they believed that the soul could return to earth, and to these ghosts they ascribed many of their bodily ills. In ordinary circumstances, when a person died and was duly buried his soul entered the underworld, " the House of Darkness, the seat of the god Irkalla, the house from which none that enter come forth again," ^ where it was compelled to feed on dust and mud. Of Shedl among the Hebrews, according to the most primitive beliefs, we have very little direct knowledge. In historic times its principal characteristic is darkness,' the word for * dust ' being used as a synonym.^ It was under the earth,^ and was described as a place from which one did not return,^ and, as in the Assyrian picture in the Descent of Ishtar, it is portrayed as a city with gates.^ The dead would 1 The two texts published by L. W. King (O.T, iii, 2-4, and v;'4-7) and translated by Hunger {Bechenoahrsagwng bei den- Babiftoniem, 1903} show, as Hunger points out (p. 32), that we must read edimmu, and not ekimmu. The variants e'di-im-mi and e'te-im-mi-im leave no manner of doubt that ekimmu is wrong. I had hitherto thought that it meant the * thing snatched away ' {Devils, i, xxii), as it has always been referred to the root ekimu, *to rob,' although with what is probably an impossible translation (having regard to the form), *the seizor.' ' See Jeremias, VorsteUungen vom Leben nach dem Tode, 59 S. In W.A.L, iv, 27, 1-3, it is Tammuz, the husband of Ishtar, who is described as Ruler of Hades. » Job X, 21. * Job xvii, 16. » Job xi, 8. * Job vii, 10. ' Isa. xxxviii, 10, etc. 4 EABBINIC BELIEFS. be kaown by tbeir dress — the old man by his robe,^ the soldier by his sword.^ But Sbedl is independent of Yahweh in early times, and there is little change down to the fourth century b.c. In the primitive belief, when a man dies he is removed from the jurisdiction of Yahweb,^ and there are no more relations between them.^ The Rabbis believed that there was " a place called ni23 ^n, which derives its name from the fact that it is assigned to the departed spirits of men. It represents a building with a courtyard, encircled by a fence. Before the courtyard flows a river, adjoining which is a field. Every day Dumah leads out the spirits to pasture in the • field and to drink of the river.'' ^ The Kabbalists believed in metempsychosis from the body of one species into the body of another species. Some of the later sages of the Kabbala say that the soul of an unclean person will transmigrate into an unclean animal, or into creeping things or reptiles. For one form of uncleanness, the soul will be invested with the body of a Oentile, who will become a proselyte ; for another, the soul will pass into the body of a mule ; for others, it transmigrates into an ass, a woman of Ashdod, a bat, a rabbit or a hare, a she-mule or a camel. Ishmael transmigrated first into the she-ass of Balaam, and subsequently into the ass of Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair.^ ^ 1 Sam. xxviii, 14. ' Ezek. xxxii, 27 ; cf. also Isa. xiv. ' Ps. Ixxxviii, 6. * Isa. xxxviii, 18. These passages have been taken from the articles in the Encyclopcedia Bihlica, sub Deady Eschatology, and SheCL * Bender, J.Q,., vi, 338, quoting Mid. Khillim (ed. Buber, 51, 6). * NiahmoUh Charin, xiii, No. 14, quoted Hershon, Talm, Misc., 326. For further reference to this subject, see Hershon, loc. cit., and Franck, La Kabbale, chap. v. MOHAMMEDAN BELIEFS. According to Sale, the Mohammedans have various beliefs concerning the future destination of the souls of the dead. Some say that they stay near the tombs with the liberty of going where they please ; ^ others that they are with Adam in the lowest heaven, or in Zemzem,^ or that they stay near the graves for seven days, or that they are all in the trumpet which is to wake the dead, or finally, that they take the form of white birds under the throne of God.^ When an infidel comes forth from the grave, his works shall be presented to him under the ugliest form he ever beheld, and it shall ride upon him> Certain of the Arabs, believing in a metempsychosis, thought that, of the blood near the dead person's brain, was formed a bird named Hamfth, which once in a hundred years visited the sepulchre ; though others say, this bird is animated by the soul of him who is unjustly slain, and continually cries oakuni, oskuni, "give me to drink," meaning of the murderer's blood, till his death be avenged; and then it flies away.^ When a corpse is laid in the grave, the Mohammedans say he is received by an angel, who gives him notice of the coming of the two examiners, which are two black angels of a terrible appearance named Monker and Nakir.^ If ^ Hence the belief, which is still curreDt in Palestine, that the dead may drink from the hollows scooped in the tops of tombs where the rain-water gathers (Baldensperger, P,E.F., 1893, 217). * This is in the case of believers, Zemzem being the well near Mekka. Unbelievers go to the well of Borhdt in Hadramaut. ' Sale, Koi'an, Prelim, Discourse^ sect. iv. * Ibid., Surah vi. s Ibid., sect i. On the Mandean idea of the soul meeting Shitil, one of the first emanations, see Schulim Ochser, A Mandean Hymn of the Soul, A,J,S,L,, voL xxii, 287. On the curious Sjriac Hymn of the Soul see Bevan, Texts and Studies, vol. v, No. 3. • Ibid., sect. iv. 6 STEIAC BELIEFS. a man pass by the grave of a friend, he should hail the sold with a greeting.^ • The Syriac beliefs are given in the Book of the Bee:' " When the soul goes forth from the body, as Abb& Isaiah says, the angels go with it : then the hosts of darkness go forth to meet it, seeking to seize it and examine it, if there be anything of theirs in it ... As to where the souls abide from the time they leave their bodies until the resurrection, some say that they are taken up to heaven, that is, to the region of the spirit, where the celestial hosts dwell. Others say that they go to Paradise, that is, to the place which is abundantly supplied with good things of the mystery of the revelations of God ; and that the souls of sinners lie in darkness in the abyss of Eden outside Paradise. Others say that they are buried with their bodies; that is to say, as the two were buried in God at baptism, so also will they now dwell in Him until the day of resurrection. Others say that they stand at the mouth of the graves and await their Redeemer ; that is to say, they possess the knowledge of the resurrection of their bodies. Others say that they are as it were in a slumber, because of the shortness of the time/' The Yezidis (the devil-worshippers of the Sinjar Hills in Mesopotamia) say that the spirits of wicked men take up their abode in dogs, pigs, donkeys, horses, or, after suffering a while, rehabilitate as men. The spirits of the good inhabit the air to show the secrets of our world.' » Wellhausen, Reste, 2nd ed., 183 (and cf. 177 ff.) ; on the whole subject see Jacob, Lehen der vorislamischen Beduinen, 143. » Ed. Budge, 131. * Chabot, J. A., voL vii, 1896, 128. A picture of SheCl according to Ethiopic beliefs is given in Budge, Lives of Mahd Seydn ai\d Oabra Krestds, xxxiii. ASSYRIAN GHOSTS. 7 Now if the attentions of its friends on earth should cease, and the soul should find nothing to eat or drink, then it was driven by force of hunger to come back to earth to demand its due. This is described on an Assyrian tablet which begins — " The gods which seize (upon man) Have come forth from the grave ; The evil wind-gusts Have come forth from the grave ; To demand the payment of rites and the pouring of libations They have come forth from the grave ; All that is evil of those seven ^ Hath come like a whirlwind.*' ' Or another — " The evil Spirit, the evil Demon, the evil Ghost, the evil Devil, From the earth have come forth ; From the Pure Abode unto earth they have come forth ; In heaven they are unknown. On earth they are not understood. They neither stand nor sit. He cannot eat food nor drink water." * In this latter text, however, the reference is more to devils or demons than to ghosts, but, as will be seen later, the classes of spirits are much confused with one another. One of the most interesting passages in the Gilgamish legend describes the raising of the spectre of Ea-bani # ^ I have adopted Hehn's correction of my previous translation : "jene Sieben [in der semitischen Zeile ; ihre Ge8amtheit>=8ie alle]" {Siebeiizahl und Sabbat, 1907, 5). 2 DeviU, ii, Tablet * Y.' » Ibid., Tablet * CO.' The last line refers to the patient ; cf. ibid., Tablets 'A,' 15 ; XI, 67 ; IX, 63; *T,' 25. The "Pure Abode'' is a name for Eridu (cf. Devils, xv, 5). 8 ASSYRIAN NECROMANCY. from Hades. The Babylonian hero Gilgamish attempts to see his friend Ea-bani, who has died, and the god Nergal is directed by Ea to restore Ea-bani to earth. The shade ^ of the dead man rises through an opening made by the god in the eartb '' like the wind/' a transparent spectre in human shape.^ Ea-bani then describes what he has seen in the underworld — " The man whose corpse lieth in the desert — Thou and I have often seen such an one — ' His spirit resteth not in the earth ; The man whose spirit hath none to care for it — Thou and I have often seen such an one — The dregs of the vessel, the leavings of the feast, And that which is cast out into the street are his food/* * This last is also the condition of the neglected spirit according to the Egyptian theology. If offerings were not paid to the deceased in Egypt, he was obliged to wander into unclean places to eat such filth and drink such dirty water as he might find in tbe course of his wretched waadering8.» ^ Uttbkku is the Assyrian word used in this instance. Cf. the story of Odysseus raising Teiresias. * Cf. Job iv, 15, " Then a spirit (breath) passed before my face." ' Tamur atamar, which Jensen translates ** sahst du, sehe ich." * Tablet XII. ' Book of the Dead, chapters 52, 53. See Wiedemann, Realms of Egyptian Dead, 44. An Egyptian stela puts into the mouth of a dead wife the following adjuration to her living husband ! " my comrade, my husband ! Cease not to eat and drink, to be drunken, to enjoy the love of women, to hold festival. Follow thy longings by day and night. Qive care no room in thy heart. For the West land [a domain of the dead] is a land of sleep and darkness, a dwelling-place wherein those who are there remain. They sleep in their mummy forms, they wake no more to see their comrades, they see neither father nor mother, their heart does not yearn for wife and children. On earth each drinks the water of life, but I suffer with thirst. Water comes to him that sojourns on earth, but I pine for the water that is by me. I long for HEBREW NECROMANCY. 9 A similar belief in necromancy is shown among the Hebrews, for Saul goes to visit a "woman with a familiar spirit" at En-dor. She brings up Samuel out of the earth, and he answers the questions which Saul wishes to ask.^ The very name of a class of magicians, muselu edimmu, " Raiser of the departed spirit," ^ among the Assyrians, shows how great a hold such practices had over the people. In Mohammedan tradition Christ raises Shem, the son of Noah, who, thinking he had been called to judgment, came out of his grave with his head half grey, " whereas men did not grow grey in his days " ; after which he immediately died again.^ the breeze on the bank of the river to soothe my heart in its woe. For the name of the god who rules here is * Total Death/ At his call all men come unto him, trembling with fear. He makes no difference between gods and men ; in his eyes high and low are equal. He shows no favour to him who loves him ; he carries away the child from his mother and the grey-haired man alike. None comes to worship him, for he is not gracious to his worshippers, and he pays no heed to him who brings gifts to him'* (Wiedemann, The Heahns of the Egyptian Dead, translated by Hutchison, 28). It is clear that offerings of sacrificial blood and libations, when poured on the ground, were believed to percolate through to the supernatural beings under the earth. When Ea-bani and Gilgamish desire a dream they ascend a mountain and dig a hole and pour an offering of upuiUu-mi&aX into it, as an offering to the mountain, praying: '*0 mountain, bring a dream [to Earbani] ; grant him [dreams, . . . . -god] " (v, cols, ii-iii, 1. 46). ^__LJLSam. xxviii, 7. Tertullian says {De Idol., quoted Conybeare, c/lQ., viii, 604): "The magicians call up ghosts (p/iantasmata\ and dishonour the souls of those long dead ; they smother young boys to make them gasp out oracles ; they play off marvels with the trickery of jugglers.'* Cf. 1 Sam. ii, 6, of Yahweh bringing down to She61 and raising up. » W.AJ,, ii, 61, 2, r. 20, 21. ^ Sale, KoraUy note to Surah iii. For the Palestinian belief, cf. the story of Lazarus (see EncycL BibL, 2744) ; for the raising of the dead among the Greeks, see Potter, Archosologia Grceca, 7th ed., 10 DESECRATION OF GRATES. If the bones of the dead were removed from the tomb, the spirit at once became restless, and was compelled to roam about the earth homeless. AsSurbanipal relates how he desecrated the tombs of the kings of Elam by carrying away their bones and causing their rites to cease, that their spirits might have no rest.^ In Egypt Cambyses had Amasis' body dragged forth from its tomb to be mangled and burnt.^ On the other hand, SamaS-dum-ukin relates that he reinstated the rites and libations to the kings who had preceded him, which had, for a time, been abrogated.' It was usual to curse future desecrators: "May his name be destroyed, may his seed be blotted out, may his life be ended in want and famine, may his corpse be cast out that it may have no tomb."^ On the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar the Phoenician king has inscribed a curse on all those who shall disturb his rest : " May they have no resting-place with the Shades, nor be buried in a grave, nor have son or seed." ^ And there is evidently some idea of this in Jeremiah's prophecy : ^ ''At that time, saith the i, 348 ; Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings, 3. The grave is always the most likely place to see a spirit. In 1906, when I was travelling in the Eastern provinces of the Soudan,^ among the Bishartn and Hadendowas, one of the Soudanese servants, who was left in sole charge of the camp for a few nights, declared that he had seen a ghost rise from a grave close by and approach him. » W.AJ., V, 6, 70 ff. » Herodotus, iii, 16. ^ Lehmann, Samasaumukiny ii, 21. * W.A.L, V, 61, 48 ff. a, quoted Jeremias, Vorstellungeti vom Leben nach dem Tode, 47. » C.I.S., i, 3, 1. 8. • Jer. viii, 1 ff. On the digging of foreign tombs for bones see Jeremias, Vorstell., 54 ff. Note also that the bones of Joseph are carried home by Moses, Exod. xiii, 19. DESECRATION OF GRAVES. 11 Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped : they shall not be gathered, nor be buried ; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth/' Similarly, in the tomb inscriptions of Hejra in Arabia, written in Nabatean about the beginning of our era, the maker of a family vault frequently calls down curses on future meddlers. ''May Dusara and Mandthu and Kai§ah curse all who shall sell this tomb or buy it, or pledge it or give it away, or let it out for hire, or write any inscription thereon, or bury therein any except those whose names are mentioned, for this tomb and inscription are haram, as the haram of the Nabateans and Shalameans." ^ The ancient superstitions on the effect of disturbing a grave reappear in the modem Mohammedan opinion ; it was by the best advice that Lord Kitchener caused the destruction of the Mahdi's body after the battle of Omdurman in 1898.* Whether the Assyrians believed in kismet is uncertain. In the legend of Z& we read of the Tablets of Destiny being stolen by Z& from Heaven. Simtu is the usual word for ' fate,' and a common euphemism for ' death ' is to say iimtu ubiliu, * fate carried him off.' 1 CLS.y No. 197, Huber 29, Eiiting 2. 3 See H. R. Hall, OhLxde to Egypt wid the Sudan (Murray), [109]. 12 DESTINY AMONG THE ASSYRIANS. Akuratu zarH simtum uhtil Agarinnu alitti ittar kur-nu-gi. " I rest alone ; the father, destiny hath carried him off, The mother that bore me hath gone to the land whence none return." ^ Marduk is the god musim iimdte ia ildni kalama,^ " thai determineth tlie fates of all the gods/' But the phrase ina Am la simtiiu urruhis imtut (Sennacherib, v, 2), "he died prematurely in a day la iimtisu" shows that the idea is more that of 'the allotted span,' here at any rate, than of any predestination. A possible reference to Tablets of Destiny is to be found in Exod. xxxii, 33, '^ Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book" (of Tahweh). Among the Arabs Al-lauhu^l'Mah/uz is the name for 'the preserved tablet ' on which the decrees of God are recorded with reference to mankind.^ The possibility of avoiding death is the subject of an incident in the Epic of Gilgamish. After Ea-bani's death, Gilgamish, in terror of such a fate, goes in search of Sit- napishtim : " I, indeed, will not die like Ea-bani ; woe hath entered my body ; I fear death.'' But Sit-napishtim tells him that he cannot escape the common lot, but there is a wonderful plant called iibu ismhir amelu ("the old man made young to manhood"). Gilgamish starts in search of it, saying that he will eat of it and return to his youth. He finds the plant and comes on a pool of cool water in which he bathes, but a snake, a denizen of the spring, scents the plant and darts out and carries it off, leaving Gilgamish lamenting over its loss.^ * Martin, Textes Religieux^ 164-6, 11. 9, 10. » Hehn, Beitr, zur Assyr.^ v, 375, D.T. 109, 1. 6. 5 Hughes, Diet, of lalam^ 285. * Gilgamish Epic ; see Jensen, Keiliruchr, Bihliothek^ 203 fL i I GHOSTS. 13 Under oertain circumstances the soul of a dead man never entered the underworld. For instance, it is a universal belief that the departed spirit can find no rest so long as its body remains unburied.^ In the Assyrian incantations we find long lists of ghosts exorcised, each severally described with the reason of its return.^ The reason that these lists are so long is that the sorcerer, as has been explained elsewhere, may show that he knows the name of the particular ghost he is exorcising. " Whether thou art a ghost that hath come from the earth . . . Or one that lieth dead in the desert, Or one that lieth dead in the desert, uncovered with earth . . . Or a ghost unburied, Or a ghost that none careth for, Or a ghost with none to make offerings, Or a ghost with none to pour libations, * . Or a ghost that hath left no posterity." ' * We may see in these last lines one of the reasons for the great desire of the Semites for children, particularly males, to perpetuate the family name. Indeed, this is not surprising when it is remembered how universal a custom it is to sacrifice to the dead, with the duty naturally devolving upon the children. It is as common among Semites as among other nations. It was clearly a belief among the Assyrians ; it is the same with the Hebrews : " I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I put away ' In the O.T. the bodies of men hanged were buried carefully (Joshua viii, 29). » Devils, i. Tablet IV, coL iv, 41. ' The last line, "that hath left no posterity," is a translation of zaJkar iume la iM, literally " that hath no naming of a name," i.e. one that carries on the family name. 14 OFFERINGS TO THE DEAD. thereof, being unclean, nor g^yen thereof for the dead." ^ An Assyrian text describes the feast of an evil spirit : " Thy food is the food of ghosts, thy drink is the drink of ghosts."^ In the Nestorian burial service' it is said that the dead are more abundantly helped by k&rbdni and requiems and alms which are done in their behalf, " and they attain rest of their souls and expiation of their sins,, without doubt.'' Among the Sabians a feast used to be made to the dead in the month of Tisri. Each man would buy all sorts of food, meat, or fresh and dried fruit, and cook sweetmeats, burning them all night for the dead, and also pouring libations on the fire. They had also a curious custom of burning the thigh-bone of a camel for the '^Dog of the Witch " (Hekate), that he may not bark at the dead.^ The Persians used to believe that the ghosts of their ancestors were in the habit of returning to one of their feasts (Tabarj&n).^ Among the later Hebrews, parents were forbidden to wash during the first days of the mourning for their dead 1 Deut. xxvi, 14. On offerings to the dead among the Hebrews see Schwally, Ikis Leben nach dent Tode, 31. "Are we to think of the mere uuluckiness of anything connected with the dead (Hos. iz, 4), or of some form of worship as in Isa. viii, 19 ?" {Encyd, £ibl,, 840). » i)ei;i7«, i, Tablet * A,' 17 ff. * Isaac H. Hall, Hehraica^ iv, 198. * En-Nedlm, i, v, § 7, Chwolsohn, Die Stabler, ii, 31. ^ Mohammed Abd-Thaleb Dimeshki, ibid. 232. Of. Frazer, Oolden Bough, iii, 88, quoting a peculiar belief of the Athenians from Hesychius, that the souls of the dead came back from the nether world and went about the city. The people smeared their houses with pitch, apparently thinking that they would thus be rendered unrecognisable. See also Frazer, Joum^ Anthrop. Inst,, xv, 64 ff., for ghosts and the disposal of the dead body. On the worship of ghosts in the East see Lyall, Asiatic Studies, 1899, 145 ff. THE RETURN OF THE GHOST. 15 child.^ As long as the body remained unburied, the parents were excused from reading the Shema' and the wearing of phylacteries. There was also a custom of turning seats upside down "in sign of mourning." This was done as soon as the dead was carried out of the house. On the eve of Saturday the seats were replaced, but on the Saturday evening they were turned up again. Three explanations were given by the Kabbis for this : (1) From an explanation of Job ii, 13, where the expression used is " they sat with him, |^*3^!^,7," and not on the earth. (2) God gave a form in His likeness, now turned face upwards in death as a punishment for sin ; hence the couches should be turned up. (3) It is on the couch that a birth takes place ; hence at death it should be turned up. Notwithstanding these elaborate explanations, I think the idea is to prevent the ghost returning to sit in the house. Similarly, as long as the corpse is above ground the mourners should eat with neighbours ; if they have no neighbours, in any chamber but the customary dining- room. In default of this, some separation between them and the dead should be made, or, in the impossibility of doing even this, they should turn, at least for eating, towards the opposite wall ^ in the room. Among the Jews in Palestine at the present day, unless the Kaddish is said after a man's death, he cannot rest.' The modem Arabs and Syrians consider that a man has obligations towards the dead which must not be neglected, and they tell stories of the way in which departed spirits left to shift for themselves have returned to their descendants * Berakhoth^ ii, 7 (6), ed. Schwab, i, 46. ' Ibid., ill, 1. ' Masterman, Bibl, Worldy xxii, 250. 16 OFFERINGS TO THE DEAD. in dreams at night, reproaching them for their lack of filial daty.^ Among the Nusairiyeh there is a sacrifice for the dead, and a parent may say at the sacrifice '^redeem soul by seal/' that is, redeem the soul of the dead man by the soul of the animal to be kiUed as victim.^ Among certain Arabs, when they died, their camel was tied to their sepulchre, and so left without meat and drink to perish, and accompany them to the other world, lest they should be obliged at the resurrection to go on foot.^ According to Curtiss, an Arab often leaves a sum in his will to be expended in the sacrifice of a victim in his behalf.^ On the day of Korban, the great sacrifice on Mount Arafat, each Arab family kills as many camels as there have been deaths of adult persons during the last year in that family, seven sheep being the full substitute for one camel.^ Palgrave explains, in his chapter Ma'an to the Djouf Arabs, that the souls of the dead "are pleased with, nay, require sacrifices at their tombs, and the blood thus shed nourishes and satiates them." ^ In Palestine the tops of tombs are sometimes made concave to allow the rain - water to accumulate there that the dead may drink.^ These are paralleled in the veKvia of the Odyssey,^ in which the ghosts drink greedily of the sacrificial blood. We have therefore ample evidence that the Semites generally paid rites and made ofierings to the dead, under the impression that they were feeding the ghosts, and 1 Curtiss,Prm. Sent, Bel,, 178, 206. * Ibid., 208. ^ Sale, Koran, sect. i. * Loc. cit., 206. * Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahahia, i, 99. • i, 33. 7 Baldensperger, P,KF,, 1893, 217. « xi. NAILING DOWN THE GHOST. 17 that if they ceased to offer sustenance to the souls of- their ancestors they might render themselves liable to affliction or even possession by the hungry souls of the departed. But there are many other accidents which prevent a soul from entering into rest : — '* He that lieth in a ditch . . . He that no grave covereth . . . He that lieth uncovered. Whose head is uncovered with dust, The king's son that lieth in the desert Or in the ruins, The hero whom they have slain with the sword." ^ Among the modem Arabs the soul of a murdered man must be nailed down. If a man is murdered in Egypt his afrit rises from the ground where his blood has been shed, but it can be restrained by driving a new nail which has never been used into the ground at the spot where the murder was committed.' I met with such a case in Tripoli (Barbary). While I was waiting for my caravan to be made up for a journey round the inland districts, the proprietor of the little Italian locanda showed me a nail which had been driven into the paving of the porch floor. A few years before, a native had been murdered close to the door, and immediately the neighbouring Arabs thronged thither with hammer and nail, and thus secured the freedom of the place from being haunted by the dead man's soul. Some time after the proprietor attempted to remove the nail, but he was at once prevented, on the grounds that the ghost would thereby be released. ^ WA.L, ii, 17; Haupt, A.S.K.T., 11, ii, 6. Cf. Num. xix, 16, " And whosoever in the open field toucheth one that is slain with a sword .... shall be unclean seven days.'' ' Sayce, Cairene Folklore^ Folklore^ ii, 389. 18 NAILING DOWN THE SPIRIT. « While on the subject of nailing down a demon, the method in vogue for curing a headache at Mosul is worth quoting. The sMkh comes and lays his hands on the patient's head and then drives a nail into the wall, thus obviously transfixing the devil therewith.^ Frazer, in the Golden Bought quotes other instances, notably two among the Arabs, one (from Leared) of a house in Mogador haunted by spirits and devils who threw stones about, but were finally laid by a holy man pronouncing an incantation and driving a nail into the wall. The second is mentioned by Lane^ similar to the cure for headache that I met in Mosul ; the people of Cairo sufiering from migraine used to knock a nail into the great wooden door of the old South Gate. According to Baldensperger,' the Mared, a very tall Arab ghost, appears chiefly where people have been killed, and the Mohammedans use big iron or wooden pegs to prevent such ghosts appearing. A similar belief may be traced in the story of Rabbi Isaac Luria when he was passing the great academy of Rabbi Yochanan in Tiberias. He showed his dis()iples a hole in the wall, sajring, '' In this stone there is a transmigrated soul, and it cries that I should pray on its behaU."^ But in addition to these ghosts we find that the souls of men and women who had died prematurely were compelled to haunt mankind until they were laid to rest. Among these we find mentioned in Assyrian spelh 1 See my article F.S.B.A., Feb. 1906, 80-1. » iii, 33-4. ' F.E.F,, 1899, 149. On the Mared appearing where a murder had been committed, see G. Robinson Lees, Village Life in Palestiiie, 217. *• Hershon, Talm. MUc.y 327, quoting Kabbala, Emeh Hamelech, fol. 11, coL 2. GHOSTS OF THOSE WHO HAVE DIED PREMATUEELY. 19 '* He that hath died of hunger in prison, He that hath died of thirst in prison, The hungry man who in his hunger hath not smelt the smell of (food), He whom the bank of a river hath let perish, and he hath died. He that hath died in the plain or the marsh, He whom the Storm-gocT hath submerged in the plain." ^ " A woman (that hath died) a virgin, A man (that hath died) immarried." ' '< A (sacred ?) harlot (that hath died), whose body is sick, A woman (that hath died) in travail, A woman (that hath died) with a babe at the bfeast, A weeping woman (that hath died) with a babe at the breast, An evil man (that hath died)." ' This list is further elaborated by the details that it may be the ghost of a dead woman who was nursing 1 W,A,L, ii, 17, 22 ff., and Haupt, A,B,K.T,, 11, ii, 22 ff. 2 Devils, i. Tablet IV, iv, 45-6. See the notes as to the actual meaning of ' virgin ' and * unmarried,' which cannot be said to be absolutely certain, although the evidence is distinctly favourable to such a translation. Besides, in Haupt, A.S.K.T., 11, i, 15, two other phrases describing ghosts, la mutir irti and idu xu-un-da-ri-a, seem to point to a similar meaning. According to Eustathius {ad, II. zxiii, 141, p. 1293), among the Greeks it was customary to place on the grave of those who died unmarried a water-jar called Loutrophoros, in token that the dead had died unbathed and without offspring (J. E. Harrison, Prolegomenay 622). » Ibid., V, 21 ff. ; Tablet V, i, 51 ff For the 'weeping woman' I would suggest that her babe has also died. I venture to think the explanation that they are all ghosts of dead people to be a better one than that of M. Fossey : " Enfin une personne ordiuairement inoffensive peut, k certains moments, deveuir dangereuse ; telles sont la femme qui allaite, la femme morte d'un cancer au sein, et la femme enceinte. La prostitu^ est exorcist comme un veritable d^mon " {La Magie, 50). That it is not mentioned specifically that they are dead is no stumbling- block. It was, I think, clearly understood, and further, the ill-omened mention of death was in many cases thus avoided, just as it was among the Qreeks : ** a purification for you to whom it is meet and right," i.e. the dead (J. E. Harrison, loc. cit., 60). 20 WOMEN DYING IN CHILDBED. her child, whose breast was sweet, bitter, ulcerated, or wounded;^ or of a woman with child, whose womb was healthy, loosened (patru), cast (rumm6)^ or not healthy.* The untimely birth, again, seems to have been counted as a ghost.' Now this curious ghost, the woman who has died in childbirth, is universal.* Doughty relates how in Arabia he " heard scritching owls sometimes in the night ; then the nomad wives and children answered them with mocking again, ' Ymgebfts ! Ymgeb&s ! ' The hareem said, ' It is a wailful woman, eeeking her lost child through the wilderness, which was tamed into this forlorn bird.' " ^ Among the Malays, if a woman die in childbirth she is supposed to become a langsuyar, or flying demon, a female familiar. To prevent this, glass beads are put in the mouth of the corpse, a hen's egg is put under the armpits^ and needles in the palms of the hands. This stops the dead woman shrieking, waving her arms, or opening her ^ Oefele, Zeits. fUr Aasyr.^ ziv, 360, explains museniktu sa ina mihif tuli imut as one that has died of carcinoma. Among modem Arabs the bad milk of nurses is held to be one of the things (along with the poison of serpents, scorpions, mad dogs, etc.) against which a magical cup will be efficacious by its virtue (Reinaud, Monumetu MusulmaMs^ ii, 340). « Haupt, A.8,K,T,, 11, i, 35. * Ibid., i, 13, ispu kubu ia . . . Jastrow {Rdigion^ German ed., 367) explains this as " Friihgoburt." The ia . . . may be the beginning of a translation of the corresponding Sumerian irn nu-til-la, *^that which doth not complete the month (?).'' Cf. also the banning of Devils and Evil Spirits, Tablet IV : "They are that which was spawned in the creation of Anu, children of the earth they were bom ;. they are that which a woman in travail [hath brought forth dead ? 7]^ which an evil foster-mother [hath ...]." * See Frazer, Odden Bough, ii, 345. ^ Arabia Deserta, i, 305. WOBiEN DYING IN CHILDBED. 21 hands.^ The original langmyar was supposed to be a kind of night owl, like the Lilith of Rabbinic tradition, and is similar, therefore, to the ghost of which Doughty speaks. Among the Arabs of Palestine, the Egyptian eagle owl is an enchanted woman, who possesses baneful influences over childbirth. I^either the name of the child nor the bird must be mentioned within a few days of the birth, as the sorceress (the owl) would take the child.^ In more ancient Arabic lore the owl is a human incarnation,' and Laila took this form in flying from the grave of her beloved.^ Among the modern Jews of Lemburg, if a woman dies pregnant, it is supposed to be undesirable for her sake and that of the congregation that the foetus should be buried with the body. The corpse is therefore bathed at mid- night, and after half an hour the name of the dead is called seven times, and a shofar blown seven times in her ear. The corpse with many groans will then give birth to a dead undeveloped child.^ The Sakai of Perak, when they make a necklace-charm, repeat this invocation : — ''OM ! Die, Mati-anak, buried under the earth heaped up for the Roadway. What is the origin of thy existence ? Demon of the blood of a person dead in childbirth, That is the origin of thy existence. Mati-anak of the River-banks, return to the River-banks ; Mati-anak of the ' outcrop/ return to the outcrop ; Pluck out with spells and neutralise again and again the demon Mati-anak. Descend, poison of the Mati-anak ; Rise, neutraliser of mine.'' ^ Skeat, Malay Magic (quoting Sir William Maxwell), 325. » Baldensperger, P.E.F., 1893, 212. > Wellhausen, ReaU, 167. * Ibid., 183. B Jewish Encyd,, article Superatitiont, 22 WOMEN DYING IN CHILDBED. The magician then spits twice on the necklace, which must be made of plants pulled up, and not cut or dug up.^ This latter rite brings it into connection with the tabu against pulling up plants. To quote one or two instances from other than Semitic nations, in the Banks Islands, Melanesia, the ghost of a woman who has died in childbed cannot go away to Panoi or ghostland, if her child lives, for she cannot leave the baby behind. In the Pelew Islands, when a woman has died in childbed, her spirit comes and cries, '' Give me the child I " ^ In India the same ghost appears.' There id a curious story current in Mosul about a woman who died and was buried before her child was bom.^ This story I heard in Mosul, and I learnt that it was also told in Baghdad when I was there, and curiously enough, when at Luxor some time after, an Arab boy told me that a near relation of his, his father or uncle, who was a native of Mosul, had also repeated it to him. The story goes that after the woman was buried in a tomb, her son was bom and lived and grew up in that tomb for about ten years, when he was found by a man digging into the grave. The boy was taken out, fed and clothed, and lived to a good old age. It is therefore to be presumed that during his childhood in the tomb the boy was fed in some supernatural manner that would seem to imply the return of the mother's spirit.^ ^ Skeat and Blagden, Fagan Races of the Malay Peninsula^ i, 153. 2 Frazer, Golden Bough (quotiug Codrington, and Eubary), ii, 345. ' Crooke, Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India^ i, 269. * P.S.B.A,, Feb. 1906, 82. ^ It is the custom among the Jews in Paleatine, if a woman die in childbirth, to keep the husband out of the room (Masterman, Bibl, Worldj zxii, 249). Among the Greeks, the clothes of women who died thus were left at the grave of Iphigeneia in Halse (Rouse, Oreek Votive (fferings, 252). /' DEAD VIRGINS. ABOETIONS. 23 ^ Dead Tirgins and men who die unmarried^ we shall discuss later. Be it noted, however, that the Assyrian words used to describe such ghosts show that full-grown and marriageable people are intended, and not immature children, and, from all the evidence, it seems likely that they were supposed to be wedded to incubi or auccubte^ who claimed them after their death. The ' untimely birth ' or abortion, if the restoration of the Assyrian text is correct, is an extremely probable ghost. According to Rabbinic traditions, "an infant cut or torn at birth, a miscarriage, or bom alive at the eighth month, or bom dead at the ninth — all the religious ceremonies do not apply to it." ^ We may therefore infer that the Jews believed it to be the result of some ulterior cause. Again, it is laid down in the Talmud^ that the dwellings of heathens must be considered unclean, because it was supposed that they buried their miscarriages in their hoases.! According to the legends of the later Jewish demonology, devils are not so much fallen angels as immature creatures or abortions.' Mohammed is said to have ordered prayers to be said over an untimely birth, when supplication should be made for the father and mother, for forgiveness and mercy.* I Talmud, Ebel RcMcUhi, ed. Rodkinson, viii, 2. ' Fesachinij ed. Rodkinson, v, 14. ' Horst, Zauber Bibltotheky ii, 391. ^ Hughes, Diet, of Islam, 4. As a legend worth mentioning, the Arab belief about Eve's first child is interesting. When Eve was pregnant the Devil came to her and asked her if she knew what, she carried, and suggested that it might be a beast. He appeared again, and pretended that by his prayers he would obtain of Qod that it should be a son in Adam's likeness, if they would call him Abdo*l-hareth instead of Abd Allah. When the child was bom it died (Sale, Koran, note to Surah viii). In Malay ideas deformed children may be the result of violating certain animal tabus (Skeat, Malay Magic, 349). 24 CLAIK ON FRIENDS. Now if any one of these diaembodied souls came back to earth for some reason, it might fasten itself on any mortal who had been in some way connected with him in this world, or had been brought either Tisnally or by contact into relations with the corpse. The chance sharing of food, oil, or clothes ^ during life constituted an act which gave the spirit after death a claim to return to its friend or even casual acquaintance, to demand the rites which would give it rest. Nay, less, the mere act of eating, drinking, anointing, or dressing oneself in company with another person, without giving or receiving anything, was enough reason for the ghost to single out his victim and seize upon him until, perforce, the man was compelled to suggest that he would pay it its due rites if it left him in peace. The living man, thus tor- mented, makes no promises; he merely threatens that no offerings shall be made to the dead until the spirit leaves him free. Tablets IV and V of the " Evil Spirit " series render this quite clear in Assyrian tradition, and the incantation seems worth putting in in full : — ^ '* Whether thou be one with whom on a day I have eateu, Or with whom on a day I have drunk, Or with whom on a day I have anointed myself, 1 Cf. Tobit i, 16 : ** And in the days of Enemessar I did many almsdeeds to my brethren ; I gave my bread to the hungry and my garments to the naked ; and if I saw any of my race dead, and cast forth on the wall of Nineveh, I buried him." « Devils, i, Tablet IV, coL v, 34 ff, ; cf. Tablet V, col. 1, 11. 58 ff. ; Haupt, A,S.K.T,f 11, ii, 16. On the question of vengeance of the dead, notice the story in Berakhoth, iii, 3 (ed. Schwab, 298} : *^ Has not R. Papa related that someone having despised Samuel, a gutter fell on his head from above and broke his skull (was not this the vengeance of the defunct ?). No, since it was the question of a great wise man, the Lord himself intervened in his favour.^ DESCRIPTIONS OF GHOSTS IN ASSYRIAN. 25 Or with whom on a day I have clothed myself, Or whether thou be one with whom I have entered and eaten, Or with whom I have entered and drunk, Or with whom I have entered and anointed myself, Or with whom I have entered and clothed myself, Or whether thou be one with whom I have eaten food when I was hungry. Or with whom I have drunk water when I was thirsty. Or with whom I have anointed myself with oil when I was sore. Or with whom when I was cold I have clothed myself with a garment from (?) his loins, (Whatever thou be) until thou art removed, Until thou departest from the body of the man, the son of his god, Thou shalt have no food to eat, Thou shalt have no water to drink. Thou shalt not stretch forth thy hand Unto the table of my father Bel, my creator. Neither with sea water, nor with sweet water. Nor with bad water, nor with Tigris water, Nor with Euphrates water, nor with pond water. Nor with river water shalt thou be covered. If thou wouldst fly up to heaven Thou shalt have no wings ; If thou wouldst lurk in ambush on earth Thou shalt secure no resting-place. Unto the man, the son of his god, come not nigh, Get thee hence ! Place not thy head upon his head. Place not thy hand upon his hand, Place not thy foot upon his foot, With thy hand touch him not, Turn not round against him, Lift not thine eye against him. Look not behind thee, Gibber not against him. Into the house enter thou not, Through the fence break thou not, Into the chamber enter thou not. In the midst of the city encircle him not. Near him make no circuit ; 26 TABU ON SEEING CORPSE. By the word of Ea May the man, the son of his god, Become pure, become clean, become bright ! Like a vessel of lard may he be cleansed. Like a vessel of butter may he be clean I Unto Samas, chief of the gods, commend him, Through Samas, chief of the gods, , May his welfare be secured at the kindly hands of the gods." ^ With regard to tbe mere action of seeing a dead body, the whole is laid down clearly in a ritual tablet published by Zimmern : — ^ *' When a man looketh upon a corpse ^ and the spirit (edimmu) seizeth upon him . . . Thou must sanctify the dwelling (?), lay down upunttL-ineaX . . . In the morning for nothing evil a sorcerer [and sorceress] . . . • ■•••••••■•• • Make . . . figures of the sorcerer and sorceress . . . Thou shalt cause to take ; with clothes for each day thou shalt dress them, with fine oil anoint [them] . . . Before the sun thou shalt sprinkle the ktsar with pure water, thou shalt set clean seats for the god . . . Thou shalt spread out shining (?) garments, an altar [thou must place] for the god . . . Three times a meal thou shalt set before Samas, Ea, and Marduk, Dates, aier-meal thou shalt pour forth, thou shalt set three adagur- vessels, Three censers of incense thou shalt set, thou shalt pour forth corn of all kinds. ^ There are other ghosts mentioned in these lists less easy of explanation. " One that hath been torn from a date-palm " (Tablet IV, col. V, 1) may possibly be the origin of the belief in Pes, Ilia, that it is dangerous to walk between two palm-trees. Boissier ( Textes Relatifs, 100) thinks that it refers to one that has fallen from it while climbing, a very probable explanation. * RUtLoltafeln, 164. ^ Written ba-bad. Although this is an unusual expression, the translation appears to be correct. THE EETURNING SPIRIT. 27 For the ghosts of his family, on the left of the ofiferiogs thou shalt set a seat, For the ghosts of his family, on the left of the ghosts on the left a seat thou shalt set, For the ghosts of the family thou shalt pour libations and offer gifts." It is unnecessary to point out the universal taba, both among Semites and other races, on the dead body^ but it is interesting to see these views on this subject. The dead body is, of course, in itself tabu ; the Hebrew ^ and Mohammedan^ laws show this distinctly. Among the Arabs a woman in childbed must get up and go out of the house when a corpse is carried past, or death may ensue to both mother and child.' The Arab, again, must recite a prescribed formula of prayer on the passing of a funeral procession, and also on his seeing the firstfruits of the season and its flowers.^ The dead, it is said, will hear his voice if, on crossing a cemetery, he cry aloud : '' ye people of the grave, may peace be with you, of both sexes of the Faithful."^ Among the Jews in Palestine a dead body is not for a moment left alone, it being thought that wandering spirits might take possession of it. After a death, for seven days a lamp must be kept burning all the time. Should it be accidentally extinguished, it is considered a bad sign. Near the lamp are placed a cup of water and a towel, as » Lev. V, 2 ; xxii, 4. • Sale, Koran, Prelim. Discourse, sect. iv. Cf. Burckhardt, I^otes on the Bedouins and Wahahis, i, 99. » Baldensperger, P.KF., 1894, 143. ^ It was interesting to see how anxious my Mosul servant was, just as we were leaving Baghdad in 1905, to get ahead of a funeral pro- cession which was about to cross our path. ^ Hadji Khan, With the Pilgrims to Mecca, 43. 28 SPIBIT TRANSFERRED TO WATER. it 18 supposed that the spirit comes to wash there.^ As soon as a death has clearly occurred, all water in the house is poured out and all looking-glasses are turned to the wall, *^ lest the spirit see itself reflected in the glass/' ^ This superstition of water may be connected with the idea in Numbers xix, 15 : " Every open vessel which has no covering bound upon it is unclean" when a man dies in a tent. It seems to have been an accepted belief that spirits might be transferred to water; for instance, among the Assyrians we find an incantation for a sick man made over a little figure of dough thus : — " Put water upon the man and Pour forth the water of the incantation ; Bring forth a censer (and) a torch ; As the water trickleth away from his body, So may the pestilence in his body trickle away ; Return this water to a cup and Pour it forth in the broad places ; That the broad places may carry away The evil influence which hath brought low (his) strength.*'' Or in the Tablet of the Ban: — ** Like water may they pour it out, Like a goblet may they dash it in pieces, Like a tile may they break it/' * Or in one of the "Evil Spirit" texts: — ** The evil spirit (and) ghost that appear in the desert, Pestilence that hast touched the man for harm, ^ Masterman, Biblical Worlds xxii, 256-7. • Ibid., 255. This fear of reflection is shown in the Shi'ah tradition if a Muslim gaze into a looking-glass before saying his prayers he will be guilty of worshipping his own likeness (Hadji Khan, With the Pilgrims to JHfecca, 42). =» Devile, ii. Tablet * T,' Rev. 1. 3 ff. * Ibid., Tablet • V,' 1. 60 fL SPIRIT TRANSFERRED TO WATER. 29 The Tongue that is banefuUy fastened on the man, May thej be broken in pieces like a goblet, May they be poured forth like water." ' The idea of the magician in his exorcism is that the evil spirits have been transferred to the bowl of water, and that when the water has been poared away and the pot broken all the evil influence will be dissipated. This is the idea in the Maronite rite of baptism. The priest enters the church bearing the child, and, after various ceremonies, approaches the font and pours water into it, and, after lighting a candle, he adjures the evil spirit to depart from the water " that it may be a fountain causing eternal life.'' After several responsive sentences he drops three drops of tallow in the water, at the same time praying that the Lord may drive out every evil spirit and Satanic wile from the water.^ The Rabbinic idea of the soul of a murderer trans- migrating to water is the same. They say : " The mystical sign of this is indicated in (Deut. xii, 16) 'Ye shall pour it upon the earth as water'; and the meaning is, he is continually rolling on and on without any rest. Therefore let no man drink (direct) from a running tap or spout, but from the hollow of his hands, lest a soul pass into him, and that the soul of a wicked sinner."^ To drink water drawn overnight is one of the things (along with sleeping all night in a cemetery or throwing one's nail parings into the street) which cause a man to *' sin against himself." ^ If a man drinks water at night he exposes I Ibid., i, Tablet * C,' col. ii, 1. 156. ' Bliss, P.E.F,, 1892, 214. ' Hershon, Talm. Misc., 328, quoting Kabbala, Emeh Hamelechy fol. 153, cols. 1, 2. * JViddahy fol 17, col. 1. 30 SPIRIT TRANSFERRED TO WATER. himself to the power of Shabriri, the demon of blindneBS. If he is with some one else, he should say, '* I am thirsty " ; but, if alone, he must tap on the lid of the jug and address himself by his own name and the name of his mother, saying, ''#Thy mother has bid thee beware of Shabriri, briri, riri, iri, ri, in a white cup." ^ On the eves of Wednesday and the Sabbath one should not drink water except out of white vessels, and after having recited Ps. xxix, 3-9, or other magical formulae, for it is on those nights that Agrath bath Mahlath is abroad with her train of eighteen myriads of messengers of destruction.^ The Jews of Galicia break a pot or dish in front of a child to drive away the demon of convulsions,' and among the Arabs, when any evil is apprehended from a person, it is customary to break a piece of pottery behind his back.^ The Levitical laws for vessels rendered tabu by the touch of unclean beasts show a parallel ; some are to be put in water, but those of earthenware are to be broken.^ Now it is to this transference of evils that we must refer the peculiar custom in vogue at weddings in the East, and at the risk of diverging from the main subject of this chapter for the moment it is worth an examination. A jug of water is placed on the head of the bride at an Arab wedding in Palestine when she reaches the door of the new house, "as a sign of complete submission to her husband," and when she steps into the house she must call on the name of God as she passes over the lintel, ^ AbodahZarahy fol. 12, coL 2, quoted Hershoa, Talm. Muc,, 232. See Introduction. 3 Fes., 3a and 1125, quoted Jewish Ericycl.y eitb Denwiwlogy. * Jew. Encycl.j xi, 600. * Lane, Manners and Customs^ 324. ^ zi, 29-38. SPIRIT TRANSFERRED TO WATER. 31 because the J&n live below. The bridegroom strikes the jug as she passes, throwing it down and breaking it. He also holds a sword over her.^ According to Spoer^ who was present at a wedding at Siloan^, the bride put a little leaven to her forehead and fastened some to the doorpost of the new house, and entered the room with a water-jar on her head, *' symbolizing her future duties." ^ Surely this is not the proper explanation for so peculiar a custom. The '* calling on the name of Otod," the breaking of the pot by the bridegroom, and the prophylactic sword (i.e. iron) can only point to an ancient rite of exorcism over the devils who are always ready to attack newly wedded folk by transferring them to the bowl of water with a " word of power/' and then dispersing them by the destruction of the pot. Among the Yezidis, for instance, the marriage customs seem to throw some additional light on this, for the bride on her arrival at the house of her betrothed is struck by him with a Selala (small stone), symbolizing that she is under his power, and again by a loaf of bread, signifying that ^' she should be compassionate on the poor." ' A remnant of the jai*-breakiDg reappears in the Gairene custom of hanging large chandeliers in front of a bridegroom's house and, by breaking a large jar, " divert the attention of the spectators . . lest an envious eye should cause the chandelier to fall."^ In the tract Callah it is said by the Babbis that whoever takes drink from the hand of a bride, it is as if he had drunk from the hand » Baldensperger, P.E.F., 1894, 136, 138. * Hans H. Spoer, Biblical Worlds xxvi, 13. » Chabot, Notice sur lea Yezidis, J.A., vii, 1896, 127. Both of these actions can be referred to customs of driving demons away. * Lane, Manners and Cuatoms^ quoted Arabian Nights, voL iv, note 44. 32 LAYING THE GHOST. of a harlot. He who receives a cup from the hands of a bride and drinks therefrom has no portion in the world to come.^ There are special dispensations allowing fiances to wash their faces on the Day of Atonement.* There is another Assyrian tablet dealing with the laying of ghosts.^ As usual, long formulse containing the descriptions of all possible apparitions are prescribed, in order that the magician may show that he knows the name of the haunting spirit — "A brother's ghost, or a twin, or one unnamed, or with none to pay it rites, or one slain by the sword, or one that hath died by fault of god or sin of king" (col. i, 11. 6-8), or "the ghost of one imburied, or of a brother, or anything evil"* (col. i, 1. 23). The ceremonies appointed for the laying of the spirit are as follows : Seven small loaves of roast * com, the hoof of a dark-coloured ox, flour of roast com, and a little leaven ^ are necessary; then, after, a libation, there is a spell — " ye dead folk, whose cities are heaps of earth, whose . . . are sorrowful, why have ye appeared unto me ? I will not come to Kutha I Ye are a crowd of ghosts : why do ye cast your enchantments upon me ? " The flour and leaven are to be kneaded into a paste in the horn of another ox, and a libation poured into 1 2 Hershoii, Talm. Misc., 236, Tract Callak. See further, under Royal Tabus. 3 K. 2175 ; see my article F.S.B.A., Nov. 1906, 219 ff. Compare also K 2604, beginning : ** When the ghost of a man's father appears," and K. 1 293 (Harper, Letters, No. 461 ) : " The figure of the dead man in clay," followed by the necessary rites. * It is also possible to translate here "or of an evil brother or sister." But cf. Meissner, Ritualtafeln, 152, No. 45, 1. 9. * On this translation see the footnote, loc. cit., 224. LAYING THE GHOST. 33 a hole in the earth (just as Gilgamish pours his offering into the earth when asking a dream). Eutha, in this incantation, is the underworld ; it occurs in the story of the Descent of Ishtar, where the porter of Hades says, "Enter, O Lady, let Kutha be glad at [thee]."^ After further ceremonies the leavened dough is to be placed in the hoof of the first ox, and another libation poured out, with an incantation to Sama§. In the same tablet is a prayer entitled "Prayer for when a dead man appeareth unto a living man for evil, to turn him back that he appear not." The ceremony begins with the following directions: — " Spin a variegated and a scarlet thread together, and tie seven knots in it; thou shalt mix together oil of cedar, spittle of the man, the leavened doagh, earth from an old grave, a tortoise's (?) mouth (P), a thorn (P), earth from the roots of the caper,^ earth of ants; thou shalt sprinkle the knots with this. While thou tiest them, thou shalt repeat this incantation [(and) bind it] on the temples [of the man]. Thus shalt thou tighten it, until the darkening ^ See King, Babylonian Religion^ 180. ' Compare the story iu the Armenian version of the Life of St. Nino (F. C. Conjbeare in Studia Biblica, v, 75) about the childless couple : " And a luminous man said to me (St. Nino) : ' Go into the garden, and from the root of a cedar (or pine) sapling by the rose-bushes thou shalt take earth, and give it to them to eat in the name of the Lord, and He will give them offspring.''' Cf. also ibid., p. 23. With regard to the ''earth of ants," according to Bochart, it was a custom with the Arabs to place an ant in the hand of a new-born child, with a prayer that he might grow up wise and sagacious {EncycL Bibl,^ i, 176). In late Hebrew magic "dust from an ant-heap" put into a written charm and hung up in the workshop brought prosperity in business {Folklore of Mououl^ P,S,B. A, ^ March, 1906, 103, No. 6). 34 LAYING THE GHOST. of the white part of the face and the whitening of the dark-coloured part of the face takes place " ^ . . . The latter part of this incantation prescribes that figures of the dead man and the living person to whom the spirit has appeared be made, and libations made before both; then the figure of the dead man is to be buried in a grave, and that of the living man is to be washed in pure water, thus typifying the burial of the body of the ghost and the cleansing of the living man. The accompanying spell is to be recited : — ** O Sun-god, king of heaven and earth, judge of what is above and below, lord of the dead, ruler of the living, Sun-god, the dead who have risen and appeared, whether the ghost of my father or of my mother, or the ghost of my brother, Or of my sister, let them accept this, and leave me free ! " Then the following ceremony is to be performed. In the morning at early twilight the kisar must be sprinkled with pure water, and a censer lighted for the Sun-god, to await him at his rising, burning buraiu-wooi or gum; a libation of sesame-wine must be made, and a libation of asses' urine poured forth three times. Thus will the dead be stayed. Yet another method is given in the same tablet : *^ When a dead man appeareth unto a living man . . . thou shalt make [a figure] of clay, and write his name on the left side with a stylus ; thou shalt put it in a gazelle's horn and its face . . . and in the shade of a caper- bush or in the shade of a thorn-bush thou shalt dig a hole and bury it.'* ^ For the difficult words in this passage see the whole article. The last passage is somewhat doubtfuL OMENS FROM GHOSTS. 35 If a man is attacked by a ghost,^ he is to be anointed with various substances^ and '' the hand of the ghost '' will be removed. Even the fright from a ghost can be assuaged by certain prayers.^ It is also among the charges brought against the hostile wizard in the Maklu-oerieSf^ that he has made a figure of the enchanted person (for whom the health-giving rites are being performed), and has delivered it to a corpse, or allowed it to look at it, or laid it near or on one, or in a grave, or he has put the sick man's water by the side of or on a corpse. From these latter texts it will hardly be necessary to adduce further proof that the ancient Assyrians were firmly convinced that they might actually see ghosts, and that there was no doubt that this might happen to any man. Yet if any more evidence be needed, the omen tablet E. 8693^ will furnish it. This text gives a list of the probable occurrences to be expected if a ghost appears in the house of a man. ** When a ghost appeareth in the house of a man there will be a destruction of that house ; When ditto speaketh and hearkeneth (for an answer), destruction of that house, the man will die and (there will be) lamentation. When ditto ^standeth over the bed, overthrow of the bed and house." The same thing will happen if it is under the bed. We thus see that it was counted an evil omen, if an apparition ' K. 4075. ' K. 3398. For both see Bezold's Catalogue of the Kimyunjik Collection. » Maklu, Tablet IV. ^ Compare also S. 392 : '' When a ghost gibbers in the house of A man in the middle watch," or '* in the morning watch." 36 PARALLEL FROM MALAYS. showed itself in a house, either silent or gibbering in expectation of some answer ; further, we now have evidence for the belief among the Assyrians in the ghost which walks at night and comes to the bedside, a universal tradition. There is an interesting parallel to these rites among the Dyaks or Malays of some of the western tribes of Borneo. If one of these natives falls to vomiting, he believes that one of his deceased kinsfolk is responsible^ and he repairs to a wise-man or a wise-woman for help. This exorcist pulls out one of his hairs, and calls on the names of his dead relations ; the name at which the lock gives forth a sound is the name of the guilty one. The physician, generally an old woman, then says to the ghost : " Go back to your grave : what do you come here for P The soul of the sick man does not choose to be called by you, and will remain yet a long time in its body." Then she puts some ashes from the hearth in a winnowing fan, and moulds out of them a small figure or image in human likeness. Seven times she moves the basket with the little ashen figure up and down before the patient, taking care not to obliterate the figure, while at the same time she says: ^'Sickness, settle in the head, belly, hands, etc., then quickly pass into the corresponding part of the image," whereupon the patient spits on the image and pushes it from him with his left hand. Next the beldame lights a candle and goes to the grave of the person whose ghost is doing all the mischief, and throws thereon the figure of ashes, calling out : *' Ghost, plague the sick man no longer, and stay in your grave that he may see you no more." ^ * E. L. M. Kuhr, Schetzen uit Borneo's Westerafdeeling^ quoted by Frazer, Oolden Bought i, 267. THE EXTERNAL SOUL. 37 To retarn to our subject, the departed soul. Having seen to how great an extent the ancient Semites believed in the individuality of the soul after deaths it now remains, as a corollary, to look into the question of a belief peculiar to savage races, the separation of the soul from the human being during life; that is to say, whether the Semites believed at all in the possibility of a man guarding his soul in some other place than his body. On this subject Frazer, in his discussion of this savage idea, quotes the story of Seyf el-Mulook in the Arabian Nights,^ where the jinnies soul is in the crop of a sparrow, which is in a box, in another box, within seven boxes, in seven chests in a coffer of marble, and as an Oriental parallel he compares the story of the Two Brothers in Egyptian.^ For other examples among the Semites, we may mention a Syrian Arab story,' where a Princess Hisn says to a Jew : '' I beg of you, tell me where your soul is, so that I and it may be company for each other during the day." He said to her: "In the wooden lock of the door.*' She put a bunch of flowers on the door, and began to act as though she was talking with it. The Jew came in the evening, and saw the door decorated. He said to her : " What ! are you crazy P '* She said to him : " I beg of you, where is your soul ? " He said to her : "In the broom." She began to laugh at him, so that he would think she loved him. The third day she said to him: "I beg of you, tell me where your soul is?" He told her that his soul was inside some cotton in a little box in the foot of a lame gazelle. She said to him : " How shall * Oolden Bough, iii, 378. * Papyrus lyOrhimy. ' Huxley, J.A.O.S,, xxiii, 287. 38 THE EXTERNAL SOUL. I get it P " He replied : '^ By means of three hairs from my beard/' The story of Samson guarding his strength in his hair seems to have something in keeping with this belief, and another passage in the Old Testament, Ezek. xiii, 18, is noteworthy: "Woe to the women that sew pillows upon all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls.'' According to Mohammedan traditicHi, the soul of Adam had been created thousands of years before the making of the clay body, and it at first refused to enter its human dwelling. At last God forced it violently through Adam's nose, which caused him to sneeze.^ In Assyrian there is an incantation directing the sorcerer — *' Bind the head of the sick man, And bind the neck of the sick man, * And bind the soul (or life) of the sick man/'' The remark of an old Fijian chief that a newborn child is scarcely a human being, as its spirit has not yet come to it, is very suggestive in this connection.^ We have now to turn to the second class of spirits, those that are entirely inhuman and supernatural. They exist in the fertile imagination of the Semites in countless hordes, and their names are legion ; and as it is impossible to compare accurately the r61es of each separate demon in the respective Semitic languages, the best way will be to examine the characteristics of each successively. 1 Jewish Encyclopcsdia, 178. * DevUs, ii, Tablet IX, 1. 80 ff. M. Fossey, in his Za Magie Assyrienne^ suggests that this is " peut-dtre . . . un euphdmisme pour designer le membre viril.'* ' Fison and Howitt, Kamilaro and Kumai, 190. XHE UTUKKU. 39 Again taking Assyrian as the base, the first matter that lies before us in the oft-repeated line Utukku limnu, oUl limnu, edimmu limnu, gallu limnu, iiu limnu, rabisu limnu, "Evil Spirit, evil Demon, evil Ghost, evil Devil, evil God, evil Fiend." The edimmu we have already dealt with, the a/6 belongs to the third class, being half human, and the '' evil God " yields but little more than its self- contained idea, so that we have only to treat of the utukku, the gaim, and the rabisu. The utukku is, once at least,^ used of the wraith of a dead man coming back to earth, but it is not easy to say wherein the difierence lies between it and the edimmu. But from the fact that we find it only once, with certainty, taking the place of the edimmu, we shall probably be right in ascribing to it a far wider scope. It was certainly a spirit that lurked in the desert,^ the common home of many Semitic devils, lying in wait for man, or it might have its home in the mountains, sea, or graveyard,' and evil would befall him on whom it merely cast its eye.^ The following text describes the province of a spirit whose name is unfortunately lost, through a break in the tablet. It is possible, however, that it is the utukku : — '* The evil Spirit' robbeth . . . and roameth over the land, The evil Spirit which shroudeth the land as with a garment, The evil Spirit which against the man angrily . . . The evil Spirit is a devil which heareth not, ^ The Gilgamish episode ; see King, Bab, Rdigion, 175. » DeviU, i, Tablet III, 1. 28, p. 5. » W,AJ, , ii, 17, i, 3 ; and Haupt, A.S.K.T., 11, i, 3. * DeviU, i, Tablet * C,' 1. 179. ^ The Sumerian word is lost, and the Assyrian translation represents it by a dittchsigix. 40 THE JRABI9IT. The evil Spirit is a devil which hath no shame, The evil Spirit is a devil which spawneth evilly, The evil Spirit which bringeth woe on the land, The evil Spirit which hunteth over the land, The evil Spirit which chaseth living beings, The evil Spirit is a pestilence which . . . the hand, The evil Spirit which fiercely hunteth the land, The evil Spirit which fiercely raiseth trouble in the land, The evil Spirit which receiveth not . . . The evil Spirit which draweth up the little ones like fish from the water. The evil Spirit which casteth down the elders , . . The evil Spirit which striketh grey-haired old men and women." * The gallii is sexless.^ It is a word used in classical Assyrian as a term of abuse, being used by Sennacherib to describe the hostile Babylonians^ in the phrase galli limniiti, 'evil devils/^ The rabisu, as its name implies, is a lurking demon which sets the hair of the body on end,^ just as in Job iv, 15 : " Then a spirit passed before my face ; the hair of my flesh stood up." This 'lurker' may be compared to the Syriac bdr egdrd, a demon who sat on the roof and jumped on a man as he came out of the house, the man so afflicted being known as d'bdr egdrd} 1 Ibid., ii, 127. * DeviU and Evil Spirits, Tablet V, col. iv, 1. 17. » G. Smith, Hutory of Senn., 114, 1. 6. * W.A.I., V, 50; i, 51. I once heard a Suez Arab in the Sinaitic Peninsula explaining how he could always tell whether a black man was a demon or not ; his hair would always stand up on end of its own accord if the negro whom he passed in the street were a supernatural visitant. B 1^1 1 IS^f Payne Smith, Thesaurua, 31, "dssmon lunaris qui quovis mensis lunaris initio luna exagitatur (lunaticus fit), riecnon is, qui a luna ad lunam cruciabatur a dsemone qui eum cruciabat." THE LABARTU. 41 The labartu, labasu, and ahhazu are a triad frequently found together. Of the first-named, we find a whole series of incantations written against her. She is a female demon, the daughter of Anu,^ and she makes her home in the mountains, or cane-brakes of the marshes. Children were particularly exposed to her attacks. It is curious to see how solicitous the Semites were in guarding their babes from the malign influence of such lamuB. For instance, the spells against the lahartu include an incantation to be written on a stone and hung round the child's neck — ** * Labartu, [daughter] of Anu/ is her first name ; The second, ' Sister of the [gods] of the streets ' ; The third, ' Sword that splitteth the head ' ; The fourth, * Wood-kindler * ; The fifth, * Goddess of awful mien ' ; The sixth, * The trusted, accepted of Irnina * ; The seventh, * By the great gods mayst thou be exorcised ; with the bird of heaven mayst thou fly away.' " ^ Gaster ' has published a Hebrew charm as follows : '' If thou wishest to protect a young babe from an evil spirit and from the host of l^ahalatb, write these angels on a tablet of gold in Assyrian writing (Ashuri)^ and carry it with thee, and thou needst not fear any evil either from (for) a big man or a small child.'' In the Testa- ment of Solomon Obizuth is the name of the female spirit that visits women in childbirth, and if she is lucky she » Haupt, A.S.K.T., 11, iii, 59. ' W.A.L, iv, 56, i, 1 ; Myhrman, Zeits. fur Assyr,^ xvi, 165. > RS.B.A,, 1900, 340. * I.e. square character in Hebrew. 42 THE LABARTU. strangles the babe.^ The Maronites have the same ideas about hanging prophylactic amulets on children. Bliss ^ describes a leaflet folded in a piece of leather and worn as a charm. It is inscribed with a prayer to St. Cyprian to preserve all who read it, wear it, or put it in their houses or on beasts, that they may be safe from the Evil Eye, from the sheuiows of night, from evil spirits lurking in things animate or inanimate, in food or drink. This is put on a child who is afraid of ghosts. Among the Arabs, if a child wish to be delivered from nightmare and its terrdrs, he must say to Allah, '' I take refuge in thee from the evil of Satan." ' Their equivalent for the child-witch is called Umm-el-Suhyan.^ ^ Conybeare, Jewish Quarterly ^ xi, 30. On Byzantine amulets against female demons, see Schlumberger, Melanges d'ArchSoloffie Byzantine, 117. Hanauer relates (P.E.F,, 1904, 266) the tale told by a Spanish Jewess about the spirit of La Broosha (a form of Lilith), who often takes the shape of a cat. It concerned her grandmother at the time that she gave birth to a child, the mother of this Jewess. It is a custom that for nine days after a birth neither mother nor child should be left alone in a room, but this precaution was temporarily omitted. The woman who was nursing the sick mother left the room, and when she returned the patient related a dream of a great black cat having come into the room and turned itself into ajar. A cat mewed in the street and the jar became a cat again. It came to the bed, took the baby and went to the window and said, " Shall I throw ? " " Throw,'' said the cat outside. This happened thrice with the same answer, and the cat then threw the baby out of the window and disappeared herself at the entrance of the nurse, who at once noticed the baby was not in the cradle. In order not to alarm the mother she explained that she herself had taken the child, and then dashed out of the house to see a cat crossing a field with a babe in its mouth. As she pursued she uttered a form of adjuration which forced the beast to drop the child. « P.^.F., 1892, 318. * Hadji Khan, With Pilgrims to Mecca, 44. * Zwemer, Arahia, 283. THE SELU AND LAMASSU. 43 Doubtless the Dragon of Revelation/ which stood before the woman in travail, is to be placed under this head; at any rate, the Dragon of the Testament of Solomon has some of these characteristics : ^ /' There came before me a dragon, three-headed, of fearful hue. And I questioned him, ' Who .art thoup' And he answered me, 'I am a caltrop-like (Tpt^oXaZb?) spirit, whose activity is in three lines. But I blind children in women's wombs and twirl their ears round, and I make them deaf and mute.'" Of the ahhazUy ' seizer,' and the labasu practically nothing is known, unless the former is considered to be the same as that ahhazu described in the medical texts, where a man may be ' filled ' by a disease of this name.' Two others are mentioned in the cuneiform magical texts, the aidu and lamaasu. The former may be the name for either a guardian deity or an evil spirit. As a power of evil it is found in an invocation beginning '^ Spirit (sidu) which minisheth heaven and earth, which minisheth the land; spirit which minisheth the land, of giant strength, and giant tread." ^ It is also found in a list of spirits, before the 'Evil Eye ' ; * or is described as an ' evil genius ' {sidu),^ and the sixteenth tablet of the '' Evil Spirits " begins — ** The evil gods are raging storms, Ruthless spirits (Sidu) created in heaven's vault." ^ It is exorcised by the sick man — '' Spirit (SMu) that standest close at hand, At my cry go forth therefrom unto the street ! * xii, 4. 2 E^j Conybeare, J.Q.^ xi, 29. » Kiichler, Assyr.-Bahyl. Medkin, 60, 11. 28, 30, 31, etc. * Devas, Tablet V, col. iv, 1. 8 ff. « Ibid., Tablet XVI, 1. 346. * Ibid., Tablet 'L,' L 5. ' Ibid., Tablet XVI, 1. 1. 44 THE SEDIM. Spirit that standeth near, At my cry go forth [therefrom unto the street]." ^ It also takes its place with the utukku and rahisu — *' The great genius {sedu)^ spirit and fiend^ Which roam the broad places for men." ' '* The evil spirit hath lain in wait in the desert, unto the side of the man [hath drawn nigh], The evil genius (Jsidxi) for ever is rampant, And none can [resist him]." ' " The raging genius, the evil demon." * It is in its quality as an evil spirit that the surrounding Semitic nations borrowed the word from the Assyrians. It occurs as DHB^ in Deut. xxxii. 17, and Ps. cvi, 37, and in Aramaic {i{n^{5f, !>!• ; in later times it is the subject of much discussion among the Rabbis. For instance, the iMim are said in the Talmud^ to possess six quali- fications, three of which belong to man, and three to the angels, for though they eat, drink, multiply, and die as men do, they have wings, foreknowledge of the future, . and can traverse the world from one end to the other, just like the angels. Indeed, according to some, they can assume any shape and form they like, being able to see without being seen themselves. Others say that they were begotten by two angels named Aza and Azael on I^aamah, the daughter of Lamech, before the Flood.^ » Ibid., Tablet * G,' 1. 14. ' Ibid., Tablet * N,' col. i, L 9. » Ibid., Tablet ' T,' 1. 1. * Tallqvist, Maqlu, vii, 124. Cf. also i, 136. * Ahothy ed. Kodkinson, i (ix), 123. * Sale, Koran (quoting Zohar), Prelim, Discourse^ sect. iv. GUABDIAN ANGELS. 45 But^ inasmuch as this became a generic term in late times for devils generally, it will be more expedient to discnss it further on under the broader view of super- natural beings. The iSdu, however, to return to its Assyrian phase, was also looked upon as a beneficent spirit, thus approximating to the idea of guardian angels. With the lamassu, which appears always as a kindly spirit, it is appealed to at the end of invocations, both being frequently invoked to be present after the evil spirit has been cast out. The exerciser, for instance, will ban the evil spirit thus: — •' May the god Dubsag-Unug-ki, the patron of KuUabi, For my life and health follow affer me ; A kindly Guardian (Sedu) marcheth on my right, A kindly Spirit {lamassu) marcheth on my left** ^ '* When I draw near unto the sick man, When I lay my hand on the head of the sick man, May a kindly Guardian {iidu\ a kindly Spirit (lamassu) stand at my side." * The gods perform the Incantation of the Deep — *' That a kindly Guardian, a kindly Spirit, may stand at the side of the man, the son of his god." ^ * '* May the evil Spirit (utukku) which hath seized him (the sick man) stand aside, May a kindly Guardian {sidu) stand at his head, May a kindly Spirit {latnassu) stand continually at his side." * » Devils, i, Tablet III, 1. 88 ff. « Ibid., 1. 149. » Ibid., Tablet ' K,' 1. 205. * Ibid., 1. 220. For other instances cf. op. cit., ii. Tablet * L,' 1. 9 ; * N,' iii, 1. 27 ; vi, 1. 15 ; xi, 1. 96. 46 GUARDIAN ANGELS. The magician ends his spell with a prayer to Ea — '* Oh that thou wert my guardian Genius (Sidu) And my guardian Spirit {laTnoMuy^ ' While on the subject of guardian spirits, it will liere be fitting to look into the question of guardian angels, to see how far the Assyrian beliefs tally with those of the other Semites. The Rabbis maintained that every man had two guardian angels who accompanied him.^ The Mohammedans say that two such angels attend on every man to observe and write down his actions;' according to the peasants of Palestine, one is on each shoulder, and they are greeted at the end of every prayer by turning towards them, right and left. They write down every deed accomplished during the daytime, or as long as the person is awaked We have to consider, in relation to this, the two phrases which so constantly occur in cuneiform religious texts, '' the man, son of his god," and '' his god and his goddess," the latter occurring frequently in the so-called Penitential Psalms. The former is to be found in the incantations, and seems to be used to indicate that the man really has a god as his protector against the evil spirit who is being exorcised. Thus such phrases as: '' Unto the man, the son of his god, come not nigh " ; ^ ** Until thou departest from the man, the son of his god " ; ^ » Ibid., i, Tablet III, 1. 284 ff. • Hag.y 16a, quoted Jewish Encyd,y svh Angelology, ^ Sale, Korariy Prelim, Disc, sect. iv. * Baldensperger, P,E.F,, 1893, 309. On the question of the relation of 'messengers' or * angels' with evil spirits, see JewUh Encycl,^ sub voce. * Devils, vol. i, Tablet IV, vi, 3 ff. • Ibid., Tablet V, ii, 56 ; iii, 37. THE SEVEN SPIRITS. 47 ''From the man, the son of his god, may they depart from his body," ^ etc., are common, but the reference is doubtless to a particular god to whom the man has attJEiched himself either by local influence or family tradition, or, when we consider the extraordinary number of go4- names used in composite personal names, we may perhaps assume that the man thought himself to be under the aegis of such god as formed a component of his name. It is more likely, if we are to see any reference to ' guardian angels' in Assyrian literature, that we shall find it in the phrase "his god and his goddess." ''He that hath no god," we are told in an incantation against Headache,^ "Headache will seize on his body when he walketh in the street." In addition to the Assyrian demons known by distinctive names, there are the 'Seven Spirits' which combine in their persons almost all the traditional Eastern ideas of jinny aghufdl, and afarit. ** Seven are they ! Seven are they I In the Ocean Deep, seven are they ! Battening in Heaven, seven are they ! Bred in the depths of the Ocean ; Nor male nor female are they, But are as.the roaming wind-blast, No wife have they, no son can they beget ; Knowing neither mercy nor pity, They hearken not to prayer or supplication. They are as horses reared amid the hills, The Evil Ones of Ea ; Throne-bearers to the gods are they, They stand in the highway to befoul the path ; ^ Ibid., iii, 47. » Ibid., Tablet IX, 194. 48 THE SEVEN SPIKIT8. Evil are they, evil are they ! Seven are they, seven are they, Twice seven are they ! " * ** Destructive storms (and) evil winds are they,* An evil blast that heraldeth ' the baneful storm, An evil blast, forerunner of the baneful storm. They are mighty children, mighty sons, Heralds of the Pestilence. Throne-bearers of Ereskigal, They are the flood which rusheth through the land. Seven gods of the broad earth, Seven robber (?)-gods are they, Seven gods of might. Seven evil gods. Seven evil demons. Seven evil demons of oppression. Seven in heaven and seven on earth." * '' Spirits that minish heaven and earth, That minish the land, Spirits that minish the land, Of giant strength. Of giant strength and giant tread, Demons (like) raging bulls, great ghosts. Ghosts that break through all houses, Demons that have no shame. Seven are they 1 ' Knowing no care, they grind the land like com ; Knowing no mercy, they rage^gainst mankind, They spill their blood like rain, 1 Ibid., Tablet V, col. v, 1. 28. ' Maury, La Magie, 102, quoting Cleni, Alex., Stromal.,, vi, 268 (ed. Potter, ii, 754), says that pestilences, tempests, and hail were regarded as the work of demons, and this superstition continued among almost all the Christians of the Middle Ages. » Literally * beholdeth.' ' * DeviU mid Evil Spirits, i. Tablet V, col. ii, 1. 66 ff. THE 8EVEN SPIRITS. 49 Devouring their flesh (and) sacking their veins. They are demons full of violence, ceaselessly devouring blood." ^ ** Warriors twice seven are they, That in a single (7) spawning in the creation of Anu were spawned ; They are the roaming wind-blast. No wife have they, no son do they beget ; Sense they know not.** ' '* From land to land they roam, Driving the maid from her chamber, Sending the man forth from his home, Expelling the son from the house of his father. Hunting the pigeons from their cotes, Driving the bird from its nest, Making the swallow fly forth from its hole, Smiting both oxen and sheep. They are the evil spirits that chase the great storms, Bringing a blight on the land." ' " Through the gloomy street by night they roam, [Smiting] sheepfold and cattle-pen. . The land [as with door and ?] bolt they [shut up]. In the city like a snare they are set. Through the door like a snake they glide. Through the hinge like the wind they blow. Estranging the wife from the embrace of a husband, Snatching the child from the loins * of a man." ^ " They creep like a snake on their bellies, They make the chamber to stink like mice. They give tongue like a pack of hounds." • *' Rending above, bringing destruction below. They are the children of the underworld, Loudly roaring above, gibbering below, They are the bitter venom of the gods ; * Ibid., col. iv, 1. 8. » Ibid., Tablet IV, col. i, 1. 24 flF. « Ibid., col. ii, 1. 12 ff. » Ibid., col. iv, 1. 60 ff. * Literally * knees.' • Ibid., Tablet *C,'l. 213 ff. E =^=T7- 60 THE SEVEN SPIRITS. They are the great storms directed from heaven, They are the owls which hoot over a city, They are the children born of earth, That in the creation of Anu were spawned. Over the highest wall and through the thickest wall, Like a storm flood they can pass. Breaking through from house to house ; No door can shut them out, no bolt can turn them back.'* ^ These Seven Spirits reappear in later times, both in Syriac and in Palestinian magic. The tradition of the Unclean Spirit in the Gospel of St. Luke (xi, 24) un- doubtedly echoes this Assyrian poem : '' The unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest; and finding none, .he saith, I will turn back unto my house whence I came out And when lie is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more evil than himself.'* But we have a still more curious tradition in Syriac which describes the Seven Spirits almost exactly as they were known to the earlier inhabitants of Mesopotamia. " IFor] the fold of cattle.^ " ^ Seven accursed brothers, accursed sons ! destructive '' ' ones, sons of men of destruction ! Why do you creep " ' along on your knees and move upon your hands P ' 1 Ibid., Tablet V, col. i, 1. 10. ' What is evidently a similar charm in Assyrian for cattle is given in W.A.L, iv, 18, 6 :— *^ The evil demon, the evil devil seek the resting-place (for sheep) in the desert, destroying the resting-place like nuikl. The Aiokku casteth down in the horses' stable, It hath filled the mouth of the asses with dust, and estrangeth their matrix, THE SEVEN SPIRITS. 51 And they replied, ' We go on our hands, so that we may ' eat flesh, and we crawl along upon our hands, so that ' we may drink blood/ As soon as I saw it, I pre- Teuted them from devouriDg, and I cursed and bound them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, saying: 'May you not proceed on your way, nor 'finish your journey, and may God break your teeth, ' and cut the veins of your neck, and the sinews thereof, ' that you approach not the sheep nor the oxen of the * person who carries [sc. these writs] ! I bind you in ' the name of Gabriel and Michael, I bind you by that 'angel who judged the woman that combed (the hair *of) her head on the eve of Holy Sunday. May they 'vanish as smoke from before the wind for ever and ' ever. Amen.' " ^ Beliar sends seven evil spirits against man.^ In Rev. zv, 6, The ass in foal, the ass that beareth, it maketh cast their young, The little ass yet imweaned it will not [let suck] the milk, Id their fold it [briugeth] woe, A kindly spirit (?) in the pen hath passed (7) and ... to the side climbeth (?) Marduk, son of Eridu, . . . when he cometh, casteth a glance at this sheep-pen and Unto his father Ea, unto \he house entereth and saith — '[Father], the Plague-god (?) roameth the desert like a hurricane.' [Ea hath answered him : ' What I,' etc.] : * Gk», my son,* . . . take the urigallu, . . . open the pen, . . ride ..." In Arab lore beasts are able to perceive the approach of spirits. Cocks crow and asses bray, and with this Wellhausen compares the story of Balaam's ass {Reste, 151). * H. Gollancz, Selection of Chamu, 87. ' Testament of Twelve Patriarchs^ Reub. 2, quoted Charles, The Ascension of Isaiah^ 7. 62 THE SEVEN SPIRITS. there is mention of ** seven angels that had the seven plagues/' and we may surely see some echo of the seven evil spirits in "These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars " ; ^ " And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of Qod."^ Again, between the seven Assyrian spirits and the seven devas or arch-demons of Zoroastrianism there must undoubtedly be some connection.' The curious description of these spirits as throne-bearers explains the tradition of the Hajryot, in the late Hebrew theology, who carry God's Throne.* Moreover, there is a class of angels in Mohammedanism, called Throne-bearers, who are said to be at present four, but on the day of resurrection they will be strengthened by an additional four, who will then bear the throne of C^od above them.^ Their predilection for human blood, as described in the cuneiform incantation, is in keeping with all the traditions of the grisly mediaeval vampires. In an Ethiopic charm an invocation is thus made : " Thus make perish, O Lord, all demons and evil spirits who eat flesh and drink blood: who crush the bones and seduce the children of men ; drive them away, Lord, by the power of these thy names and by the prayer of thy holy Disciples, from thy servant." ^ To the seven evil spirits was due the eclipse of the moon. The sixteenth tablet of the series "Evil Spirits" describes how the Seven Spirits attacked the Moon-god and * Rev. iii, 1. ' Rev. iv, 5. Cf. also v, 6. » Encycl, Bibl., 1073. * On the subject of angels carrying the prayers of men to the Throne of Qod, see Tobit xii, 12, 15 ; Baruch, Apoc, Gk., xi. * Koran^ Surahs xl, Ixix. Cf. Klein, Rel. of Islam^ 66. * Littmann, J.A.O.S.^ xxv, 35. ECLIPSES. 53 dimmed his light, and there is little doubt that this was a popular explanation of such a phenomenon. Although it must be admitted that their attack is made against the crescent of the moon, as the Assyrian text runs, this is probably due to poetic licence, and is not a serious bar to the rational explanation of this text, which, after all, only reiterates the common savage belief. The modem Semite is as certain of this as were his ancestors, and it is a common custom nowadays for the township to turn out with every noisy kitchen implement they can lay hands on to drive away the spirits attacking the moon. Doughty,^ while at Teima, saw the housewives making great clamour of pots and pans '' to help the labouring planet " in its eclipse. In the Malay Peninsula the Besisi do the same,^ and the Mohammedans of Macedonia, considering an eclipse a portent of bloodshed, meet it with reports of firearms.^ From St. Maxime de Turin ^ it is evident that even the Christians of his time admitted that it was necessary to raise a hubbub during eclipses to prevent magicians hurting the moon.^ * Arabia Deserta, i, 289. On noise driving evil spirits away see Frazer, Golden Bought iii, 66, 91 ; Tyler, Primitive CiUture, 4th ed., i, 329. The later Hebrews drove off the SSdim at funerals by blowing a «Ao/ar-trumpet (Yalk., Badash, Mita, 47, quoted Jewish Encycl.^ iv, 520). * Skeat and Blagden, Pagan RaceSy ii, 298. ' Abbott, Macedonian Folklore, 72. * Homil, (1618), 703, quoted Maury, La Magie, 182. ^ The belief in a dragon or fish that swallows the moon is curiously widespread. The Metawileh have this superstition (Fallscheer, P.E.F.^ 1889, 130) ; so also the Peruvians ; and the South Sea Islanders hold that the Sun and Moon have been swallowed by an offended deity whom they induced by liberal offerings to eject the luminaries from his stomach (Tylor, Prim. Cult., 4th ed., 329 ff.). When it is remembered that Jonah was swallowed by the "great fish" for three days (the period of the moon's disappearance at the end of the month) the 54 ECLIPSES. The Assyrian text runs- ** The Evil Qods are raging storms, Ruthless spirits created in the vault of heaven ; Workers of woe are they, That each day raise their wicked heads for evil To wreak destruction . . . Of these Seven [the first] is the South Wind . . . The second is a dragon with mouth agape, That none can [withstand 7]. The third is a grim leopard which carries off (?) young (?)... The fourth is a terrible serpent . . . The fifth is a furious beast (?) after which no restraint (?)... The sixth is a rampant . . . which against God and king . . . The seventh is an evil wind-storm which ...» These seven are the messengers of Anu, the king, Bearing gloom from city to city, Tempests that furiously scour the heavens, Dense clouds that bring gloom over the sky, Rushing wind-gusts, casting darkness over the brightest day. Forcing their way with the baneful wind-storms. Mighty destroyers are they, the deluge of the Storm-god, Stalking at the right hand of the Storm-god. In the foimdation of heaven like lightning they [flash], To wreak destruction they lead the way. In heaven's breadth, the home of Anu, the king. They take their stand for evil, and none oppose." coincidence is worth considering. Jonah is the Hebrew word for ' dove,' and it was at Harran, the city sacred to the Moon-god, that the dove was not sacrificed (Robertson Smith, Religion of Semites^ quoting AI-Nadim, 294). * Compare the devils sent to St. A nthony in the Syriac Paradise of the Fathers (ed. Budge, 1907, i, 14) : "Now it is very easy for the Enemy to create apparitions and appearances of such a character that they shall be deemed real and actual objects, and [straightway] phantasms of this kind caused a phantom earthquake, and they rent asunder the four comers of the house, and entered therein in a body from all sides. One had the form of a lion, and another had the appearance of a wolf, and another was like unto a panther, and all the others were in the forms and similitudes of serpents, and of vipers, and of scorpions.** ECLIPSES. 55 The tablet goes on to relate how these seven spirits attacked the Moon-god, and Bel, hearing of the mischief they had done, sent his servant Nuzku to take counsel with Ea against them — " my minister, Nuzku ! Bear my message unto the Ocean Deep, Tell unto Ea in the Ocean Deep The tidings of my son Sin, the Moon-god, Who in heaven hath been grievously bedimmed." Ea heard the messi^ which Nuzku brought, and bit his lip in grief ; he summoned his son Marduk and conveyed to him the tidings of the Moon-god. After this the tablet becomes mutilated for ten lines, and, when it recommences, it gives the directions for the sick man's treatment. Evidently this connection of an eclipse of the moon with disease lends itself to the explanation that certain sicknesses were due, indirectly at least, to such phenomena, or at any rate that mankind was peculiarly susceptible to such attacks during the moon's disappearance. Many indeed were the prayers made to avert the evil from an eclipse ; in certain of the '' Prayers of the Lifting of the Hand" we find the phrase ''in the evil of an eclipse of the moon which in such and such a month on such and such a day has taken place, in the evil of the powersi of the portents, evil and not good which are in my palace and my land."^ The following is a prayer offered up by Sama§-§um-ukin, the brother of ASSurbanipal, against the evil of an eclipse of the moon, which has apparently been foretold from preceding events : — ^ King, Bah, Magic and Sorcenfy zzv. 66 THE SEVEN SPIRITS. ** . . . great lady, kindly mother, Amid the many stars of heaven Thou art mistress . . . I, Samas-sum-ukin, the king, servant of his god. Vicegerent of his god Mardak (and) his goddess Sarpanitum, Of the evils of the eclipse of the moon, fixed for the fifteenth day of Shebat, Of the evils of the signs and omens, evil, baneful. Which have occurred in my palace and my land, I am afraid, and I fear, and I tremble ! Let not these evils draw near to me or my house ! Accept the upunttt-pl&ni from me and receive my prayer." ^ There is a long tablet which gives more details of these seven demons which the Fire-god is supposed to relate to his friend Marduk — " Those seven were bom in the Mountain of Sunset, And were reared in the Mountain of Dawn, They dwell within the caverns of the earth. And amid the desolate places of the earth they live. Unknown in heaven and earth. They are arrayed with terror, Among the wise gods there is no knowledge of them. They have no name in heaven or earth ; Those seven gallop over the Mountain of Sunset, And on the Mountain 6f Dawn they cry ; Through the caverns of the earth they creep, (And) amid the desolate places of the earth they lie. Nowhere are they known, in heaven nor earth are they discovered." ' In the Syriac Sayings of the Holy Fathers certain monks hear the voices of devils in the air as they are praying with the sounds of armour, horses, and many horsemen.' ^ Scheil, Une Saison defouilleSy 96. « DeviU and Evil Spirits, vol. i. Tablet * K,' 1. 84 flf. ' Ed. Budge, The Paradise of the Fathers, 1907, ii, 208. THE JINN. 57 The Jinn and kindred spirits of the Arabs have all the characteristics of the various demons of Assyrian times. They are corporeal beings, more like beasts than men, for they are ordinarily represented as hairy, or have some animal shape, such as that of an ostrich or snake. If a jinni is killed, a solid carcase remains, but they have certain mysterious powers of appearing, or of temporarily assuming human form,^ and when they are offended they can avenge themselves by sending disease or madness.^ "They have, for the most part, no friendly or stated relations with men,^ but are outside the pale of man's society, and frequent savage and deserted places far from the wonted tread of men. It appears from several poetical passages of the Old Testament that the Northern Semites believed in demons of a precisely similar kind, hairy beings* (se'lrim), nocturnal monsters (lUith),^ which haunted waste and desolate places in fellowship with jackals and ostriches." They can eat, drink, and propagate their species, and are even subject to death,^ so that they correspond to the Hebrew sedim in certain respects. ^ Inversely, the Sei'ar in Hadramaut, in time of drought, can change to were- wolves. Makrizi, I)e Valle HadramatU^ 19, quoted Robertson Smith, Rel. Sem., 88. * Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, 1894, 120. ' But they do meet on certain grounds. See ibid., 128. ^ Compare the Mohammedau story of Bilkis, Queen of Sheba, who married Solomou. She had hair on her ankles and was thus shown to be 2kjinniyyah by descent {Jeioish EncycL, i, 605). Maimonides, in his Guide to the Perplexed, says : " Some sects among the Sabeaus worshipped demons, and imagined that these assumed the forms of goats, and called them therefore * goats * " (iii, xlvi). On the S^iHm see Baudissin, Studien, 137. * But see p. 66. * Klein, Religion of Islanty 67. ■^TT" »58 THE JINN. The demons of the Rabbinic tradition {iidlm or tnazzlkln) are said to have been created by the Almighty. " He had created their souls, and was about to create their bodies when the Sabbath set in, and he did not create them." ^ As to their numbers, it is said that Agrath bath Mahlath^ haunts the air with her train of eighteen myriads of messengers of destruction on the eves of Wednesdays and Saturdays. After creating the earth God peopled it with Jinn before placing Adam there; " He created them of fire clear from smoke," ' and among them was Iblis.^ Half of the Jinn are good and half are malignant beings, and they inhabit the seven stages which form the edifice of the underworld,^ just as the Babylonian demons lived in Ekurra.^ Malignity of the soil is ascribed by the Arabs to the ground demons or earth- folk, BO that husbandmen sprinkle new ploughland with the blood of a peace-ofiering ; similarly, when they build they sprinkle blood on the stones, lest the workmen's lives should be endangered.^ Again, while still on the subject of sacrificing to Jinn, when the people of Kerak go into the harvest-fields they often occupy caves, but not until they have killed a sacrifice at the entrance to the spirits.^ When the natives of Hamath repair the largest water-wheel there, they sacrifice a ram to the Afrit who inhabits the sluice, before re-starting it, in order to propitiate him. Otherwise, someone is sure to be ^ Bereshith Rabba, vii. * Pesachim^ 1126 {Jetc. Encycl.y 616). ' Korariy Surah Iv. * M*i.s*udi, Prairies d^or^ i, 50. * Doughty, Arabia Deserta, i, 259. « DeviU, ii, Tablet * P.* ' Doughty, op. cit., i, 136. ® Curtiss, Bibl. World, xxi, 253. THE JINN. 59 killed by the wheel in the sluice-way.* Leviticus xvii, 7, has some bearing on this subject : '' And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto the he-goats (or satyrs, i.e. s'irtmy Jinn), after whom they go a-whoring." An Egyptian will commonly exclaim " Destoor " when pouring forth water or other h'quids on the ground, thereby asking permission or craving pardon of any Jinn that might be there,^ and this reverence is to be found among the Yezidis, who fear to scald the " little devils."' According to Palestinian tradition, a certain man was killed by the J&n because he passed water on their heads through a fissure in the field.^ At Calirrhoe (Zerka Ma'in) there is a jinni, who is also called a tceli, who lives below the ground to keep the fire going which heats the hot spring.^ There is a rather different tradition concerning one of the hot springs in the Sinaitic Peninsula. This is the Hammam Faraun ('Pharaoh's bath'), and the grumblings and mutterings which can be heard at the mouth of the cavern near the exit of the hot stream are the groans uttered by Pharaoh and his dead host writhing on the coals in the place of the damned. The Jinn ride on foxes, gazelles, and porcupines, but avoid the hare because it is supposed to menstruate.^ When a herd of camels refuses to drink, the Arabs will sometimes beat the male beasts on the back to drive away the Jinn, * Curtiss, Prim. Sern. Rel., 198. ' Lane, Manners and Customs, 1890, 203. ' A. V. Williams Jackson, Persia^ 12. ♦ Baldenspfirger, P.KF,, 1893, 205. * Curtiss, Prim. Sem. Rel, 89, 198. • Sihah (quoted Rohertson Smith, Kinship, 246). 60 THE GHOUL. who are riding them and frightening the females.^ Eccentric movements of a dust whirlwind are supposed to be the visible signs of a battle between two clans of Jinn,^ and in the Eastern Soudan, among the Bisharln, I have heard these tourbillons of dust called eructationes (kBtnonum. The Bedouin of East Africa stab the centre of a dust-storm with their creeses in order to drive away the evil spirit which is believed to be riding on the blast.^ Hughes says that the Arabs exclaim Hadld! hadid! " Iron ! iron ! " when doing this.* The Jinn may ' possess ' a person, and hence the word majniiny a madman ; the Palestinian belief is stated in John Tiy 20: ''He hath a devil, and is mad." The ghoul is another Arab spirit. According to Doughty ^ her appearance is as follows : — " A Cyclops' eye set in the midst of her human-like head, long beak of jaws, in the ends one or two great sharp tushes, long neck; her arms like chickens' fledgeling wings, the fingers of her hands not divided ; the body big as a camel's, but in shape as the ostrich; the sex is only feminine, she has a foot as the ass' hoof ^ and a foot as an ostrich. She entices passengers, calling to them over the waste by their names, so that they think it is their own mother's or their sister's voice." One of the Arabs had seen this beast, '' which is of the Jin kind, lie dead upon the land * Certeux and Caruoy, UAlgerie Traditionelley quoted Frazer, O.B.^ ill, 129. 2 Yakut, iii, 478. » gee Coiiybeare, J,Q., ix, 461. * BicL of Mam^ 136. * Arabia Deserta^ i, 53 ; see the picture on 54. * Cf. Origen, quoted Conybeare, Jewish Quarterly^ ix, 100 : "As many demons as live in dry places and have their bodies rather dry as are, they say, the demons with donkey's legs." THE MARED. 61 Upon a time when he rode with a foray in the Jeheyna marches.'' This is rather like the picture of the Ethiopic devils in the Lives of Mabd Seydn and Oabra Krisids (ed. Budge), p. xxxiii, which have horns, tails, and wings, their right foot being a claw and the left a hoof. According to the Hebrew tradition, demons proverbially had cocks' feet.^ ''He who wishes to know about them must take sifted ashes, and sprinkle them by his bedside, and in the morning he will see marks as of cocks' feet. He who wishes to see them must take the foetus of a black she- cat, itself a black one : a first-born, the daughter of a firstborn: and bum it in the fire, and pulverise it, and fill his eyes with it, and he will see them."^ The ashes of a black cat are a popular form of magicians' stock-in- trade in the modem Arabic books on sorcery, and the directions run, to take a black cat, of deep blackness, without any white in it, and take nothing of it but its heart ; then to take swallows, which are called ' birds of paradise,' and bum them until they become ashes. This ash will be of the greatest service in magic.^ Of other Arab demons there is the Mdred, a tall spirit which generally appears when someone has been killed.^ To lay the M&red, dust is sprinkled by the manslayer over the blood of his victim.^ It snatches away a bride, in the story of Abu Mohammed the Lazy, in the Arabian Nights. * Jewish BncycL, article AsmodetUy ii, 218. ' Berakhoth, 6a ; see Blau, Das AltjUdische Zauberwesen, 11, where references are given for demons having cocks' feet and no shadow. ' MS. (modern) which I bought in Mosul. * Baldensperger, P.KF., 1893, 206 ; ibid., 1899, 149. Robinson Lees, Village Life in Palestine, 217. * Lees, loc. cit. 62 THE KIRD AND RASCAL, t The Kird is another spirit. One day it sat upon the shoulders of a man, and when he arrived at his village he was dumb. But by the Khatib of the village ordering him to perspire and read the pain away for seven days, he recovered his speech, but remained a stammerer.^ The JRassad is generally the guardian of some treasure, and may take the form of a man, colt, cock, or chicken with young ; he haunts almost all caves. There is a story of a man in Safri^ being told by an Algerian that a stone in his courtyard contained a treasure, but it could not be obtained without his wife's blood. They resolved to kill her, but while she was killing a cock for supper she cut her finger over the stone, and, on the blood dropping thereon, the gold came forth.^ The idea that devils are guardians of enormous treasure is very prevalent among the Arabs, and I met with it at Mosul in this wise. My servant had lost three mejidia (about nine shillings), and, having found a Muslim sorcerer that understood what to do, obtained a charm from him. This was a piece of paper inscribed with various invocations and cabalistic figures, which was to be left near the place where the money had been lost. If the demons who inhabit the air had taken it to add to their treasure, they would return it at midnight; if it had been stolen by human hands, then would they write the name of the thief on the paper.' Doughty,^ on this subject, says that on the landmark rock el-Howw&ra in the plain of * Baldensperger, P,E,F., 1893, 206 ; ibid., 1899, 149. 2 Loc. cit., 1893, 206 ; ibid., 1899, 149. 3 See my article RS,B.A., 1906, February, 81. * Arabia Deseria^ i, 170, MONSTERS. 63 Med&in S&lih a great treasure lies, in the opinion of the Moors in the Eella, sealed in a turret-like stone chamber in the keeping of an Afrit. The 'horseleach' of Pro v. xxx, 15, is nothing more than a flesh-devouring ghoul ; the Hebrew word is 'aliikdh, the equivalent of the Arabic *aulak, as was pointed out by Wellhausen.^ To this class of beings we must add some peculiar forms of deities, whose description is fully portrayed in the cuneiform tablets. One, a sea-monster, a * form ' of Ea, is thus described: ''The head is the head of a serpent; from his nostrils mucus (P) trickles, his mouth being beslavered with water ; the ears are like those of a basilisk, his horns are twisted into three curls, he wears a veil in his headband; the body is that of a Suh fish, full of stars, the base of his feet are claws, the sole of his foot having no heel." ^ More important, from an anthropological standpoint, is the picture of Nin-tu, a ' form ' of the goddess Mah, '* The head (has) a fillet and a horn . . . She wears a head ornament, she wears a fly (P).' She wears a veil; the fist of a man ; she is girt about the loins, her breast being open. In her left arm she holds a babe sucking her breast, inclining towards her right arm ; from her ^ Reste, 149. > Devils, ii, 149. The word translated * form ' appears to be fairly certain. ' This word is lanisatu in the text, ordinarily a kind of fly, although what it means here is doubtful. That it means a fly of some kind is quite clear from the determination in its ideogram, and I think we shall not be mistaken in seeing its cognate in the modern Arabic ^^J^U, a mosquito, Just as almattu in Assyrian « the Arabic ^3u«.l, and lamattu = iL^J (see my note in P.S,B.A.^ 1906, 226). 64 THE MOTHEE-GODDESS. head to her loins the body is that of a naked woman; from the loins to the sole of the foot scales like those of a snake are visible : her navel is composed of a circlet." ^ It seems extremely probable that we have here the model for the numerous little clay figures which have been found from time to time during excavations, possessing these characteristics, and we shall not be far wrong in considering them as votive o£ferings made by barren women who desired offspring.^ Nin-tu doubtless occupied among the peoples of Mesopotamia the position which Hathor held among the Egyptians, and the Virgin Mary among Oriental Christians, a form of mother-goddess who plays such an important part in many mythologies. In Jewish demonology we find Keteb Meriri, a demon who reigns from 10 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon from the 17th of Tammuz to the 9th of Ab, described as having the head of a calf with one revolving horn in the middle, and an eye in the breast, the whole body being covered with scales, hair, and eyes ; * and the curious reader will see many points of similarity in Assyrian texts kindred to those that are quoted above.^ The form of sea-monster seems to find a parallel in the Testament of Solomon ^ in the demon which has the 1 Devils, ii, 147. ' Martin, in his Textes Religietix, 21, has published the translation of a text for a man desiring to know whether he will have male issue : " Samas, lord of judgment, Adad, lord of the vision . . . the lady N., his wife, who hath dwelt for long under his protection . . . hath borne only girls, and there is no male (issue) and his heart is sad." I have translated sal-mes (i.e. sinniSdti) as 'girls,' as preferable to Martin's Kalmesy * heureusement.' ' Jewish Enci/cL, iv, 516. * See Devils J ii, 151, etc. * Ed. Conybeare, J.Q., xi, 33. SEMI-HUMAN DEMONS. 65 shape of a horse in front and behind a fish^ '* a sea-demon who creates a destructive wave." But this rather looks like a plagiarism of a Greek sea-horse. And while on the subject of the mother-goddess, it seems very probable that we have one akin to the poly- mastoid Diana of the Ephesians in the Assyrian Queen of Nineveh, described (ostensibly by Nabil) in the prayer of ASSurbanipal ^ — "Thou wert the babe, O A§§urbanipal, whom I left in charge of the Queen of Nineveh; thou wert the weakling, As§urbanipal, whom I placed (P) at the breast (?) of the Queen of Nineveh ; of the iour breasts which were put to thy mouth, two thou didst suck, with two thou didst cover thy face." We now come to the third class of spirits, those that are half human and half supernatural. From the stand- point of their peculiar existence, they must be accounted the most interesting of the three species, for it is not merely from the interest attaching to their nature that they are valuable, but the beliefs in their origin throw such light on primitive ideas as cannot be reckoned too highly. The evidence that they were a very popular form of phantom is so well-attested and convincing as to a£ford a firm base for certain theories on tabu that I hope to bring forward. Ooing back again for the third time to the Assyrian incantations, as the earliest systematised beliefs, we must first of all discuss an interesting triad of ghostly visitants — the lilu, lilUu, and ardat lili. The second is obviously the feminine counterpart of the first, but it is difficult ^ See Martin, Textes Rdigieux^ 29. The line in question runs irhi zizi Sa ina pika kJcna II tennik II tahallap anapanika. 66 LILITH. to disoriminate accurately between the characteristics of the lilttu and ardat lilL Both the latter are, howevery female demons, the femininity of the ardat lili being especially emphasized by the word ardatu, which always has reference to the woman of marriageable age. The ardat lili seems to have had much closer relations with human beings than the lilitu, and she takes over the functions of the Lilith of the Hebrews, which is obviously the etymological equivalent of lilitu. These functions are no more nor less than that she becomes the ghostly wife of men, probably unmarried ones if there is anything in the comparative folklore of the Arabs, by reason of her desire which forces her to roam abroad until she find a mate. It is from this that we may find a derivation for the words lil& and lilitu ; they are certainly not connected with the Hebrew lailah, 'night,' as they either come from a Semitic root rt/V, or from a Sumerian word LiL. If it be the former, there is no difficulty in referring them at once to the words laMt, ' to be abundant,' and lulii, ' lasciviousness, wantonness.'^ That the Rabbis should have compared H/v, * night,' with TSww, 'Lilith,' was very natural, but in view of the Assyrian or Sumerian origin of the word this is now untenable. Let us now examine the evidence for the nature of this triad. In a list of phantoms we find the following mention made of two demons : — ^ This view is also held hy Martin, Testes Rdigieux^ 25. That an angel of lust was known to the Kabbis is apparent from Bereshith Rabba, Izzzv, quoted Maimonides, Quide to the Perplexed^ ii, c. vi, in regard to the relation between Judah and Tamar : ^ Rabbi Jochanan said that Judah was about to pass by [without noticing Tamar], but Gkxl caused the angel of lust, i.e. the libidinous disposition, to present himself to him." LILITH. 67 *' The ardat lUt that hath no husband, The idlu lilt that hath no wife." ^ The latter is merely the male counterpart of the first, occurring only here as far as I know, with stress laid on its masculinity, idlu being the word for a grown man of full strength. We have, therefore, four phantoms of this nature to discuss, the HMl, the lilitu, and the ardat lill, with a rare counterpart, the idlu lili. Leaying the last-named alone for the present, the ardat lili, the true equivalent of the Lilith, is the best known, and the Assyrian incantations are quite clear in their descriptions of her character. First, then, we find from the text quoted that she has no husband. This is amplified by the prayer to the Sun on behalf of a possessed man — '* He on whom an evil spirit hath roshed, He whom an evil demon hath enveloped in his bed. He whom an evil ghost hath cast down in^the night, He whom a great devil hath smitten, He whose limbs an evil god hath racked (?), He the hair of whose body an evil fiend hath set on end. He whom ... [a hag-demon] hath seized. He whom [a ghoul] hath cast down, He whom a robber-sprite hath afiOicted, He whom the ardat lilt hath looked upon, The man with whom the ardat lili hath had union." ' ^ Haupt, A,S.K.T., 11, ii, 30. ' W.A.I.^ V, 50, i, 41. The Assyrian of these two lines runs : — ia ardat lilt ihiruSu, idlu Sa ardat lilt ikrimuht. Another text gives the following amplifications : — ardat lilt ina apti amdi izzUea ardatu la Hmta \ » ia kima sinniiti la arihatu \ » ia kima niini&i la iiakpatu (Sm. 49, Bezold, Catalogue^ 1376). ^" The ardat lUi attacketh the man's dwelling, a maid untimely dead (?), a maid that cannot menstruate (? cf. ^^^) like a woman, that hath no modesty (?c£ •SiQJ) like a woman." 68 LILITH. The iilib and lilitu must have had something of the same character, although we know very little about them; the question then arises as to the idlu liliy which is, as far as I know, aircL^ Tijeyofievov. I was inclined to think at first ^ that the idlu lili was nothing more than an academic invention of the scribes, parallel to the ardat lili, inasmuch as this text in which it occurs is merely a grammatical composition made up of phrases occurring in cuneiform grimoires ; but when it is remembered, first, that women in Semitic religion are liable to conceive through supernatural means, and that, secondly, these Assyrian incantations, as we have them, are written only from the male standpoint (doubtless verbally altered in exorcising sickness in women), there are the strongest possible groimds for the existence of a male counterpart of the ardat lili in the phantasmagoria of the Babylonians. At any rate, it is absolutely certain that whether we consider the fellow of the ardat lili to have been called lilu or idlu lili, the fact remains that women, as much as men, were exposed to the possibility of marriage with Jinn and other invisible powers. In late Hebrew tradition Lailah is prince of conception.' That Jinn can intermarry with human beings is a well- attested belief of the Arabs.^ Such folk are always solitary 1 Devils^ I, zxzii, n. 1. > Jewish Enct/cLj i, 588. ' Compare the idea of the Qreek Sirens, who are very aimilar (J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena^ 203). It was laid down by Martin Del Bio {DisquisitioneSy 1599, i, 178) : " Axioma I sit, sclent Malefici et Lamis& cum deemonibus, illi quidem succubis, has vero incubis, actum Venerium exercere." " Axioma II potest etiam ex huiusmodi concubitu dsemonis incufci proles nasci.'* About two hundred years later Francis Barrett published The Magvs, in which (p. 23) the curious will see the beliefs current among those who held that magic was a true science, concerning the s^mi-human monsterSj born of human and immortal parent& On MEN MARRIED TO SPIRITS. 69 and unmarried. Jallalo'ddin ^ explains that the advantage which men received from Jinn was their raising and the belief in siuicubi&nd incubiy see Horst, Zauber Bihliothek, vi, 116, who on p. 118 quotes a discussioa about them in a book published a hundred years after Melancthon's Physik (1550) on the theme that some think that "Demons who have assumed human shapes can mingle and generate with human beings.'' This the author of the book published in 1650 denies, on the ground that deest enim Dcemonibus semen. Sprenger (MaUeus Idaleficarum, 1580) has a chapter headed An per dcsniones incubos et succubos detur hominum procreatio (p. 37), which he answers : " Dssmones non vivificant aliquod corpus, ergo nee semen poterunt movere localiter de loco ad locum " (p. 39). See also Wier, Histoires, 288. Frangois de la Mirandole (quoted on p. 326 of Jean Wier*s Histoires^ 1579) says : " J'ay conu un homme nomm^ Benoist Bema, aag^ de septantecinq ans, du nombrede ces sacrificateurs que nous nommons prestres, lequel par Tespace de plus de quarante ans avoit couch^ avec un Daemon, qui lui estoit familier, et lui aparassoit en forme de feme." Psellus (eleventh century), in his Dialogue on the Operation of Dcemons (ed. CoUisson, 30-32), relates of a con- versation with a monk in Mesopotamia, " who really was an initiated inspector of dasmonic phantasms : these magical practices he after- wards abandoned as worthless and deceptive, and having made his recantation, attached himself to the true doctrine, which we profess, and assiduously applying himself, underwent a course of instruction at my hands ; he accordingly told me many and extraordinary things about deomons ; and once on my asking if daamons were capable of animal passion, ' Not a doubt of it,' said he. Quemadmodom et sperma nonnulli eorum emittunt et vermes quosdam spermate procreant. At ' incredibile est, inquam excrementi quicquam dsemonibus inesse, vasave spermatica e^ vitalia vasa quidem eis, inquit illi, hujusmodi nulla insunt, superflui autem seu excrementi nescio quid emittunt hoc mihi asserenti credito . . . 'And are there many descriptions of dssmons, Marcus ? ' I asked again. ' There are many * said he, * and of every possible variety of figure and conformation, so that the air is full of them, both that above and that around us, the earth and the sea are full of them, and the lowest subterranean depths.' " Marcus then recounts the daemons which Thracian affects to despise, but quotes a species Leliurium, "speaking in his barbarous vernacular tongue, a name which signifies Igneous." On demons generally see Psellus, Hypotypose dee anciens dogmes dee ChaldSene^ ed. Chaignet {Damaeciue le Diadoqtie, Lee Premiere Prineipee, iii, 229). Quoted Sale's Koran, Surah vi. 70 MEN MARRIED TO SPIRITS. satisfying their lust and their appetites. The clan of 'Amr b. Yarbu' was descended from a si'ldt, or she-demon, who became the wife of their human father.^ Palgrave cites it also.^ Sayce quotes as an instance that *' about fifteen years ago there was a man in Cairo who was unmarried, but had an invisible ginna as wife. One day, however, he saw a woman and loved her, and two days later he died. It should be added that in Egypt, where early marriages are the rule, bachelors who have reached the prime of life are believed to be married to 'af&rit or ginn."' Another case, mentioned by Baldensperger,^ was that of an epileptic servant who maintained that a female jinni was in love with him, and used to strike him half dead to the ground. At Mosul there was the same tradition, and I met with it while discussing Jinn and kindred subjects on the mound of Nineveh one evening, when incidentally (and entirely spontaneously) one of the men, YakAb, told me that he knew a man in Mosul who declared that he was visited at nights by a spirit in the form of a beautiful woman, who had already borne him three children, and he was so pleased with this minage that he. scorned a conventional marriage.^ Habbinic literature is full of the doings of Lilith, who bore to Adam devils, spirits, and Itlln (the Assyrian lilu)} Whoever slept alone in a room was likely to be beset by ^ Robertson Smith, quoting Ibn Doreid, KUab al-ishtikaJc, 139, Rd. Sem., 50. » i, 33. » Cairene Folklore^ Folklore, 1900, xi, 388. * RKF., 1899, 149 ; cf. 1893, 205. 8 P.-S.^.il., Feb. 1906, 83. ' Eisenmenger, ErUdecktes Jvdentum, ii, 413. LILITH. 71 her.^ The Habbis believed, too, that a man might have children by allying himself with a demon,^ and although they might, not be visible to human beings, yet when that man was dying they would hover round his bed, to hail him as their father.^ At the funeral of a bachelor the Jews of Kurdistan cast sand before the coffin to blind the eyes of the unbegotten children of the deceased.^ Similarly, the Assyrian demon alii owes its parentage to a human being.^ Bar Shalmon, the legendary son-in-law of Asmodeus, the demon, after marrying his daughter, a princess, becomes the father of a son by her, but deserts her. The princess then pretends to renounce him, but begs a final kiss, which kills him.^ Another demon of the same kind named Omias is described as saying (in the Testament of Solomon) : "Those who are consumed with desire for noble virgins upon earth . . . these I strangle. But in case there is no disposition to sleep, I am changed into three forms. Whenever men come to be enamoured of women, I metamorphose myself into a comely female, and I take hold of the men in their sleep and play with them." '' In Palestine it is said sometimes that women find that their best gowns, which they had carefully put away in their bridal chests, have been worn by female spirits during ^ Sabbath, 1516, quoted Blau, Deis Altjiid, Zaubenc, 12. Eabba relates how he saw Hurmiz, the daughter of Lilith. There is also a certain person or demon, it is unknown which, called Hurnim bar Lilith (Talmud, Baba Bathra, ed. Rodkinson, v, 203). * Eisenmenger, op. cit., 421. ' Ibid., 425. This was their explanation of the ba*al k'ri. * Jewish EncycLy xi, 600. ' AlA ia ina maial mv4i amelu ina Sitti irihhil atta {Devils, i, Tablet * B,' 18). * See Jewish EncycL, 510. ' Conybeare, Jewish Quarterly, xi, 17. 72 DEMIGODS. their confinement, because they did not utter the name of God in locking them up.^ Presumably the female spirit bedecks herself with a wedding gown, when its proper owner is separated from her husband, in order to attract his attentions. Among the Jews in Palestine, Lilith (or the evil eye in general) is averted from the bed by hanging a charm over it consisting of a special cabalistic paper in Hebrew together with a piece of rue, garlic, and a fragment of looking-glass. On the first possible Sabbath all the relations assemble in the patient's room and make a hideous noise to drive away evil spirits.^ On the other hand, women are equally open to attack from demons. Whatever view may be held of the B*ni Sldhim, who took wives of the daughters of men^ * Cortiss, Prim, Sem, Rel,^ 115. * Masterman, Bibl. Worlds ixii, 249. For pictures of Hebrew amulets hung up against Lilith, see Jewish Encyd,^ 8vb voce Amulets. See also P. D. Scott-Moncrieff, P,S.B.A,y xxvii, 1905, 26, for a photograph of a Hebrew amulet (iuscription) from Morocco. On Jewish Lilith- worship in Mesopotamia, see Z.D.M.G.^ iz, 461 ff. The Jews of the present day write on the bed of the woman in child^rth, and on the four walls of the chamber: Jn'hh pH TWi) UlIK^ "Adam and Eve, Get out, O Lilith " (Buxt. Lex,, 1140). ' Cf. Robertson Smith, Bel, Sem,, 60 : ''In one of the few fragments of old mythology which have been transplanted unaltered into the Hebrew Scriptures, we read of the sons of gods who took wives of the daughters of men . . . such a hero is the Izdubar of Babylonian myth." Examples of such fabricated genealogies will be found in McLennan, Studies in Ancient History^ ch. iz. To the subject of the B^nS Eldkim Horst {ZayJber Biblioihek, ii, 391) adds the so-called " Scheias-Teufel," ''welche ihr grosstes VergnUgen daran sinden, ihre Excremente an Orten abnulegen, wo man's am wenigsten vermuthet, und dadurch die Menschen in peinliche Verlegenheit zu bringen." Martin Del Rio (1599, bk. ii, 180) remarks, "vetustas obtrudit suos semideos, Hercules, Sarpedooes, iBneas, Seruios Tullos ; Anglia, Merlinum ; Pannonia, Hunnos ex Arlunis strigibus Gk>thiciB et Faunis natos," etc. OFFSPRING OF WOMEN AND DEVILS. 73 (and it seems only reasonable to conneot this legend with this form of superstition), Hebrew tradition undoubtedly shows an acceptance of this belief. The parentage of Isaac is but thinly disguised/ and there is a remarkable story in Ezek. xxiii, where Yahweh marries two sisters and begets children by them. ''This is an allegory. But when even a late prophet does not hesitate to introduce this conception as a figure of speech, it may be reasonably supposed that an earlier time found it only natural that Yahweh, as well as other gods, should have children by graciously visiting women of his choice."* Again, it is the "Angel of Yahweh" who foretells the birth of Samson.' According to Mohammedan tradition, it was Gabriel's breath, which he breathed into the Virgin Mary, that caused the conception.^ In Pirke R,EL xxi, xxii, Cain's real father was not Adam, but one of the demons.^ In Assyrian mythology the amours of the goddess Ishtar with human beings are too well known to need repeating. In the Book of Enoch,^ wicked spirits are said to have been bom of women and the 'holy watchers,' and Justin Martyr says that demons are the offspring of angels who yielded to the embraces of earthly women.' > Encyd. Bibl,, 4692 : Gen. xxi, 1, 2 : "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. And Sarah conceived, and hare Abraham a son in his old age." ' See EncycL BiU,, article Son of Ood, 4690. ' Judges xiii, 3. * Sale, Koran, Surah xix, n. r. ' On angel intermarriage with human beings see Jetnsh EncycL^ ntb voce Fall of Angels, • C. XV. ^ Apol, ii, 446 ; both these cases are quoted by Conjbeare, Jetoish Quarterly, viii, 597, 603. 74 THE STORY OF TOBIAS. In the Slavonic Book of Enoch Satan is the seducer and paramour of Eve. The very fact that ecclesiastics argue against this belief in their writings^ shows how strong the belief in them must have been: ''Now see, my brother readers, and know that this" (of angels having intercourse with mankind) ''is neither in the nature of spiritual beings, nor in the nature of 'the impure and evil-doing demons who love adultery ; for there are no males and females amongst them, nor has there been even one added to their number siDce they fell. If the devils were able to have intercourse with women, they would not leave one single virgin undefiled in the whole human race." In the Koran, too, Sale annotates the remark : " They say, God hath begotten children ; God forbid ! " with the explanation : " This is spoken not only of the Christians and of the Jews (for they are accused of holding Ozair, or Ezra, to be the Son of God), but also of the pagan Arabs, who imagined the angels to be the daughters of God." * Asmodeus, the demon, who first appears in the Book of Tobit, is made responsible for the danger in men marrying Sarah, the daughter of Haguel, and he must be "bound" before Tobias can wed his bride.* The phrase "for a devil loveth her,"* together with the whole * Bezold, Die SchatzhoMe, 18. ' Surah ii. Paul believed that demons could be warded off and their influence repelled by the chalehi or headdress of the Jewish women. This, as Dean Farrar admits {Life of Christ, appendix viii) is the true meaning of PauFs rule, that women should veil themselves in church "because of the angels" (Conybeare, J.Q.^ viii, 579). According to a tradition of Mohammed, everyone is touched at birth by the devil, except Mary and her Son, between whom and the evil spirit God placed a veil (Sale, Koran, note to Surah iii). ' Tobit iii, 17. * Ibid., vi, 14. THE STORY OF TOBIAS. 75 • story, shows how great a hold the belief had obtained. Dr. Gaster has published two hitherto unknown versions of the Tobit Legend^ which relate that '' Tobiyah remembered the words of Raphael, and he took the heart of the fish and put it on a censer and burnt it under the clothes of Sarah. And Ashmedai received the smell and he fled instantly.'' According to the Testament of Solomon Asmodeus is made to say, ''I am called Asmodeus among mortals, and my business is to plot against the newly wedded, so that they may not know one another. And I sever them utterly by many calamities, and I waste away the beauty of virgin women, and estrange their hearts . . . I transport men into fits of madness and desire, when they have wives of their own, so that they leave them, and go o£f by night and day to others that belong to other men."^ He describes his own parentage as being from an angel's seed by a daughter of man.' He was the counterpart of Lilith, as being dangerous to women. From this it seems apparent that the antagonism of Asmodeus towards the newly-wed arose primarily from the idea that he jealously guarded to himself some kind of ju% primcB noctis, and that he was always ready to attack anyone who should interfere with his possible harlm. His functions are the same as those of a demon of some of the native tribes of Central Queensland, who is a noxious being called Molonga, who prowls unseen, and would kill men and violate women if certain ceremonies were not performed.^ Azazel was familiar to the Rabbis as the seducer of men and women.^ In the Testament of Solomon^ one of the 1 RS.B.A., xix, 37. * J.Q., xi, 20. ' Ibid., ch. xxi. * Roth, £thn. Studies, 120 ff., quoted Frazer, Oolden Bought iii, 94. * Tanna d. b. R, Yishma^ely quoted Eticycl, BibL, ii, 366. 76 SPIRITS MARRIED TO WOMEN. demons is described as having the form of a dragon with the face and hands of a man. " I am the so-called winged dragon, and I chamber not with many women, but only with a few that are of fair shape, which possess the name of xuli, of this star. And I pair with them in the guise of a spirit winged in form, coitum habens per nates. And she on whom I have leapt goes heavy with child, and that which is bom of her becomes eros.'* ^ In the Arabian Nights, in the story of the Second Royal Mendicant, the efreet says : " man, it is allowed us by. our law, if a wife be guilty of incontinence, to put her to death. This woman I carried o£f on her wedding-night, when she was twelve years of age, and she was acquainted with no man but me/' Among modem Arabs the belief goes still further, that a dead husband may revisit his wife. It is said that a woman in Nebk took the bath of ceremonial purification, because she dreamed she had received a visit from her dead husband. A certain man in Nebk was currently believed to have been the offspring of such a union, and no reproach was ever cast upon his mother.* Cognate with this was the action of a barren woman who rushed up to the corpse of a man after he had been executed for murder.* Somewhat similar to Asmodeus is the Arab spirit called Karina, a female demon accompanying every woman, and ^ Conybeare, J.Q., xi, 31. "But since such offspring cannot be carried by men, the woman in question breaks wind." ' Curtiss, Prim. Sem, Ret., 115-16. ^ Ibid., 116. There is a tradition in some remote (Jewish) com* munities that a woman may be married to the dead {Jewish EncycL^ xi, 599). On the superstitions of eating corpses of men executed see Bcrgemann, Die Verbreitung der Anthropophagie^ 21. THE KARINA. 77 having as many children as her counterpart. Just as Lilith took the place of Eve, evidently the Karina is intended, in one of her phases (that of bearing children), to do the same for each man. She is very dangerous to pregnant women and newly married people; that is to say, just as Asmodeus becomes jealous of interference with his rights, so does the Karina admit of no dallying with other women. She is said to destroy the creative power of men^ and to make women barren, and to her is due epilepsy as the penalty for pouring water over the threshold of the door without naming God, on a Friday, or to quench .the fire. She may appear as an owl, a Jewess, a camel, or a black man. There is a story that Solomon once met a singular-looking woman and asked her whether she was J&n or human. She answered that she was the Karina. '' I put hatred between husband and wife, I make women miscarry, I make them barren, I make men impotent, I make husbands love other men's wives, women other women's husbands ; in short, I do all contrary to the happiness of wedded life."* That barren women among the Semites believe in divine intervention to give them children is evident from the Old and New Testament, as well as from other sources. Indeed, so many of the stories point to a materialistic conception, that we must not suppose that the primitive origin of such a belief arose from any ideas of abstract 1 Presumably in the same way the Assyrian demons (Tablet * K ') "steal away desire (?) and bring to nought the seed." Cf. Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum (1580), about witches (p. 141) : " Quod obstetrices malefic83 conceptus in utero diversis modis interimunt, aborsum pro- corant, et ubi hoc non faciunt, Deemonibus nates infantes offerunf ' See Baldensperger, P.E,F., 1899, 149 ; 1893, 206 ; 1906, 99. 78 DEMIGODS. answer to prayer. When Yahweh visits Sarah,^ or Leah,* or the angel of Yahweh' comes to Samson's mother,^ we must surely see a remnant of tradition bearing on the divine origin of Isaac, and the sons of Leah, as well as the Nazarite Samson. Herodotus has handed down the belief which was current about the Temple of Bel at Babylon.^ '' No man is suffered to sleep here, but the apartment is occupied by a female, whom the Chaldean priests afi&rm that their deity selects from the whole nation as the object of his pleasures. They have a tradition which cannot easily obtain credit, that their deity enters this temple and reposes at night on this couch. A similar assertion is also made by the Egyptians of Thebes; for in the interior part of the temple of the Theban Jupiter, a woman in like manner sleeps. Of these two women it is presumed that neither of them is ever introduced to the other sex." The existence of the Assyrian kizrUi, uhdti, and harimdii is worth mentioning in this connection. In a certain family in Nebk the wife, a perfectly respectable woman, apparently with the consent of her husband, considers it wrong to refuse a * holy man.' ^ * Gen. xxi, 1. 3 " And Yahweh saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb ** (Gen. xxix, 31), ' Judges xiii, 3. * To this day Moslems at Hamath swear by Dei penis. In the village of Bludan, 25 miles west of Damascus, which is composed of Greek Christians of a very low type, the same oath is heard on the lips of women. Curtiss, Prim, Sem. ReL, 113. * Bk. i, ch. cbutii-clxxxii. * Note in Curtiss, Prim, Sem, Bel,, 150. On saints in India see Lyall, Asiatic Studies, 1884, 21 ff. BARREN WOMEN. 79 One Hanna Khizani of Hamath visited Tanta in Egypt, and saw the great annual festival of Seiyid Alimed el-Bedawi, '' probably the most popular saint in Egypt/' when there were upwards of half a million persons present, including singers, dancers, jugglers, and showmen of every kind. It is at this festival that some of the honourable women vow the use of their bodies to the first one who happens to approach them.^ Sexual excesses were practised down to quite modem times at the annual festival of the Prophet Elijah, within the enclosure of the monastery on the top of Mount Garmel.^ What throws more light on this peculiar idea is the ubiquity of the belief among the modern Arabs. There is abundant evidence to show how persistently the childless women cling to the belief that a visit to a sanctuary (in its broadest sense) will remove the stigma. Running water which has some sacred connection, either with a tceli, holy man, saint, or hero, is the most usual aim of these childless pilgrims. In some of the channels of the Orontes, the first night that the water is allowed to flow, there is a special virtue of procreation, and barren women stand therein, waiting for the onrush of the water.' At Kiriaten, at the so-called Baths of Solomon, is a famous shrine, called Abu Rabah, for women who desire children. They really regard 1 Ibid., 154. ' See this and other instances, Curtiss, BihL World, zxiii, 327, and ibid, on temporary marriages. Sozomen speaks of an ancient custom of yielding up virgins to prostitution when on the eve of marriage to those to whom they had been betrothed, at Heliopolis, near Mount Libanus {Ecdes. HUt.y bk. v, eh. 10). Herodotus speaks of the custom of the women devoting themselves to Venus among the Babylonians and Cyprians (i, cxcix). ' Curtiss, Prim, Sem. ReL, 117. 80 ' BARREN WOMEN. the tceli of the shrine as the father of children born thus ; they allow the hot air to stream up their bodies, saying — •* Oh, Abu Rabah ! To thee come the white ones, To thee come the fair ones, With thee is the generation, With us is the conception." ^ There is a cave at Juneh, in which is a pool of water, to which the same power is attributed.^ At the stream of Tell-el-k&di the barren women bathe with the same object,' and hundreds visit the shrine of Sa'dadin at JSba, appearing the following year, each with a child on her arm, and bringing a sacrifice.^ The shrine of Chidr at Beirut contains in its court a well of holy water (called deker, * male '), and barren women bathe therein. If they conceive a child he is called Ohidr.' In Palestine, a man who has not had a child promises a /edu if only he may receive the gift of one from a certain saint. If it should be born, when it is several days old they put the blood of the sacrifice offered in payment of the vow on its forehead.' » Ibid. » Ibid., 119. > Curtiss, Bibl World, xxiii, 100. « Ibid., 98. <^ Ibid., 332 ; see 336. • Prim, Sem. Eel,, 201. Compare John v, 4. This story of the spirit which troubled the water bears analogy to the Assyrian text about the word of Marduk ( W.A.L, iv, 26, 4, 1. 6 ff. ; Hehn, Beitr. fur Aasyriologie, v, 332) : — Ana tdnUi uiarma tanUum H gdUat Ana 8U9i uiarma suHL idammum • • • Ana agt Paratti uSarma Amat *^^ Marduk ahtrrakku idaUah, ** Unto the sea it penetrateth, and the sea heaveth ; Unto the marsh it penetrateth, and the marsh groaneth ; Unto the Euphrates flood it penetrateth, and the word of Marduk troubleth the river-bed.'' . On other holy wells and springs, such as Zemzem at Mecca, Jidlal 77l^^y of Eshmunazar, Paneas, etc., see Baudissin, Studien, 154. THE ALU. 81 Again, to wliat class of beings are we to refer the Scorpion-men of the Gilgamish legend, and '' the people who had the bodies of birds of the holes (i.e. bats), men with the faces of ravens,'' which the gods created?^ Are we to assume that these were formed out of clay or by some such handicraft, or are we to refer them to a more primitive period, when the connection of men and gods by way of totems was much closer than it grew to be in after times P At any rate, there is no doubt whatever about the semi-human parentage of the Assyrian spirit alu.^ It is a demon which hides itself in dark corners and caverns in the rock, haunting ruins and deserted buildings, and slinking through the streets at night like a pariah dog. It lies in wait for the unwary, ready to rush out from its hiding-place ''to envelop him as with a garment," or, coming into the bedchamber by night, it steals sleep away from men by threatening to pounce upon them, should they dare to close their eyes.' ''The man whom an evil aia hath enveloped on his bed'^^ shows the Babylonian belief in what the Arabs call the Kabua or Kabus en-ndm, a nightmare " which throws itself heavily on a sleeper, preventing him from moving or opening his eyes, and which disappears as soon as he awakes." ^ ^ CuthsBan Legend, King, Seven Tablets of Creation^ 143, 11 10-11. Cf. Rev. ix, 7 : '* And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared for war ; and upon their heads as it were crowns like unto gold, and their faces were as men's faces." 3 The incantations are explicit on this point, the line " Whether thou art an evil alH which the man hath created on a bed of night in sleep " bearing the same idea as the Rabbis had of demons procreated through k^ri. » Devils, Tablet ' B.' * W,AJ,, iv, 60; i, 44. ^ Sayce, Cairene Folklore, Folklore, ii, 387. This was one form of the 82 FEVER. Besides these actual demons various diseases were personified in the same way. Fever, Headache, and such like were all devils to be exorcised — '* Incantation : — The evil Fever hath come like a deluge, and Girt with dread brilliance it filleth the broad earth, Enveloped in terror, clothed with fear ; It roameth through the street, it is let loose in the road ; It standeth beside a man, yet none can see it, It sitteth beside a man, yet none can [see it]. When it entereth the house its appearance is xmknowD, When it goeth forth [from the house] it is not perceived." ^ Or from one of the '' Headache '' tablets we learn — ** Headache hath come forth from the Underworld, It hath come forth from the dwelling of Bel, From amid the mountains it hath descended upon the land. From the ends of the mountains it hath descended upon the land. From the fields not to return it hath descended, With the mountain-goat into the fold it hath descended. With the ibex unto the Open-homed flocks it hath descended. With the Open-homed unto the Big-homed it hath descended." > This peculiar idea of a personified disease having its home in the mountains reappears in a Syriac charm against lunacy — ** [O Evil Spirit of Lunacy], you will needs go forth from the bones, from the sinews, from incubus which so exercised the minds of the mediaeval demonologists. Jean Wier (in his Histories, IHsptUes et Discoun, des Illusions et Impostures des Diables, 1579, 284) says, on the illusion of the incubus, that there is in the art of medicine a malady called Incubus by the Latins, such that those who are attacked by it believe themselves to be supporting a burden in their sleep, which prevents their breathing, and consequently also their speaking. His is an interesting book on all sorts of discussions of this nature. ' DeviU, ii, 11. * Ibid., Tablet III, Series Ti4. HEADACHE. 83 the flesh, from the skioy and from the hair unto the ground, and from the ground (passing) to iron, and from iron to stone, and from stone (you will pass on) to the mountain/' ^ A Metawileh charm, which is kept in a leather purse runs : *^ I haye rested upon God. Away from me, O feyer, from Abdallah the son of Hosein." * The Ninth Tablet of the Series ** Headache ** is similar. ^ Incantation : — Headache roameth over the desert, blowing like the wind, Flashing like lightning it is loosed above and below ; It cutteth off him who feareth not his god like a reed, like a stalk of henna it slitteth his thews. It wasteth the flesh of him who hath no protecting goddess, Flashing like a heavenly star it cometh like the dew ; / It standeth hostile against the wayfarer, scorching him like the day. This man it hath struck, and Like one with heart disease he staggereth. Like one bereft of reason he is broken, Like that which hath been cast into the fire he is shrivelled, Like a wild ass . . . his eyes are fiill of cloud, On himself he feedeth, bound in death." ' Dimetu is another disease personified.^ Namtaru, the Plague-god, is also addressed in the incantations. In the one in which the physician is directed to make a figure of his patient in dough, so I \ ^ H. GoUancz, Sdection of Charms, 91. » Fallflcheer, P,B.F., 1889, 128. > Devils, ii, 66. * The question arises whether we are to see in dimetu (as connected with the Hebrew ^YI, a menstruating woman) merely the more general word for ' sickness,' or some more specific use of this word as the personification of menstruation, in accordance with the special meaning in Hebrew. On arihatu, connected with arhu, 'month,' possibly having this signification, see suprct, p. 67. NAMTARXJ. that the Flagae-god may be induced to leave the man he is tormenting and enter his image, he is thus described : — " Incantation : — Plague-god that devoureth the land like fire, Plague-god that attacketh the man like a fever, Plague-god that roameth like the wind over the desert, Plague-god that seizeth on the man like an evil thing. Plague-god that tormenteth the man like a pestilence, Plague-god that hath no hands or feet, that wandereth by night, Plague-god that teareth the sick man in shreds like a leek. That hath bound his members, That hath brought low his full strength [like a plant (?)] [At night] on his bed he cannot sleep. It hath subjected . . . It hath seized on his loins ; His god is far distant from him, His goddess from his body \a afar. Marduk hath seen him (etc.). •What I' (etc.). 'Go, my son (Marduk), PuU off a piece of clay from the deep, Fashion a figure of his bodily form (therefrom) and Place it on the loins of the sick man by night, At dawn make the atonement for his body. Perform the Incantation of Eridu, Turn his face to the west, That the evil Plague-demon which hath seized upon him May vanish away from him.' " * Among the Assyrians the custom existed of hanging up amulets of inscribed clay to guard the house from evil, just as is done to this day by many nations. In the British Museum are two tablets^ inscribed with the legend of Ura, another spirit of pestilence. These have * DeniUf ii, 99 ; cf. W.A,Ly iv, 27, 4, 54. Nanitaru roM kk rafiMatu ramdj " great Namtaru, girt with dread.' ' L. W. King, Zett8. fiir Auyr., xi, 50. If URA. 85 a rectangular projection at the top which is pierced horizontally^ by which it was evidently intended that the tablet should be hung up. This upper projection in one case is inscribed, very much after the irregular manner of the charms of the Middle Ages, thus : — and on the upper edge, above the word " God " : " May the shrine of Assur and Melam (P) be over this house ! " The inscription on the tablets is a quotation from the legend of TJra, the Plague-god, beginning — ** When Ura was appeased . . . The gods all of them . . . The Igigi, the Anunnaki, all those that went before him . . . Then Ura opened his mouth and unto . . . spake ; * Pay heed, all of you, to my words . . , ^ What this means is doubtful. For a tablet similar in shape compare Km. 2, 263 (Bezold, C€Udloffue\ which has the same projection for suspension, and contains an address to Ishtar : " To Ishtar, great lady, queen of the Igigi and Anunnaki, whose power the gods, her fathers, have increased . . . the destruction of mine enemies, the attainment of all my desires, with many gifts to Ishtar, dwelling in Arbela, my lady I present." In the British Museum is a bronze plaque of a similar shape from Nimroud, with a mythological scene figured on it, and beneath this and on the reverse an inscription dedicated to Nabii by Assur-ri^iia in gratitude for the preservation of the lives of himself and other men, with a list of the offerings presented (houses, land, etc.), which these beneficiaries have given to the god (Nimroud Gallery, Case J.Q.y vi, 325 ; see also Franck, La KahbdU^ 169. ' Der Neu-AramaUch Dialekt des Tur-^Abdin, ed. Prym and Socio, 1881. In one of them a young man shares his bread with the angel (p. 298). « The whole of this description of Satan has been taken from the article in Cheyne's Encydopcedia BihlicOy sub voce. See also Bender on Satan, «/.$., vi, 329, and the Jewish Encydopcediay sub voce. The whole question of Talmudic angels and demons is gone into carefully by Brecher, Das TranscendentcUe im Talmud^ 1850. 88 THE EVIL EYE. The curiously persistent belief in the power of the Evil Eye for harm was as real in Mesopotamia among the Assyrians as it is among the modem Arabs. It is frequently mentioned in incantations among the possible causes which have rendered the patient sick« and it is described thus: — *' The roving Evil Eye hath looked on the neighbourhood, and vanished afar, Hath looked on the vicinity, and vanished afar, It hath looked on the chamber of the land, and vanished afar, It hath looked on the wanderer, And like wood cut for kindling (?) it hath bent his neck.'' And the exorcism ends — '* Thou man, son of his god. The Eye which hath looked upon thee for harm, . The Eye which hath looked upon thee for evil . . . May Ba'u smite it with flaz(?), May Gunura [smite it] with a great oar(?) Like rain which is let fall from heaven, Directed unto earth, So may Ea, king of the Deep, remove it from thy body." ' Belief in it is universal in Palestine.^ It can throw down a house, break a plough, make persons sick or kill them, as well as animals or plants. The simplest cure for a stroke of the Evil Eye is to take a bit of clothing of the person that has had the bad quality, a rag or other object, and burn it below the person struck. Another method is to place pieces of alum, salt, incense, and tamarisk (if Mohammedans are concerned), or a piece of palm from 1 Devils, ii, Tablet * U.' On the whole subject see Elworthy, The Evil Eye ; J. Tuchmann in Milusine, iii. * Cf. Mark vii, 22, " lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing." THE EVIL EYE. 89 Palm Sunday (for Christians), in a pan on the fire, and take tlie child round it seven times; as soon as something cracks in the pan tlie spell is broken.^ If some European should pat the head of a child in the presence of a native nurse, the woman on reaching home will take the child into a room, place it on the floor, and then collecting some dust in a shovel from each of the four corners will throw it on the fire, exclaiming, "Fie on thee. Evil Eye ! " * Charms in the shape of a silver eye are placed on the heads of children "with sore eyes, or to prevent eye disease."^ It is rather a question, in such a case, whether this custom has not taken its origin in the idea of repelling the Evil Eye from the child. It is personified in a Syriac charm: "The Evil Eye went forth from the stone of the rock, and the Angel Gabriel met her.^'^ In Arabia the possessor of the Evil Eye can strike down a bird flying with his glance.^ In the Sinaitic Peninsula a young camel is protected from it by a hollow stone hung roung its neck.® Among the modern Jews of New York, the antidote is to take a handful of salt and pass it round the head of the bewitched child, throwing a little in each corner, and the remainder over the threshold. Another is for the mother to kiss her child three times, spitting after each kiss.^ While I was riding from Aleppo to D6r-ez-z6r in » Baldensperger, P,RF., 1893, 211 ; 1899, 150. • G. Kobinson Lees, Village Life in Palestine, 214. » Bliss, P.KF., 1892, 319. • H. GoUancz, Selection of Charms, 93. • Doughty, Arabia Deserta, i, 548. « Jennings Bramley, P.E,F., 1906, 205. ^ Jewish Encyd.y sub voce Superstition, i ■■»^i 90 THE HAUNTS OF DEMONS. 1904, the otnbashi (sergeant) of my escort complained of an injured wrist, which he declared was probably due to a certain woman having cast an evil eye upon him while he was doing some work before he started. It is quite the usual thing in Mesopotamia to protect children from the Evil Eye by fastening small blue objects to their caps. Similarly, the owners of valuable mares will ward off evil by knotting small beads into the mane or tail. In the houses they suspend small bags of leather containing charms from the ceiUng for a similar purpose. In Cairo "it is a very common custom ... to hang an aloe-plant over the door of the house" with the idea of securing good luck.^ The usual haunts of demons are deserts, caverns, and ruins.^ "O thou evil demon, turn thee to get hence; O thou that dwelleth in ruins, get thee to thy ruins," ' voices the tradition of all peoples that have ever believed in ghosts. Maimonides speaks of the demons and ghouls that dwell in the wastes.^ The old Arab belief is that the ghosts of the dead dwell in graveyards, rains, and desert places' and the desert is full of spirits.' The modern Egyptian believes that the Jinn inhabit rivers, ruined houses, wells, baths, ovens, and even the latrine.' The ghoul of the Arabs lives in the desert, and appears to travellers in ' Lane, Manners and Customs, 1890, 236. ^ The aborigines of Australia believe that every thicket, most watering-places, and all rocky places abound with evil spirits (Oldfield, quoted Frazer, 0,B., iii, 41). ' Deoils, i, Tablet * B,' 1. 56. * Quoted Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, ii, 458. * Wellhausen, BestCf 157. « Ibid., 149. ^ Lane, Manners and CiLstoms^ 203. HAUNTED HOUSES. 91 a friendly guise in order to make them lose their wayJ Christ goes into the wilderness and there meets the devil.^ The Unclean Spirit of Palestinian tradition passes through waterless places.' In Rabbinic literature the particular spots haunted by demons are caper-bushes and spear- worts^ where they dwell in groups of sixty; nut-trees, where they form in groups of nine; shady spots on moonlight nights, especially the roofs of houses, under gutters, or near ruins; cemeteries and privies; water, oil, and bread-crumbs cast on the ground^ Haunted houses are as common among the Arabs as with Western peoples, and anyone who has lived in Oriental towns will recall houses of which the rent was 1 Mastidt, Prairies d'Or, iii, 318. * Matt, iv, 1. * Luke zi, 24. * For authorities see Jewish Enci/clopcedia, iv, 516. The Talmud tells a story that during a famine a pious man gave a dinar to a poor man on New Year's Eve, and his wife scolded him so that he preferred to pass the night in a cemetery rather than at home. There he over- heard two spirits speaking to one another, and one invited the other to perambulate the world to learn what punishment is to be inflicted upon men. The second, however, said it could not leave the cemetery, because it had been buried in a bed of reeds {Berakhoth, Talmud of Babylon, i, 3, ed. Schwab, 296). Maury {La Magie, 194) quotes the Rabbinic belief that demons lived in deserts or unclean places, dung- heaps, cloaca:, and obscure places. Francis Barrett {The Magus, 1801, 102) explains in all seriousness that the best places for ghost-raising are churchyards, or, better still, where criminals have been 'executed or where a " great public slaughter of men " has taken place ; or even better than these, the place where some dead carcase that came by violent death which is not yet expiated, "for the expiation of those places is likewise a holy rite duly to be adhibited to the burial of the bodies, and often prohibits the soul returning to its body, and expels the same afar off to the place of judgment.'' On graveyards as the haunt of ghosts, while the soul is in the next world, see Jevons, Introduction to the History of Rdigion, 2nd edition, 1902, 49. 92 HAUNTED HOUSES. down to the lowest pitch through suspicion of their being haunted. While in Mosul I was told the common tale of death by fright from imaginary ghosts, how a certain man was challenged to visit a haunted house at night, the belief being that the demon waited behind the door to spring out on any who should knock. The man set out one evening, and on his not returning, his friends went to see what had happened to him, and found him dead at the very door with his abba caught on a nail.^ The same type of story is, I believe, told in English of the man who dies from fright because his clothes have got entangled in the coffin of a dead man. The belief that spectres inhabit ruins is universal in Semitic ghost stories. The Syriac legends are full of it; in one of the anecdotes in Thomas of Marga's history,' the story is told that '' while a certain man was passing at night along the road by the side of a fire-temple of the Magians which had been a ruin for some time, devils sprang out upon him in the form of black ravens, and they entered into him and convulsed him." In an Ethiopic magical prayer written for 'Ahita Mik&61 the same belief appears, for it prescribes certain glorious names, probably to be recited, "at the front and at the doors if thou wouldst enter into a house which is old or in ruins or unclean.''^ One of the reasons given by the Rabbis for not entering ruins is to avoid demons.^ » See my article, P.S.B.A., 1906, 82. 2 Ed. Budge, ii, 599. Compare Rev. xviii, 2: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of devils, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird." * Budge, Ladi/ Meitx MSS,, Nos. 2-5, 216. * Berakhoth, i, 4, ed. Schwab, 227. SUMMARY. 93 According to Origen, demons haunt the air and cause plagues, droughts, and bad seasons.^ The localities most affected by their presence are temples and shrines, where incense is burned and blood-offerings made,^ the slaughter of victims being in itself enough to lure them to heathen temples. But even without this they can be attracted to a place and laid therein by the use of certain incantations.' We may therefore briefly sum up the contents of this chapter as follows : — First, the ghost or spectre of a dead man reappearing was and is as vivid in the minds of all Semites as in other peoples, and the character of such wraiths was markedly similar to most popular superstitions of this kind. A spirit might be raised from the dead ; it might return of its own accord to haunt men ; it had the power to inflict harm or disease on those whom it attacked, in order to secure the payment of its dues; and, finally, the sorcerers, just like their con/rires of later periods and other climes, believed that their exorcisms could ' lay ' such perturbed spirits. Secondly, we have seen that the Semites believed in a wonderful phantasmagoria of spooks, goblins, demons, and fiends of hideous and borrid shape unsurpassed by the fertile imagination of the Middle Ages, which brought sickness on mankind. Thirdly, we must account as the most important class (in view of certain deductions to be made in succeeding chapters) those semi-human spirits, or semi-divine beings, born either of a human father or mother. This belief was universal among the Semites. That is to say, down to the present day they have believed in 1 C. CeU., i, 31, quoted Conybeare, J.Q., ix, 60. « Ibid., vii, 35, 64 » Ibid., iii, 34. 94 SUMMARY. a yisitation from supemataral beings who could ally them- selves temporarily with a man or woman, and have children, in the former case to inhabit the ghostly, imseen world, and in the second to be born on earth. Instances of such alliances of gods and men in classic mythology are so well known as not to need mention. Further, throughout the whole discussion, it has been obvious that the Semitic idea of spirits difEers hardly, if at all, from the superstitions of all other peoples. 95 II. DEMONIAC POSSESSION AND TABU. In the preceding chapter we have seen how all forms of devils and spectres exist in the minds of the Semites, and the next step in succession is the question of demoniac possession in its relation to tabu. This latter word, borrowed by anthropologists from Polynesia, is used to define that peculiar ban which savages lay on certain actions or states, from an idea of either inherent holiness or nncleanness connected with them. That the principle of tabu actually existed among all the Semites in its full savage force at one time or another, requires no discussion, for its presence has long been recognized, not only in the literature of these ancient nations, but also in the customs of the modern nomad Arab tribes; it is obvious from a comparison between their laws and those of more savage races who have not attained that pitch of civilisation which admits of a veneer to cover over their primitive customs. But the reason tchy tabu existed demands the most searching scrutiny into the early records of folklore, and it may be that Semitic literature, despite its civilised polish, may help in places where the customs of savage races offer no clue to their origin. In the discussion of this question, the first point to be considered is the view that the Semites held of the origin of disease. The cuneiform tablets again, earlier than anything that we yet possess on this subject, at least in 96 SICKNESS AND DEMONIAC POSSESSION. a comparatively unedited form, afford the most yalaable evidence of all, and we shall approach fundamentals more nearly through the Assyrian exorcisms than by other means. By gradual and successive pieces of evidence, drawn from all the series of cuneiform spells which were quoted in the Introduction, it will appear clear, I think, that the object of these incantations was to heal people suffering from disease, which will be seen to be only another name for spirit obsession in its widest sense, and that such people, by the very reason of their sickness, were presumed to have incurred a breach of tabu.^ With the simpler literature of the cuneiform tablets before us, it should be possible to unravel the more elaborate mysticism of the later Semites, and hence the first task is to deduce therefrom such of the Semitic super- stitions about disease as will afford a base from which to go further afield. No one can read much of the incantation literature of the Assyrians without recognizing how sickness was ascribed to the attacks of Jinn or spirits of different forms : — ^ 1 On the universal belief that disease is due to spirits see Tylor, Primitive Culture^ 4th ed., ii, 127. * Cf. Blau, Das Altjud. Zauherw., 14. Naturally it is not only to demons that sickness is primarily due ; the gods of course are omni- potent in this respect. Ishtar curses Gilgamish after he slays her divine bull, and he is smitten with a sore sickness, doubtless in con- sequence (King, Babylonian Religion, 164), and, to quote one instance out of many from the medical texts, " when (a man) is smitten on his neck, it is the hand of Adad ; when he is smitten on the neck and his breast hurts him, it is the hand of Ishtar on the necklace " (S. 951). Joshua the Stylite (ed. Wright, xxvi, 17) puts the matter quite tersely, referring to the year of Alexander, " And as all the people had sinned, all of them were smitten with the plague.'' Cf. Exod. viii, 19 : " This is the finger of God." It is apparent from this incantation to the star MuitabarrA mAtdnu : SICKNESS DUE TO DEMONS. 97 " Evil fiends are they, from the Underworld they have gone forth, They are the messengers of Bel, lord of the world. The evil Spirit that in the desert smiteth the living man, The evil Demon that like a cloak enshroudeth the man. The evil Ghost, the evil Devil that seize upon the body, The Hag-demon (and) Ghonl that smite the body with sickness. The Phantom of night (Hid) that in the desert roameth abroad. Unto the side of the wanderer ' have drawn nigh, Casting a woeful fever upon his body. A ban (mamit) of evil hath settled on his body, An evil disease on his body they have cast, An evil plague hath settled on his body. An evil venom on his body they have cast, An evil curse hath settled on his body, ■ Evil (and) sin on his body they have cast. Venom (and) wickedness have settled upon him." * " Incantation : — MtUftabartH mUtdnu, great lord, merciful god. That taketh the hands, the brave who looseth charms, the extolled that giveth life to the man, I, Samas-sum-ukin, servant of his god, Thy slave, mourn, groan, sigh, A violent sickness, a fire, the seizure of the god [Nergal ?], An evil sickness, an Utukku-demon, fever in my body, A baneful disease . . . with me, On my couch of mourning ... I call to thee. Against some god known or unknown 1 have committed a sin, or have risen in rebellion ; I fear, I am afraid of the glory of the face of thy divinity, [thy] greatness. May the water of my grief reach thee, that the anger of thy heart be appeased." (Scheil, Uiie Saison defouilles d Sippar^ 95.) Even saints, in modem Arabic belief, can inflict sickness as a punish- ment. According to Curtiss {Primitive Semitic Religion^ 168) a woman appealed to a saint (Abbas), by shaking the pall on his tomb, that he should make her recalcitrant lover, for whom she had made her husband divorce her, return to her, and the saint visited him with sickness. The marriage ceremony waa concluded at his shrine. I A frequent name for the sick man in texts of this kind. » Devils, i, Tablet III, 1. 23 ff. ^Mi 98 SICKNESS DUE TO DEMONS. One of the most important points to notice in this text is the use of mamif, 'the tabu/^ in parallelism to diseases. Again in the same tablet — '' The sick man upon whom sickness hath seized, Fever (hath taken up) its seat upon him. When I (the magician) draw near unto the sick man, When I examine the muscles of the sick man. When I compose his limbs, When I sprinkle the water of Ea on the sick man, When I subdue (?) the sick man, When I bring low the strength of the sick man, When I recite an incantation over the sick man. When I perform the Incantation of Eridu, May a kindly Spirit, a kindly Quardian be present at my side. Whether thou art an evil Spirit or an evil Demon, Or an evil Ghost or an evil Devil, Or an evil Qod or an evil Fiend, Or Hag-demon or Ghoul or Robber-sprite, Or Phantom of night, or Wraith of night. Or Handmaiden of the Phantom, Or evil Pestilence, or noisome Fever, Or pain, or sorcery, or any evil, Or Headache, or Shivering, or . . . (?), or Terror, Or an evil man, or evil face. Or evil spell, or evil tongue, or evil mouth, or sorcery, or any evil. Be thou removed from before me ! " ^ The fourth and fifth tablets of the same series are entirely taken up with descriptions of demons or ghosts^ which have attacked the man : '' From the man, the son of his god, may they depart from his body, and from his ^ The exact meaning of this word is discussed at length later in this chapter. « Ibid., iii, 178 ff. SICKNESS DUE TO DEMONS. 99 body may they issue forth ! '' ^ The sixteenth tablet is destined to avert the evil which an eclipse, caused by the evil spirits, has apparently brought upon a man.' Tablet ^A' begins with a description of the demons' who "like a flood are gathered together '* — " (Until) this man revolteth against himself, No food can he eat, no water can he drink. But with woe each day is he sated/' But devils in general are combated as sickness in the series Asakku (translated provisionally ' Fever ' ; at any rate it is the name of some disease), and they are exorcised so that they depart from the body of the sick man : — ^* Fever, unto the man, against his head, hath drawn nigh. Disease {Namtaru) unto the man, against his life, hath drawn nigh. An evil Spirit against his neck hath drawn nigh. An evil Demon against bis breast hath drawn nigh. An evil Ghost against his belly hath drawn nigh, An evil Qod against his foot hath drawn nigh ; These seven together have seized upon him. His body as (with) a consuming fire they devour (?)."* As with Fever, so is it with Headache {ti^u), which is reckoned a demon coming forth from the Underworld;^ Namiaru^ another disease, is similarly considered personified,^ * DevilSf V, col. iii, 48 flf. ' See preceding chapter, p. 52. s Laham in 1. 7, and compare " they spare not " in L 5 ; cf. also lL33flr. « Ibid., vol. ii, Tablet XI, 1. 1 ff. Cf. Tylor, Primitive Ctdture, 4th ed., 127, of New Zealand folklore : '*We hear, too, of an idea of the parts of the body — ^forehead, breast, stomach, feet^ etc. — being apportioned each to a deity who inflicts aches and pains and ailmei>ts there." « Ibid., Tablet * P.' « See Tablet ' R.' * ' : 100 THE DEMONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. and the Spirit of the Evil Eye has been discussed elsewhere.^ Even in medical texts^ which are comparatively, although by no means entirely, free from the black art, a man may be filled by ahhazu, some form of disease bearing the same name as one of the demons.' The rabisu, too, was another devil which could bring disease, to be exorcised in the following terms : — " May Marduk, eldest son of Eridu, sprinkle him (the sick man) with pure water, clean water, bright water, limpid water, with the water twice seven times, that he may be pure, be clean; let the evil rabisu demon go forth and stand away from him ; may a kindly sMu, a kindly lamassu, be present near his body."^ Leaving the period at which these cuneiform texts were edited (i.e., from the seventh century under the patronage of ASSurbanipal until the decadence of the later Southern empire), and descending to New Testament times and thought, the conceptions are of a similar nature. Conybeare gives a detail of his results in the examination of the demonology of this period as follows : — " (1) The world is full of evil demons presided over by Satan. Without flesh or bones they hover in the air or haunt the earth, especially its waterless places and the neighbourhood of tombs. (2) They cause in man all sin and disease and death ... To be sick is to have a devil inside one ... (3) They are as a rule invisible ... (4) They will pass from one person to another^ and from human beings into animals. (7) Before the advent * See p. 88. » KUchler, Assyr.-Babyl, Medizin, 60, 11. 28, 30, 31, etc. » Haupt, A,S.K.T., 11, ii,ll. 73 flf. Simeon Lindinger (De Ebrceorum veterfim arte medica^ 73, quoting ^^Stanlei hist, philos,^ 15, c. 16") remcirks : " Chaldsei vetustissimi jam opinati sunt, dromones irrepere in ilia, creare furorem, et morbum sacrum." THE DEMONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 101 of the Messiah, the Jews knew names, at the naming of which over the possessed, the demons took to flight. But Jesus of Nazareth authorized his followers to use no name but his own/' ^ Take, for instance, the case of the epileptic son in Matt, xvii, 14, and Mark ix, 14 : " Master, I brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit ; and whereso- ever it taketh him, it dasheth him down ; and he foameth and grindeth his teeth and pineth away . . . And they brought him unto him : and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him grievously : and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long time is it since this hath come unto himP And he said, From a child. And oft-times it hath cast him both into the fire and into the waters.'' Then Christ rebukes the unclean spirit, saying, ''Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I command thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And having cried out and torn him much, he ' came out." The old ideas of the Arabs are the same, trances, epilepsy, fever, epidemics, and madness being all ascribed to Jinn,^ and the modern Jews of Jerusalem * Demonoloffy of the New Testament^ Jewish Quarterly^ viii, 588. * Wellhausen, Reete^ 155. According to the Mosul tradition, which was repeated to me hj my servant Mejtd, a certain monk of Ddr Mftr £lia (a moDastery about an hour's distance) was appealed to by a woman who said she had been abandoned by a caravan and left on the road, and she prayed for leave to sleep there. He admitted her, and when night came he blew out his lamp, but hearing her approach softly he kicked her out of the monastery with one kick. Presently she came back in the guise of another woman, but this time he entirely refused her admittance. Then certain demons took counsel together and said : " He will not sin with her, so we must go to the daughter of the Sultan, and one of us must enter her so that she become mad and make herself naked, and he will be defeated." And so it fell out; but when the 102 THE DEMONS OF PALESTINE. are in no wise more advanced in their present treatment of such diseases. When a Jew is afflicted with madness, the falling sickness, or the like, his room is cleaned and white- washed, all holy books being remoyed, and the patient may not pray or mention holy words. The witch-doctress prepares a little wheat, barley, salt, water, milk, honey, four or six eggs, and some sweetmeats or sugar, and, mixing all these together at midnight, she scatters some of the mixture round the sick bed, on the threshold, and in the four corners of the room, reciting in a whisper as follows: — '' My Lords, I beseech you to pity, compassionate, and have mercy upon the soul (or life) of your servant (or slave, if it be a woman), the patient (giving the name), the son (or daughter) of your maid (giving the mother's name), and overlook his (or her) trespass; and if he (or she) have sinned and done any evil to you, forgive and pardon his (or her) sins ; give him (or her) life and restore his (or her) health and strength. (If to a barren woman, she adds) Open her womb and restore to her the fruits of her body. (If to those who lose young children) Give life to their sons and daughters, and let this honey (or sugar) be to sweeten your mouths and palates, the wheat and barley to feed your cattle and sheep, and the water and salt to establish peace, friendship, love, brotherhood, an everlasting covenant of salt between us and you." Here she breaks the eggs and pours the Sultan sent his servants to fetch the monk, the holy man shut his eyes when he drew near and successfully exorcised the demon. When the demon came forth, the monk commanded that they should bring one of the large stones used for crushing hurgh\d, and put it on the devil's head. They did so and cut off his head. THE DEMONS OF PALESTINE. 103 same in the aforementioDed places, kneels, and prostrates herself, kisses the ground several times, and proceeds with these words : " Here I offer you life for life, in order that ye may restore the life of this patient/' ' ' A. Goodrich-Freer, Some JewUh Folklore from Jerusalem^ Folklore^ 1904, zv, 2, 186. There is a peculiar form of so-called demouiac possession in Abyssinia : — ** 1 had the satisfaction of seeing in Gaffat a case of hovda. This term is given to a phenomenon of mental abstraction, which the natives explain as ' being possessed by a devil.' The case I am about to mention happened to a female in the service of one of the Europeans. Her symptoms began in a kind of fainting fit, in which the fingers were clenched in the palms of the hands, the eyes glazed, the nostrils distended, and the whole body stiff and inflexible. Afterwards she commenced a hideous laugh in imitation of the hyena, and began running about on all fours ; she was then seized by the bystanders, and a bouda doctor having been called in, this individual began questioning her as to the person who had possessed her with this hyena devil. She said he was a man living in Gooderoo, south of Abyssinia, and also told how long the spirit would be in possession, and what was required to expel him. Great care must be taken of persons thus afflicted, as cases of this kind sometimes end in death. All their demands for dress, food, trifles of any sort, must be strictly attended to. In the height of the frenzy they will sometimes carry out the idea of their hyena identity to such an extent as to attack any animal that may happen to be in the way. One woman fancied she would like a little donkey-flesh ; so to satisfy her strange taste she seized hold by her teeth to the hinder part of one which happened to be near. Off went the astonished beast at a pace that nothing in the form of persuasion will lead him to adopt for the gratification of man. Off, too, clinging tight with her teeth to his haunches, went the frenzied girl. Only force would induce her to forego the tender morsel " They have several cures for this strange attack ; but the never- failing one is a mixture of some obscene filth, which is concealed in some part of the house, whereupon the woman is said to go directly on all fours to where it is and swallow it. This would seem incredible but thousands of corroborative facts, known to Abyssinian residents put it beyond a doubt. " The power of possessing persons with the devil is attributed mostly to Jewish blacksmiths ; and women and children are terrified when they meet, in a solitary place, a blacksmith who is a Jew. These 104 THE DEMONS OF PALESTINE. Now the Arab belief shows how tenacious such super- stitions are in the East.^ Gurtiss^ tells of a boy who had epileptic fits. ''The boy felt the spirit coming up through I sorcerers are also said to be endued with the power of changing the shape of the object of their incantations ^ (Dufton, A Journey through Abyssinia, 167). Stern describes the symptoms of the bouda — " The possessed woman, as if struck by a magnetic wire, burst into loud fits of laughter and the paroxysms of a raving maniac. . . . She tried to bite, kick, and tear everyone within reach ; and when she found herself foiled in all those mischievous attempts, she convulsively grasped the uupaved wet floor, and in imitation of the hyena gave utterance to the most discordant sounds." The cure was as follows. The exorcist ''with one hand laid an amulet on her heaving bosom, whilst with the other he made her smell a rag, in which the root of a strong scented plant, a bone of a hyena, and some other abominable unguents were bound up '' ( Wanderings among the Falashas, 154). In exorcising tigritiya^ a form of possession allied to the boudpov irifiirKafievovi to ffro/ma ofiiv^ dvnTTijai Kai airoTrefnrei dpTtov9 ewl fuaOv^ fiGr^aXus d'7raWd(a9 twv Setuwp. iw€tSdv f^dp cTriar^ K€i/icvot9 kuI epffrai oOev eitreXtjXvOafftv €19 TO trw/iia, o /i€v voawv avro9 atwira, 6 iaifiwv Be awoKptverat E\\iyi/ifa;v fj pappapl^tvv ^ o$€v av avro9 if oVojs re koI SOep eTrtfXOep €9 rov auOptoTrov. o Be opKov9 eTrdytvif el Ce firj TreiffOcnj Kai aTTeiXwu i^eXavvci top Baifiopa, if^fu) f^ouv Kai eiCov e^idvra fieXava Kai KairvwBii rrjv \poidv, » Prim. Sent, ReL, 153. THE DEMONS OF PALESTINE. 105 him. The Sheik gave the boy such a heavy blow on the shoulder as to make a wound ; through this wound the spirit came out of him." Among the Maronites, devils are said to be cast out in the village churches. ''Many stories are told, with ludicrous remarks, of the evil spirit, who may mock the priest, saying, 'Get out of my sight, you and your cross ' ; or may call out to the crowd, proposing to enter this one or that one, who promptly turns and runs. In one case it is said that the priest beat a girl on the head with his shoe for two hours before a very impudent spirit came out of her, but at length the picture of St. Antony floated of itself from the altar and touched her lips, whereupon the devil left her, and she asked for food, which she had not touched for two weeks." ^ Baldensperger relates another instance : ^ " A woman living next field to ours in Jaffa was seized by a man wrapped in white, and with a pointed cap on. She was struck dumb by terror, and ran into the house, but could show only by signs that something extraordinary had happened. Immediately a skeikh from Saknet Abu Darwish, near by, was fetched, who brought his sacred books — ghost-books — and, to begin with, administered a severe flogging to the patient ; then, burning incense all the time, he began questioning — ' Who art thou P ' (Ghost) {out of the icoman) * A Jew.' ' How cam'st thou hither ? ' 'I was killed on the spot.' * Where art thou come from P ' ' I am from NablAs.' ' When wast thou killed ? ' ' Twelve years ago.' * Come forth of this woman 1 ' 'I will not.' ' I have fire here and will burn thee.' * Where shall I go out ? ' ' From the little toe.' 'I would like to come out by the eye, by the nose, etc' * Bliss, P.KF., 1892, 144. « P.KF., 1893, 214. 106 THE DEMONS OF PALESTINE. After long disputing, the ghost with a terrible shake of the body and the leg, fled by the toe;^ the exhausted woman . lay down and recovered her speech. An amulet was then written and put in a small leather bag, which was well waxed with beeswax, through which the Jftn cannot penetrate." Similarly, Curtiss ^ tells another story of a girl possessed by an evil spirit. "The holy man commanded the spirit to come out of her. He replied, 'I will come out of her head.' ' But if you do,' said the holy man, * you will destroy it.' " At last the spirit proposed to come out of her toe, and this was permitted. Earlier tradition shows the same thing. In the Greek Papyri^ there are directions for driving out a demon by pronouncing the name, and applying sulphur and bitumen to the nostrils, whereat it will cry and go forth. Josephus ^ relates how he saw Eleazar draw out a malignant demon by holding a ring under the nose of the possessed man, under the seal of which was one of the roots recommended by Solomon. By these means, with magical incantations, he drew out the evil demon through the man's nostrils. Barnabas, in the epistle ascribed to him, speaks of the Black One getting a chance ''of creeping into us"^; and in Mosul to-day, if a man falls in a fit or a faint, he is supposed to have been struck on the head by Sdda, 1 For another iDstance of the devil of a possessed person coming out of the big toe, see Masterman, Bibl, World, 1900, 269. » rrim. Sem, Rel, 152. • 3 Leemans, Papyri Greedy ii, 100, 1. 30 ff. * Ant., viii, 2, 5. * Quoted Conybeare, Deniondogy of New Testament, J»Q., viii, 694. Porphyry, being a vegetarian, says that those bad spirits (the Keres) specially delight in blood and impurities generally, and they "creep into people who make use of such things " (J. E. Harrison, Prolegomenay 168). THE DEMONS OF PALESTINE. 107 i.e. a black demon, though in this case female. In the case of epilepsy in the same town, a HMkh comes and lays a knife on the patient's head; then dates are brought and fumigated with incense, the magician meanwhile uttering various chants over them, and then, after spitting on them, he gives them to the patient to eat.^ According to Sozomen,^ Arsacius was endowed by God with the power of exorcising demons. A man possessed with a demon once ran through the market-place with a naked sword in his hand. The people fled from him, and the whole city was in confusion. Arsacius went out to meet him, and called upon him in the name of Christ, and at that name the demon was expelled, and the man restored to sanity. At the tomb of Hilarion, the divine, a native of Thabatha, near Gaza, many diseases were healed and demons expelled at his tomb.^ There are the germinal ideas of possession in Homer, the Baifuov K. 2413 aud K. 11647, see Bezold, Cataloffue, 441 and lisa THE MAMn? OR TABU. 123 a ghost, potentially malignant to those that meddle with the body, which is therefore held to be tabu. As it is now clear, I think, that the Semites in general considered a tabu to lie on corpses, childbirth, menstruation, issues, or marriage, we can now proceed to the discussion of tabu as indicated in the Surpu-^QTiQA by the word mamit. In the Assyrian religion the importance of the tnamit (which may be both a ban and an oath) is one of the most conspicuous ideas presented. It is sung of particularly in a tablet beginning '' Ban ! Ban ! Barrier that none can pass," being the description of the holy defence which the gods are able to provide for the faithful against the powers of darkness, " a snare without escape set for evil." Water and flour appear to be used in the charm,^ and the connection with the Holy Wafer or Host, used as a defence against yampires, is obvious. * ^ Ban ! Ban ! Barrier that none can pass, Barrier of the gods, that none may break, Barrier of heaven and earth that none can change, Which no god may annul, Nor god nor man can loose, A snare without escape, set for evil, A net whence none can issue forth, spread for evil Whether it be evil Spirit, or evil Demon, or evil Qhost, Or Evil Devil, or evil God, or evil Fiend, Or Hag-demon, or Ghoul, or Robber-sprite, Or Phantom, or Night-wraith, or Handmaid of the Phantom, Or evil Plague, or Fever sickness, or unclean Disease, Which hath attacked the shining waters of Ea, May the snare of £a catch it ; 1 " The shining waters of Ea ^ and " the net of Nisaba," the corn-god. It seems to have been the custom to fence about the patient (or perhaps the magician) with a ring of flour or meal as a magic circle, just in the same way that the mediaeval sorcerers stood within a similar charmed ring when invoking spirita See Introduction. 124 THE MAMIT OR TABU. Or which hath assailed the meal of Niaaba, May the net of Nisaba entrap it ; Or which hath broken the barrier, Let not the barrier of the gods, The barrier of heaven and earth, let it go free ; Or which reverenceth not the great gods, Maj the great gods entrap it, Maj the great gods curse it ; Or which attacketh the house. Into a closed dwelling may they cause it to enter ; Or which circleth round about. Into a place without escape may they bring it ; Or which is shut in by the house door. Into a house without exit may they cause it to enter ; Or that which passeth the door and bolt, With door and bolt, a bar immovable, may they withhold it ; Or which bloweth in at the threshold and hinge. Or which forceth a way through bar and latch, Like water may they pour it out, Like a goblet may they dash it in pieces, Like a tile may they break it ; Or which passeth over the wall, Its wing may they cut off; Or which [lieth] in a chamber, Its throat may they cut ; Or which looketh in at a side chamber, Its face may they smite ; Or which muttereth in a . . . chamber, Its mouth may they shut; Or which roameth loose in an upper chamber. With a beisou without opening may they cover it ; Or which at dawn is darkened, At dawn to a place of sunrise may they take it " ^ Again« this word mamit occurs constantly in the 8urpu- series, which is largely devoted to spells for its removal from the sick man who has appealed for release. The ^ Devils, ii, 119. THE MAMIT OR TABU. 125 value of these Surpu tablets in this matter cannot be overestimated, for we find in one tablet a list of one hundred and sixty-tbree transgressions of every possible kind of mamit, which the man may have incurred,^ and Marduk can remove. This is the beginning of the third tablet : — '* The mamit of all kinds which hath seized on the man, Marduk, the priest of the gods, loose th." ' If these mamit be considered in detail it will at once be recognized that the Poljmesian tabu is a near equivalent of the Assyrian word. To this end let us examine this and the other tablets of the same series which deal with the mamit. Some are obviously mucb older than others, at any rate in their present guise. Adultery, murder, and theft are all considered tabu, yet in the form in which they are exorcised they are not, according to modem conventiou, of the same class of ideas as those tabus against contact witb unclean vessels. We may therefore begin with the latter, simpler ideas of uncleanness, which pre- sumably are in their earliest dress and are briefly and simply set forth. Of the simple, * UDclean ' tabus, then, we find the following : — iii, 21. Mamit ina kasi (?) la saripium ^ mi kitH, *' Tabu of drinking water from an uncleaned cup.*' * Compare Plutarch {De Supet'st^ vii), " describing the hapless plight of the man who thinks that affliction comes to him as a punishment for sin. * It is useless to speak to him, to try and Help him. He sits girt about with foul rags, and many a time he strips himself and rolls about naked in the mud ; he accuses himself of sins of omission and conmiission, he has eaten something or drunk something, or walked in some road the divinity forbade him'" (J. R Harrison, Prolegomena^ 617). > Zimmem, Ritualt., 12. ' Sariptu is literally ^ unrefined.' »? 126 THE MAMIT OR TABU. 22. Mamit rihiti nadanu u kt^alu, " Tabu of giving or asking the lees.*' > 114. Mamit ina usurti mahar "« Samai aradu. " Tabu of going before the sun when ^l^XJ^ , r 115. Mamit tamU amelu lapatu. " Tabu of touching a man, when one is ' banned.' " ' 116. Mamit tam'A katsu ana Hi u ^^ IStar tarasu. ** Tabu of making prayer to god or goddess, when one is * banned.' " 117. Mamit itti tamt dababu. " Tabu of holding converse with one under a ban." 118. Mamit akali tami akalu, " Tabu of eating the bread of one under a ban." 119. Mamit mi tami iata, " Tabu of drinking the water of one under a ban." 120. Mamit rii^tti tamt Sat'A, " Tabu of drinking what one under a ban hath left." 121. Mamit itti hil ami dahahu, " Tabu of holding converse with one who lieth under a sin." 122. Mamit akali hU ami akalu. " Tabu of eating the bread of one who lieth under a sin." ^ Cfl Hughes, Diet, of Islam, 103 : " When anyone eats he must not wash his fingers until he has first licked them ; whoever eats a dish and licks it afterwards, the dish intercedes with Qod for him ; whoever eats from a plate and licks it afterwards, the dish says to him : * May God free you from hell as you have freed me from the devils licking me.' " ^ The translation of iimrtu here, on which the sense of the line depends, is uncertain. It is not certain whether this is to be referred to the savage custom of preventing women in their courses and sick men from seeing the sun, or whether it is a prohibition against appearing in the Sun-temple when unclean. Samas is used in this tablet as we should use the word ' sun ' (cf. L 23). Ufurtu is the word translated * barrier ' in the second line of the Tablet of the Ban quoted above. Zimmem, in the Surpu, translates it Zauberkreit, I think, however, that it is quite possible to hold this other view. * i.a * imclean.' THE MAMIT OR TABU. 127 123. Mamit mS hil ami SatH^ " Tabu of drinking the water of one who lieth under a sin." 124. Mamit rihit hil ami SatA. " Tabu of drinking what one that lieth under a sin hath left" 125. Mamit abut bSl ar[ni sabat]u. " Tabu of making intercession for one that lieth under a sin." Or the sick man may be tabu from tlie following causes: — ii, 99. Ana pan tamt iteiir, *' He hath gone before one under a ban." 100. Tama ana paniiu iteHr. " One imder a ban hath come before him." 101. Ina erU tami ittatil. " He hath slept on the bed of one imder a ban." 102. Ina kussi tami ittaSab, " He hath sat on the chair of one under a ban." 103. Ina paMuri tami itakal. " He hath eaten out of the dish of one under a ban." 104. Ina kdsi tami utalr, " He hath drunk out ofthe cup of one under a ban." * From these primitive conceptions of tabu we can readily understand how the ordinary moral code of life arose. '' Breaches of social order are recognized as offences * See also Tablet VIII, 1. 44, Itti unamit kussi Suhti erU maiali u-tamHy " From the tabu of chair, stool, bed, couch, and one imder a ban (may they free him)." This tablet of the Surpu-series is paralleled by the description of a sorcerer of the Abipones (Jevons, Introd, to Hist, of Religion, 2nd ed., Ill, quoting Dobrizhoflfer). In the case of private calamity, " at his first coming the physician overwhelms the sick man with an hundred questions : * Where were you yesterday ? ' says he, * what roads did you tread ? Did you overturn the jug and spill the drink prepared from the maize ? What ? have you imprudently given the flesh of a tortoise, stag, or boar [totem gods] to be devoured by dogs ? ' Should the sick man confess to having done any of these things, * It is well,' replies the physician, * we have discovered the cause of your disorder.' " 128 • THE MAMIT OR TABU. against the holiness of the deity, and the development of law and morals is made possible, at a stage when human sanctions are still wanting, or too imperfectly administered to have much power, by the belief that the restrictions on human licence, which are necessary to social well- being, are conditions imposed by the god for the maintenance of a good understanding between himself and his worshippers." ^ It is to this, therefore, that we must refer the reason for the heterogeneous tabus in the Surpu tablets, when we find side by side with contagious tabus of uncleanness what is to us the more moral side of holy tabus — adultery, murder, theft, and even the stirring up of strife. The very commingling of such tabus, which were all believed to be, in their breach, the reason for disease (else the Surpn would never have been written), throws much light first on the relatively high danger from unclean contagion, as from the ' deadly ' sins, and secondly the conception of sin as it originated in the Semitic mind.^ I have gone thus fully into this meaning of mamit that there may be no doubt as to the actual sense of the word ; it is the savage tabu in all its power. In another tablet, although no mention is made of the mamit, the man (or more probably the priest, from 1. 10) has come imder a tabu of uncleanlinesf ^ Robertson Smith, ReL Sem,, 154. * And incidentally the probability of the composite character of this list of tabus and the whole of the t^urptt, ^ DeviUj ii, Tablet ' AA.' Line 10 runs : " Father, his magician hath trodden in something poured out," etc. Are we to consider any of this imcleanuess due to ulterior causes, for which the scribes have employed euphemisms ? When the euphemistic synonyms frequent among other Semites are remembered (such as ^\ Isa. Ivii, 8 (?), and D^ /i*l THE MAMIT OR TABU. 129 "While he walked in the street, . . . while he walked in the street, While he made his way through the broad places, While he walked along the streets and ways. He trod in something that had been poured forth, or He put his foot in some unclean water, Or cast his eye on the water of unwashen hands,' Or came in contact with a woman of unclean hands, Or glanced at a maid with unwashen hands. Or his hand touched a bewitched woman, Or he came in contact with a man of imclean hands, Or saw one with imwashen hands, Or his hand touched one of unclean body." frequently) it does not seem impossible. On the other hand, the closing ceremony of the Eighth Tablet of the Surpu (L 72), for the man under the tabu, says : " May (the tabu) be poured like the water of thy body and the washings of the hands." The ka-luh-u- [da], a purification ceremony, probably the same as the tablet quoted above, which is the eighth tablet of the series luh-ka, is prescribed in K. 2519 (Martin, Textes R^igieux^ 1903, 220, 1. 9) as advisable if the god vouchsafes no answer in the omens which the seer is observing. ' Evil could always be washed from the hands with water. According to Shabbath, lQ9a (Hershon, 43) " it were better to cut the hands off than to touch the eye, or the nose, or the mouth, or the ear, etc. (i.e. the orifices by which a demon may enter, as is clear from p. 115), with them, without having first washed them. Unwashed hands may cause blind- ness, deafness, foulness of breath, or a polypus. It is taught that Rabbi Nathan had said, ^ The evil spirit Bath Chorin, which rests upon the hands at night, is very strict ; he will not depart until water is poured upon the hands three times over.' " When the fingers are washed in the morning they should be held downwards and extended, that the evil spirits which hover about man in the night-time may be washed off (Jeiffish EticycLy xi, 600). Shibbeta is a female demon, bringing croup to persons, especially children, who leave their hands unwashed in the morning {HuL, 1076, Ta*^an,^ 206, Yoma^ 776, quoted Jeioish Encycl,^ iv, 617). It is dangerous even to borrow a drink of water, or step over water poured out {Pes. Ilia), and in Gahcia it is recom- mended not to leave a tank of water uncovered during the Passover^ even while pouring water therein (which should be done through a cloth) {Je\oi$k Encyel.y article Superstitions), Pilate washes his hands before the multitude, saying, " I am innocent of the blood of this 130 UNCLEAN TABUS. The evidence before us, then, shows that the primitive tabu on uncleanness existed as much among the Assyrians as among the Hebrews, Arabs, and other Semites. It is quite clear that these mamit in the Surpu - series were written for people who had incurred a tabu, not merely directly, but by coming in contact with another person 'charged' with the contagion. Indeed, when this highly developed Assyrian system of contagion from tabu is taken into account with the universal similarity of such tabus in all parts of the world, it would be no great deduction to assume that primitive tabus were no more absent from Assyrian theology than they were from Hebrew, Arab, or other Semitic beliefs. But the basic righteous man " (Matt, xxvii, 24) ; and in the J/a/:?M-series (Tablet vii, coL iii, 1. 143) the man imder the ban says ittui-a Seru amsi l^ataia, " The morning hath risen, I have washed my hands." That unwashen hands were tabu in classical worship is clear from Porph}Ty, who says that there was a programma fixed up that no man should go beyond the TreptppauTYfpiov till he had washed his hands ; and so great a crime was it accounted to omit this ceremony that Timarchides relates a story of one Asterius who was struck dead with thunder because he had approached the altar of Jupiter with unwashed hands (Potter, ArchoBoloqia Orceca, 1832, i, 262). Among the Hebrews this is paralleled by the law of Num. i, 61, that it is death for any but a priest to approach the tabernacle (see Robertson Smith, O.T. in Jeansh Church, 229). Among the Moslems there are various opinions which conflict with one another on the subject of the cleanness or uncleanness of water. On the whole, however, the side generally accepted is that water, the taste, colour, or smell of which has not been changed is to be considered as clean (Klein, Hdigion of Ulam^ 122). In the Levitical law the tabu of eating that which dies by itself can be removed by washing (Lev. xvii, 15). The following Assyrian text throws further light on this behef (TF.A/., ii, 516, 5):— " All evil, . . . which exists in the body of N., May it be carried off with the water of his body, the washings from his hands, . . . And may the river carry it away down-stream. Ban ! By heaven be thou exorcised, by earth be thou exorcised \ " UNCLEAN TABUS. 131 facts of such customs are apparent from several tablets, as we have already seen, without our being compelled to deduce them. We know that the corpse is tabu, for a purificatory ritual was incumbent on any Assyrian who touched or even looked upon a dead man.^ Secondly, we know that there were rites to be performed for women in childbirth,^ and that the woman who died in giving birth to her babe became a ghost.' Thirdly, the girl who cannot menstruate in a regular way is mentioned with supernatural beings,^ and ''the woman with unwashen hands " can render a priest unclean.^ Lastly, marriage and the k'ri demand that the Assyrian, as much as the other Semites, should purify himself.^ These facts prove convincingly that dead bodies, menstruation, childbirth, sexual intercourse, and accidental emissions were all tabu in Babylonia as in other parts of the Semitic East. The next point which demands consideration is why these tabus existed at all, or why man should have established a series of laws which are for the most part apparently unreasonable. It is consequently this problem of apparent unreasonableness that remains to be solved, that we may discover by what process of reasoning primitive man evolved a system of tabus which are practically the same all the world over. It is a recognized fact, as has been mentioned before, that at the back of the savage brain is the ever-present idea in these tabus of some formidable spirits ready to attack any man who should transgress the limits of what is admitted as the peculiar demoniac right. It remains to » See p. 26. » See p. 122. ' See p. 19 * See p. 120. « See p. 128. « See p. 121. 134 TABU ON MARRIAGE AND CHILDBIRTH. folk from the remainder of the tribe, lest their presence should provoke an attack from the spirit in its nocturnal wanderings. If there be any truth in this explanation there should be some similarity in the tabu on marriage and childbirtb. This, too, seems very probable. In the case of marriage the story of Tobit ofEers the best possible example.^ Tobias, before his marriage with Sarah, goes in terror of the devil which also loves her, '' which hurteth no man but those which come unto her." But after the wedding he is able to drive away the demon with various evil smells.^ The previous husbands have been slain by the demon, who regards himself as a constant lover in this case, brooking no attempt to share his harim. The case is the same in the story of Nur-ed-Din and hi% Son in the Arabian Nights : '' Thy father thou knowest not, nor do we know him ; for the Sult&n married her to the hump- backed groom, and the Jinn came and prevented him." Among the Arabs it was held especially necessary to take precautions against demons on the consummation of marriage.' 1 Tobit vi, 14 * Ibid, viii, 2. In another version " Tobiyah remembered the words of Raphael, and he took the heart of the fish and put it on a censer, and burnt it under the clothes of Sarah. And Ashmedai received the smell, and he fled instantly " (Gaster, Two Unknown, Hebrew Versions of the Tobit Legend^ P.S.B.A.y ziz, 37). It is the business of Ashmedai to j)lot against the newly wedded {Test of Solomon, J.Q.j xi, 20). ' Wellhausen, Reste (2), 165. Among modem Arabs a wedding must not take place when the moon is under an eclipse or in the sign of Scorpio, the best time being between the 26th and the end of the lunar month (Hadji Khan, With the Pilgrims to Mecca, 46). Among the Yezidis cohabitation is forbidden on the night of Wednesday and Friday (Chabot, Journal Asiatique, vii, 1896, 127). Noteworthy, too, is the ciistom among the later Hebrews. " A canopy may be made for dead REASON FOR UNCLEAN TABU. 136 What other reason can there be for all this ceremonial uncleanness of marriage except that men feared to meddle with the rights of spirits who had a prior right to any or all of the women of the tribe P Why, for instance, should the later Hebrews have laid an embargo on two sisters marrjing on the same day, lest the evil eye fall on the parents,^ or on intercourse with a woman in a bed where a child sleeps, lest the child become epileptic?^ bridegrooms and brides, and either eatable or uneatable things may be himg on it So is the decree of R Meir. R. Jehudah, however, said : Only unripe things — viz., unripe nuts, unripe x^^^^^fi tongus [sic] of purple, and flasks of Arabian oil, but not when they are ripe, nor ripe pomegranates, nor flasks of sweet oil, as whatever hangs on the canopy, no benefit may be derived from it. Strings of fish, pieces of meat, may be thrown before the dead bridegroom or bride in the summer, but not in rain-time ; and even during the summer they must not do so with cooked fish or other eatables, which will be spoiled after they are thrown on the ground" {Ebel Rabbathiy ed. Rodk., 30), Note also the custom in Arabia of making a bird fly away with the uncleanness of widowhood of a widow before remarriage (Robertson Smith, Rel, Sem,, 422, with Assyrian parallel in the Records of the Past^ ix, 151). There is a curious story told by Masterman (Bibl. World, xxii, 254) of a Palestinian Jew, who married several women, all of whom died in childbirth. Thinking that he was under some magical spell, he went through the form of marriage with a cow, the wedding-ring being actually placed on the cow's horn. The cow was then killed, and the man immediately married again, the curse having been, as he thought, removed. ' Sefer Hasldtm, quoted Jewish Enci/cL, xi, 601. * Pesachiniy ed. Rodkinson, v, 232. The danger which the newly married bride incurs from demons in passing the threshold of the new house has been already discussed (p. 30) ; we may also add here a quotation from Pesachim (ibid, 170), that it was permitted to a bride to avert her face from the company while eating the paschal sacrifice, traditionally explained because of her bashfulness, but quite as probably a survival of the fear of her presence attracting malignant spirits. It is a Smineh ordinance that the bride wash her feet in a clean vessel and sprinkle the water in the comers of the chamber, that a blessing may result from this (Nuzhet el-Mutaamil, quoted Lane, Arabian Nights, iv, note 39). 136 TABU ON CHILDBIRTH. The former becomes intelligible if we recognize the power of disappointed demons to yisit their revenge on the parents for a too great loss in one day, and the meaning of the latter is equally clear when the demoniac origin of epilepsy is remembered. Again, in the case of childbirth ^ the same ' uncleanness ' of tabu attaches to the woman, and if she dies in giving birth to her child she becomes a ghost which will return for its babe. The infant, too, incurs the risk of attack from female spirits such as the lilith, the lamia, or the labartu. According to Indian folklore the woman in this condition is exposed to exceptional perils, a thousand demons, lascivious tncubi, gathering round her.^ Hence we may infer that the danger from spirits which renders the woman unclean may be either due to the jealousy of such female demons as may be supposed to have had con- nection with the father and resent her bearing a child to him ; or it may be from the tncubi, who account themselves the lovers of the woman, and are hovering near on such an occasion as the birth of a child. They may either be hostile because the babe is not theirs, or be anxious for the advent of their demon-child in an untimely birth. Among the Orang Laut a great clamour is made as soon as a child is bom to them. All present unite in shouting and in beating anything which will make a noise, and the greater the din the better. The hubbub lasts for anything from ten minutes to half an hour, being especially intended ' Wellhausen, however, considers that Lev. xii, 2, implies xv, 19 : the law of uncleanness of childbearing might be an extension by analogy of the older law of the uncleanness of menstruation (C.H., 148). ' Victor Henry, La Magie datis VInde Antiqite, 1904, 140. TABU ON CHILDBIRTH. 137 to drive away any evil spirits whicli might otherwise attack either mother or child. ^ To quote a story of somewhat earlier date, Psellus tells of a woman who in her confinement was very ill and raved extravagantly, mattering in a barbarous tongue. So they brought ''a very old bald-headed man . . . who, standing with his sword drawn beside the bed, afiected to be angry with the invalid, and upbraided her much in his own tongue" (Armenian), and the woman answered him. On his growing more vituperative, she was overcome and fell asleep. The bystanders thought she spoke in Armenian also, and when she recovered she declared that " a sort of darksome spectre, resembling a woman, with the hair dishevelled/' sprang upon her.^ Whether the demons are tncubi or jealous spirit-wives, they are dangerous to the people who approach the woman, and, such being the case, she is tabu. Many modern superstitions throw light on this. The tribes of the Malay Peninsula light fires near a mother at childbirth to scare away evil spirits.' In the Tyrol it is said that a woman in childbed should never take off her wedding ring, or spirits and witches will have power over her.^ According to the modem Jews of Minsk, if you go alone to call a midwife your course will be lengthened or troubled by devils.^ In Syria the woman in such a condition must get up and go out of the house when a corpse is carried ^ Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Pemnsida, ii, 26. • Psellus (eleventh cent), Dialogite on the Operation of DcemonSf ed. CollissoD, .39. * Tyler, Prim, Cult.^ 4th ed., ii, 195, quoting Journ. Ind. Archip, ^ Frazer, Qolden Bough, i, 402. ' Jewish EncycLy xi, 600. 138 ROYAL TABU. past, or deatli may ensue to botli mother and child.^ The eyidence, therefore, that we have before us, seems to prove that this is the solution of the problem. Spirits both male and female could manifestly intermarry in the tribe, and such persons as gave evidence of demoniac or diyine selection were carefully tabooed, lest communion with them should bring down the jealous spirit wrath. We may leave these tabus to pass on to the instances of the Royal Tabu, or special tabu on kings, among the Semites. It is a well-recognized custom among savage races that tbeir chief shall be subject to special tabus wbich are not binding upon the common people, for in primitive times the more prominent tbe cbief is the more does he become the representative figure-head of the tribe. Tbere is no need to give the details of savage customs, which are well known, and require no further elucidation.^ Among tbe Assyrians traces of this Royal Tabu occur in the ' bemerology ' texts. There are certain acts from which the king must abstain on the seventh, fourteenth, nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth day of the month ; that is to say, every seventh day with the forty-ninth (seven x seven) day from the first of the preceding month. For instance, ''The seventh day (of the second Elul) is the festival of Marduk and Sarpanitum. A lucky day. An evil day. The shepherd 1 Baldensperger, P,E.F.^ 1894, 143. It is an old custom among the Sephardim, if labour is protracted, to set a chair in the middle of the room for Sitt Miriam (the Lady Mary), who is invited to come in and assist, but as soon as the child arrives is as hurriedly invited to retire (Masterman, Jewish Customs^ Bibl. Worlds xxii, 248). * The whole matter of savage tabus on royalty is set forth in Frazer's Golden Bough, ROYAL TABU. 139 of the widespreading peoples must not eat flesh that has been cooked over coak nor bread cooked in ashes.^ He must not change the raiment of his body, nor put on clean {or white) clothes. He must not offer a libation. The king must not ride forth in his chariot, and must not speak loudly.' The priest must not make enquiry in a secret place. The physician must not lay his hand on the sick. It is unfitted for making a curse.^ In the evening the king should make offerings and offer sacrifices to Marduk and Ishtar; his prayer will be acceptable to the god." Two important points to notice in this hemerology, before going further, are the two phrases » Compare the tabu in Shabbath, Talmud, ed. Schwab, iv, 25, that no meat, onion, or egg should be put to roast on the eve of the sabbath, unless it can be finished cooking that day. Bread was not to be put in the oven or a cake on the ashes imless there was time for a light crust to form on the surface before the beginning of the Sabbath. The Assyrian word for *brpad cooked in ashes' is aial tumri (Devils, ii, 18) ; it is the Hebrew D*SX*1 HHy , the panis subcinericus of the Vulgate. For the use in magic compare the instances given in Devils^ loc. cit., and Chwolsohn, Die Seabier, ii, 27 : " Den 27 (Tammuz) feiem die Manner ein Mysterion des Schem&l, zu Ehren der Qenien, der Damonen und der Gottheiten. Sie machen viele Aschenkuchen aus Mehl, Terebinthenbeeren, getrockneten Weinbeeren (Rosinen, Zibeben) imd geschalten Niissen, wie die Hirten zu thun pflegen." These prohibitions on cooking probably arise from some tabu against fire ; compare Exod. xxxv, 3, "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath," and Lev. x, 1, 2, where the offering of strange fire meets with the punishment of fire which comes forth from Yahweh. Josephus (Bell. Jud.^ ii, 8, 9) says that the Essenes strictly observed the rules to cook no food and light no fire on the Sabbath. * To raise the voice is tabu to a murderer among the Omahas (Frazer, Oolden Bough, i, 340, quoting Dorsey). ' Often hemerology texts mark this in different form : " On the nineteenth of lyyar he who uttereth a ban — a god will seize upon him " (W.A,I., V, pi. 48). On the tabu on work on holy days see Jevons, Introduction, 2nd ed., 65 ff. 140 ROYAL TABU. "a lucky day" and "an evil day," aad tlie distinction between the king and some person who is called " the shepherd of the widespreading peoples." If this latter is merely an equivalent for 'king/ as seems quite probable, it is not unlikely that we have here a text that is a recension from two different versions. The two antithetic epithets for " the day " are quite in accord with this. K. 3597 is another tablet prescribing things which the king must not do on a certain day — Ina Hme-iu Sarru ana tinuri {lySu ul ikan'ab ialtii ul itame aSar puzri amatu ul iSakan kA ul iSSattH M ul iptarahi. " On that day the king must not approach his fireplace (?), He must not speak loudly, He must not make enquiry in 1 \ secret place, He must not drink vegetables (?) He must not cut off vegetables (?)." The Hebrews, too, had their Royal Tabus: "When a ruler sinueth, and doeth unwittingly any one of all the things which Yahweh his God hath commanded not to be done, and is guilty," ^ he shall make atonement. In the Talmud^ there is a tradition that only the king * Lev. iv, 22. * Yoma^ viii, i, ed. Schwab, v, 247. OTHER TABUS. 141 and brides are allowed to wash their faces on the Day of Atonement. ' Holy ' tabus do not come within the scope of this book. Under this heading roust come many of the tabus mentioned in the hemerologiee.^ For instance, among the Assyrians, to eat fish on the ninth of lyyar rendered men liable to sickness; in Syria the eating of fish, which were sacred to Atargatis, was held to restdt in a sickness of ulcers, swellings, or wasting disease.^ Even dates at times were tabu to the Assyrians, and if they were eaten on certain forbidden days ophthalmia was supposed to result. To cross a river on the twentieth of Ab would also bring sickness. But these, and kindred others, belong more probably to the ' sacred ' tabus, along with the ' unclean ' totem- beasts, and have no place here. This chapter will have served its purpose if a case has been made out for the theory that the dread attaching to the sexual functions is due to a belief in jealous and lustful spirits. ^ The quotations are from W.A.I., v, 48. ' Robertson Smith, Eel. Sem., 449. 142 III. SYMPATHETIC MAGIC. Hitherto the discussion has been confined to the nature of the demon and its power of obsessing mankind; it remains to treat of what Tylor^ describes as 'Hhe pro- ceedings of the exorcist who talks to it, coaxes it or threatens it, makes offerings to it, entices or drives it out of the patient's body, and induces it to take up its abode in some other." Much of the magician's art con- sisted in his ability to transfer a spiritual power from its abode into some object under his control. In other words, he employed a form of that peculiar wizardry which is known as sympathetic magic. This force is not merely a source of power for the magician over the human soul alone, but proTides him with a means of attack or defence against such evil spirits or demons as may be arrayed against him. It is a species of sorcery which shows itself in its crudest form in the use of small figures of wax or other plastic materials fashioned with incantations in the likeness of some enemy, and then pierced with nails and pins, or melted before the fire, that their human counterpart may by these means be made to suffer all kinds of torment. This is the more intelligible when, by the recognized rules of magic, it is considered more effective to obtain some portion of the victim's nails or hair, or earth from his footsteps, or even his name, as an additional connection ' Primitive Culture^ 4th ed., ii, 125. WAX FIGURES. 143 whereby the wax figure may be brought into still closer affinity with its prototype. In this case the sorcerer possesses something definite or tangible belonging to his foe, and although the mere image over which the exorcisms will be repeated is enough by itself, yet it is obviously more satisfactory to hold in possession something which is specifically identified with the person in question. This form of magic appeals especially to the popular mind, and there are abundant traces of its use among civilized peoples from very early times to the present day. For instance, among the ancient Egyptians the use of wax figures can be traced back as far as the old kingdom. A story in the Westcar Papyrus relates that a certain official in the reign of a king of the third dynasty, about 3830 r.c, made a crocodile in wax which was to devour his enemy, and this superstition continued in Egypt down to quite late times. In the second tale of Ehamuas, written in Demotic Egyptian, a certain Ethiopian named Hor, "son of the negress," is overheard to say that he would send his magic up to Egypt, and thus overcome the king of that land. On this reaching the ears of the Viceroy of Ethiopia, this Hor is brought to court into the presence, and the Viceroy commands him to perform this feat, promising all kinds of rewards if he succeed. Thereupon Hor makes a litter of wax for four runners, and on reading certain formulas over them he " makes them live " ; then he commands them to go up to Egypt and bring back with them Pharaoh, who is to be beaten with five hundred blows of the stick and taken back to Egypt within six hours.^ ' F. LL Griffith, Stories of the High Priests of Memphis, 65. On such figures among the Greeks see J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena, 138. 144 WAX FIGURES, In late Hebrew magic the saroe procedure is imitated: " If thou wishest to cause anyone to perish, take clay from two river banks and make an image therewith, write upon it the man*s name, then take seven stalks from seven date- trees and make a bow with horsehair (?) ; set up the image in a convenient place, stretch thy bow, shoot the stalks at it, and with every one say the prescribed words, which begin with D*lHp^ and end with ^DlDTfi, adding * Destroyed be N., son of N.' " * The Jews of Mosul have in their magic-books similar directions : *' Take new wax and make of it a figure of the enemy, and his name, and the name of his mother, and then pierce it with a thorn in many holes and fill it with fine black glass, and make a box of wax and put the figure in the box and write these names and put (them) under its head ; and thou shalt bury it in a grave three days old (P), and thou shalt see with regard to the enemy all that thou wouldst, and this is what thou shalt write : Apapi Akpi§ AkpiSin Athsamis, I adjure you that just as fire continually devoureth the figures of N., son of N., on the altar, (so) it shall not be quenched in the heart of N., son of K."^ Or the waxen image is to be pierced with needles.^ ^ Jewish Encycl.^ tub voce Amulet^ i, 548. * The Folklore of Mossoul, P.S.B.A., 1906, 103, No. 7. ' Ibid., No. 8. For another instance in Hebrew of making an image to kill a man see Gaster, Sword of Moses^ No. 68. The Nabatean sorcerers of the Lower Euphrates, as described by Ibn Khaldun (14th century), had the same practices : — " We saw with our own eyes one of these individuals making the image of a person he wished to bewitch. These images are composed of things, the qualities of which bear a certain relation to the intentions and the projects of the operator, and which represent by means of symbols the names and the qualities of the imfortunate victim, in order to unite and disimite them. The magician afterwards pronounces some words over the image which he WAX FIGURES AMONG THE MALAYS, 145 To come down to quite modern times, examples may be cited from the customs of various savage races. The Malays believe in this in its simplest form, moulding a figure of their enemy in the wax of a deserted honeycomb and mixing therein his nail-parings or such other parts of him as they can obtain, and this is then melted over a flame or transfixed with pins. The whole performance is accompanied by spells which are chanted over the figure, thereby giving the magician power to assimilate the nature of his enemy to the waxen image.^ It is unnecessary to repeat all the numerous well-known cases of this form of superstition, which supplies an intelligible and workable base wherefrom it is easy to observe a gradual development in the idea underlying the whole principle of sympathy in magic.^ The collecting of dust, nail-parings, spittle, and such like, as an addition to the spell, is quite as common in has just placed before him, and which is a real or symbolical repre- sentation of the person whom he wishes to bewitch ; then he blows and emits from his mouth a little saliva which had collected there, and at the same time makes those organs vibrate which are used in the utterance of this malevolent formula ; next he holds over this symbolical image a cord which he has prepared with this intention, making a knot in it to signify that he is acting with resolution and persistence, that at the moment when he spat he made a compact with the demon who acted as his associate in the operation, and to show that he is acting with a determined resolution to consolidate the charm. To these processes and malevolent words a wicked spirit is imited, which comes forth from the operator's mouth covered with saliva. Many evil spirits then descend, and the result of all is that the magician causes the victim to be attacked by the desired evil" (Lenormant, Chald, Moffic, quoting Slane, i, 177). See also Origen, vi, 30, for magical figures. * Skeat, Malay Magic^ 669. ' On this subject see Frazer, Ooldeii Bough^ i, 10. 146 NAIL-PARINGS AND DUST. the modem ritual as in the ancient. Lumholtz ^ says that, in order to be able to practise his arts against any black man, the wizard must be in possession of some article that has belonged to him, such as his hair, or the food left in his camp. Among the Malays, the soil from the footprint of the intended victim is recognized as useful in charms.' According to the Mohammedans, Al- S&meri, when he cast the golden calf of the Israelites, took dust from the hoofprints of the horse of the angel Gabriel, and threw it into the mouth of the calf, which immediately became animated.^ Similar is the late Hebrew charm for killing an enemy : '* Take dust from the grave of a murdered man who hath been slain with iron, and take water from three wells which are not in sight of each other, and knead the dust with the water, and make it into a cake and throw it into the house of thine enemy, saying, * As this lord of the dust was slain, so may N., son of N., be slain.' " * In an Assyrian charm the dust from a temple is an ingredient.^ Another Hebrew charm, this time for a woman that has been separated from her husband through enchantment and wishes to rejoin him, runs : " Thou shalt take a hair of the woman, and a thread which she hath bound on him(?), and dust from beneath her feet, and a little coriander-seed, and thou shalt put them in a (piece of) cloth and bind it with the aforementioned thread, and hang the cloth in a place under which the man is, and put the coriander-seed upon * Among Cannibals^ 1889, 280, quoted Elworthy, Evil Eye, 73. ' Skeat, Malay Magic, 568 ; Frazer, Oolden Bough, i, 281 if. ' Sale, Koran, Surah ii, note. * Folklore of Mossoul, P.S.B.A., 1906, p. 104, No. 12. * Martin, Testes Religieux, 243. NAIL-PARINGS, HAIR, AND DUST, 147 the man, and thou Bhalt say: * Anusin Anuain Atetin Atetin, do ye subdue and bring N., daughter of N., swiftly, swiftly, swiftly, with speed, with speed, with speed, at once, at once, at once ; and then shall she come without a doubt/ "^ The Arabian solwdn, or draught that makes the mourner forget his grief, consists of water with which is mingled dust from the grave.' Again, the use of spittle in magic is well known from the miracles in the New Testament, and many instances of its use are given by Frazer.' Doughty relates how a young mother, an Arab woman, brought her wretched babe and bade him spit on the child's sore eyes.* In the Talmud,' Ameimar says: ''The superior of the witches told me that when a person meets any of them he should mutter thus : ' May a potsherd of boiling dung be stuffed into your mouths, you ugly witches! May the hair with which you perform your sorcery be torn from your heads, so that ye become bald ! May the wind scatter the crumbs wherewith ye do your divinations ! May your spices be scattered, and may the wind blow away the safiron you hold in your hands for the practising of sorcery ! ' " Again, among the Rabbis, three things were said respecting the finger-nails: ''He who trims his nails and buries the parings is a pious man; he who bums these is a righteous man; but he who throws them away is a wicked man, for mischance might follow should a female step over them."^ » P.S.B.A., loo. cit., No. 28. » Wellhausen, Reste, 142. ' olden Boughy i, 389. * Arabia Deserta^ i, 627. * Pesachim, foL 110, cols, i, ii, quoted Hershon, Talmudic Miscellany ^ 230. * Moed KataUy foL 18, ool. i, quoted Hershon, Talmttdic Miscellany , 49. 148 KNOWING THE NAME. A prayer in Ethiopic published by Littmann,^ shows the same fear: ''Save us, Lord our God, by the power of these Thy names from all keepers of magic art, who corrupt the soul and who make poisons with skin and pillows, with sweat and the nails of our hands and the hair of our heads and the nails of our feet and with the hair of our eye[brows] and the hair of our clothes and the hair of our girdles, and where we eat and drink, out of our whole souls and bodies.'' Among the Sabians, according to Maimonides,^ ** another custom, which is still widespread, is this : whatever is separated from the body, as hair, nail, or blood, is unclean." Just in the same way, a knowledge of the name of one's enemy, be he human or spiritual, gives enormously increased power to the magician.' The natives of many modern savage tribes are afraid to disclose their names lest some enemy should hear it and thereby lay them under a spell. An Australian black is always very unwilling to tell his real name, doubtless through fear of sorcerers.^ The Arabs have similar ideas ; Doughty tells of one Tollog, the Moabib sMkh, who, whilst he was handling his medicine book, turning over the leaves to see the pictures, shrank from allowing the Englishman to write down his name. ''Khalil," said he, shrinking with a sudden apprehension, ''I do pray thee, write not my name ! " ^ The modern Abyssinian believes in demons 1 Arde'et, J,A,O.S., xxv, 40. * Onide to the Perplexed, iii, xlvii. 3 On this see Frazer, Golden Bough, i, 413 ; Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, 2nd ed., 60. * R. Brough Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, i, 469, quoted 0.B,, i, 404. ^ Arabia Deserta, i, 425. KNOWING THE NAME. 149 being constantly on the watch to steal a Christian's name if they can,^ and it is the custom to conceal the real name by which a person is baptized, and to call him only by a sort of nickname which bis mother gives him on leaving the church. The reason for this is that the bouda (or possession) cannot act upon a person whose name he does not know.' In the magic of the Middle Ages, if a demon was slow to appear at the command of the wizard, he rendered himself liable to be cursed and buried in oblivion, because his master knew his name and 'seal.' In one of the books on magic the student of sorcery is recommended to write the seal of the demon on a piece of parchment, and put it into a box '' with brimstone, asafcetida, and other stinking perfumes"; he must then exorcise the demon and threaten to destroy him. ''I, who am the servant of the Most High . . . will excommunicate thee, will destroy thy name and seal which I have in this box, will burn them with unquenchable fire, and bury them in unending oblivion."' Among the ancient Egyptians the monster Apep could be destroyed by making a wax figure of him, and casting it into the fire after writing his name upon it;* and in Palestinian demonology the same thing is apparent in the words of the Unclean Spirit : " Art thou come to destroy us P I know thee who thou art ; the Holy One of God." ' In the Assyrian incantation against the ghost of a dead ^ Lejean, Voyage en Abyssinie, 78. ' Parkyns, Life in Abyssinia^ 300. * A. E. Waite, The Book of Black Magic, 199. * Budge, Eg. Magic, 171. * Luke iv, 34. 150 WAX FIGURES IN ASSYRIA. man, quoted on p. 34, the figure is made in clay and the dead man's name inscribed on it. In the Testament of Solomon the king asks a demon to tell him the name of a certain spirit, and the demon says, '' I cannot tell thee. For if I tell his name I render myself incurable."^ According to Origen every demon must be addressed by his local name, and not by one translated into another tongue.' In the same primitive form this custom is found among the Assyrians. Not only was it possible for a man to make an enchanted wax figure of anyone whom he desired to hurt, but it was also the recognized means of counter attack that the person so assailed should make corresponding figures, and thus bring his antagonist's power to nought. If an Assyrian imagined himself bewitched or laid under a spell in consequence of some sickness which had befallen him, he had recourse to a magician who aided him with counter charms and incantations against the witch or wizard who had obtained power over him. Figures repre- senting these were moulded, and the following incantation recited over them : — " I cry unto you, O gods of night, Unto you I cry through the night, the veiled bride ; I cry at eventide, at midnight, and at dawn ; For a sorceress hath bewitched me, An enchantress hath enchanted me ; My god and my goddess wail over me, Over the sickness (?) wherewith I am stricken. I stand sleepless night and day, For they have choked my mouth with herbs,' And with upuntu have stopped my mouth, » Ed. Conybeare, t/.Q., xi, 26. ' C. Cels., V, 45, quoted Conybeare, J.§., ix, 66. ' Cf. p. 147. WAX FIGURES IN ASSYRIA, 151 So that they have lessened my drink, And my joy hath turned to grief and my delight to mourning. Rise up, ye great gods, and consider my cause, Qive judgment, and take cognizance of my way. I have fashioned an image of my sorcerer or sorceress. Of my wizard or my witch. And I have placed it beneath yoir and I plead my cause. As they have wrought evil and sought out the imclean So may they die, but let me live ! " ^ Further on in the tablet the magician continues his spell thus : — " I close the pass, I shut the wall, I restrain the magic of the whole world. Anu and Anatu have sent unto me : — ' Whom shall I send to the Mistress of the Desert ? ' Put a gag on the mouth of my wizard and my witch, Perform the incantation of Marduk, the leader of the gods. They shall cry unto thee (Mistress), but answer them not. They shall speak unto thee, but hear them not ; If I cry to thee, answer me. If I speak unto thee, hear me. By the command which Anu and Anatu and the Mistress of the Desert have spoken."' " [Incantation.] These are figures of my wizard, These are figures of my witch, Of my sorcerer and my sorceress, Of my wizard and my witch. ... I know them not Evil [sorcery, magic, witchcraft], spells. 1 Series Maklu, Tablet I (ed. Tallqvist). The Tablet K 249, published by Boissier, Revue Semitique^ ii (1894), 135, prescribes the neceasaiy medicinal plants for Enuma amelu upiSu limutti ilammihi, " when evil sorcery besets a man.'* » Maklu, i, 48 ff. ' Here follow twenty names for possible foes, witch-doctors, etc. * Six mutilated lines. 152 WAX FIGURES IN ASSYRIA. [Fire-god], judge, who defeatest the wicked and hostile, overcome them that I be not destroyed ! They have made [images like] my images, likened to my form, They have seized my . . . , have broken my neck, They have attacked my . . . , have fastened on my loins. They have weakened my . . . , have taken away my courage. They have enraged [the gods against me], have weakened my strength. They have . . . , they have boimd my knees. They have filled me with . . . and pain. They have made me eat . . . They have made me drink . . . They have poured on me . . . They have anointed me with a salve of evil plants, As a corpse they have looked upon me. They have laid the water of my life in a grave. They have enraged against me god, king, lord, and prince. Thou, O Fire-god, that bumest my wizard and my witch, That destroyest the iniquity of the seed of my wizard and my witch, It is thou that destroyest evil. I call on thee, like Samas the judge. Give me a decision, judge my cause. Bum my wizard and my witch, Devour my enemies, dissipate my foes ; May thy dread light reach them. Like water from a skin-bottle in a leak(?) may they be brought to an end, Like the hewing of a stone may their fingers be cut off. By thy mighty command, that cannot be changed, And thy true favour, which cannot be altered. Perform the incantation." The ceremony ends by burning the figures of demons.^ 1 The wizard is also accused of having delivered the figure of the sick man to a corpse, or of having shut it within a wall or under the threshold, or at the entrance (?) of a wall, or in a bridge that men might trample on it ; or of having buried it in the hole of a canal-digger (?) or in a^gardener's channel ; or of having delivered it to the power of Labartu, the daughter of Anu, or to the Fire-god, the son of Anu (iv, 27). HAIR, SPITTLE, AND RAGS. 153 The fear that the man's hair or spittle, or rags of his clothing, should have come into the possession of his enemy is clearly indicated in one of the prayers to Nuzku — '^ Those who have made images in my shape, ^yho have likened them unto my form, Who have taken of my spittle, plucked out my hair, Tom my garments or gathered the cast-off dust of my feet, May the warrior Fire-god dissolve their spell ! " ^ What is more, we have a full description of such vestigia as gave help in magic in an incantation text : — '' The sorcery of spittle which is spat forth evilly by the mouth, the bond of sorcery bound evilly, the shaving of the 'side,' ditto of the body, the parings of the nails, rag (P), strip (P), an old shoe, a cut lace ; ' refuse ' which hath ' made atone- ment' on the body, food which the body of a man hath digested, food which in eating hath been rejected, water which hath been left over in drinking, evil spittle which the dust hath not covered, the air of the desert^ hath > Tallqvist, Maqluj Tablet 1, 1. 131. The entire point of this passage has been missed both by Tallqvist and Jastrow (Religion, 286) ; the latter, following Tallqvist {Maqlu, 39), translates — " Who have taken away my breath, torn my hairs, Who have rent my clothes, have hindered my feet from treading the dust." The Ass3rrian for these lines is — ruHi'ia ilka iarti-ia imlusu m tUinni-ia ibtuku etiku eprdti Sepi-ia Upuiu. But the last phrase (literally ** the passing of the dust of my feet ") surely must refer to the common custom of taking the dust from the footprints and kneading it into the image. The meaning of the word iapdhi is uncertain, but from epir iepi-ia iapsu {W.A.L, iv, 67 ; i, 55) *to gather' seems to be fairly correct. Muss-Amolt seems to have found the right idea in aufwiihlen. ' Or, with the Sumerian, * to the desert' 154 MATERIALS FOR FIGURES. not carried off(Py'^ In a list of plants which appear to have a magical significance, one of them is prescribed " in the dust of a man's tread/' probably as an amulet, and another ''in the dust of the great gate kameti (or kaiiptty « The suppliant might use tallow, bronze, clay, bitumen, dung (P), wood, and other materials for his little images, and these were then cast ceremonially into a brazier, that the Fire-god might consume them-^ " mighty Fire-god, dread light of day, That guidest aright both gods and princes, That judgest evil men and women. Rise up in judgment with me, like the Warrior Sun ; Qrant me a decision, judge my cause, Bum up my sorcerer and sorceress, Devour mine enemies, bring to nought my foes. And may thine awful light overcome them."' The third tablet of the series Maklu^ from which the preceding charms are taken, contains a more elaborate ceremony than either of the two preceding. The same images are made, but they are to be placed in the model of a ship which was then broken to pieces, probably after being placed in a basin of water. " She who hath bewitched me, hath laid me imder a spell. Hath cast me into the river flood, Hath cast me into the river depth, Unto the witch hath said 'Bewitch,' ^ Haupt, A,S,K,T.y 11, i, 60. » C.T., xiv, pi. 44, cols. 1-2, 11. 12, 9. Cf. pL 42, K. 274, IL 22, 28 (?). ' Mahluy Tablet II. A psalm to Ishtar, pubhshed by L. W. King, Seven Tablets^ 222, although full of phrases such as are found in the so-called Penitential Psalms, shows what the intention of the sick man is (L 65 : " put an end to the evil bewitchments of my body "). CEREMONIES WITH A SHIP. 155 Unto the enchantress hath said 'Enchant,' May this be as her ship, Like this ship may she be wrecked, May her spell be wrecked, and upon her And upon her image may it recoil, May her cause fail, but let mine succeed." " My ship the Moon-god hath fitted out. Between its masts (?) it carries * Release,' Sorcerer and sorceress sit therein, Wizard and witch sit therein, Enchanter and enchantress sit therein." Apparently from the mutilated line which follows, " [and now] the rigging is cut," the bewitched man here begins to destroy the ship, with the figures of his tormentors inside it, and finally it is cast into the fire and burnt. This method of making a ship full of one's enemies was not confined to Babylonia, for there is a very curious instance of it related of Nectanebus in the Ethiopic traditions of Alexander the Great. In addition to the ordinary charms of this character which this Egyptian magician possessed, such as influencing Olympias by means of a figure made of plants with magical properties and inscribed with her name/ he was able to overcome his enemies in the following manner : — '' Now as concerning this man [Nectanebus], whenever [his] enemies lifted themselves up against him to do battle with him, he did not march out against them with soldiers, and armies, and an array of spears, but it was his wont to go into his palace and to shut the door upon himself. He then took a brazen vessel, and having filled it with water to resemble the sea he muttered over it certain words which I Budge, Life and Exploits of Alexander the Oreat^ ii, 16. 156 RITUAL BEFORE BATTLE. he knew. If the enemy came against him [by sea] he used to make models of ships out of wax [melted] over a fire, and to place upon the water these waxen ships, that were [intended] to represent the ships [of the enemy] which were on the sea. Then he muttered over them the names of the gods of the country, and other awful and terrible names, and then he set the waxen ships on the water in his basin, in resemblance of the ships which were on the sea. If the enemy rose up against him on the sea he made the waxen ships to sink, and he thereby also submerged the ships of the enemy who wished to come to do battle with him. And if it happened [that the enemy came against him] by land he was wont to make models of the horse- [men] in wax like unto the soldiers of the army who were coming to do battle with him, and having muttered over them the awful and terrible names [which he knew] the soldiers of the enemy were suddenly overcome before his face, and the enemy went down before him, and submitted unto him.'* ^ 1 Budge, Life and Exploits of Alexander the Oreaty ii, 4, 5. Are we to consider Ezek. iv, 1, 2, a parallel in any way ? " Take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and pourtray upon it a city, even Jerusalem : and lay siege against it, and build forts against it." Among certain savage tribes demons are expelled by being sent away in vehicles of various kinds. Frazer says that a common one is a little ship or boat. For instance, he quotes (iii, 97) Fran9ois Valentyn, Oud-en nisuw Ost-Indien, iii, 14, who describes a rite in Ceram which takes place when a village suffers from sickness. A little ship is made and filled with rice, tobacco, eggs, and so forth, and the sicknesses are addressed in a valedictory incantation as though they were demons, and adjured never to return. The ship is then carried to the seashore, and is allowed to drift away. Similar ceremonies are in vogue in Timor-laut (Riedel, De sluik en kroeshange rassen tusichen Selebes, p. 304, quoted Frazer, Golden Bought iii, 98) and in the RITUAL BEFORE BATTLE. 157 A similar story is told of Aristotle in Ethiopic, for it is related that he gave Alexander a box filled with figures of his enemies with their swords bent and bowstrings cut, placed face downwards and nailed in, the whole being secured with an iron chain. ^ Among the Babylonians the proceedings which took place before battle were very closely akin. The ritual is worth giving in full — *' Ritual : when an enemy [attacks] the king and his land . . . The king shall go forth on the right wiug of the army, And thou shalt sweep (?) the earth (?) clean, and sprinkle pure water, And set [three] altars, one for Istar, one for Samai, and one for Nergal, And ofifer each a loaf of wheaten meal. And make a mash of honey and butter, Poiu-ing in dates and . . . -meal, and sacrifice three full-grown sheep, island of Buro (Riedel, op. cit., p. 25) ; and see many other interesting forms of the same ceremony. Note also the end of an incantation against spirits among the Malays, in a boat ceremony, which bears a great resemblance to the wording of the Assyrian spell on p. 25 — " Go ye to the ocean which has no wave, And the x)lain where no herb grows, And never return hither. But if ye return hither. Ye shall be consumed by the curse. At sea ye shall get no drink, Ashore ye shall get no food. But gape in vain about the world." (Skeat, Malay Ifagic, pp. 433-5, quoted Frazer, Golden Bough, iii, 100.) Compare also the annual expulsion by boats in Frazer, iii, 105 ; and for similar superstitions in China, Elworthy, Ecil Eye^ 438, quoting PMic Health, 1894, 376. » Ibid, 362. 158 RITUAL BEFORE BATTLE. Flesh of the right thigh, hirua-fLesh, and lume-flesh thou shalt ofiFer, Sprinkle upuntu with cypress on a censer, And make a libation of [honey], butter, wine, oil, and scented (?) oil Then shalt thou make an image of the foe in tallow, Bend backwards his face with a cord ; The Eunuch (?) of the king, who is named like his master, Shall . . . the robes (?) of the king . . . Shall stand l)efore the preparation and repeat this formula before Samas." * The method against a foe proyided by a Hebrew manu- script from Mosul is interesting from its similarity to a story of Mohammed. Mohammed, at the victory near Mecca in the second year of the Hejra, by the direction of Gabriel took a handful of gravel, and threw it towards the enemy, saying " May their faces be confounded ! " whereupon they immediately turned their backs and fled.^ The * Zimmem, liitualtafeln^ 173. Frazcr {Oolden Bought i, 14) quotes a similar custom among the Hindoos from Hillebrandt, Vedische Opfer und Zauher^ in which effigies of the soldiers, horses, elephants, and chariots of a hostile army were modelled in dough, and then pulled in pieces. For other Semitic customs before going into action Robertson Smith {Rd. Seni., 1894, 37) quotes 1 Sam. iv, 7, the Carthaginians with Philip of Macedon, and the Arab tradition " Yaghuth went forth with us against Morad." Curtiss (Bibl. World j xxiii, 97) describes the prcjmrations for battle among the Ruala, a subdivision of the Aeneze, how they sacrifice to Abu'd-Duhiir that he may come and help them to victory, and sprinkle the blood on the merkab of the camel on which the sUkh?s sister or daughter rides into little. She ixsrfumes her hair, puts antimony on her eyelids, exxx>ses her bosom, and makes herself as handsome as possible, and it is around the merkab that the battle rages. ' Sale, Koran, Surah iii. For other instances of throwing sand or stones we may compare a story in Ethiopic (Littmann, Arde'et, J.A.O.S., XXV, 30), which relates how the disciples came to a place where many demons were assembled, but on their taking up sand in their hands and looking up to heaven, with the prayer " Disperse, O Lord, WAX FIGURES ATTRACTING THE DISEASE-DEMON. 159 Hebrew charm is as follows : — " For war : Take dust from under thy left foot and say over it these names and scatter it against them (the enemy), and they shall no more be able to make war ; and this is what thou shalt say : ' In the name of Loki Yoel Antsel. (Another book) Antiel and Mehothiel Yoy Hia Abniel Ahamnel Yiol Wahi Yokiel MiSkathiel Yah — ^by your purity that ye may bind all kinds of fighting for brigandage against N., son of N., henceforth and for ever until the wrath pass. Amen, so may the will be. ' " 1 The wax-figure procedure is also used in an inverse way for a sick man to rid hipa of the devil that possesses him. This was by fashioning an image of the patient in clay, wax, or dough,^ and with the proper charms the magician hoped to induce the demon to leave the human body and enter its waxen counterpart. For instance, one tablet ' directs that a piece of sea-clay should be taken and moulded into the likeness of the patient and placed on his loins at night in order that the Plague-god might be expelled. Further, at dawn the " atonement for his body " was to be made, the ^^Incantation of Eridu" performed, and the man's face turned to the west. A similar text all demons who beset us ; by the i)ower of these, Thy holy names, close their mouths and destroy their power," they annihilated the demons by casting the sand against them. Similarly, the Haj pilgrims throw pebbles on reaching the Jamratii'l-*Aqaba shortly after sunrise. Seven successive times each casts a pebble at the pillar in order to confound the devils who are supi)osed to be there (Klein, Religion of hlaniy 170 ; cf. Jewish Encj/cL, i, 89). In Sinai, when an Arab passes the mound of Abu Zenna, he casts a stone against it in opprobrium. » Folklore of Mossoul, P.S.B.A., 1906, 105, No. 21. » Dough is also used by the Malays (Skeat, Malay Magic, 452). 3 Devils, Tablet « R.' 160 WAX FIGURES ATTRACTING THE DISEASE-DEMON. directs the image to be made in dough, and the physician is to bring water to the man, allowing it to trickle down, with the following directions: — '^ Bring forth a censer and a torch. As the water trickleth away from his body, So may the pestilence in his body trickle away ; Return these waters into a cup and Pour them forth in the market-place."* The Asakku, probably some kind of fever, was driven out also in this way. Marduk goes to his father, Ea, for help (a common device in this class of texts), and is thus advised : — " Fashion an image of his form in dough on the ground, and Set a king over him and Take his hand before the Sun, and Repeat the incantation sar-azao-ga, and [Pour (?) ] water on his head [and] * {The re^nainder is much mutilated.) Another late Hebrew charm prescribes the same kind of thing : " If thou wishest to heal a man from enchantment, or from an evil spirit, or from folly (' madness '), or from any of the things mentioned, then draw the picture of a man on virgin parchment with both hands outstretched ; under the right hand draw the image of a little man, and write on his shoulder Ariel ; at his feet draw the image of another man, but draw it with red ink, for this is an angel appointed over fire, and write on his shoulder (or, variant, on his forehead) Lahabiel, and under them the following conjuration : I conjure thee, Raphael, thou and thy servants who are called by thy name, and whose name 1 Ibid., Tablet * T.' ^ w.A.L, v, 50, ii, 67. CHAKM AGAINST THE LABARTU. 161 is included in their names, viz., Rahabiel, Phaniel, Ariel, Lahabiel, in the name of Azbuga, that thou healest so and so from all illness and all hurt and all evil spirit. Amen, Amen, Amen, Sela, Sela, Sela." ^ One of the rituals in the series Labartu directs that on the first day in the morning the figure of a labartu or ' hag-demon ' shall be made, '' as one that (is bound) in prison,'' and twelve cakes of some peculiar meal laid before her, and a libation of water poured out. A black dog must then be added to the figure, the heart of a young pig placed on her mouth, and an offering made of bahru- fruit, white bread, and a salve-box (P). The incantation which accompanies this ceremony is to be repeated at dawn, midday, and evening, and the figure is to be put at the sick man's head for three days, and on the third day, as the day draws to its close, it is to be buried in the comer of the wall.^ In a mutilated tablet a prescription is given for healing some disease or plague. After the recital of a long chant the sorcerer makes a small figure of tbe patient in clay (P), and then binds ^Hhe hair of a white goat and the hair of a black goat " round his head. The clay figure is * Gaster, P,S.B.A.y 190(), 339. The picture of a man was reckoned quite as effective as wax : e.g., a modem MS. from Mosul (Hebrew) provides that if a figure of an enemy be painted in safiron on parch- ment with his name, >vith various signs inscribed upon it, and put in the earth with the left hand imtil he tread on it, and then finally it be pounded with a hammer, so shall the enemy be smitten and have no rest, either day or night {The Folklore of Mossoxd^ P,S,B.A,, 1906, 107, No. 32). Or if an image of an angel was drawn (in a love-charm) with the * Thunderstone* {ebeji barak) and placed on a closed door, that door would open by itself (Gaster, RS,B.A., 1900, 344). ' W.A.L, iv, 55 ; i, r. 20 ; Myhrman, Die Labartu- Texte^ Z.A.j xvi, 193. 162 PARALLELS AMONG THE MALAYS. then laid on his body, the Incantation of Ea is performed, and the patient's face is then turned to the west, and by these means the evil influence is removed.^ A curious parallel is to be found among the Malays, both from its similarity to the preceding and also in its use of particoloured cords, of which more will be seen later. The Malay magicians have a practice of making little images of dough of beasts, birds, etc., which are placed on a sacrificial tray together with betel-leaves, cigarettes, and tapers. " One of the tapers is made to stand upon a silver dollar, with the end of a piece of particoloured thread inserted between the dollar and the foot of the taper, and the other end of this thread is given to the patient to hold while the necessary charm is being repeated." The devil is supposed to enter the images, and as soon as this has happened the magician *' looses three slip-knots and repeats a charm to induce the evil spirit to go, and throws away the untied knots outside the house." ^ The use of this particoloured cord occurs elsewhere in Malay sorcery.' Similar are the methods of Indian conjurors to remove devils. They take water from seven or nine different places, put it into a new earthen pot, together with a few of the leaves of seven or nine different trees and plants, and read once over it, if intended for the removal of the devil, enchantment, etc., certain chapters; or if to change bad luck, they read a chapter and, after blowing on the water, set it aside. They 1 Devils, Tablet * S.' ' Skeat, Malay Magic, 432. The charm begins : " I have made a substitute for you." • e.g., ibid., 569. PAKALLEL8 IN INDIA. 163 then place in front of the patient a human figure, or that of Hunnoman (the monkey-headed god) ; tie to its neck one end of a cord formed of three kinds of coloured thread, and the other to the patient's waist or neck, before whom thej deposit cocoanuts, flowers, a piece of yellow cloth, etc. ; and taking nine limes, they repeat the aet-ool-koorsee over each, and divide them into two, placed on the head, shoulders, loins, back, knees, and feet of the patient respectively; then bathe him with the above-mentioned pot of water. In bathing they necessarily dig the place a little, to allow of the water being absorbed into the earth ; for should any other person happen to put his pot on the water the same misfortune would befall him as did the patient.^ ^ Jafiiir Shurreef and Herklots, Qanoon-e-hlain, 258. Frazer {Golden Bought ii, 348 ftl) quotes many instances which throw light on the Assyrian incantation : — " The Alfoors of Minahassa, in Celebes, will sometimes transport a sick man to another house, while they leave on his bed a dummy made up of a pillow and clothes. This dummy the demon is supposed to mistake for the sick man, who subsequently recovers" {Graafland). " In certain of the western districts of Borneo, if a man is taken suddenly and violently sick, the physician, who in this part of the w^orld is generally an old woman, fashions a wooden image and brings it seven times into contact with the sufferer's head, while she says : ' This image serves to take the place of the sick man ; sickness, pass over into the image.' Then "with some rice, salt, and tobacco in a little basket, the substitute is carried to the spot where the evil spirit Ls supposed to have entered into the man. There it is set upright on the ground, after the physician has invoked the spirit as follows : * O devil, here is an image which stands instead of the sick man. Release the soul of the sick man and plague the image, for it is indeed prettier and better than he ' " {Kiihr^. " Similarly, in the island of Dama, between New Guinea and Celebes, where sickness is ascribed to the agency of demons, the doctor makes a doll of palm-leaf and lays it, together with some betel, rice, and half of an empty egg-shell on the patient's head. Lured by this bait the demon quits the sufferer's body and enters the palm-leaf doll, which the wily doctor thereupon promptly decapitates " {RiedeV). 164 PARTICOLOURED THREADS. Again, in Indian magic, in order to drive out demons from women the following is part of the procedure. The * fairy- women ' (who " are an illiterate class of people ; many of them do not so much as know the name of God ") take " three diflPerent coloured silk or cotton thread, either plain or twisted, and form gunda, that is, they form twenty- one or twenty-two knots on it. The MooUas or Seeanas, in making each knot, read some incantation or other over it, and blow upon it; and when finished it is fastened to the neck or upper arm of the patient."* Now this use of particoloured threads in Eastern magic is a distinct reminiscence of the Mesopotamian wizardry, of which several instances are to be found in Assyrian incantations. As an example we find a development of * Qanoon-e'Islaniy 262. There are curious j)arallels from the more Western writers. " Petronius, writing of certain incantations performed for the purjwse of freeing a certain Encolpius from a spell, says : * She then took from her bosom a web of twisted threads of various colours, and bound it on my neck ' " {Petr. SaC, 131) ; and Persius speaks of tying threads of many colours on the necks of infants as a charm against fascination {Sat.^ ii, 31). Both these instances are quoted by Elworthy, Evil Eye^ 68, 59. Cf. the use of the blue ribband prescribed as necessary in the Hebrew fringes in Num. xv, 38, and the badge of Ethiopian Christianity, worn by all classes, which is a blue neck-thread {mateh) of silk or wool (A. J. Hayes, The Source of the Blue Nile^ 250). There are two curious charms from late Jewish sources (Barclay, The Talmud^ 20) for bleeding at the nose, which include a double thread. The man must take a root of grass, the cord of an old bed, paper, saffron, and the red part of the inside of a palm-tree, and bum them together ; and then take some wool, and twist two threads, dip them in vinegar, roll them in ashes, and put them into his nose ; or let him look out for a stream of water which flows from east to west, and let him go and stand with one leg on each side of it, and take with his right hand some mud from under his left foot, and with his left hand from under his right foot, and then he must twist two threads of wool and dip them into the mud, and put them into his nose. TYING KNOTS. 165 sympathetic magic in the sixth tablet of the Surpu series, where directions are given for removing a tabu from a man, by binding to his limbs a double cord of black and white threads which has been twisted on a spindle. " He hath turned his [stei)9 ?] to a Temple-woman (?), Ishtar hath sent her Temple -woman (?), Hath seated the wise woman on a couch, That she may spin white and black wool into a double cord, A strong cord, a mighty cord, a twi-coloured cord on a spindle, A cord to overcome the Ban : Against the evil course of human Ban, Against a divine curse, A cord to overcome the Ban. He hath bomid it on the head, On the hand and foot of this man. Marduk,^ the son of Eridu, the Prince, With his imdefiled hands cutteth it off. That the Ban — its cord — May go forth to the desert, to a clean place, That the evil Ban may stand aside, And this man may be clean and undefiled, Into the favouring hands of his god may he be commended." Here again it is evident that the disease is transferred by the power of the magician's spell to the twisted thread, which is tied on the patient's limbs and then cut off and thrown away. If a man have a headache the procedure is exactly similar ; the magician is to go out into the desert at sunset and find a certain wild plant, possibly a kind of cucumber, ** which springs up by itself," and after covering his head he must make a meal-circle round it. Then before the sun rises the plant must be torn up by the roots and ^ On the power of Marduk to release mankind from all tabus see p. 125. 166 TYING KNOTS. tied on to the head and neck of the sick man with the hair from a kid, and the headache will go, never to return, " like straw which the wind whirleth away." ^ Another ceremony is prescribed elsewhere for the same complaint ; the head of the patient must be bound with a bundle of twigs ^ with magical words, and at eventide this is to be cut off and thrown into the street '' that the sickness of his head may be assuaged, and that the headache, which hath fallen upon the man like the dew, may be removed."' By tying knots and at the same time chanting some magic words a wizard or witch could cast a tabu on an enemy, as is clear from the Maklu tablet, which ends one incan- tation against such malevolent beings with these words : — ** Her knot is loosed, her sorcery is brought to nought, And all her charms fill the desert."* In driving away a headache the following spell was used by the priest: — " Take the hair of a virgin kid, Let a wise woman si)in it on the right side, And double it on the left ; Bind twice seven knots And i^erform the Incantation of Eridu, Bind (therewith) the head of the sick man, Bind (therewith) the neck of the sick man, Bind (therewith) his life,' Bind up his limbs ; Go round" his couch, Cast the water of the Incantation over him, That the headache may ascend to heaven * Devils, Tablet IX, 1. 50, of the series " Headache." ' The meaning of the Assyrian words are not quite certain. ' Devih, Tablet * P.' * W.A.I., iv, 49, 34a. * Or * soul.' • Or * stand roimd.' I PARALLEL FROM PERSIA. 167 Like the smoke of a peaceful homestead, And like the lees of water poured out It may go down into the earth." * A further use of the cord in headache cures is found in the same tablet.^ Unfortunately the beginning is lost, but at the end directions are given for spinning a threefold cord,* and tying twice seven knots in it, and after per- forming the Incantation of Eridu this is to be tied on the head of the sick man. The headache will then go. Another incantation for the sick runs : — " Weave thou a two-coloured cord from the hair of a virgin kid and from the wool of a virgin lamb, Upon the limbs of the king, son of his god, bind it ; Then shall the king, the son of his god. Who holdeth the life of the land like the Crescent of the Moon-god, Place it as a glory on his head. Like the new Crascent of the Moon ..." * The change from the more usual ** the man, son of his god " to ** the king, son of his god *' is interesting. O'Donovan tells the story of a similar method in use among the modern Persians for removing fever. A woman whose daughter was sick of a fever came to him with a handful of camel's hair that he might make it into a charm for her. He himself, being ignorant of the method by which this should be done, handed it over to a Khan who was with him. ''By means of a spindle the camel's hair was spun to a stout thread, the Khan all the time droning some verses from the Koran or some necromantic chant. When the thread was finished it was of considerable length, and » Devils, ii. Tablet IX, 1. 74. » Ibid., 1. 230. » Cf. Eccles. iv, 12. * Devils, i. Tablet XVI, L 180. 168 PARALLELS FEOM THE ARABS. folding it three times upon itself he respun it. Then he proceeded to tie seven knots upon the string. Before drawing each knot hard he blew upon it. This, tied in the form of a bracelet, was to be worn on the wrist of the patient. Each day one of the knots was to be untied and blown upon, and when the seventh knot had been undone the whole of the thread was to be made into a ball and thrown into the river, carrying, as was supposed, the illness with it." 1 Among the Semites other than Assyrian the same ideas hold good. ^'In the Koran there is an allusion to the mischief of 'those who puff into knots/ and an Arab commentator on the passage explains that the knots refer to women who practise magic by tying knots in cords, and then blowing and spitting upon them. He goes on to relate how, once upon a time, a wicked Jew bewitched the prophet Mohammed himself by tying nine knots on a string, which he then hid in a well. So the prophet fell ill, and nobody knows what might have happened if the Archangel Gabriel had not opportunely revealed to the holy man the place where the knotted cord was concealed. The trusty Ali soon fetched the baleful thing from the well ; and the prophet recited over it certain charms, which were specially revealed to him for the purpose. At every verse of the charms a knot untied itself, and the prophet experienced a certain relief." * A charm against fever, given me on the mound of Eouyunjik (Nineveh) by an Arab boy ^ Merv Oasis, ii, 319. ' Frazer, Golden Botigh, i, 397, quoting Professor A. A Bevan. The two surdt of the Koran which concern the blowing into knots, etc., Bxe quoted on a talismanic plaque brought from Egypt (described JReinaud, Monumeiis Musulmanes du Due de BlacaSy ii, 325). TYING KNOTS. 169 named Sh^kho, who was by way of having a reputation as a magician, was one which is strikingly similar to those quoted above. The physician who is called in to cure a patient takes a thread of cotton, single and not plaited threefold, and ties seven knots in it, putting it on the patient's wrist. After seven or eight days, if the fever still continue, he must keep it on ; but if it passes he may throw it away. He must then make bread and throw it to the dogs, which was explained to me as a kind of thank- offering, but the root-idea is obviously much deeper down.^ Among certain of the modern Jews, in the case of hard labour ensuing during confinement, the unmarried girls of the house should unbraid their hair and let it loose on their shoulders;^ in South Russia, in making a shroud they avoid tying knots.* In the Sword of Moses,^ in order to catch a lion by the ear " say No. 91 and make seven knots in the fringes of thy girdle and repeat these words into each knot and you will catch him." According to Hughes,^ the Order of the Bakhtashiyah (founded by a native of Bukhara) use a mystic girdle as their symbol, which they put off and on seven times, saying — " I tie up greediness and unbind generosity, I tie up anger and unbind meekness, I tie up avarice and unbind piety, I tie up ignorance and imbind the fear of God, I tie up passion and unbind the love of God, I tie up hunger and unbind (spiritual) contentment, I tie up Satanism and unbind Divineness." » Folklore of Mossoul, P.S.B.A., 1906, 80. * In Kovno, Rumania, quoted Jeto. EncycL, xi, 600. ' Ibid., 601. On the whole subject of knots see Frazer, Golden Bough, i, 392. * Ed. Gaster, 41. • Dictionary of hlam^ 118. 170 PARTICOLOURED CORDS. Among the later Hebrews the following is given as a cure for night blindness. Take a hair rope, and bind one end to the patient's leg and the other to a dog's, and then let children clatter a potsherd after him, calling out : '^ Old man ! dog ! fool ! cock ! " He must then collect seven pieces of meat from seven houses, and set them at the cross-bar of the threshold, and then eat them on the town- middens ; then he must untie the rope and say : '^ Blindness of N., son of N., leave N., son of N., and be brushed into the pupil of the eye of the dog." ^ Abramelin, the sage,^ declares that in Austria he found an infinitude of magicians who only occupied themselves in killing and maiming men, in putting discord among married people, in causing divorces, and in tying witch-knots in osier or willow branches to stop the flow of milk in nursing women. In an Assyrian exorcism for ophthalmia black and white threads (or hairs) are to be woven together, with seven and seven knots tied therein, and during the knotting an incantation is to be muttered ; the thread ' of black hair is then to be fastened to the sick eye, and the white one to the sound eye.^ The tablet S. 1301 (for some sickness P) directs that a black ka-stone be tied into a black hair or thread with seven knots, an incantation repeated during the process, and the whole bound on the left hand. ^ Hcrshon, Talnuidic Miscellany, quoting " The Fragment " of W. H. Lowe (Gittin, fol. 69, col. 1). ' The Book of Sacred Magic of Abramelin^ the Sage, a Hebrew MS. of 1458, ed. Mathers, 20. The Talmud (Sabbath, xv) gives regulations for the tying and untying of knots on the Sabbath. Directions for loosing knots are given in the Surpu-senes, v-vi, Zimmem, 35. ^ Meaning of the Assjrrian word rather uncertain. * W.A.r.,iv,29*,4,c, i, 15. PARTICOLOURED CORDS. 171 Another eye-charm, for amitrrikanu or 'yellowness/ pre- scribes binding "pure strands of red wool^ which have been brought by the pure hand of . . . " on the right hand.2 A ritual against sickness runs thus: — " Bind white wool doubled in spinning on his bed, front and sides, Bind black wool doubled in spinning on him, on his left hand, That there may enter no evil spirit, nor evil demon, Nor evil ghost, nor evil devil, nor evil god, nor evil fiend, Nor hag-demon, nor ghoul, nor robber-sprite, Nor incubus, nor suocuba, nor phantom-maid, Nor sorcery, nor witchcraft, nor magic, nor calamity. Nor spells that are not good — That they may not lay their head to his, Their hand to his, Their feet to his. That they may not draw nigh." ^ Elsewhere the priest is directed to say over a sick man *' Ea hath sent me " three times, and to untie a knot which has been tied ; then the sick man is to go home without looking behind him.^ * Sonny (Arch, /. Rel.^ 1906, 525) in his article Rote Farbe im Toten- kulte considers the use of red to be in imitation of blood. See also Von Duhn, Rot wid Tot^ ibid., i. » Haupt, A.S.K.T., 11, ii, 45. ^ Ibid., 55. * King, Bahylonian Magic and Sorcery, 58, 99 fF. It is curious to see how this prohibition against looking backwards recurs in ancient superstitions (see Frazer, Golden Bough, iii, 104). One of the charms given to a Mekkan talisman-monger was handed to him with directions that a bit of paper, inscribed with a few words to the dead, should be borne to a neighbouring cemetery and buried near the entrance, the magician having to bring back a handful of the sand. " Be careful, on returning, not to look behind you, for if you do so you will be torn in a million pieces that will be distributed among those that lie there. Look ahead, and your life will be safe." The story goes that he buried the paper and took up the sand, but immediately he heard thunder and the voices of the dead crying, "0 Abdullah-ben-Jafar, take not the 172 TYING KNOTS. The primitive Eastern court of justice is described in the cuneiform tablets in a way that seems to bear on these knots — " When a man hath an enemy that bringeth an accusation against him, twisting his words, or uttering slanders, or backbiting, without making a true charge, enmeshing him with the magic of unknown evil sorcery. If god, king, lord, prince, and officers shall rise up and in the gate of the palace they are opposed to him and are angry with him for the accusation (?) ; then shall he loose the evil knot which he hath knotted," ^ etc. A parallel to this tying of knots is the binding of evil spirits, or even the tongue * or other members of human sand away, else you will be cut in bits. Stop ! Stop ! Stop ! " and he shuddered and lost consciousness (Hadji Khan, With the PUgrims to Mecca, 278). A similar idea was ciurent in Mosul, my servant Mejtd telling me that if a man desired a charm he was to take a dead hoopoe, with a piece of inscribed paper tied to it, to a cemetery, and lay it near a grave at night. He must then read some book, while the demons gather roimd, without turning to look roimd. If he should look round the demons will have power to attack him (Folklore of Mossotd, P,S,B.A.y 1906, 79). It is possibly also found in an Assyrian incan- tation : " The angry, quaking storm [which if one] seeth, he tumeth not, nor looketh back again " (Devils, ii, 13). 1 W.A.L, iv, 55, 2. * There is a Coptic charm which shows this clearly — " In the name of God, etc. The t^dng of the tongue of (?) Gharlb, son of Sitt el-Kull ; the speaker (?) shall not be able to speak. The tying of his tongue as against Thijar, daughter of my lady (?) by virtue of these names here. Amen." ( The following magical signs would stand for the * names.^) "God, who hath bound the heaven and bound the earth, He shall (or may He) bind the mouth and the tongue of Gharlb, son of Sitt el-Kidl, that he be not able to move his lips and speak an evil word against Thy . . . (?), the (?Thy) daughter, the (?Thy) servant Thfijir (sic), to her (?) in the presence of Gharlb, son of Sitt el-KulL God, who hath confined the sun in the place of his setting, and confined the moon and confined the stars and confined the winds in the midst of heaven, Lord God, do Thou confine and bind the mouth and the HOMCEOPATHY. 173 beings. Many instances are quoted by Frazer (Golden Bough, i, 394), the most useful for our purpose being the belief in the Middle Ages in Europe that the consummation of marriage could be prevented by anyone who, while the wedding ceremony was taking place, either locked a lock or tied a knot in a cord, and then threw the knot or the cord away. He says that a net, from its affluence of knots, has always been considered in Russia very efficacious against sorcerers, and the connection of the Assyrian * ban ' with a net or snare is in keeping with this.^ Aniat'ka saparra siru sa ana iami u ir^ltim tarmt (TF.A,!., iv, 26, 4, 44), "Thy command is a mighty net spread over heaven and earth," addressed probably to Marduk, shows the same idea. Besides waxen figures and knots, there are endless forms of sympathetic magic which bear the stamp of homoeopathy. In the Sinaitic Peninsula an Arab will give his child burnt scorpion to swallow, in the belief that this form of sympathetic prophylactic will render him invulnerable to scorpion poison.^ It is no different from the superstition tx)ngue of Gh., son of S., that he be not able to have power to speak an evil word against Thijar, daughter of my lady (?). I adjure thee, I conjure (you /), by the voice which went up from the cross, until the seven broken seals, depart from him. I adjure you, I conjure you, that ye . . . " (Crum, RS.B.A., 1902, 329). » DeviU, ii, 119. » W. E. Jennings-Bramley, P,E.F., 1906, 197. Nothing is too abominable to be dnmk or eaten in magical charms. Burckhardt (Notes on the Bedouins and WahabiSf i, 262) says that he saw an Arab immediately on rising in the morning swallow whole draughts of camel's urine because a physician (i.e. a barber) of Mekka had advised him to do so as a certain remedy for oppression in the breast. Another, in the last stages of consumption, was directed to eat nothing but the raw liver of a male camel for a fortnight. 174 SUMMARY. in ancient Greece and Rome that fields sown with seed can be protected from mice by scattering the ashes of cats upon them,^ or that the head of a dog burnt and reduced to ashes, and kneaded with Tinegar, should be used by the Arabs for hydrophobia.' Talmudic medicine recommends the reticulation between the lobes of the liver of the dog for such a malady.' It is the old story of the " hair of the dog that bit one." Two reasons are given in this tractate for rabies; one is that an evil spirit passes into the beast, the other is that a neophyte learning to become a witch first practises her enchantments on dogs.^ We need not, however, go further into the subject here. Enough has been said to show the principles of transmission by which the sorcerer expels the demon from his patient into some body which will give him control over it. For our purpose, such magic is principally important because of the bearing it has on one side of the atonement ceremonies. * Blau, Doints out here that "in the older literature, when exceptional and piacular rites are interpreted an satisfactions for sin, the offence is always a definite one, and the piacular rite has not a stated and periodical character, but is directly addressed to the atonement of a particular sin or course of sinful life," and " in the Levitical ritual all piacula, both public and private, refer only to sins committed un- wittingly" (p. 423). For later \4ews on the DB^N see KOberle, op. cit., 81. The recent views on Babylonian sacrifices given in the JSnct/clopcedia Biblica (4120) are those of Jeremias, who says : — " Here, of course, we must divest ourselves of all theological preconceptions, and jiut aside all such notions as that of an atoning efficacy attaching to the blood as the seat of life, or of a divine wrath that expends itself upon the sacrificial animal, or even of a raUio vicaria, when we speak of the idea of propitiation as underlying Babylonian sacrifices. ... At the same time it is significant and by no means accidental — it has its roots firmly planted in the very nature of the religious ideas involved — that every- thing offered with the object of averting evil of any kind whatsoever was associated with the notions of a propitiatory, cleansing, purifying efficacy." Further on (4125) he says, " Singular to say, however, that (the Babylonian cultus) shows not the faintest trace of eiiam, hattdth ; we may assume that the sin and the trespass offering of the Hebrew T6rah, although all that we know of their technique is wholly of post-exilic date, were entirely of Israelite growth." I do not think, however, that this second statement can be upheld for a moment ; and the language of the former is so involved and peculiar that it is difficult to see how far the author has grasped his subject. 180 DEMONS ENTICED OUT OF THE SICK MAN. It is with the very greatest diffidence that I think, in view of the evidence which Assyriology brings forward, that this explanation cannot altogether be upheld. That the life of the victim was held to be the equivalent of a human member of the tribe would certainly appear to be true; but I cannot believe that there is any idea of communication of divine life or confirmation of a bond with the god. The trend of evidence seems to me to point to a primitive system of providing a substitute- victim^ for the devil whose connection with the man has brought down a tabu. In every exorcism of demons, it is necessary to have some object into which the spirit may be attracted or driven, in point of fact a Leyden jar in which the malign influence may be isolated under control. It is all the same whether it is the devils who must be sent into the Gadarene swine, or the Jinni corked up in the brass bottle by Solomon. They are safe so long as they can be enticed or forced by magic words into something which the magician can ultimately destroy or guard religiously. He may then either burn it in clean places where no spirit comrades can lend their aid, or cast it into the deep sea so that no meddlers can by chance free the evil demon. This point is emphasized by the study of the Assyrian exorcisms; that the disease demon must be gently or forcibly persuaded to leave the human body to enter the dead animal or wax figure which is placed near, and so be brought into subjection. ^ We are not now discussing the primitive redemption of the first- i bom. This has nothing to do with the trespass oflfering or similar atonements, and the two owe their origin to two distinct and separate practices. We shall return to the redemption of the first- bom later on. ASSYRIAN AND HEBREW ATONEMENTS. 181 £6berle realizes the idea of the removal of sin by cleansing- 'atonements' and exorcisms among the Baby- lonians, but he does not apply it to the Hebrew procedure. Apparently it is the blood-sprinkling which is his obstacle to any comparison between the two.^ But it is hardly likely that the two are of different origin. 1 " Aber mag es sich damit verhalten, wie es will, ohne Zweifel ist die kultische Slihne in Babjlonien bekannt. Sie hat dort nirgends den Zweck, den Menschen vor der Gk)ttheit zu schlitzen, vielmehr ist sie ein Reinigungs — , Heilungs — iind Ezorcismus-Akt. Doch weist die Eigenart der hebralschen Siihneriten eher auf die primitiven ur- semitischen Opferformen hin, wonach die SUhne durch Blutbestreichung (an Stella des Blutgenusses) die gelockerte Gemeinschaft zwischen Gott und Mensch wiederherstelt " (Siinde und Onade im rel, leben des Volkes Israel, 1905, 318). " Die unreinen Zustande gelten nun einmal als Dinge, welche GotteB Heiligkeit verletzen und ihm missfallig sind. Sie sind im Sinne des priesterlichen Gesetzgebers nicht Modifikationen menschlicher Schwache, sondem eher noch Modifikationen menschlicher imd kreatur- hcher Verderbnis . . . ; wenn auch nicht so deutlich wie sonst diese Komiption als Folge der Siinde hingestellt wird " (ibid, 319). "Siindig wird man dmx^h Beriihrung Genuss u. s. w. von Dingen, die tabu sind ; wir sehen hier hinein in die primitivsten Formen der religiOsen Beurteilung der Siinde ; daneben finden wir auch den mehr sittlichen Masstab, wenn die Siinde als £mp5rung wider die Gottheit, als Abweichmig vom rechten Weg, als Ubertretung gottlicher Gebote gefasst wird " (ibid, 20). Compare also Dillmann's edition of Knobel's LeviticiUf 1880, 381, " War n&mlich der Zweck entweder die Siihnung einer bestimmten Siinde oder die Entsiindigung Uberhaiipt, so hatte das Siindopfer einzutreten, bestehend in einem mannlichen oder weil> lichen Vierfussler (verschieden je nach der Personen des Darbringers), meist aiis dem Ziegenvich, ersatzweise in einer Taube (und nur im Kothfall in etwas Mehl) ; die Hauptsache dabei war die SUhnung durch das Blut." Jastrow, in the German edition of his Religion of the Babylonians, xvi, 325, says : *' Man rechnete mit der Moglichkeit dass die Angrifie der Damonen eine Strafe fur irgend welche begangenen Siinden sein konnten. Auch hierfur bietet die Schurpu-Serie eiu beachtens wertes Beispiel. Die zweite Tafel enthalt namlich eine lange Liste von Ubeltaten um derentwillen jemand in die Gewalt der Damonen oder Zauberer geraten konnte.'' \ 182 ATONEMENTS AND SIN-OFFEBINGS. If, then, we look into the specific cases for which the atonement, sin, and trespass offerings are prescribed in the Old Testament, it will be seen that they fall into five classes : — (1) The Periodic. The Feasts (Passover, Pentecost, and Taberaacles), the Day of Atonement, and the scapegoat (Lev. zvi, xxiii ; Num. xxviii, xxix). Cf. Ezek. xlv, 18 flf.,* and the more vague Exod. XXX, 10, and the ' atonement * money of 15. (2) The Individual. (a) * Leprosy,' and the house in which * leprosy' breaks out (Lev. xiii-xiv). (b) Touching anything unclean (Lev. v, 2 ; Num. xix, 17 ff. ), a Nazarite touching a dead body (Num. vi, 9 ff.), a woman after childbirth (Lev. xii, 2 ff.), a man or woman with an abnormal issue (Lev. xv, 2 ff.). (o) Transgressing against the holy things or command- ments of Yahweh unwittingly (Lev. v, 15-17 ; xxii, 14), unwitting sin (Lev. iv, 1 ff., 27 ff. ; v, 17 ; Num. xv, 27). (d) Oaths (Lev. v, 1, 4). (e) Lying, deception, robbery, etc., or finding lost things and lying about them (Lev. vi), or any sin (Num. v, 6). (/) Having intercourse with bondmaid promised to another (Lev. xix, 20 ff.). (3) The Royal: * unwitting' sin of the ruler (Lev. iv, 22 ff.). (4) The Priestly : initiation to * consecrate ' or * cleanse ' them (Exod. 2udx, 1 ff. ; Lev. viii, 1 ff. ; xvi, 5, 6 ; Num. viii, 6). Cf. Lev. iv, 3. As a corollary to these come the ordinances of Ezek. xliii, 18 ff. Cf. also the Nazarite, Num. vi, 13 ff. (5) The Tribal: * unwitting' sin (Lev. iv, 13 ff. ; Num. xv, 24). A plague is removed from the tribe (Num. xvi, 46 ff.). Cf. Lev. ix. There are also the vague ' atonements ' of Lev. i, which have possibly arisen from a confusion with the ordinary sacrifice. * On Ezekiel and the * holy ' laws see Klostermann, Der Pentateuch^ 1893, 368 ff. SUGGESTED ORIGIN OF PIACULA. 183 Starting with the hypothesis that piacnlar offerings had their origin in the custom of providing a substitute to absorb the evil action of supernatural agency, we shall take each case separately and see how far it stands the test of com- parison with similar superstitions among savages. Take first that case of Periodic Atonement which is the most prominent instance in Hebrew folklore^ that of the scapegoat.^ Two goats are to be taken, and one of them * I have ttiken the liberty of giving the salient instances in risumi which have been collected by Dr. Frazer in his Golden Bough (iii, 14). A Malagasy was informed by a diviner that he was doomed. to a bloody death, but that possibly he might avert his fate by performing a certain rite. Carrying a small vessel full of blood upon his head, he was to moimt upon the back of a bullock ; while thus mounted, he was to spill the blood upon the bullock's head, and then send the animal away into the wilderness, whence it might never return (Ellis). The Battas of Sumatra have a ceremony which they call " making the curse to fly away." When a woman is childless, a sacrifice is offered to the gods of three grasshoppers, representing a head of cattle, a buffalo, and a horse. Then a swallow is set free with the prayer that the curse may fall upon the bird and fly away with it (Kodding). Among the Majhwar, a Dravidian race of South Mirzapur, if a man has died of a contagious disease, such as cholera, the village priest walks in front of the funeral procession with a chicken in his hands, which he lets loose in the direction of some other village as a scapegoat to carry the infection away (Crooke). Amongst the Burghers or Badagas of the Neilgherry Hills in Southern India, when a death has taken place, the sins of the deceased are laid upon a buffalo calf. A set form of confession of sins, the same for everyone, is recited aloud, then the calf is set free, and is never afterwards used for common purposes. " The idea of this ceremony is that the sins of the deceased enter the calf or that the task of his absolution is laid on it. They say that the calf very soon disappears, and that it is never after heard of" (Harkness). He gives the following examples also. Chickens daubed with vermilion, goats, or even pigs as a last resource, are driven away from cholera-swept villages in Central India, in the hope that the disease may depart (Panjab Notes and Queries^ i, 48, § 418 ; Frazer, Oolden Bought iii, 101). In 1886, during the smallpox, the people of Jeypur made puja to a goat, marched it to the Ghats, and let it loose 184 SAVAGE CUSTOMS IN ATONEMENT. sacrificed as a sin-offering, and the other sent away into the wilderness for 'Azazel' to bear all the iniquities of the people into a solitary land.^ Frazer has shown how on the X)lain8 (Fawcett, J,A,S.y Bombay, i, 213 ; Frazer, Oolden Bought iii, 102). In the case of the Aymara Indians of Bolivia and Peru, the scax^^^t was a llama (Forbes, J.E.S., London, ii, 237 ; Frazer, Oolden Bough, iii, 104). The i)eriodic expulsion of evils is gone into at great length by Frazer, iii, 70 ff., who instances — (1) The Esquimaux of Alaska, who choose the moment of the sim's reappearance to himt the mischievous spirit Tuna from every house. (2) The Iroquois inaug\irated the new year in January, February, or March, and on one day the ceremony of driving away the evil spirits from the village took place. (3) In September the Incas of Peru celebrated a festival called Situa, the object of which was to banish from the caj)ital and its vicinity all disease and trouble. (4) The negroes of Guinea annually banish the devil from all the towns with much ceremony. (5) Among the Hos of North-Eastem India, the great festival of the year is held in January. An evil spirit is at this time supposed to infest the place, and has to be driven out by processions shouting. (6) In Bali, to the east of Java, the |)eople have periodic expulsions, generally on the day of the * dark moon ' in the ninth month. (7) The Shans of Southern China annually expel the fire-spirit. (8) On the last night of the year there is obsen^ed in most Japanese houses a ceremony called " the exorcism of the evil spirit." (9) In Tonquin a general expulsion of malevolent spirits commonly took place once a year. (10) In Cambodia it takes x>lace in March. (11) Among the heathen Wotyaks of East Russia on the last day of the year, or New Year's Day. He quotes many other instances. He goes on further to discuss scapegoats, and compares— (1) the embodied devils, i.e. men dressed as devils chased to the mountains, among the Pomos of California ; and (2) the Mandan Indians who chased a man painted to represent the devil at their annual festival. ' Lev. xvi. According to the Mishna, the Hebrew scapegoat was not allowed to go free in the wilderness, but was killed by being pushed over a precipice (Toma, vi, 6 ; De Dea Syria, Iviii, quoted by Robertson Smith, Rel. Sent,, 418). The common peox^le in hastening the departure of the scapegoat used to pull pieces of its hair to accelerate its pace ( Voma, vi, 4). On the Day of Atonement it is forbidden to eat, drink, wash, perfume, put on shoes, or cohabit with a woman {Beixtkhoth, iii, 4). Note that pre-exilic worship knows no such day as is d&scribed in Lev. xvi (Encycl. BibL, 384). SAVAGE CUSTOMS IN ATONEMENT. 185 this yearly atonement is a regular custom among many savage tribes, and this is ample proof that it was not peculiar to the Hebrews through some special revelation. Hitherto, however, this annual scapegoat has not been met with in the cuneiform inscriptions, as far as I know, but such negative evidence is naturally valueless to prove that the custom did not exist in Assyria.^ The second class contains the remarkable rites in this Hebrew atonement system for cleansing the Meper' or the house in which leprosy' has appeared. The origin of these spells is clearly to be found in the principle of sympathetic magic. The priest is to take two birds, cedar, scarlet, and hyssop, and after killing one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water, he is to dip the remainder in the blood of the dead bird and in running water, and to sprinkle the man or the house seven times; but he shall let go the living bird out of the city into ^ M. Fossey {La MagleAuyrienne^ 85) satisfactorily refutes Mr. Prince's theory of the living scapegoat in Assyrian which he put forward in the J,A,0,S, (1900, xxi, 1-22), basing it on the cuneiform text published by Haupt {Akkad. u, Sumer. KeiUchrifttexte, 104-5). Since then, however, Mr. Prince has put forward another article {Journal Aaiatique, July- August, 1903, 133) maintaining his previous proposition from the same text, which he translates as follows : — " Prends le bouquetin qui allege la douleur ; place sa tSte sur la t^te du malade ; du cdt^ du roi, fils de son dieu (c'est-k-dire le patient), chasse-le ; que sa salive dans sa bouche coule librement (soit l&ch^) ; que le roi soit pur ; qu'il soit sain." M. Fossey has answered it in footnotes to the same paper, and, as he properly points out, ' chasse-le ' is not the right translation for u-me-tb- QUR-GUR, which should be rendered by the Assyrian equivalent, kuppir, ' make the atonement for.' Consequently there is nothing to show that the houquetin was alive, and from a comparison of similar texts in which the animal has obviously been slaughtered (see pp. 203 fif.) it is plain that M. Fossey is correct when he says that it was killed {La Magie Assyrienne^ 86). 186 EVIL CARBIED AWAY BY BIRDS. the open fields.^ One of the so-called Penitential Psalms, which is, in fact, more probably a ceremony for cleansing a man from taba when he wishes to see something in a dream, is very closely connected with this Levitical charm. The Assyrian suppliant prays to his god and goddess — " That my iniquity may be loosed (and) my sin be blotted out, That my trespass be loosed, my bonds be cast off, That the seven winds cjarry oflf my bane ! Let me cast off my evil that the bird may fly up to heaven with it, That the fish may carry off" my affliction, that the river may bear it away. That the creeping thing of the field may receive my iniquity (and) the flowing water of the stream wash me clean ! Let me shine forth as a golden . . . That I may be worthy in thy sight as a circlet (?) of diamonds ! Remove my guilt, keep safe my life, that I may keep holy thy temeno8(?)» and stand before thee. Let my sin pass with my evil,' that I be safe with thee ! Vouchsafe to me to see a favourable dream. Be happy the dream that I see, be true the dream that I see ! Turn to fair omen the dream that I shall see. May Mahir, the god of dreams, stand at my head. Let me enter into E-sagila, the palace of the house of life." * Birds are frequently used this way in Semitic magic* » The Talmud on Leprosy (xii, i) enlarges on this in the following way : " All buildings receive uncleanness in leprosy except the buildings of foreigners. He who buys houses from foreigners must first inspect them. A roimd house, a three-cornered house, a house built on a ship or on a mast, or one built on four beams, do not receive uncleanness in leprosy. But if the house is square, even though it be built on four pillars, it receives uncleanness in leprosy." ' Lussur kUallaJca, ' Itti lumni futika anni, « W.A,L, iv, 69,2, rev. 1. 10 ff. » Birds are used in later Hebrew magic in charms to make an enemy become a fugitive. A man had only to write certain words in a bird's blood and bind them on the bird's foot and let it fly in the open THE HOUSE IN WHICH LEPROSY APPEARS. 187 In Arabia, as has been mentioned elsewhere, a widow lets a bird fly away with the uncleanness of her widowhood. But there is a still closer parallel in Assyrian to this Levitical magic, found in an incantation prescribed for cleansing a house in which 'sorcery' (upSaiu) has broken out, which runs as follows: — "As the water of the Sun- god is borne from the roof (?) ^ when he goeth down, so shall the sorcery which hath appeared in the man's house, destroying ^ the house, admit [its] bondage (P).' Pour upon the plaister-liquid wine, date wine, and beer from corn^ . . . the vessel of the mixture (P) thou shalt overlay with thy feet and come (awayP)^ ... at sunset shall be cast into the river; the man that carrieth it^ shall not enter the house for seven (P) days.'' " On the second day thou shalt cleanse the house with a vessel of pure water, (^{^(-tamarisk), dilbat-'plajit, ginger (P), dwarf-palm, skin of a great ox, ' strong copper,' fields. If it flew away, this was a uign of the flight of the euemy ; if it returned, he would die {FolJUore of Mossout, P.S.B.A,^ 1906, 106, No. 23). Or, after drawing certain images and writing the name of the man and his mother, he might tie his charm to the wings of a dove or other bird, and say, ^ I conjure thee, Qaphsiel, and thy whole host that thou drive away So and So, that he be wandering about, to and fro, in the same manner as the Lord drove Cain away,'' etc., and then let it fly (Gaster, P.S.B.A., 1900, 346). * Uru, * beam.' ' SibSurat biti. * GI-GA-TU QAR-an, i.e. dupHkki Uakanian), * Cf. Lev. xiv, 42, "and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaister the house." The words in Assyrian are a-im-par, i.e. me ga^L ' . . . karpati lia Su-luk-ha ta-kat-tam ina Sepd^^-ka-ma titebbi, * Cf. Lev. xiv, 46, " Moreover, he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be imcleau imtil the even." Num. xix, 10, ** And he that gathereth the a^hes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even." ^ The Assyrian number may be ' seven.' Seven days is the limit in Lev. xiv, 38, for the priest to shut up the house imtil his return. 188 PARALLEL IN ASSYRIAN. a torch of ^rti (-tamarisk) , the marrow of the palm, (and) birbirrida-Gom,^ Thou shalt overlay the floor' of the whole house with bitumen, plaister, and oil of cedar; at each door [of god ^] thou shalt set a censer (burning) cypress and cedar. That man he shall sprinkle with water,^ and the man who dwelleth . . . ^ nothing approach the man.'' Then follows this spell: — " Incantation : — Break the bonds of her who hath bewitched me, Bring to nought the mutterings of her who hath cast spells on me, Turn her sorcery to wind. Her mutterings to air ; All that she hath done or wrought in magic May the wind carry away I May it bring her days to ruin and a broken heart, May it bring down her years to wretchedness and woe I May she die, but let me recover; May her sorcery, her magic, her spells be loosed. By command of Ea, Samas, Marduk, And the Princess B61it-ili. Perform the Incantation. Prayer when sorcery appeareth in a man's house. Thou shalt wash in water . . . • (and) ofter ' a black ox. Repeat this incantation seven times and the sorcery will be loosed." * > Cf. V. J52, " And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood, and with the hyssop and with the scarlet." ■ Sippu. ^ Why this ilu is in I cannot explain, unless the text should read l^l^n /a-fln ♦ Or, " That man shall sprinkle water." Cf. v. 61, " and sprinkle the house seven times." * I cannot translate BU-UM en-na ud-da al til-la satisfactorily. It may mean "... imtil the day of his recovery." • ki-dah'hi tu-sarnah 1 ' tu-gar-rih ? or tu-ia-kal ? • FF.i^./., iv, 59, 1. V HOUSES IMMUNE FBOM MAGIC. 189 There is evidently something akin in this Assyrian upiaiu (sorcery) to the Hebrew WTX ('leprosy').^ In Leviticus, the house may show a plague in its walls " with hollow strakes/ greenish or reddish/' which may or may not increase in seven days. This is clearly some form of damp or dry-rot. Evidently the early house-builders associated it with magic, and the Levitical account merely retains the primitive beliefs. The amplification in the Talmud (given in note 1, on p. 186) also hints that the origin is to be sought in hostile magic. The round house is immune, and this recalls the wizard's circle. The three- cornered house is the same, doubtless from the magical number three, and we may also instance the pentacle in comparison with its angular shape. A ship, according to the Talmud, is always 'clean' (Sabbathy ix, 2), and hence cabins and fighting-tops will be also clean; the immunity of the house built on four beams is not so easy to explain, when it is particularized that a square house is not exempt.^ We have seen, then, that the scapegoat atonement and the purification ceremony for the 'leper' and the 'leprous' house are ordinary savage magic. With this as an indication we may pursue our investigations into the other unclean tabus on the individual, taking first those which cannot be called 'sins' by any extension of ^ There is no evidence that leprosy in the modem sense of the word existed among the Jews at this period ; the DV^Tt comprised a number of cutaneous disorders, chief among which are vitiligo and psoriasis (Schamberg, BibL World, xiii, 1899, 162). This, however, does not apply to the house. * If, however, the 'beams' be understood as 'piles,' the house will come into the same category as the ship, the water being the safeguard. 190 UNCLEAN TABUS. the word. Touching anything unclean or a dead body, a woman after childbirth, or abnormal issues, clearly represent the tabooed condition of one who not only runs the risk of danger from spirits, but may have given physical indication of the effects of their hostility. All these demand piacular offerings; the corpse may so infect a tribesman that he invites the return of the restless ghost to plague him with sickness. Similarly, that which is 'unclean' will have latent potentialities for disease. The woman in childbed is infectious through the jealousy of spirits who are hostile because of the successful result of her marriage with a man, and she herself may even die from their attack, as in puerperal fever. Abnormal issues are, by their nature, diseases, and are clearly due to demons. It is to be noticed that the tabus against ordinary issues — those wherein the function is perfectly natural or regular — do not require an 'atonement,' but merely a purificatory ritual. This coincides entirely with our knowledge of the ostensible operation of the spirits; the ba^al k'H and the woman in her courses are not supposed to be ' possessed ' by the lascivious demon, whose power is merely transient. There is no question of disease in these cases; the condition is a peculiarity to which any member of the tribe may be subject without resultant hurt, and the succuba or incubus leaves the person. .To the savage mind this is a certainty, because no man or woman is permanently sick from such natural functions, nor do they die. Hence, after the lilu or litith has departed, purification is the only rite demanded. But, on the other hand, abnormal issues come under the head of protracted possession (disease), and demand an elaborate atonement to drive out the demon, who intends remaining. UNWITTING SINS. 191 Similarly, eating 'unclean' beasts demands only pari* fication (Lev. xi, 40), and this can easily be traced to its primitive source. The 'unclean' beast is the totem-beast which it is nefas to kill or eat, except on great occasions, but there is often nothing inherently unclean or dangerous about its flesh to produce sickness. Hence, accidental experiment probably showed the savage that the spirit infection or divine wrath did not follow as a matter of course if he did eat it occasionally, and nothing more was necessary to cleanse him from this breach than puri- fication. Doubtless many things, without fins and scales, were capable of making him very sick at certain seasons, but there are obviously many totems which are absolutely innocuous. A most important question in these 'atonements' is the meaning of the ' unwitting sins,' and, as this seems the best point to discuss them, we must leave the explanation of the other special tabus until later. There are surely a hundred sins or breaches of tabu that a man may commit daily in all innocence without knowing that he has actually broken any of the tribal laws, notably in the matter of contagion. If he has done these 'unwittingly,' how will he know when to bring his piacular oflering, and even then, what is the particular reason for the sacrifice? There must clearly be some physical and apparent result from his breach of tabu. This is certain, otherwise the Levitical law would never describe the action prior to the atonement as an 'unwitting' sin. Hence, by applying a hypothesis of the connection of demons with tabu and sickness, the obvious explanation is that the man falls sick and is at a loss to know what he has done t^at 192 CONNECTION BETWEEN SIN AND SICKNESS. should have brought down such a supernatural yisitation. He therefore goes to the priest-physician for relief; he cannot remember all his previous actions, so that the priest may exorcise the particular form of demon which is troubling him, and hence the only diagnosis possible is that of an ' unwitting ' sin or breach of tabu. This is clearly indicated in the Assyrian /Su;^t<-series. The man has fallen sick, and the priest is to heal him with the treatment prescribed in these tablets. But, although it is perfectly clear from the internal evidence of the text that the man is ill, it is to a breach of the mamit or tabu that such disease is ascribed, and it is the particular 'sin' which the patient has committed which the priest is trying to cleanse. The possible tabus which the sick man may have broken are given in a hundred and sixty- three forms in the third tablet each under the title mamit The fifth tablet begins with the line '* An evil curse {arrat) like a galML-demon hath attacked the man," and the aid of sympathetic magic is called in to drive it away, by shredding and burning garlic, dates, hair, and wool. The seventh tablet begins still more explicitly — ** Dimetu hath gone forth from the deep, Mamit hath come down from the heavens, An ahhazu-demon hath covered (?) the earth as with grass ; Unto the four winds, overwhehning with dread, burning like fire, They smite the folk of all places, torturing their bodies." It is therefore obvious that demons, tabu, and sickness were all held to be in close relation to one another, and that a breach of tabu rendered a man liable to attract the attention of a spirit, which might affect him with disease. The very fact that the sorcerer-priest, in treating hi« patient according to the rules in the ^tii^ti-senesy UNWITTING 8IN8. 193 repeats a hundred and sixty- three tabus^ shows that he does not know exactly what ' sin ' the man has committed. Just as he will run through a long category of spirit names when he exorcises the demon from the sick man, so will he gabble off a string of trespasses, in any one of which the man may have been guilty. It is immaterial whether he knows which one it is ; provided that hia diagnosis mentions the name of the demon in the one case, or the sin in the other, it is enough. We have, therefore, ample proof that the /Stif^ti-series was written in order to provide the magicians with the means of cleansing sick men from the effect of ' unwitting * sins. From this it is an easy step to imderstand that the 'unwitting' sins of Leviticus were always followed by some physical manifestation in the unlucky man; or in- versely, sickness was held to be the result of an ' imwitting ' breach of tabu, which demanded an ' atonement ' to free the sick man from the demon he had attracted.^ ^ Here I should state the views of Koberle {Sunde und Onade, 1906, 24) on the Babylonian ideas : ** Wie Siinde, Krankheit und Verhezung zusammen gehOren, so Vei^gebung, Heilimg und kraftiger Ezorcismus. Der Sunder ist Patient, die Heilsverwirklichung eine Eur. Qnade, Vergebung, Errettung, Befreiung, Ldsung des Bannes ils.w. beziehen sich durchaus auf das aussere Ergehen des Betenden.'' Cf. Morgenstem's views in The Doctrine of Sin in the Babylonian Rdigiony 1905, 3 : '* In the Babylonian religious hterature the expressions, sin, uncleanli- ness, sickness, possession by evil spirits, are pure synonyms. They denote an evil state of the body, the result of the divine anger " \ but he says, '* sin must originally have been purely ritual. Either the man had neglected to offer his sacrifice, or else had not offered it properly. . . . Before the layman could bring sacrifice, he had to be ritually clean. . . . Sin was thus originally merely the transgression of ritual laws, and as such appears throughout the Babylonian religious literature '' (ibid, 2). If I understand rightly what is meant by ' ritual,' I cannot agree with him. Many * sins,' as we have seen, arose from the breach of unclean tabus ; the original idea was that a demoniac attack followed any 194 THE BURNT-OFFERINa AND THE ATONEMENT. The next point to discuBS is the distinction which is made in 'offering' the sacrificial meal and the substitute, or in other words, the burnt-offering and the 'atonement/ The bumt-offeriDg is the direct descendant of the sacrificial feast to which the god, in common with all the tribe, was invited. In later times, however, it was entirely consumed on the altar. But the sin-offering is treated in several ways. Sometimes the directions are for the flesh, skin, and dung to be burnt outside the camp, while the fat, the caul, and the kidneys, etc., are to be burnt on the altar,^ while the blood is to be sprinkled round about. Frequently, on the other hand, nothing is said of the consumption of the carcase;' sometimes the priests may eat it,' unless some of tbe blood has been brought into the tabernacle of the congregation, when the whole must be 'burnt. The best explanation of tbese apparent contradictions seems to be that there is a confusion of two systems, one of which is the more primitive method of cleansing the sick from their tabu. The uses of the blood and fat in these ' atone- ) ments' demand some research into their origin, and we must find some hypothesis for the reason why the beast was slaughtered instead of having its neck broken, and why the fat was burnt on the altar. meddling with unclean i)ersons. But, originally at least, such a breach did not necessarily imply any immediate relations with a god, but were entirely distinct, and i)rimarily concerned the danger to fellow- tribesmen. Doubtless an * unclean ' man came to be excluded from the worship, but 'ritual' has nothing to do with the primitive ideas here. Again, his hypothesis that sin is due to a man not offering his sacrifice duly or properly needs little disproof if the Surpu-tahus be read with intelhgence. At the same time he is quite correct, I believe, when he says, " the curing of sickness, the expulsion of evil spirits, and the expiation of sin, are identical " (ibid., 6). * Exod xxix ; Lev. iv ; Lev. viii (cf. ix). ' Exod. XXX ; Lev. iv, xv, xxiii. ' Lev. vi, xiv. BLOOD IN THE A.TONEMENT SA.CRIFICE. 195 The ' blood ' question is, I think, to be explained thus :— If we go back to the most primitive ideas, dissociating our views from the later (and probably corrupt) customs of the Old Testament, we find that the magician has to inveigle the demon out of the sick person into the substitute. Since he knows that evil spirits are particularly attracted by blood, he cuts the throat of the beast which is henceforth to be the receptacle of the demoniac influence. Throughout the whole conception of the Hebrew idea it is the shedding of the blood, that is the life, which effects the atonement. ''For it is the blood which maketh atonement by reason of the life'' (Lev. xvii, 11), which is amplified in Heb. ix, 22, ''and according to the law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission." That to the Hebrews the blood was the life is shown in Lev. xvii, 14, and Deut. xii, 23, and it is worthy of remark, in this con- nection, that in the Assyrian creation-texts the gods arm their champion Marduk, saying, " Go, and cut off the life of Tiamat, and let the wind carry her blood into secret places,"^ and when Marduk creates man he does it with his blood.* Moreover, the Assyrian exorcisms describe the devils as " ceaselessly devouring blood." ' There are two quotations from later writers which are worth considering, one from Maimonides : ^ " Although blood was very unclean in the eyes of the Sabians, they nevertheless partook of it, because they thought it was the food of spirits; by eating it man has something in common with the spirits, which 1 King, Seven Tablets of Creation, 61 ; Tablet IV, 11. 31, 32. Cf. IL 131, 132. » Ibid, 87. » See p. 49. * Ouide to the Perplexed, iii, xlvi ; Chwolaohn, Die Ssabier, ii, 480. 196 BLOOD IN THE ATONEMENT SACMFICB. join him and tell him future events^ according to the notion which people generally have of spirits. There were^ however, people who objected to eating blood, as a thing naturally disliked by man; they killed a beast, received the blood in a vessel or in a pot, and ate of the flesh of that beast, whilst sitting round the blood. They imagined that in this manner the spirits would come to partake of the blood which was their food, whilst the idolaters ^were eating the flesh ; that love, brotherhood, and friendship with the spirits was established, because they dined with the latter at one place and at the same time; that the spirits would appear to them in dreams, inform them of coming events, and be favourable to them.'* The second is from Origen:^ ''The slaughter of victims is in itself enough to lure the demons to the heathen temples. But even without that, they can be attracted to a place and laid therein by use of certain incantations.*' Are we to consider that these two writers are merely designating the gods of neighbouring worshippers as 'devils,* in accordance with local fanaticism, or must we here see some reminiscence of substitution to demons? What must be recognized is that this slaughter is by no means a sacrificial meal; in the Assyrian texts the beast is shown not to be eaten. Frequently directions are given for it to be thrown away, as containing the evil influence, and as such unfit for food. Pursuing the analogy of the attraction that blood has for spirits, we should see in the custom of burning the fat on the altar some similar design. It seems quite logical to say that, just as the smell of newly-shed blood ^ Conybeare, J,Q.^ ix, 61, quoting (7. CeU,<^ iii, 34. BURNT FAT PLEASING TO GODS AND DEMONS. 197 invites the presence of devils, so will the sweet odour of burnt fat act as a bait, just as it is a sweet sayoar unto Tahweh. "The fat is Tahweh's/'i and this is to be paralleled from many savage tribes.' Devils can be re- pelled by an evil stench, as in the case of Asmodeas, and gods can be attracted by the sweet savour of sacrifice, as happened after the Flood, both in the Hebrew and Babylonian accounts. Further, melted fat is the only 4 fluid, other than blood, that can be offered in a libation from the sacrifice, which should be taken into account in reckoning its holiness. We shall not be far wrong in ascribing the possession of a keen sense of smell to all the Semitic spiritual world, in agreement with their other rapacious appetites. Armed with the practical knowledge of the irresistible attraction of blood and pleasant savour, the sorcerer could wheedle the most recalcitrant devil from his patient. This, however, does not explain why, although the * atone- ment' is so charged with demoniac influence, it occasionally became the priests', or why the holy altar of Yahweh should have been the place for the sacrifice. I do not think, however, that it requires great acumen to see that the piacular offerings of the Old Testament are in an extremel^ confused state when they are compared with each other J Ordinances are given for the disposal of the 'atonement' sacrifices, which seem most arbitrary in their differences. Nay, in one case (in the first chapter of Leviticus), the 'atonement' idea is obviously confused with a sacrifice of * Lev. iii, 16. ' Robertson Smith, Rd. Sem,^ 380 ff. On the burning of fat see ibid, 386. On his views of the viscera, kidneys, and liver being the seats of emotion, or more broadly, *' the fat of the omentum and the organs that lie in and near it," see ibid., 379. 198 CONFUSION OF OFFERINGS. burnt - offering. One has only to compare the modem Semitic folklore to see how entirely the two rites, sacrificial feasts and piacular substitutes, have been confused with one another. The fact must be recognized that analogy, a process universally admitted by scholars, is responsible for this confusion, and that the Levitical injunction ^ '' they shall no more offer their sacrifices to devils" indicates a natural desire to bring the ' atonement ' sacrifices into accord with the ideas of dedication. We may therefore presume that later magicians perhaps learnt that the substitute, which was supposed to have > Lev. xvii, 7. Cf. 1 Cor. x, 20. On the contradictions in the different atonement ceremonies compare Wellhausen, Die Comp, dei ffexat ufui Histor. BUcher des Alien Testaments^ 18.99, 136 : '*Ich will nur auf einen Punkt aufmerksam machen, namlich auf die Dififerenz in dem Sundopferritus, von der schon der Nachtrag Lev. 10, 16-20, Akt genommen hat. In Lev. 4 wird das Blut beim gew5hnlichen Sundopfer an die HOmer des Brandopferaltars gestrichen, dagegen beim Siindopfer des Hohenpriesters und des Volkes in das Innere der Hiitte gebracht, an den Vorhang gesprengt und an die Horner des Raucheraltars gestrichen. Dieser Unterschied wird Exod. 29 und Lev. 9 nicht gemacht, vielmehr wird 29, 12. 9, 9. 15 auch beim Sundopfer des Hohenpriesters und des Volkes das Blut nur an den Opferaltar gestrichen. Ss ist dies aber hier offenbar der solenne Ritus, denn es hat keinen Sinn anzunehmen, bei der Einweihung der Hiitte sei ausnahmsweise drei Male eine weniger feierliche Form beliebt worden, und ausserdem wird 29, 14. 9, 11. 16 das Fleisch grade so draussen vor dem Lager verbrannt, wie es uach Lev. 4 nur bei den heiligsten SUndopfem geschieht, deren Blut in das Innere der HUtte gekommen ist. Also eine unleugbare und unauflosbare Differenz. Lev. 4 geht einen Schritt Uber Exod. 29. Lev. 9 hinaus, die Steigerung erscheint auch darin, dass hier als Sundopfer des Volkes eine Farre gefordert wird, wahrend Lev. 9 (vgl. Kap. 16) nur ein Ziegenbock. Schliesslich scheint es nach der Unterschrift 7, 38, als ob die Uber- schrift 1, 1 erst spater zugesetzt worden sei, um Lev. 1-7 in die Stiftshtittengesetzgebung einzufiigen ; jedoch wird die letztere sachlich vorausgesetzt." Of course, a god aided in the * atonement ' ; cf. p. 210, where a pig is killed " before Samas." THE CLEAN PLACE. 199 absorbed the demoniac influence, was not always so deadly as their ancestors had accounted it. An Oriental wizard, not too well blessed with this world's goods, is not unlikely to haye been loth to let a good lamb be thrown away, and his surreptitious feast may perhaps have given rise to this alternative method of the disposal of the carcase. ' Heathen ' priests were always under suspicion of battening on the deity's food unknown to the worshippers, as we learn from the apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon, and there was probably not much to choose in the matter of accep- tance of perquisites between the priests of one nation or another ; out of this, as a corollary, a second explanation arises, which will also include the use of the holy altar, and that is, that these piacular offerings as we now have them had begun to be so confounded with the sacrifices of burnt- offerings, and the real significance of their origin so lost, that much of the atonement ritual had been brought into similitude with the traditions of the tribal sacrificial feast, although several of the salient features remained. We have next to settle what is meant by the ordinance which directs that the ashes of the piacular offering are to be taken to a " clean place where the ashes are poured out." The Levitical phrase is exactly paralleled in the Assyrian jSwiT^ti-series, "let the tabu, its bond go forth to the desert, the clean place." ^ There is, however, no reason to suppose with Haupt (and, following him, Meissner ^) that this is a euphemism for an unclean place. ' Unclean » Ed. Meissner, 33, Tablet V, 1. 165. Cf. Knobel, ed. Dillmann, LeviticitSf 1880, 383 : " jenes hatte man an reinen Orten (den Zehnten an jeglichen Ort) und im Zustand der Reinheit, dieses am heiligen Ort und natiirlich auch im Zustand der Reinheit zu geniessen." ' J.B.L., xiz, 65. 200 THE BARREN VALLEY. places' are cemeteries, ruins, latrines, and the like, such as are inhabited by demons who would resent the approach of any mortal thus ill-treating one of their number, and would doubtless help the devil imprisoned in the 'atone- ment.' The Rabbis considered that it was proper for a man, on going into an unclean place, to beg the two angels which accompanied him to wait until he should return.^ Obviously the reason is that these angels were not strong enough to cope with the local devils, if they trespassed on their domain. This maintains in the spirit world the Semitic principle which compels a traveller to obtain a foreign sMkh's permission previous to crossing his territory. In the rite of Deut. xxi, 1, the reason for the '' barren valley" being chosen is, according to Dillmann, Ewald, and Keil, in order that the purifying blood may not be uncovered and lose its virtue; according to Robertson Smith, that it may avoid all risk of contact with sacrosanct flesh.* But it may be only in accord with the idea of the scapegoat which is sent into the desert. Jeremias ' quotes Josephus as saying that the second scapegoat, before the burning, had to be brought to a very clean place (et9 KaOapmrarov ^^oi/oiW, Ant,^ iii, 10, 3). Again, are we to see in this deposition of tabooed articles outside the camp an explanation why, at the capture of Jericho (Josh, vi, 23), they put Rahab and her family 'outside the camp,' the remainder of the inhabitants being 'devoted'?^ 1 Berakkoth^ 606, quoted Jewish EncycL sub voce Angelology. » Encycl BibL, 846. » Ibid., 4123. * In an Assyrian text (see p. 177) we find hirpi indicated as the locality for disposing of the * substitute' after the ceremony. Stik irhittiy * cross-roads/ is apparently the place where the * atonement ' is THE ATONEMENT EXORCISM. 201 Alter this rather lengthy digression on the 'unwitting' sins we may return to the other special cases of 'atone- ments.' For the moment we shall omit the 'atonements' for oaths and ordinary ' sin ' (cases d^ e) ; the ' unwitting ' sin of the ruler (case 3) comes under two heads, that of to be put, but the text is mutilated. With regard to kurpi = ' ash- heaps,' it is so purely conjectural that it afifords no room for discussion. The word occurs elsewhere in Macmillan's article in Beitr. fiir Assyr.^ V, 534, ana mu-tu . . . kurpi kurpi uSabri, The * cross-roads,' on the other hand, are difficult of explanation, for they are the resort of spirits ; Hecate is often to be found there, and in the Testament of Solomon (Conybeare, J.Q., xi, 26) the demon Envy says, " In the cross- ways also I have many services to render " (see Frazer, Golden Bough, iii, 80 ; Maury, La Magie, 176). In Talmudic medicine, to heal an issue of blood, the patient was to sit at a parting of the ways with a cup of wine in her hand, and some one coming up behind her was to cry out suddenly, "Be healed of thine issue of blood " (Creighton, Eiwycl. Bibl., 3006). Maimonides {Guide to the Perplexed, iii, xxxvii) quotes the Talmud (Chullin, 11 a) as saying that the uterus of animals which have been selected for the sanctuary must be buried and not suspended from a tree or buried at the cross-roads, because " this is one of the ways of the Amorite." The suspension of placenta on trees occurs in savage anthropology. **In the Babar Archipelago, between New Guinea and Celebes, the placenta are mixed with ashes and put in a small basket, which seven women, each of them armed with a sword, hang up on a tree of a particular kind {Citrus hystrix). The women carry swords for the purpose of frightening the evil spirits ; otherwise these mischievous beings might get hold of the placenta, and thereby make the child sick '' (Riedel, Die sluik en kroeeharige rassen tusschen Selebee en Paptm, quoted Frazer, Golden Bough, i, 54). The Talmudic charm for the issue of blood is merely an instance of sympathetic magic ; the cup of wine represents the blood, and the sudden start caused by the unexpected cry will cause the person to spill it. This is, of course, typical of what will happen to the issue. Presumably the cross-roads have some particular influence on this * atonement' (the wine is little more) in the same way as in the Assyrian text. The Phoenician inscriptions do not throw any light, as far as I know, on the 'atonement' system ; in the text C.LS., i, 237, 252, the parts of the sacrifice to be taken by the offerer are mentioned, but the meanings of the words for sacrifices are not entirely determined. 202 THE ATONEMENT EXORCISM. the Royal Tabu,^ explained on p. 138, and the ' unwitting ' sin of the individuali which has already been discussed. The Tribal 'Atonement' (case 5) for * unwitting' sin is of a similar nature. The Priestly * Atonement ' (case 4) is clearly to be accounted as a method of cleansing the priest-elect from any unknown breach of tabu which must be removed before he can be consecrated, and this must be the explanation of Num. xxix, 1 ff. Our next step is to substantiate our theory from the Assyrian incantations. We have seen that the * atonement ' of the Hebrews in which the bird flies away with uncleanness is ordinary magic, and the transference of ills to waxen figures or animals is as common among the Semites as with other savages. In Assyrian folklore this was one of the commonest ways of exorcising a demon to go forth from the sick man, and, what is more, as we have already mentioned, the word in frequent use is kuppiiru, radically the same as the word for ' atone ' in Hebrew. The process is simple : the priest slaughters an animal, pig or kid, as a substitute for the sick man, so that he may thus, as Tylor says, coax the demon, threaten it, make offerings to 1 One of the Assyrian * atonements ' published by Zimmeni {Ritual- tafdn, 137) gives the ceremony for purifying the king — " Thou shalt make pure ' atonements ' for the king, Bringing a censer (and) a torch to him, Washing him in a water bowl ; Fill [two] tttr^i^a^ar-vessels with water from the bowl, Putting cedar (and) cypress in the water, Put two * atonement '-vessels there ; The king shall hold one ' atonement '-vessel on his right and his left hand," The rest is mutilated. Unfortunately the preceding part of the tablet is lost, and we cannot tell why a purification is needed. But it certainly points to the principle of Royal Tabu. * atonement' for the evil eye. 203 it| entice or drive it out of his patient's body, to induce it to take up its abode in some other. The connection between the Hebrew and Assyrian ceremonies will be obvious to anyone who reads the following quotations from the cuneiform tablets, l^hey are all exorcisms for persons suffering from some sickness. For instance, in the case of the asakku-diBease, Marduk is given the following advice by his father Ea, and the priest follows it in healing the sick man : — ^ **Take a white kid of Tammuz,' Lay it down facing the sick man, Take out its heart and Place it in the hand of that man ; Perform the Incantation of Eridu ; The kid whose heart thou hast taken out Is unclean 3 food with which thou makest atonement for the man ; » Devils, ii, Tablet XI, 1. 73 ff. ' Comparable with this is Xenocrates' dictum that the blood of the kid was useful against epilepsy (Ibn el-Belthar, Notices de* MSS., XXV, 93). 5 Lu'u or W, for which see my article, P.S.B,A.j Feb. 1908. As the word is important, the reasons for adopting the meaning * unclean' or * filthy' are repeated here. It may also have the meaning of 'excrement,' which is paralleled by the Syriac Mr^ sterciu, •J^'i^s i ' dross of iron.' Lu^u has the particular meaning of ' filthy ' in regard to streets : ullila sullUunu lu'uti, ' I cleansed their filthy streets' {B,A,f i, 10, quoted Muss-Amolt, 464), and there is also a group har- TV'VA^lU'-i gi-ri'ti (Briinnow, No. 8596). A classical text (Sennacherib, vi, 16) gives * the deluge of my fighting kiina li-e zumurSun ishup swept away their bodies like dung ' (Delitzsch, H. W.B,, 374, refers, possibly, to another lii). It has to be some plastic material, for little magical figures are made from it : e.g., MaMu ii, 113, inim-inim-ma, mussaprata nadi (?) salam It kak, ' Prayer of uttering a chant (?) over a figure of It (Le. dung),' parallel hymns to this being recited over figures of bitumen, bronze, etc., in the same tablet. Compare also iv, 41 (ialmdni) lu ia iddH [lu] ia titu Iti ia It, " (figures) either of bitumen. 204 * atonement' for the evil eye. Bring forth a censer (and) a torch Scatter it in the street ; Surround that man with meal, Perform the Incantation of Eridu, Invoke the great gods That the evil Spirit, the evil Demon, the evil Ghost, The Hag-demon, the Ghoul, the fever or heavy sickness, Which is in the body of the man, May be removed and go forth from the house ! " or clay, or It (dung)." Tallqvist translates *honig,* but this cannot be correct In the grammatical text, K. 246 (i, 65, W,J,I., ii, 17), two ' unclean ' substances are mentioned : It Sa tna zumri kuppuru, paralleled by akalu ia zumur ameli muShtdu, The latter must be 'food which a man's body has expressed' (less probably 'rejected,* i.e. vomited), and hence the former must have a meaning, at least, in connection. Kuppuru is, as is now unnecessary to explain, ' to make atonement,' and the U is constantly used in connection with it, and hence we may try a tentative translation : ' refuse which has made atonement for the body of a man.' The sense of this last passage becomes clear from the present text : ' The kid, whereof thou hast taken out the heart, (becomes) IVi-tooA (unclean), with which thou shalt make atonement for the man ; bring a censer (and) a torch, scatter it (the unclean food) in the street' Another such is Tablet ' T,' line 38 (ibid.), Akala It tna kakkadi-Su iukun-ma^ ' set refuse-food at his head.' An additional argument for the meaning ' excrement ' is found in Maklu viii, 87, 88 ; // kurummati Jfa-^-^^ salam «»»*'« kaSktpi u •«' kaUapti akal U epni-ma libbi kurummati turuh-ma. ' Make two meals of dung, one each for the figures of sorcerer and sorceress, and make invocation over the food.' Tallqvist translates 'mache von leckerhafber Nahrung,' but this seems less probable. Hostile magicians in eifigy are not treated well, and the most abominable food is set before them to drive them away. Delicacies are more likely to attract them than to attain the desiied object. The directions finish with an injunction to place these ' meals ' right and left of them, repeat an incantation, and then give them to *dog and bitch.' Cf. pp. 169, 207. In an incantation against rheumatism {P,8.B.A.y Feb. 1908), the priest must put one ka of leaven on the ^ur-reed, and put the sick foot thereon, and ' make the atonement ' for the foot with the li (refuse) of the leaven. Again the use appears to be pregnant ; it will become ' refuse ' when it has done its work. Kuchler, in treating of this word, shortly (in his Afift. Bab,, Medizin) translates it by * dough,' which seems less probable. PARALLEL FROM MALAY MAGIC. 205 The Evil Eye, which has smitten the patient, is thus exorcised : — "The roving Evil Eye Hath looked on the neighbourhood and hath vanished far away, Hath looked on the vicinity and hath vanished far away, Hath looked on the chamber of the land and hath vanished far away,. It hath looked on the wanderer, And like wood cut ofif for kindling (?) it hath bent his neck. Ea hath seen this man and Hath placed food at his head, Hath brought food nigh to his body, Hath shown favour for his life ; Thou man, son of his god. May the food which I have brought to thy head — May the food with which I have made an 'atonement' for thy body, Assuage thy sickness (?), and thou be restored, That thy foot may stand in the land of life ; ^ Thou man, son of his god, The Eye which hath looked on thee for harm, The Eye which hath looked on thee for evil. May Ba'u smite [it] with flax(?). May Qunura [smite it] with a great oar (?), Like rain which is let fall from heaven directed unto earth, So may Ea, King of the Deep, remove it from thy body.'' * A ceremony so similar as to be worthy of careful com- parison occurs among the Malays. Whenever a person is suffering from the influence of a waxen image^ the Malay magician rubs him all over with limes in order to cast out the mischief. These limes must be of seven different kinds^ and three of each kind are necessary. When they have been obtained he must fumigate them with incense, and repeat a charm overnight. Early next morning three thicknesses of itraA-leaves must be laid. » Cf. Jer. xi, 19. • Devils, ii, 113. y 206 CEREMONY FROM THE *S C^iJP Cr-8ERIES. down for the patient to stand on duriDg the lustration, and the limes are to be squeezed into a bowl and used partly for washing and partly medicinally. ''The 'trash' of the limes (after squeezing) is wrapped up in a birah- leaf at evening, and either carried out to the sea (into which it is dropped) or deposited ashore at a safe distance from the house/' ^ This 'trash' must be the lu^u or akal li'i, 'unclean food/ of the Assyrian incantations. In the case of headache, sympathetic magic forms the treatment ; a hat (?) of reeds is to be put on the man, and the pain-demon will be absorbed in it. It is then broken and the baneful obsession is dissipated — "Take a clean reed and Measure that man, and Make a reed-hat (?), and Perform the Incantation of Eridu ; and Make the atonement for the man, the son of his god, And break it upon him, That it be his substitute ; ' That the e\il Spirit, the evil Demon may stand aside And a kindly Spirit, a kindly Guardian be present/'' In another Assyrian text, which is the part of the Seventh Tablet of the /Stirj^u-series hitherto wanting and unknown, seven loaves of pure dough form the medicine to remove the tabu. After various ceremonies with these the magician makes an ' atonement ' for the man who has fallen sick, and puts his spittle on the ' atonement.' The ' atonement * (i e. the loaves) is then to be carried into the desert to a 'clean place,' and there, under one of the low thorn shrubs which are scattered over such places, it is to 1 Skeat, Malay Magic^ 431. ' Dinanu. ' Devas, ii. Tablet VIII, col. i, L 20 ff. ^atonement' with the body op a pig. 207 be left. The ' clean place ' has already been recognized in the Hebrew ceremonies, but there is a still more curious survival of the Assyrian charm in the Hejaz at the present day. Zwemer tells of a tradition there, that if a child is very ill the mother will take seven flat loaves of bread and put them under its pillow. The next morning these are given to the dogs.^ 1 Arabia, 283. Other instances of casting bread to the dogs after a spell in Mesopotamia are given on pp. 169, 204. A parallel occurs in Ezod. zzii, 31, " And ye shall be holy men to me : therefore ye shall not eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field : ye shall cast it to the dogs." There is a theory that the "flesh that is torn" is the flesh mangled by wild beasts which were supposed to be forms of Jinn (see Robertson Smith, Rel, Sem., 126). Hence the motive in both instances is practically the same ; the bread has absorbed the tabu of the sickness-devil, and the torn flesh has become contaminated (tabu) by the afrit of the jungle or desert. With regard to the use of bread, there is a curious story told by Raldensperger (P.E. F., 1893, 209) about the stones called the Farde, north of Beit Nuba, which are traditionally a petrified procession. A woman was just putting her dough into the oven when a procession went by. She took up her child, and finding it dirty wiped it with a loaf of bread and threw the bread away. The sacredness of the bread turned the whole procession, man and beast, to stone. In Sale's Koran {Prelim, Disc., sect, i, Al Mostatraf) it is related that a lump of dough w.as worshipped by the tribe of Hantfa, " who used it with more respect than the Papists do theirs," presuming not to eat it till they were compelled to it by famine. Again (ibid., sect, ii), the sect of Colly ridians in Arabia introduced the Virgin Mary for God, or worshipped her as such, ofiering her a sort of twisted cake called collyris ; compare the making of cakes to the queen of heaven in Jer. vii, 18. On the sanctity of bread cf. also C. T. Wilson, Peasant Life tVi the Holy Land, 54. Its use, 'especially in the form of paste or liquid, is frequent in the Assyrian inscriptions, particularly to make the circle which is tabu to evil spirits. It is almost unnecessary to quote the leavened and shewbread of the Old Testament : the influence of this is shown in the Talmud, in the directions for searching the house on the eve of Nisan 14 to see that no place contains any leavened bread {Pesachim, i, 1, ed. Schwab, V, 1). On the sanctity of bread in Macedonia see Abbott, Macedonian Folklore, 103. 208 'atonement' with the body op a pig. The next cuneiform ' atonement ' is one of great interest, as it goes into details much more fully — "Marduk [hath seen; * What I'; *Qo, my son/ (Marduk)].* [Take] a sucking-pig [and] . . . [At] the head of the sick man [put it (?) and] Take out its heart and Above the heart of the sick man [put it], [Sprinkle] its blood on the sides of the bed [and] Divide the pig over his limbs and Spread it on the sick man ; then Cleanse thou that man with pure water from the Deep And wash him clean and Bring near him a censer (and) a torch ; Twice seven loaves cooked in the ashes against the shut door place, and Give the pig in his stead and Let the flesh be as his flesh, And the blood as his blood, And let him hold it ; Let the heart be as his heart (Which thou hast placed upon his heart) And let him hold it ; [That the] . . . may be in his stead . . . That the pig may be a substitute for him . . . That the evil Spirit, the evil Demon may stand aside, That a kindly Spirit, a kindly Guardian be present."' The most remarkable parallel to this spell is contained in the New Testament story of the Gadarene swine.* The devils which possess the two men beseech Jesus Christ, if He cast them out, to send them into the herd of swine which is feeding close at hand. When the devils leave I On these abbreviations see Introduction. « Devils, ii, Tablet « N,' col. ii, 1. 41 ff. 8 Wellhausen points out {Reste, 1*8) that the word N1HB^> *herd,* is used both of swine and demons. PARALLEL TO THE GADARENE SWINE. 209 the men and take up their abode in the herd, the swine, according to the story, go mad and rush down the hill into the water, where they are drowned. The idea is quite in accord with savage beliefs; the disease-devil leaves the man at the command of a higher power, and is transferred to some beast which, either dead or alive, acts as a substitute.^ From the Assyrian incantation it is easy to infer that the pig was not ' unclean * in the way that it is now held to be by Jews or Mohammedans. The latter believe that in extremities the flesh can be used as a medicine, and Zwemer relates that Arab patients would come to him for a small piece to cure one in desperate straits.' Swine fat appears to have been also used in Assyrian medicine,^ and it is recorded in an astrological report that a sow farrowed with one of the piglets double, with eight legs and two tails. The monster was promptly conserved in salt.^ In one of the hemerology texts ^ it is laid down that if a man eats flesh of swine on the 30th of Ab (i.e. when the moon is invisible) boils will break out upon him, or if he ^ Psellus' monk Marcus of Mesopotamia explains that the devils entered the swine, not from hostile intention, but ** from a vehement desire for animal heat" {Dialogue on the Operation of DcemonSy ed. Collisson, 1843, 35). * Arabia, 281. On the sucking-pig sacrificed among the Qreeks, see Am. Joum, of Phil,, 1900, 256 ; for other instances of pigs in magic, see Elworthj, EvU Eye, 333 ff. ; on their unclean or sacred character, see Fra2ser, Oolden Bough, ii, 304 ; in atonement, see Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, 193, note 2. 3 KUchler, Assyr.-Bab. Medizin, 86. ^ Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers, ii, xci. Manetho makes mention of marvels such as this, ie. the birth of an eight-legged lamb (Wiedemann, Religion, 265). * W,AJ., V, 48-9. Compare the views held about the pig in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, chapter 112. 210 ^atonement' with the body of a kid. eats flesh of swine or oxen ^ on the 27th of Tisri various things will happen to him. The very fact that certain days are prohibited admits of the presumption that pork was lawful as food on other occasions.' There is yet another religious text prescribing a pig in the ritual : " Sacrifice a pig before Sama§, (and) thou shalt imprison their sorceries in the body of the pig." ' Gould anything be clearer P In this next case, although the word kuppuru is not usedy the ceremony is similar, and approaches closely to some of the Arab ritual quoted further on — " Incantation : — An evil Fever rests upon the body of the man, It hath covered the wanderer as with a garment, ! It holdeth his hands and feet, ' It racketh his limbs. The great Prince Ea, lord of magic, Of Ea (?)... Laid a kid at his head in front of him. Unto the Chieftain he spake (saying) : 1 It is interesting to see the ox also regarded as tabu as much as the pig. It is well known that among certain of the Semites the ox was one of the tabu-animals, as also was the camel (Robertson Smith, Rd. Sem,), and both these latter are still so in Mesopotamia. It is a great insult in Mosul to say that a man eats of their flesh. An Assyrian incantation shows some tendency towards the idea of paying respect to oxen, perhaps a reminiscence of an older totem-worship : " the great ox, mighty ox, that treadeth pure fodder, hath come to the meadow, raising up plenty, sowing com, making bright the field ; my pure hands pour libation before thee " {W.A,L, iv, 23, 1, col. i). ' Inanimate things, according to the Moslems, are all clean and do not defile, except wine and intoxicating drinks. Animals are all clean, except the dog and the pig. When dead, however, all animals are unclean, except man, fish, locusts, worms in apples, and insects like the fiy and the beetle (Klein, Religion of Islam, 122). * K. 6172, Craig, ii, v ; Fossey, La Magie, 459. PARALLELS FROM THE ARABS. 211 'The kid is the substitute for mankind, The kid for his life he giveth, The head of the kid for the head of the man he giveth, The neck of the kid for the neck of the man he giveth, The breast of the kid for the breast of the man he giveth, The ... [of the kid for the ... of the man] he giveth,* ^ By the magic of the Word of Ea [ . . . the son of Eridu (?)], [Let the Incantation of the Deep of Eridu never] be unloosed.''' Among the Moslems of the present day this form of substitution still holds good. At the shrine of Abdu Khadir, the largest mosque in Baghdad, the Indian Moslems who come thither on a pilgrimage offer sacrifices there; " they vow that if a man who is ill begins to recover he shall go to the shrine. He is stripped to the waist. Then two men lift a lamb or a kid above his head, and bathe his face, shoulders, and the upper part of his body with the blood. While the butcher kills the animal the sheik repeats the first sura of the Koran. They also wrap him in the skin of the animal.^'' Among the Algerian Jews there is a custom somewhat similar. To cure sickness, they go with an Arab sorceress to a spring, kill a black cock, -and smear with blood the chest, forehead, etc., of the patient. Then they light a fire and sprinkle fire and patient with blood.^ In Palestine it is the same. ''The very morning we visited the shrine of Nebi YehAdah a goat was killed for a woman of the Fudl Arabs who was suffering from fever. They put some of the blood on her forehead, and some on the ^ It is uncertain how many more of the lines ending " he giveth '' were originally in the text. • DeviU, ii, Tablet 'N,' col. iii, L 29 ff. > Curtiss, Prim. Sem, Rel, (quoting Surur, a native of Baghdad), 205. ^ Benjamin II, Eight Tears in Asia and Africa^ quoted Jew. EncyeL^ xi, 600. 212 EXORCISM AGAINST HEADACHE. wall of the makslm. The form of vow used for the restoration of a child who is ill is : '0 Nebi Teh&dah, have mercy on this boy, my son/ " ^ The ninth of Tisri A is called Ed eUj6j (i.e. Feast of Chickens) on account of the number of chickens slaughtered by the Jews throughout the land. '' Every individual should provide himself with a chicken — its colour white, if possible — a cock for every male, a hen for every female, aad for a pregnant woman a cock and two hens, that is, a hen for herself and one of each sex for the unborn child to make sure he or she is represented rightly . . . The head of the family must sacrifice the birds, first whirling each one three times around his head, exclaiming each time : ' Let this cock (or hen) be an atonement for me ; let it be my substitute ; let the bird die ; but let life and happiness be to me and to all Israel. Amen.' He then kills the bird, saying, ' I have deserved thus to die.' The blood is poured out on the ground (as is always done when the Jews kill), and the chickens are eaten.'' ^ At Musulleh, where is a shrine good for sore eyes, if a man sick with ophthalmia takes a cock and, after cutting off its head, puts a drop of blood in each eye and gives the cock to some poor person, he will recover.* Another Assyrian exorcism against headache runs — " Take a bundle of twigs (?) and At the confluence of two streams* take thou water and Perform thy pure incantation over this water, and With thy pure exorcism cleanse and With this water sprinkle the man, son of his god, and » Curtiss, BM. World, xxiii, 100. ' Masterman, BiU. World, xxiii, 27. ' Curtiss, Prim. Sem, Eel., 141. ^ A locality often prescribed as holy for taking water ; cf. DeviU, i, Iz.. PURIFICATION IN ASSYRIAN. 213 Bind . . . upon his head . . . When he eats, let him be sated, ^ At eventide cut it off and Cast it into the broad places That the sickness of his bead may be assuaged, and That the headache, which like the dew hath fallen, may be removed." ' The '' bundle of twigs " (the value of the translation is fairly well vouched for) occurs also in another incantation — '* Perform thy goodly incantation and Make perfect the waters thereof with priestcraft, and With thy pure incantation do thou cleanse (the sick man) and Take a bundle of twigs (?), Povur the waters thereof on it." ' The Malagasy, who consider all disease inflicted by an evil spirit, have recourse to a diviner who removes the sickness by means of a * faditra * ; this is some object such as a little grass, ashes, a sheep, a pumpkin, the water with which the patient has rinsed his mouth, and when the priest has counted on it the evils which may afflict the patient and charged the 'faditra' to take them away for ever, it is thrown away, and the malady with it.* The following is an excellent instance of the removal of a tabu by purification and fumigation, where the ' tabu ' is expelled to ' a clean place ' : — " Incantation : — Pure water . . . Water from the Euphrates which in a place . . . Water which hath been kept aright in the deep, The pure mouth of Ea hath purified it, 1 Translation doubtful. » Ibid., ii. Tablet * P,' 1. 63 ff. » Ibid., ii, series Luh-ka, Tablet VIII, 1. 53 ff. * Tylor, Primitive Culture, 4th ed., vol. ii, p. 146, quoting Ellis. 214 PURIFICATION IN ASSYBLiN. The Children of the Deep, seven are thej, They purify the water, cleanse it, make it limpid, Before your father Ea, Before your mother Damkina, May it be pure, be bright, be clean ; That the Evil Tongue may stand aside. Prayer : Rei)eat the incantation three times before the bowl of water. "Incantation :— The River God, brightly shining. Before whom (is) the Ban, whose attack like a demon Bindeth all lands as the twilight doth the heights above, May Bamas, when he riseth, remove the darkness thereof, that it may not be held back in the house, That the Ban may go forth to the desert, a clean place. Ban, by heaven be thou exorcised, by earth be thou exorcised ! Prayer for removing the Ban : fumigate him on the bank of a river. " Incantation : — ■ Fire- god, chief, high uix>n earth. Hero, son of the Deep, high upon earth, Fire-god, by thy pure fire. Thou bringest light into the house of darkness, Thou settest a destiny to all things named, It is thou that meltest copper and lead. It is thou that purgeth silver and gold. It is thou that art the comrade of Ninkasi, It is thou that repelleth the evil that cometh by night. May the members of the man, son of his god, be cleansed, May he be bright as the heaven. May he shine like the earth, May he be resplendent as the midst of heaven ! May the evil tongue (?) [stand] aside! Prayer for removing the Ban . . ."* » H'M./., iv, 14, 2. ^WIPING away' a tabu AMONG THE MALAYS. 215 In the instances of purification by water we may perhaps see the original idea of ' wiping ' tabu away, as in the Syriac Vphar, In the Malay ceremony already quoted (p. 205) the magician ' wipes away ' the tabu with the limes. In Tonga, a person under a tabu caused by touching a chief cannot feed himself until the tabu has been removed by his touching the soles of a superior chief's feet with his hands and then rinsing his hands in water, or (if water is scarce) rubbing them with the juice of the plantain or banana. When a Maori chief became tabu by touching the sore head of his child, he would on the following day rub his hands over with potato or fern root which had been cooked over a sacred fire. This was then carried to the head of the family in the female line, who ate it.^ We can now return to the Levitical tabu on rash oaths. It is less clear what we are to understand as the real necessity for an atonement for this. Obviously it is absurd to suppose that the same offering would compensate for oaths involving undertakings of both extreme difficulty and extreme triviality ; if this were so, a man need only admit that his oath was a rash one, and offer an animal to be exempt from the performance of any sworn act of devotion. From the quotation from Lev. v given below,^ it is plain ' These are quoted from Frazer's article Taboo ^ EiicycL Britannka. - ** And if any one sin, in that he heareth the voice of adjuration, he being a witness, whether he hath seen or known, if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity : or if any one touch any unclean thing, whether it be the carcase of an unclean beast, or the carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and it be hidden from him, and he be unclean, then he shall be guilty : or if he touch the unclean ness of man, whatsoever his uncleanness be wherewith he is unclean, and it be hid from him ; when he 216 OATHS AXD VOWS. that such oaths are reckoned parallel to the unclean tabu of contagion for which similar atonements must be made to free the man from the ban ; does a man who swears to perform a rash act lay himself under a tabu until he shall have completed his taskP Take the instances in Greek mythology, as Miss Jane Harrison, who recognizes the same difficulty, has collected them : " It is less obvious at first why cifxirfia [offerings destroyed] were always employed in the taking of oaths ... In the ordinary ritual of the taking of oaths, the oath-taker actually stood upon the pieces of the slaughtered animal . . . Tyndareus sacrificed a horse and made Helen's suitors take an oath, causing them to stand on the cut-up pieces of the horse — having made them take the oath, he buried the horse . . . It was said Herakles had given an oath to the sons of Neleus on the cut pieces of a boar ..." Pausanias says, " ' With the men of old days the rule was as regards a sacrificial animal on which an oath had been taken that it should be no more accounted as eatable for men.' " Miss Harrison explains the custom of standing on the fragments of the victim as pointing "clearly to the identification of oath-taker and sacrifice. The victim was hewn in bits; so if the oath- taker perjure himself will he be hewn in bits." ^ I venture with diffidence to put knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty : or if any one swear rashly with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall utter rashly with an oath, and it be hid from him ; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these things : and it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that wherein he hath sinned : and he shall bring his guilt offering unto Yahweh for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering ; and the priest shall make atonement for him em concerning his sin.'' * J. E. Harrison, Prolegotnena^ 66. / OATHS AND VOWS. 217 forward another explanation in view of the Biblical law. The oath-taker calls some supernatural power ^ to witness that he makes a promise ; he hereby renders himself tabu for some reason, as the Levitical parallels show. Consonant with the rules for other unclean tabus, he presents an 'atonement' to rid himself of this tabu, to admit of his continuing as an ordinary member of society in intercourse with his fellows ; it does not exempt him from the necessity of carrying out his vow, it merely (to the savage mind) removes the contagious tabu which he has incurred by the act of invoking divine power. It is a savage analogy, but I think a plausible explanation. The Greek instances are clear ; at the very moment the vow is taken the oath-taker kills the beast, which is not used as food, and hence cannot be considered as a feast shared with the god he has invoked. It is made away with as charged with dangerous influence, just as the 'unclean' atonements are in the Hebrew law. Jevons' remarks on oaths are distinctly pertinent here : '' Probably the earliest oaths are those of 'compurgation,' and the person thus freeing himself from the charge made against him does so by voluntarily making himself taboo, by 'eating fetish' or otherwise devoting himself to the god."* Lastly, the sins committed ' wittingly ' (cases e and /) were all cleansed by an atonement. Both in Leviticus and the St/i^^ti -series offences indicating more serious * The meaning of the Hebrew word for * swearing * is * to come under the influence of seven things ' (see Robertson Smith, Rel, Sem., 182 ; Wellhausen, Reste, 18(1), i^ossibly to repeat a promise seven times (the magical number). Com^mre the Assyrian sibitti Hu ana pan ereb ^f^Samii mamit iu-ut-me (Martin, Textes Relig., 1900, 28). • Introduction to the HUtory of Religion, 2nd ed., 1902, 64 fF. 218 PRESUMPTUOUS SINS. misdeeds than the mere infringement of a tabu are placed side by side with breaches of ' uncleanness/ Yet in the Assyrian series either is recognized as the possible cause of sickness in man, and in the Hebrew law both demand an 'atonement.' Some are undoubtedly the direct descendants of breaches of the demon-tabus, and others are clearly offences against holy things belonging to the tribal god. Two explanations are therefore open to us. One is that every breach of tabu was visited by demoniac possession, either directly or through the divine wrath which caused angels and ministers to inflict their plagues on men. The other is that as religious, beliefs grew and the origins were forgotten, men brought * atonements * for every breach of tabu, arguing by analogy that they could remove the risk of punishment by what ultimately was regarded as a piacular offering. The original object of the 'atonement' was disregarded, and, as undoubtedly appears in the Old Testament, the carcases of beasts slaughtered as substitutes to attract the plague-devil became the offerings of men guilty of presumptuous ' sin.' The last stage is reached when the carcase is eaten by the priests as though it were an ordinary sacrifice. Originally, then, we may presume, from the meaning of the word k'phar in connection with savage methods of cleansing tabu, that the ' atonement ' ceremony was intended to wash away a demoniac or ' sin ' tabu in water. In other words, the demon was to be transferred to water and thus removed. In addition to this we have the ' sin ' offering, which was originally a beast substituted for the man whom the demon had attacked, which was intended to receive the devil after he had been exorcised. 219 V. THE REDEMPTION OP THE FIRSTBORN. One of the most interesting problems in Semitic folklore is the question of the origin of the firstborn-substitution. Yahweh is related to have said: "Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel; both of man and of beast : it is mine." ^ This is amplified elsewhere : ^ " Thou shalt set apart unto Yahweh all that openeth the womb, and every firstling which thou hast that cometh of a beast; the males shall be Yahweh's. And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb ; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break its neck : and all the firstborn of man among thy sons thou shalt redeem." In Numbers' the law is thus laid down : " Every thing that openeth the womb, of all flesh, which they offer unto Yahweh, both of man and beast, shall be thine (Aaron's) : nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely redeem, and the firstling of unclean beasts shalt thou redeem. And those that are to be redeemed of them from a month old shalt thou redeem, according to thine estimation, for the money of five shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary (the same is twenty gerahs). But the firstling of an ox, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a goat, thou shalt not redeem ; they are holy : thou shalt sprinkle their blood 1 Exod. xiii, 2. » Ibid., 12 ff. » xviii, 15 ff. 220 TRADITIONAL ORIGINS OP REDEMPTION. upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering made by fire, for a sweet savour unto Yahweh.'' One tradition (Jehovist) assigns the origin of this custom to the smiting of the firstborn in Egypt: *'For all the firstborn are mine; on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast : mine shall they be: I am Tahweh."^ A second (Elohist)* legend of the substitution of a ram for the sacrifice of the firstborn is the more primitive story of Abraham and Isaac. As an additional story Jephthah's vow may be cited, in which a female (firstborn) is dedicated. In this case, however, no redemption is spoken of, the statement being that he did with her according to the vow he had vowed. It is therefore clear that two different traditions, apparently of an academic nature, had sprung up at a very early time to explain what was a fundamental custom among the Hebrews. It was allowed to the tribe to substitute a firstborn beast for a firstborn child, which was clearly held to belong to the tribal god ; what is more, from the passage in Num. xviii, 15, ' unclean ' beasts were the ' property ' of the deity, and had to be redeemed. When this passage is taken into account with the ass of Exod. xiii, 13, which was to be redeemed with a lamb, or be killed by having its neck broken, it seems clear that the passage about the 'unclean' beasts has descended from a time when such beasts (i.e. totems) were held * Num. iii, 13. ' Gen. xxii, I flf. Yahweh does not occur in the story except in the name of the place, Jehovah -jireh, its explanation, the "ar.gel of yahweh," and the epilogue. SACRIFICE OP TOTEMS. 221 eligible for sacrificed Now this must have been before the idea of ' unclean * came in, at a time when the various Semitic tribes regarded the tabu-beasts of the Old Testament laws as their totems. If this argument has any weight, the parallelism in the case of the firstborn babe is obvious ; it was a human sacrifice from those early times when the distinctions between the classes of life, beast or man, were not so finely drawn.^ This is nothing new; Frazer has clearly demonstrated that the God of the Hebrews plainly regarded the firstborn of men and the firstlings of animals as His own,^ and he says,^ ''we know that the Semites were in the habit of sacrificing some of the children, generally the firstborn, either as a tribute regularly due to the deity ^ or to appease his anger in seasons of public danger or calamity." It is unnecessary to quote all the well-known instances of human sacrifice at length.^ We may, however, mention ^ On the grave occasions when this was permissible. On the custom of killing the totem on occasions of grave stress see Frazer, Totemism^ 7 ; he maintains that the totem sacrament has become a well-authenticated fact {Golden Boughy 2nd ed., i, xix). ' There is no necessity to go into the details of this kiushix^ between man and beast ; it is a well-recognized form of primitive belief, and shows itself in later ages in gods that are half beast, and in omens and tales of women bringing forth animals. ' Golden Bought ii, 45. « Adonis, Attis, Osirts, 34. • On this compare Robertson Smith, ReL Sem.y 463 : " Yet . . . it seems absolutely impossible that, at the very early date when the Hebrews and Arabs lived together, any tribute could have been paid to the god as chief or king ; and even in the form of the sacrifice of firstlings which is found among the Hebrews, there seem to be indications that the parallelism with the offering of first-fruits is less complete than at first sight it seems to be." Nowiick, however, in his Lehrbitch der ffebr. Arch., 1894, ii, 255, says : " Wie die Erstgeburt vom Vieh, so gehoren Jahve auch die Erstlinge von den Feldfriichten." ^ Sir John Marsham, in the seventeenth century in bis Chronicum 222 TRADITION OF THE ORIGIN OF MAGIC. some additional examples which may be of use in our argument. There is an interesting tradition in Bezold's Schdtzhohle} how in the ninetieth year of Terah magic appeared on the earth in the city of Ur, which Horon the son of Eber had built. A rich inhabitant died, and his son made an image of gold to put over the grave, and posted a watcher. Then came Satan and took up his abode in the image, speaking to the young man as though it were his father; and one day thieves stole everything belonging to the young man, who came to (76-78, 300-304), mentions the instances of the Phoenicians sacrificing to Saturn one of the dearest of their people (Philo, Bib. ex Sanchon.\ the Dumatii in Arabia who, Diodorus says, sacrificed a child every year, and other cases of human sacrifices. He gives Porphyry's story (p. 301) that Amosis abolished the law for the slaying of men at Heliopolis in Egypt, as Manetho bears witness in his book of Antiquity and Piety. They were sacrificed to Juno, and were examined, as were the pure calves that were also sealed with them ; they were sacrificed three in a day. In whose stead Amosis commanded that men of wax, of the same number, should be substituted. Another (p. 77), also from Porphyry, is the story of Cronus " [whom the Phoenicians name Israel (it should be II)]," who had by a nymph named Anobret an only- begotten son, and he in dread of great dangers adorned this son with royal ap^mrel and ofiered him in sacrifice. Whiston, in His Josepkus (840 ff.), has collected the following passages bearing on human sacrifice in the Old Testament: Lev. xx, 2; Deut. xii, 30, 31 ; xviii, 18; 2 Kings xvi, 3 ; xvii, 31 ; xxiii, 10 ; Ps. cvi, 37, 38 ; Jer. vii, 30-32 ; xix, 3-5 ; xxxii, 35 ; Ezek. xvi, 20, 21 ; Wisd. xii, 4-6. See also Daumer, Le Culte de Moloch, 1842, ed. Ewerbeck, Qu'est-ce qvs la Bible, 1850, 2 : " L'ancienne religion de Molise, avant d'etre radoucie, ordonnait de tuer sans exception, en Thonneur du Moloch- Jehovah, les prdmices du sexe masculin parmi les auimaux et k plus forte raison parmi les hommes.'* He is excellent in his anthropological comparisons of human sacrifice (p. 18, e.g., the eldest son in Florida, quoted from Majer, Diet, de la Mythologie, ii, 91), although his philology is at fault (pp. 24, 27). See also Ghillanys, 1842 (ed. Ewerbeck, ibid.), Les Sacrifices humains chez les Hibreux, 207 ; especially among the Semites " race anthro- pothyste par excellence " (p. 216). » p. 32. THE QUESTION OF HUMAN SACRIPICE IN ASSYRIA. 223 his father's grave in tears. Satan thereupon promised that all should be restored if only the young man would sacrifice his little son, which he did. Then Satan came forth and entered into the young man and taught him " magic, incantation, divinations, Chaldeeism, destinies, haps, and fates." And from that time on men began to sacrifice their children to demons and to worship idols. There are also stories told of such sacrifice among the Sabians.^ The existence of human sacrifice among the Babylonians and Assyrians is not easy to prove satisfactorily. Jeremias ^ considers it to be the probability that ''the Babylonians practised human sacrifice secretly without formally taking it up into the recognised worship," a remark which I must confess I am unable to understand fully. Is it meant to apply to those peoples at all periods of the four thousand years which we know of them? What should be their object in practising it secretly P The remark seems to be such a vague and unsubstantiated depreciation of the enemies of Israel that it is no help to any scientific investigation. In 1875 Professor Sayce^ published two texts which he considered proved the existence of human sacrifice among the Babylonians, but his views were combated and refuted by Ball^ in 1892. One of these texts was from an * En-Nedinij i, v, § 5, Chwolsohn, Die Ssabier, ii, 28. M. C. de Percival (ii, 101, quoted Hughes, Diet of hlam, 184) mentions a Qhassanide prince who was sacrificed to Venus by Munzir, king of Hira\ Psellius (eleventh century), in his Dialogtte on thi Operation of Daemons (ed. Collisson, 1843, p. 25), speaks of the sexual orgies among the Euchitaa and the Gnosti "at the time when we celebrate the Passion of our Lord," and how they sacrificed their unnatural offspring nine months later. * Encycl. BibL, 4122. ' T.S.B.A., iv, 1875, 29. * RS.B.A., xiv, 1892, 149. 224 THE QUESTION OF HUMAN SACRIFICE IN ASSYRIA. omen tablet which Sayce translated "When the Air-god (is) fine, prosperity. On the high places the son is burnt." This, however, is incorrect, and Ball's translation, though not exact, was accurate enough to disprove the sacrifice theory — " The rain of Rimmon is violent ; the sprouting grain on the ridges (or terraced slopes) is minished, is laid bare(P)."^ The second text is that given in this book on p. 210, and Professor Sayce maintained as late as 1902^ that his interpretation still held good as seeming to show that the firstborn of man was included among the sacrifices that were deemed acceptable to heaven. This depended on his translation of unsu, 'offspring,' which Ball (loc. cit.) in 1892 had challenged, and substituted ' fatling * for it. Hence we have as yet no proof of human sacrifice from Assyrian ritual tablets. Again, a great deal too much stress, I think, has been laid on the witness of seal-cylinders. It is frequently very difficult to explain the subjects engraved on them, and the representation of the slaughter of human beings, even when a god is shown to be present, is not necessarily human sacrifice. It is doubtful whether the seal-cylinders published by M^nant^ or BalP for the evidence of such I The text runs enuma ^^^ Adad ^jA-Hu inadi se-qu-um itia kiblah-mb§ isahhar (tub) a-ru-ur^ and has therefore reference to thunder, not rain. The last word arur I should prefer to translate * is scorched.' Ball's interpretation *is minished' {isahhar) is perfectly correct, as it is a word frequently used in these texts in this connection. ^ Oiford Lectures^ 467. Even were the meaning * (human) offspring ' possible, there would then be no support that it meant 'firstborn.' I think, however, no one, on reading the incantation, can now believe that there is any question of human sacrifice. ' Recherches sur la Olyptique Onentale^ 150 ; Catalogue De Clercq, Nos. 176-82. * P,S,B.A,, xiv, 1892, 149. MODEBN CUSTOMS OP REDEMPTION. 226 a custom can really be admitted as final proof. That many of them depict the slaying of men is quite clear; but that this can be shown to be sacrifice is quite a different matter. The fact is, human sacrifice goes out in proportion as civilization comes in, and probably by the time men are able to commit their religious ritual to writing human sacrifice has ceased to be a regular or periodic rite. It may appear sporadically, as an actual occurrence, in historic texts; but it will probably have been entirely eliminated from any written ceremonial which represents the belief of the majority. When a conqueror has himself portrayed hewing captives in pieces before his god, the reason is far more likely to be diplomatic than religious. At any rate, it is a far different form of sacrifice from a propitiatory offering of one's own tribe, which was probably a custom descended from a cannibal feast. The more ciyilized the community the more abhorrent does human sacrifice become, and just as the Assyrians were the highest civilized of all the Semitic nations before our era, so in proportion will the fewest traces of this custom exist in their records. Hence it is extremely improbable that any ritual will be found describing human sacrifice, or any record that proves its existence except as a sporadic occurrence. From the ancient tradition we may turn to the modem customs. Among the Jews in Palestine the firstborn son is redeemed to-day as of old. A priest takes from his parents the price of this redemption, the sum being about eighteen shillings, after receiving which the priest holds the money over the head of the child, and says in Hebrew — \ '* This instead of that, this in exchange for that, this in > 226 MODERN CUSTOMS OF REDEMPTION. remission of that. May this child enter into life, into the law, and into the fear of heaven ! May it be God's will that whereas he has been admitted to redemption, so may he enter into the law, the nuptial canopy, and into good deeds! Amen/' He then places his hand on the child's head and gives the priestly blessing.^ It is sig- nificant, by the way, that the modem Semites, while they do not lay their hands upon the head of the sacrifice in ordinary cases, yet they do lay their hands on it if someone else kills it.^ At a shrine near Beirut sheep, goats, and bullocks are sacrificed in payment of vows. The formula used is '' I kill this sheep as a fedu for Abdullah." The slayer dips his index finger in blood and daubs it on the forehead of the one for whom the vow was made, and he steps over the blood.» The modem Arab fedu ceremonies offer a close parallel. "The servant of the 'Chair' at Zebedani related the following: 'The mother of a boy, when she slaughters a sacrifice vowed on his behalf, takes some of the blood and puts it on his skin. They call the sacrifice fedau. Taking the blood from the place where the sacrifice is slaughtered is equivalent to taking the blessing of the place and putting it on the child.' " ^ Similarly, '' they go through the opening sura of the Koran, address the spirits {el-Akiab), and say, 'This is from thee and unto thee (God), and, God, receive it from such an one, the son of such a mother, as a redemption {/edou) in behalf ^ Masterman, Bibl. Warldy xxii, 260. On putting blood on doorposts in Palestine see Curtiss, Prim, Sem, Rel., 181, 188. « Curtiss, loc. cit, 149. » Curtiss, Bibl World, xxiii, 332. * Curtiss, Prim. Sem. Rel.^ 200. MODERN CUSTOMS OF REDEMPTION. 227 of him/ This sacrifice is a sacrifice of thanksgiving looking backward." ^ In Arabia, if one sacrifice for healthy the death of the ewe or the goat they think to be accepted in exchange for the camel's life or his own life, life for life.^ In Syria they kill animals ' on behalf of the dead, for the spirit, calling them fedu* These sacrifices go before the deceased as light, to serve him in the next life as he approaches God, becoming a kaff&rah for his sins.^ The ''sacrifice between the feet" is made in Palestine on behalf of a pilgrim on his return from Mekka, Jerusalem, or for some one who has been a long way away from home. "The ceremony consists in a sheep or a goat being slaughtered for the one who returns. Just before he enters the door of the house he stands with his legs spread out so that there is room for the victim to be placed between them." The victim's throat is cut, and some of the blood is put on his forehead. If he is a Christian, it is marked in the sign of a cross.^ 1 Curtiss, Prim, Sem, Rd.y 196. * Doughty, Arabia Deserta^ i, 452. ' At Rome, accordiug to Ovid, each father of a family, as the festival of the Lemuria came round and all was still, arose, and standing with bare feet he made a special sign with his fingers and thumb to keep off any ghost. Thrice he washes his hands in spring water, then he turns round and takes black beans into his mouth ; with face averted he spits them away, and as he spits them says, *' These I send forth, with these beans I redeem myself and mine " (J. £. Harrison, Prolegomena, 35). There is a story told of Al-Xooman, sumamed Abu Kab(is, who in a drunken fit ordered two of his intimate companions to be buried alive. When he came to himself he was so grieved that he set aside two days, on one of which he sacrificed whomsoever he might meet, and sprinkled the blood on the monument he erected to them ; on the other, he that met him was dismissed with safety with magnificent gifts (Sale, Koran^ Prdim. Disc,^ sect. i). * Curtiss, Prim. Setn. Rel„ 178. • Ibid., 177. 228 THE FEDV. When a man finishes a house, he makes a sacrifice on the doorstep as a redemption for the building. "Every house must have its death, a man, woman, child, or animal.^ God has appointed a fedou for every building through sacrifice. If God has accepted the sacrifice, he has redeemed the house." ^ According to an orthodox Moslem, on moving from house to house, or in occupying a new building, a man will kill the fedou the first night that he sleeps therein ; '' the object is the bursting forth of blood unto the face of God. ... It is for himself and family a redemption. It keeps off disease and the jinn."' The shikh of Eafr Harib, above the Sea of , Galilee, explained to Mr. Curtiss that the people sacrifice a victim on the threshold for the new house, "because every place, land, or spot on the earth has its own dwellers, lest one of the family die in this land. Because it is not theirs, they redeem the family by a fedou, one or all." ^ In Hums, if a man has bought a new house and its inhabitants had been unlucky, the owner will make some change, such as taking up an old stone on the threshold and laying a new one in its place. Then the sacrifice is offered on that threshold, the people calling it " presenting a kaffArah:' » ^ In Borneo there is a custom of making holes to receive the posts, and men are killed and placed therein, " so that the house being founded in blood may stand ^ (McLennan, Sttuiies, 22), Compare Joshua vi, 26, " With the loss of his firstborn shall he lay the foundation thereof, and with the loss of his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it/' The Malays sacrifice a fowl, a goat, or a buffalo in such a case (Skeat, Malay Magic^ 143). ' Curtiss, loc. cit., 196. » Ibid., 197. * Curtiss, Bihl World, xxi, 253. ^ Ibid., 254. For the sacrifice for a tent see loc. cit., 253. On building rites generally see Gittde, Melusine, iii, 497; Sartori, Das Bauopfer, Zeits, fur Ethxol., 1898, xxx, 1 ff. THE 'AKIKAH. 229 According to Robertson Smith/ among the Arabs in the time of Mohammed it was common to sacrifice a sheep on the birth of a child, and then to shave the head of the infant and daub the scalp with the blood of the victim. This ceremony, called 'akikah, or ' the cutting of the hair/ was designed to avert evil from the child, and was evidently an act of dedication by which the infant was brought under the protection of the god of the community. Lane describes the 'akikah-ceremony thus (the parallel with the Assyrian texts quoted on pp. 208, 211 being very striking) : "The person should say, on slaying the victim, '0 God, verily this akeekah is a ransom for my son, such a one ; its blood for his blood, and its flesh for his flesh, and its bone for his bone, and its skin for his skin, and its hair for his hair. G-od, make it a ransom for my son from hell-fire.' A bone of the victim should not be broken." ^ In Nebk they offer sacrifice for a boy when seven days old without breaking bones, lest the child's bones also be broken.^ In Arabia Doughty noticed a custom that, when a man child was born, the father would slay an ewe, but would give nothing for a female.^ Similar in idea to this is the custom in some localities (in Palestine) that only male animals should be used in sacrifices. The Nusairiyeh and Ismailiyeh consider females unfit for food or for sacrifice.^ This is probably due to a natural economy, which holds^ the female more valuable than the male. ^ Religion of the Semites^ 328. See Kinship, 152. See also on the akikah, Wellhausen, Reste Arabischen ffeidentums, 174. * Arabian Nights, chap, iv, note No. 24. ' Curtiss, PHm, Sem, ReL, 178. * Arabia Deserta, i, 452. * Curtiss, Prim. Setn. Rel., p. 173. 230 SUBSTITUTION AMONG OTHER NATIONS. It was clearly not confined to the Semites. '* There was a sanctuary of Artemis at Munychia. A bear came into it and was killed by the Athenians. A famine followed^ and the god gave an oracle that the famine should cease if someone woidd sacrifice his daughter to the goddess. Embaros was the only man who promised to do it, on condition that he and his family should have the priesthood for life. He disguised his daughter and hid her in the sanctuary, and dressed a goat in a garment and sacrificed it as his daughter." ^ Among the Malays, '' if the spirit craves a human victim a cock may be substituted." ^ Finally, we may turn to a curious instance of sacrificial substitution closely allied to this. It is related in the royal annals of Sennacherib that, when that king went down to the Persian Gulf, he offered gifts to Ea, the lord of the sea — " Before them at the side of the Qulf I stood and offered up pure victims Unto Ea, the King of the Deep ; With golden ships, a golden fish, a golden . . . Into the depths of the sea I cast. And then I sent my ships across speedily Against the city of Naglti." ' The offering of the Golden Ship is intended to propitiate Ea and satisfy the hunger of the sea for ships, thus paying toll beforehand that the real ships may proceed on their way in safety.* ^ J. E. Harrison, Prolegomena^ 72. » Skeat, Malay Magic, 72. 3 W.A.L, iii, 12, 2. * For similar instances see Frazer, Q olden Bough, ii. Xerxes, to give another royal parallel, after flogging the Hellespont offers sacrifices on the bridge and casts into the waters the golden bowl which he had SUBSTITUTION AMONG OTHER NATIONS. 231 From these instances it seems that the origin of the substitution has been forgotten by those that practise it. The reasons given for doing it are so many and various that it is obvious they are only attempts at an explanation for continuing the practice of an old custom among a conservative people. In the instance of Abraham, the ram is a burnt sacrifice to God; in the Numbers theory, the firstborn belongs to Yahweh, in memory of the passover ; ^ the Arab sacrifices for the safe return of the pilgrim are a thankoffering, which may be referred to many causes ; the redemption of buildings is clearly a substitution or atonement to avert evil, just as the sickness-devil is given the 'atonement' of a sheep. The 'akikah'Ceremony is an act of dedication, according to Robertson Smith. We have therefore to decide on the balance of probabilities, and the questions to be debated on the origin of such a custom are three in number. The possibilities are that the sacrifice of the firstborn is due to (I) some theory, similar to that of the ordinary atonement for tabu, that future danger (tabu, sickness. used in libation, with a golden crater and a Persian sword (Rouise, Oreek Votive Oferings, 311 ; Herodotus, vii, 64 ; for instances of gifts cast into a holy spring see Robertson Smith, Hel, Sem., 177). Even at this day at Gaza they have a custom of throwing bread into the sea as an offering or vow to its inhabitants (Baldensperger, P.E.F., 1893, 216), and the victims immolated to Suleim&n Ibn Daild (the weli of two hot springs near the Dead Sea) are sacrificed in such a manner that the blood goes into the water (Curtiss, Blbl, World, zxi, 257). Among the Maronites the neck of the sheep is laid on the prow of a ship and the throat is so cut that the blood runs into the sea. The victim is then thrown into the bay as a sacrifice to St Qeorge or Seyide (ibid., xxiii, 336). * Frazer gives what is probably the true origin of the Passover (Oolden Bough, ii, 49). 232 SUBSTITUTION AMONG OTHER NATIONS. and *8in') can be removed by such a sacrifice, either from the parents or the community; or (2) an idea that the divine, proprietary right, so strongly insisted on particularly in the Hebrew laws, is due to the right of the gods to have connection with the women of the tribe, who thus bear semi-divine children; or (3) the idea that such a sacrifice of children was in primitive times as much a sharing of a meal with the deity as any other sacrifice, which, traced to its logical conclusion, would show the primitive Semitic savage to be a cannibal. To discover the meaning of such a peculiar custom, it is plain that we must go back to the very depths of savagery. The fact that the Hebrews, at an early period, were divided between at least two divergent h}rpotheses for the origin of the custom of vicarious dedications, probably neither of them correct, shows how old the real reason for such substitution must be; and if we go further and push this limit beyond the period when there was some more logical reason for the custom than the glorification of the piety of a tribal hero or the dis- comfiture of an ancient enemy, we are then only reaching back to the fringe of savagery. This is presumably a time when the savage is learning that a human being is of a higher economic, social, and rational value than an animal, and that animal life is not on the same plane as human in religious affairs. He therefore ceases to sacrifice his children as a regular custom, and substitutes beasts from the flocks in their place. Yet, although he forsakes the actual methods of his ancestors, he doubtless allows 'make-believe' to enter somewhat into his procedure. By an ingenuous display of blood he cozens his god into believing that the highest SUBSTITUTION AMONG OTHER NATIONS. 233 form of meat has been provided for the feast. If we once admit that the offering was a sacrifice of the firstborn to the gods (such as reappeared at sporadic intervals in the later civilized communities in time of stress), and that a lamb or kid might take the place of the human being in a sacrificial meal, it is difficult to find any other explanation save that the origin is to be sought in a cannibal feast to which the gods were invited. The story of Abraham, although probably affording little clue to the actual origin, at least points to a sacrifice of a form similar to the sacrificial meal. What is more, in the cases in which a human being is in question, there is no idea of it being carried out in any other way except that of a bloody sacrifice by knife or fire. The redemption of the ass goes far to confirm this. If the ass is not redeemed, the throat was not to be cut, but its neck was to be broken. In the primitive sacrifice where the offering represents the communal meal, the throat of the beast is cut and the blood poured out ; why, then, should the ass be different? Frazer concludes that a distinction was drawn between sheep, oxen, and goats on the one hand, and men and asses on the other ; and he explains that because the Israelites did not eat the ass themselves, they concluded probably their god did not do so either; ''and the price of the redemption was a Iamb which was burnt as a vicarious sacrifice instead of the ass, on the hypothesis, apparently, that roast lamb is likely to be more palatable to the Supreme Being than roast donkey." Robertson Smith ^ seems to have found the same difficulty about » Rel Sem., 463. 234 SUBSTITUTION AMONG OTHEE NATIONS. the ass : ** that some form of taboo lies also at the bottom of the sacrifice of firstlings, appears from the provision of the older Hebrew law that if a firstling ass is not redeemed by its owner, its neck shall be broken/' I would offer the following as an explanation ; the reason for sacrificing kids or lambs is that they are to be eaten, and the blood is therefore poured out on the ground, but the ass is a beast of burden, and not food, and as such was slain in such a way as to leave the body apparently perfect so that it might perform the deity's work in the abode of the gods. Naturally the throat would not be cut, because it was not a sacrificial feast. From this the deduction is clear. If the beast is not ceremonially slaughtered and cooked, it will not be a sacrificial meal ; conversely, all offerings that are slain with a knife, and burnt, represent the communal feast. Just as the divine effigy was anointed after the manner pleasing to itching man, so were the appetites of the god satisfied. He intermarried with the tribe and fed at the same table off the same food.^ Hence the lamb, which is substituted in more civilized times for the firstborn, and offered at the common table, represents the more primitive cannibal sacrifice.' Even in some of the modem fedu ceremonies the blood of the surrogate is daubed on the child, in which we may see an attempt to perpetrate 1 See Robertson Smith, Rd. Sent. ' The soul of man, which is inseparably connected with the blood, docs not descend to Sheol unless the body is buried. Hence, pre- sumably, while the body of the ass remained above ground, the 'shade' doubtless served the tribal god. On the other hand, slaves who accompany their dead human lords to the netherworld are buried with them. However, we do not know what became of the carcase of the ass in primitive times. NOT PROPHYLACTIC ATONEMENT. 235 a very common religious fraud. The deity is deceived by the bloodstained appearance of the child, and at the same time he feeds on the carcase of the victim. There seems to be little difficulty in eliminating the first theory of prophylactic atonement. Every firstborn of man or beast is held to belong to the gods. Nay, more, the firstborn of sacred totem beasts are divine property for sacrifice. Now it is extremely improbable that a savage who owns large possessions in herds and wives will sacrifice not only a lamb or a kid from every fertile female in his flocks, but even his own firstborn to save himself from harm. This would, in the case of a rich man, entail an unlimited destruction of property to obtain a very problematic result. Still more is it unlikely that he will be allowed to kill the firstborn of the totem merely to preserve his individual life. Totems may be Ipjled and eaten at solemn tribal meetings, but not by unlicensed imits. Moreover, prophylactic atonement of this kind approaches the nature of the * atonement ' for tabu or sin-offering, such as has been described in the preceding chapter. The spirit causing the mischief changes its human ahode for the animal into which it is driven after leaving the man's body. But this, as we have seen, makes the animal really * unclean,' tabu, and uneatable, because it is filled with the spirit. So, if we return to our argument of the rich savage, such a slaughter of scores or hundreds of firstborn represents a corresponding waste, which is absurd. The second possibility, that of possession by reason of paternity, is unlikely. * Although it be granted that the rights of tribal god or gods are recognized among the harlm, and that totemism and animal-shaped gods give colour to a belief in intermixture between gods and beasts 236 NOT RIGHT OF PATERNITY. at a period of ignorance, the argument against such a hypothesis is clear. Heroic demigods have, for obvious reasons, never been sacrificed in babyhood, and yet they are clearly the result of the union between gods and women. Again, it is difficult to see how the law of the firstfruits of vegetables, etc., could be wrested into analogy. Furthermore, although this argument has little force by reason of its proposed explanation, demons as well as gods married the girls of the tribe; but in this case, it is quite likely that the offspring are the abortions, and especially those with physical disabilities who are excluded categorically from the priesthood. The third sacrificial theory has already been discussed, and seems the most probable.^ Agreeing with Frazer, " we can hardly resist the conclusion that, before the practice of redeeming them was introduced, the Hebrews, like the^ other branches of the Semitic race, regularly sacrificed their firstborn children by the fire or the knife" (ibid., 49). He main- tains (p. 51) against Wellhausen {Prolegomena, 3rd ed., 90) I Riehm's theory is, I think, untenable : " Sebstverstandlich sollte die menschliche Erstgeburt nicht geopfert werden ; vermoge ihres besonderen Angehorigkeitsverhaltnisses an Jehova galten die Erstge- borenen vielmehr urspriinglich als die zum Dieust am Heiligtum verpflichteten leibeigenen knechte Jehova's " {Handw6rterhuch des BihL Alt., 1893, i, 411). Isaac is obviously a burnt sacrifice. The Levites are chosen ''from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel " (Num. iii, 12). Also the existence of the Nazarite class must not be forgotten. To this day in Syria women vow to give a son to God, who is regarded as a sort of Nazarite, and his hair is not cut until he comes of age (Curtiss, Prim. Sem. ReL, 153, note). ' In view of our having no evidence that the Assyrians sacrificed their firstborn, I should suggest the substitution of " other " for " the other." BUT PROBABLY INDICATING CANNIBALISM. 237 and Robertson Smith ^ {IteL Sepn., 2iid ed., 464) that this redemption is a modification of the sacrifice of the firstborn, and he quotes in support of this the customs of many savage tribes. In some parts of ^ew South Wales the firstborn child of every woman is eaten as a religious ceremony ; in Senjero, East Africa, many families offer up their firstborn as sacrifices. Among some tribes of South East Africa, when a woman's husband has been killed in battle, and she marries again, the first child after her second marriage must be put to death. If it were not killed an accident would befall the second spouse, and the woman herself would be barren.^ On this third hypothesis, that the dedication of the firstborn to the deity had its origin in sacrifice, we can proceed to examine the evidence for cannibalism at such a sacrificial meal. Robertson Smith certainly more than hints at such a proceeding.' The probability of such ^ Robertson Smith says here : ''To conclude from this that at one time the Hebrews actually sacrificed all their firstborn sons is absurd.^ 2 He also quotes the heathen Russians as sacrificing their firstborn, with other instances. 9 «< Wherever we find the doctrine of substitution of animal life for that of man, we also find examples of actual human sacrifice, some- times confined to seasons of extreme peril, and sometimes practised periodically at solemn annual rites. I apprehend that this is the point from which the special development of piacular sacrifices, and the distinction between them and ordinary sacrifices, takes its start. It was impossible that the sacrificial customs should continue immodified where the victim was held to represent a man and a tribesman, for even savages commonly refuse to eat their own kinsfolk, and to growing civilisation the idea that the gods had ordained meals of human flesh, or of flesh that was as sacred as that of a man, was too repulsive to be long retained. . . . Whether the custom of actually eating the flesh survived in historical times in any case of human sacrifice is more than doubtful " {Rel Sem., 366). He tries to show from this repulsion that in any offering simulating 238 PREHISTOBIC CANNIBALISM. a hypothesis will rest first on the evidence pro and con of the prevalence of cannibalism among prehistoric peoples and modem savages in general, and, secondly, in traditions of the Semitic nations in particular, and the local forces which might lead to such a custom. Tylor, in his article " Cannibalism " in the Encyclapcedia Bntannica, says : '' It has been well argued that had the men of the quaternary period been cannibals, we should find the bones generally cracked for the marrow like those of beasts, which is not the case (Le Hon, L* Homme Fossile, p. 68) ; also, that as regards the ancient people of the shell-mounds, had they eaten their own species they would have thrown the human bones into the rubbish heaps with those of beasts and fishes (Lubbock, Prehistoric Times f p. 232). The discovery of some few ancient human remains, the state of which seems to indicate that the flesh had been eaten, may perhaps be taken to show that prehistoric savages were in this respect like those of modern times, neither free from cannibalism nor universally practising it." At the same time the evidence brought forward at the Congris Internationale pour lee Etudes human sacrifice the sacrificial meal tended to fall out of use, and in the case of animal piacula the sacrificial meal is generally wanting, or confined to the priests (pp. 367-368). By his theory of piacula, his explanation of the reason for throwing the carcases outside the camp is rather forced. He maintains (pp. 369-376) that the substitution and human sacrifices closely parallel the burning of the fiesh of the Hebrew sin-offerings outside the camp, and that there is hardly any doubt that originally the true sacrifice, i.e, the shedding of the blood, as in the Hebrew sin-offering, took place at the temple, and the burning was a distinct act. There is, however, by our theory of demoniac exorcism, no necessity to connect the sin-offering with the substitution of the firstborn. The rites take their origin from two widely distinct sources. PREHISTORIC CANNIBALISM. 239 PrihMoriqueB in 1867 (2nd session, Paris) shows that prehistoric man at one period of his existence did certainly eat his feUow.^ That cannibalism under stress of famine was recognized as a possibility among the Assyrians is proved by the tablet K. 4541,^ which is described by Bezold in his Catalogue as a mythological legend, bearing mention of an ancient Babylonian ruler, during whose reign wars, discord, and slavery appeared on the earth, and giving an account of the origin of the Assyrian Empire. All the verbs, however, in the passage he quotes are in the present tense (and not past), and his proposed explanation is due to a blunder. The translation runs : '' That prince shall see woe, his heart shall be grieved; during his rule battle and strife shall not cease, in that reign brother shall eat his brother, men shall sell their children for ^ M. Spring proved cannibalism in the cave of Chauveau (p. 159) ; M. Schaaffausen in Ultz, Westphalia ; M. Messikommer in Robenhausen (evidence held indecisive) ; M. Cldment in Saint- Aubin (human bones perforated) ; M. Roujou in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges ; M. Bouvet in Guyane ; M. de Lastic in the cave of Bruniquel ; M. de Mehedin in Mexico. For other instances of prehistoric cannibalism in £urope and elsewhere, see Richard Andrde, Die ATithropophagie^ 1887, 2 ff. ; Bergemann, Die Verhreitwng der Anthropopkagie, 1893, 6 ff. For the literature on cannibalism see Gaidoz, M^usine^ iii, 33*7. For an article with a plate showing prehistoric human bones split to extract the marrow, see Matiegka, Miithetl. d. Anthrop, Oesellsckaft in Wien, xxvi, 129. Bergemann quotes many classical passages for certain forms of cannibalism, notably Herodotus (i, 216) for the Massagetee who killed people when they grew old, and the mythical stories of Tantalus, Atreus, and Polyphemus. ' Rubu H maruita immar, id itab libbiht. adi SarrAtiSu tahazu u kahlum id ipparrasu^ ina palt Suatu ahu ahiSu ikkal niH mdreHna ana kaspi ipaUaru, mdtdti Utenii inniUd^ idlu ardata \iz]zih u ardatu izzih idli, ummu di mdrti bdhi-Sa iddily buSu Bahili ana kirih su-kdin-ki ^m'tu j^iSn/ri irruh. 240 CANNIBALISM AMONGST THE SEMITES. money; the lancU shall be raised up one against another. The man shall desert the maid and the maid desert the man; mother shall bolt her door against daughter. The property of Babylon shall come into Subarti and Assyria/' It is clearly a text that threatens evil on the ruler of the land for some reason or other. There is another passage which points to human flesh being eaten by gods. This is from the Labartu-senea : ^ ''There came the daughter of Anu to Bel, her father, and said, ' Bring me, my father Bel, what I ask of thee : the flesh of men not good, the blood of men . . .' " But this is an incantation, and no very great stress must be laid on it. The Arabs have been clearly shown to have eaten human flesh.^ The existence of cannibalism among the Hebrews was maintained by Ghillanys^ and Daumer^ as far back as 1842. The latter says: "De cette manidre, on n'immolait que des enfans de la noblesse ; ceux du menu peuple et les autres victimes humaines servaient apres leur mort k remplir de leur chair et de leur sang les plats du banquet religieux ; on n'en jetait dans le feu que leurs OS, qu'on avait eu soin de garder intacts et sans les endommager." "La f6te du Passah appartenait k Tancien culte molochiste; c'^tait la grande f£te universelle de rimmolation de la chair humaine, le banquet des ^ Mjhrman, Z.A., xvi, 175, 1. 33 ff. * Robertson Smith, Kinship and Marriage^ 1903, 291 ff. ; Qoldziher, ifber KannibalUmus am Orientalischen Qtnellen, Qlobus^ 1896, Izz, No. 16, ' Les Sacrifices Hutnains chez Us HSbreux^ 1842. * Le Oulte du Moloch, 1842, 2 ff. CANNIBALISM AMONGST THE SEMITES. 241 cannibales mangeant la chair, buvant le sang des enfans sacrifi^Sy et jetant dans le feu les os fion brUSn des victimes." Whether there remains enough evidence to show that the Hebrews of the more historical period did eat human flesh is doubtful ; but that their traditions indicate that their Semitic forefathers did so is, I think, quite obvious. This is Bergemann's view, and he says that it is clear from Num. xxiii, 24, that the blood of enemies slain in battle was drunk in the most ancient period. Further, Num. xxiv, 8, shows that their flesh was eaten.^ The only difficulty that would arise about the eating of the firstborn is the prejudice that some savages have against eating kindred flesh. For this reason the wilder South American tribes, according to Cieza de Leon, bred children they might lawfully eat from wives of alien stock, the father being reckoned not akin to his children who follow the maternal line.' On the other hand, Steinmetz, in his EndokannibalUmuSy has attempted to bring all cases of cannibalism under the term ' endocannibalism,' or custom of eating relations and kindred. This is quoted by Deniker,' who says* that the theory meets with the difficulty that certain Australian tribes avoid eating their relations (except young children) and exchange between the various tribes. If, however, the kindred children be admitted as eatable, there is no obstacle to our theory of the Semites eating their firstborn. The reason for the origin of cannibalism, if it existed among the Semites at an early period, as seems very » BergemanD, Die Verbreitung der Anthropophagi^ 1893, 12. » Andrew Lang, PerrauWs Tales, cviii. » Races et Peuples de la Terre, 1900, 176. 242 CANNIBALISM AMONGST THE SEMITES. probable, is not far to seek. Arabia, the home of the Semites, at least before they split up into their various nationalities, is one of the most barren lands. ''Indeed, that the pressure of famine had far more to do with the origin of infanticide than family pride had, can be doubtful to no one who realises the fact — vividly brought out in Mr. Doughty's travels — that the nomads of Arabia suffer constantly from hunger during a great part of the year." ^ Necessity is one of the three reasons admitted for anthropo- phagy, the other two being gluttony and superstition ; and therefore we shall probably not be wrong in thinking that the early Semites were driven by force of hunger to devour their children, and at the same time reduce their numbers. Doubtless this scarcity of food was one of the chief factors in driving them to look for better and more fertile lands ; and, as soon as they settled in the richer pastures of Mesopotamia, economic reasons would suggest the substitution of lambs and kids for the sacrifice of their own kin. Against this it may be urged that up to the present no trace of this form of substitution has been found in cuneiform. Yet it must not be forgotten that much of the Babylonian religion, as we know it, comes from the Sumerians, who inhabited these fertile valleys long before the Semites arrived. And hence we may assume that they had never been driven by famine to eat human flesh. Why the firstborn only should have been selected is not clear. There is nothing more appetizing about the first of a family than the second, and there is nothing peculiarly pure about them, for the pure beast in magic ^ Robertson Smith, Kinship, 294. SELECTION OP THE FIRSTBORN. 243 is the virginJ It is, however, a custom which compels every mother to take her turn, and at any rate it secures a sure propitiation of the god. If the gods are admitted to have regular dues paid by the tribe, this is the surest way of attaining such a result. To defer the gift until a second crop might, by failure or unexpected barrenness, bring down the divine wrath. But so many things have to be taken into account, that it is difficult to evolve a satisfactory theory. Priestly or kingly influence doubtless had its eflbct on the tribute of rich tribesmen. We may reasonably consider, then, that the primitive Semite, long before historic times, was a cannibal, and devoured the firstborn of the tribe at a sacrificial meal. As time went on and the tribe grew richer in flocks, it became the custom to substitute a firstborn kid for the eldest child. Yet in times of great national stress the Semitic mind would revert to primitive tradition, perhaps instinctively, and the firstborn would be sacrificed to the god. The people of historical times had doubtless forgotten that human sacrifice represented a commensal cannibal meal, and regarded it either as a '^ self-denying ordinance" to ofler their best, or else looked upon it as a surrogate for the whole people on the analogy of other substitutes. Yet the fact must never be lost sight of that the Iamb brought as a sin-offering took its' origin in the carcase of 1 But cf. Robertson Smith, Rd. Sent,, 464 : " In point of fact, even in old times, when exceptional circumstances called for a human victim, it was a child, and by preference a firstborn or only child, that was selected by the peoples in and around Palestine. This is commonly explained as the most costly oflfering a man can make ; but it is rather to be regarded as the choice, for a special purpose, of the mont sacred kind of victim." 244 SELECnON OP THE FIRSTBORN. the beast which was intended as a bait to inveigle the evil spirit out of the sick man. On the other hand, the substitution of the lamb for the firstborn arises, as we have seen, out of a primitive cannibal sacrifice. The origins of the two rites are absolutely dissimilar, whatever may have been the ultimate phase to which a process of analogy brought them. \ 245 APPENDIX. I. — Thb Lists of Bbeaches of Tabu in the Surpu Series. As has been stated on p. 124, the Smyu Series contains a long list of the possible tabus which the sick man may have broken unwittingly. They may be grouped under the followincr heads : — o • • • (1) Of gods and their worship. II, 5. " Hath he sinned against his god, hath he sinned against his goddess ? " 32. " Is it an unknown sin against a god, is it an unknown sin against a goddess ? " 33. " Hath he spumed a god, hath he slighted a goddess ?" 34. " Is it against his god that his sin (is) or against his goddess his misdeed ? " 74. " Is it in anything that he hath slighted his god or goddess V* 81. " Hath he made god or his goddess angry with him ? " 122. " He seeketh of the gods of heaven, the shrines of earth." 123. " He seeketh at the shrine of lord or lady." Ill, 138-148. " Marduk can loose the tabu of Anu, Anatu, Bel, Belit, Ea, Damkina, Sin, Ningal, Samas, Aa, Adad, Sala, Marduk, Sarpanit, Nabii, Tasmit, Ninib, Belit-Nippiu*, . . . Quia, , . . and BaU" Cf. also lY, 9, " Loose ... of sin against a god/' and II, 11, ''. . . his goddess hath he despised P" Here also should come II, 128, *^ He seeketh of the temple" ; III, 52, ''Tabu against passing the bounds of a god"; probably III, 45, " [Ban of angel (sidu)] and lamasau - genius " ; III, 68, 69, " Tabu of Ninib . . . ," " Tabu of shrine and temple " ; 71, " Tabu of the god stlakki . . ." ; 72-76, " Tabu of the god of (such-and-such) . . . /' the latter part of the lines being mutilated. Cf. Old Testament, First and Third Commandments : Exod. xxii, 20 (" He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto Yahweh only ") ; cf. also 28, but this is more probably to be put under the head of sedition. 246 APPENDIX. (2) Of off»in0i to god*. It, 77-80. " [Ih it anything] he h&th BaocLified (or) he hatb ■ . . , and then withheld t Anything which he hath praenUd (?) . . , but eaten himself 1 Anything which he hath . . . and made a prayer ? Hatb be abrogated a due ofiering ? " III, 3L "[Tabu] of deBtroying (I) an cpffering(l), of pouring a libatioD(?) away into waUr." 64. " Tabu of eating the flesh of an offering." Here perhaps should be placed Till, 39, " From Ae Uba of . . . city, hooM, staff, rod, turtu, tabu, and making an ofiering " ; II, 86, " Hath be incarred a tabu in making an offering ? " See Robertson Smith, Rel. 8em., 450, etc., and compare Deut. xxiii, 21, " When thou shalt vow a vow unto Tahweh thy God, thou shalt not be slack to pay it." The Egyptian Negative Confession, " I have not spoiled the bread of offering in the temples, I have not taken away from the bread of offering of the gods, I have not diminished offerings " (Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient Egyptiam, 251). (3) Ofrtlatioiu and friends. II, 20-28. " Hath he set bod at variance with father, father with son, mother with daughter, daughter with mother, mother-in-law with daugbter-in-law, daughter-in-law with mother-in-law, brother with his brother, comrade with his comrade, friend with hid friend?" 3fi. " Oppreeiiion agaimit a htnnu, hatred ogainut an elder brother." 36. " Hatb he despised father (or) mother, hath be reviled an elder sister ?" Ill, 3-1 1. " Tabu falling on a man through father, mother, grand- father, grandmother, brother, sister, the seven members of his father's house, old or young, near or distant relatives, progeny or Huclding, comrade or fellow, friend or com- panion." Cf also 166-158, 161, and IV, 37, which included some of these. VIII, 41, 42. " From the tabu of a brother, companion, friend, fellow, partner, fellow-townsman (of protecting or being hostile to) ; from the tabu of elder brother, elder sister, father or mother (of protecting or being hostile to)." APPENDIX. 247 VIII, 61, 52. " From [the tabu of slave or] handmaid, master or mistress (of protecting or being hostile to) ; from [the tabu of . . .] of princess, witch, harlot, courtesan (?)." 65. " From the tabu of wife, concubine, (or) son (of protecting or being hostile to)." Under this head must come — II, 51-63. *' Hath he not spared a man mirantiiiu, hath he driven forth the good man from his folk, hath he scattered a well-knit family?" 72, 73. ** Is it through a company which he hath scattered (that he hath incurred a tabu) ? Is it through a well-knit troop which he hath split up ? " Here also must come III, 55, " Tabu of being agreed with an adversary, and then being hostile " ; 162, '' [Tabu from] kinsfolk (P) and relatives" ; and probably 163, ''[Tabu from offspring] and suckling." Gf. Old Testament, Fifth Commandment : Exod. xxi, 15 {" And he that smiteth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death"); similarly, in v. 17, he that curses his parents; Lev. xix, 32 ; xx, 9 ; Deut. xxvii, 16. Here must be added — II, 29-31. *' Hath he not let a captive go free, hath he not let loose a prisoner, hath he not let one in prison see the light, hath he said of a captive * Seize him ! ' or of a prisoner * Bind him!'?" (4) Of murder, II, 49. « Hath he shed his neighbour's blood ? " 87. " Hath he incurred a tabu from life ? " III, 34. " Tabu of apx)roaching (?) his friend (?) and slaying him." Cf. Old Testament, Sixth Commandment. (6) 0/ adultery II, 48. " Hath he approached his neighbour's wife ? " Cf. Old Testament, Seventh Commandment: Lev. xviii, 1 ff. ; XX, 10. (6) Of stealing and cheating. II, 42, 43. ** Hath he used a false balance, hath he taken a wrong price, hath he [not taken a righteous] price " 45-47. ^* Hath he set a false boundary, hath he not set a true boimdary, hath he removed landmark, border, or boimdary ?" 248 APPENDIX. Ill, 56. " Tabu of fixing border or boundary." VIII, 34. " From the tabu of . . . border, boundary, or landmark." II, 47. " Hath he entered his neighbour's house ? " 50. " Hath he stolen his neighbour's garment ? " 61. " Hath he been instilting, robbed, or caused to rob ? " VIII, 47-49. " From the tabu of giving with a small measure, shekel, or mana, and taking with a large one." 50. " From the tabu of using a false balance, of taking a wrong price from one under a tabu (?) *' Here also add IT, 114, ''He asketh of the BAR-measure, and the KA-measure." Cf . Old Testament, Eighth Commandment : Exod. xxii, 1 ff. C' If a man shall steal an ox ") ; Lev. xix. II ('' Ye shall not steal"); xix, 35, 36 (''Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have"); Deut. xxv, 13 ("Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small "). Cf. vv. 14, 15 ; Deut. xix, 14 ; and xxvii, 17 (landmarks). One of the great crimes of which the Midianites were guilty was the using of diverse measures and weights, a great and a small, buying by one and selling by another (Sale, Koran, quoting Al Beidawi in D'Herbelot, BibL Orient,). (7) Of lying or breakiiig promises. II, 6. " Hath he said * no ' for * yes/ or * yes ' for * no ' ? " 38, 39. " Hath he said * there is ' for * there is not,* or * there is not ' for * there is ' ? " 56-57. " Hath he been straight with his mouth but not true in his heart, hath his mouth said * yea ' but his heart * nay ' ; in anything hath he meditated imrighteousness ? " 75. " Hath he promised with heart and mouth (and) not given ? " III, 51. " [Tabu of] saying and denying." VIII, 56. "From the tabu of promising pleasure and joy, and then denying it and not giving it." Cf. Old Testament, Ninth Commandment : Exod. xxiii, 1 ; Lev. xix, 11 ff. (8) Of speech. II, 8. " Hath he spoken what is unholy . . . ? " 12-14. " Hath he spoken evil . . . ? Hath he spoken what is impure . . . ? Hath he let intrigue be discussed 7 " APPENDIX. 249 II, 41. " Hath he spoken wickedness . . . ?" 63-65. " Is his mouth loose (?) (or) foul, are his Hps deceitftil (?) (or) perverse, hath he taught what is impure, hath he inculcated that which is unseemly?" 82. " Hath he stood up in an assembly and spoken what is not correct ? " (9) Of bribery. II, 16. " Hath he caused a judge to receive [a bribe (?)] ? " III, 24 " Tabu of giving a bribed judgment" Gf. Exod. xxiii, 8, " And thou shalt take no gift ; for a gift blindeth them that have sight, and perverteth the words of the righteous"; Ley. xix, 15, ''Te shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour." (10) Of sedition and the like. II, 19. "... Hath he made its city turn ? " 54. " Hath he opposed one in authority ? *^ 96-98. "Hath he wronged his city, hath he spread abroad a rumour against his city, hath he made evil the speech of his city?" Ill, 131. " Ban of rebellion and revolt." Cf. VIII, 63, " From the tabu of . . . prefect, officer, and judge." Cf. Exod. xxii, 28, " Thou shalt not revile God {margin, judges), nor curse a ruler of thy people." (11) Variotu vague refereTicee to wrong. II, 37. " Hath he given in small things, and refused in great ? '' 44. " Hath he deposed the rightful heir, hath he set up the wrong heir?" 58-60. " Hath he transgressed the right, hath he offended (?), hath he abolished, driven away, destroyed, ?, ?, ? " 62. " Hath he set his hand to evil ? " 66. « Hath he followed after evil ? " la t 260 APPENDIX. II, 67. "* Hath he pattfjed over the bounds of right ? " 68. ** Hath he done what in not pure ? " 70, 71. '^ l8 it throu^ any grievous harm that he hath done ? In it by the many fdna which he hath committed ? " 94, 95. Tapdd uktalns, [aryta tapdi ittatallak (difficult of ex- planation). Ill, 12, 13. ^ Tabu of right or wrong, heavy or light" Here fthonld come the mutilated lines III, 127-130, ''Tabu of weak and . . • , sin and fever (P), of making a mistake (P), of sin and misdeed " ; III, 160, " Tabu of • • • SlU • • • (12) Of water, III, 38, 39. ^ Tabu of being aaked for a runnel for one day, and refusing, of being asked for a ditch and refusing.** 53. '* Tabu of 8topx>iiig & neighbour's canaL'' Here must come II, 117-119, "He seeketh of irrigation- machine, well, or river '* ; III, 47, " [Tabu of well P] and river," and possibly 48, 49, ** [Tabu of] dam and ferry, . . . and bridge " ; VIII, 35-37, " From the tabu of runnel, canal, bridge, passage, way, or road, from the tabu of ship, river, dam, ferry, booth, and reed-hut (P), from the tabu of balihu, runnel, spring, watercourse, and fortress " ; III, 59, " Tabu of urinating into a river or vomiting into a river " ; 133, "Tabu of . . . and Euphrates/' Cf. the Egyptian Negative Confession (Wiedemann, Itei. An. Sg., 261), " I have not turned aside the water (from a neighbour's field) at the time of inundation, I have not cut off an arm of the river in its course." (13) 0//ire, II, 110. " Of the lighted coal-i>an, of the torch, of the bellows he seeketh." Ill, 16. "Tabu of bellows and coal-pau." 132. " Tabu of fire and coal-pan." VIII, 68. " From the tabu of oven, flame (?), stove, coal-pan, . . . , and bellows." Here, too, may come III, 16, ''Tabu of pointing at the fire " ; and 18, " Tabu of casting fire in a man's face." APPENDIX. 261 All these tabus seem to have reference to respect paid to fire. Fire was not allowed to be kindled on the Sabbath by the Hebrews (Exod. xxxt, 3), and such nations as especially reverence fire show clearly how such tabus originated. For instancOi the Parsees will not suffer a menstruous woman to see fire or even look on a lighted taper (Frazer, Golden Bough, iii, 224, quoting G. Eo£Emann). Such tabus are based on local sacra ; in Homer (IL, v, 499) the threshing- floor, the winnowing-fan, and meal are all held to be sacred. (14) O/fceapoiis. Ill, 27-29. '* Tabu of bow or chariot, bronze dagger, or spear, lance, or bow." VIII, 60. " From the tabu of being banned by a bow, chariot, iron dagger, or lanoe.'' Here also must come III, 67, '' Tabu of drawing a weapon in a company"; VIII, 46, "From the tabu of rending garments and drawing an iron dagger " (cf. Ill, 36, *' Tabu of drawing a bukannu in a company '') ; III, 57, " Tabu of destroying a chariot and touching its riksu" The explanation of this tabu on weapons may perhaps be sought in the consecration of warriors before battle : " warriors are consecrated persons, subject to special taboos " (Bobertson Smith, Bel. Sem., 402). The ban on drawing a sword in an assembly is paralleled in later times by the mess-room law which forbids a weapon to be unsheathed. ** Rending garments and drawing a sword " may be compared to the custom of the Arabs who cast down their turbans, symbolizing a fight to the death. (15) Of writing materials, II, 113. " He seeketh of the tablet and reed-pen.'' (16) Qf mourning, yill, 45. ** From the ban of rending one's garments, breaking one's breastpiece, and beating one's breast." Of. Lev. xxi, 10, where the high priest is not to unbind his hair nor rend his clothes. f»r %'/l APF£5IfIX. '17, Of 9or*xr^. n, 6&, ** lUth Ik; net Lin baryl Xf> ^Jt^xrf or witchcraft ? ' Ct noU ' ur, g^jd or king, master or mistress ?" 1 1 1, 16, ** TfiUi (4 ijTrtnling at the fire." Cf, II, 7, " Hath he pointed his finger . . . ? " (19/ Of runMiroke. Ill, 23, ** Tabu from Kitting on a »eat in the hud." (20) OfbeoBU. Ill, 3^1. ** Tabu against Mtriking the young of beaHts." 42. **[Tabu] of aHking a man for wild beasts at the side of a cattle-MtalL" Here also add II, 115, 116, "He asketh of domestic and wild beasts/' and for want of a better place; YIII, 40, '< From the tabu of having found chance oxen (or) sheep belonging to men and taking them '' ; and III, 36, " Tabu of slaughtering a sheep and touching its riksu (?)" Cf . IjOv. xxii, 27, ** When a bullock or a sheep or a goat 18 brought forth, then it shall be seven days under the dam " (before being sacrificed) ; Deut. xxii, 6, " If a bird's nest chance to be before thee/' etc. Of. Sabbath, xix, 1, "If (on the Sabbath) one hunts a wild beast or a bird which one has on one's domain, it is not a guilty act, but it is a crime to wound them." Exod. xxiii, 4, " If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again " ; Deut. xxii, 1, " Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox or his sheep go astray, and hide thyself from them." APPENDIX. 253 (21) 0/ uprooting plants and reeds, III, 25, 26. " Tabu of tearing up plants in the desert, of cutting reeds in the marshes." VIII, 33. " From the tabu of cutting canes, brakes, reeds, of tearing up plants or kankaUu (some plant)." Cf. Ill, 40, " [Tabu of] uprooting plants (?) in a field" ; 65, "Tabu of . . . a reed in a bundle (P) " ; VIII, 57, " From the tabu of uprooting the caper, the thorn, the tamarisk, (and) the date-palm." Here we must add III, 46, " [Tabu of] tamarisk and date-palm." Parallels for this tabu will be found in Robertson Smith's Rel. Sem.f 142, 145. Among the Sakai, before they fell trees in a forest, all tools are charmed to avoid accidents which might be brought about by evil spirits (Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula^ i, 345). (22) Of various tabus. Tabu] of laying . . . before (?) a man." Tabu] of food (?) and drink (?) . . . the way." Ill, 32. " 33. " 37. " Tabu of tapalu and seal (?)." (Cf. also III, 85, 86.) (23) Of tabus on various places, II, 120, 121. " He seeketh of ship, hinnu^ boat, he seeketh of East and West." 124-127. " He seeketh of the exit and entrance of the city, of the exit and entrance of the main gate, of the exit and entrance of the house, of the street." 1 29. *' He seeketh of the road." Ill, 61-63. " Tabu of mountain and precipice, height and wady^ pass and . . ." 66. " Tabu from door and bolt . . ." VI II, 31 . " From the tabu of field, garden, house, street, path, dwellings and chamber.'* 54. " From the tabu of house, . . . , city gate, field, garden^ and resting-place." 59. " From the tabu of hedge, . . . , threshold, guard, door, bolt, and . . ." Compare the Talmudic ordinances concerning clean and unclean houses (p. 186); also the 'Or/a, which says that 254 APPENDIX. trees planted on a public way, or by an idolater, or by a thief, or in a ship, or sprouting spontaneously are subject to the *orla, (24) OfforvM of oaths. Ill, 14. " Tabu of raifling a ois-mar and then swearing by a god." 17. " Tabu of raising fire and then swearing by a god." 41. "Tabu of taking an irrigation-machine and swearing by a god." 43. " Tabu of swearing (tom^, being banned (?)) by sunrise." 44. " Tabu of raising unwashen hands and swearing by a god." VIII, 43. " From the tabu of breaking a dish, shattering a cup, and swearing by a god" Cf. Lev. xix, 12. The story of Hector is pertinent here ; he fears to pour the libation of dark wine with unwashen hands, nor may he pray to Zeus when bespattered with gore (Tylor, Primitive CuUnrey 4th ed., ii, 439). (25) Unclassified. Ill, 134-137. " Tabu from . . . and assembly, from dead man or living man, from male destroyer or female destroyer (Zimmem says that these are demons), known or unknown." These last two occur again in III, 164, 165. There are also forty-nine tabus mutilated or entirely destroyed. (26) Of the * undean * tabtis. For the details of these see pp. 125 ff. Add here also — II, 106-109. " He seeketh (to know whether his tabu cometh) from couch, seat, dish, or the offering of a cup." Ill, 19, 20. " Tabu from cup or dish, bed or couch." (Here, too, perhaps comes 1. 58, " Tabu of drinking water from a sarsarn") VIII, 44. " From the tabu of seat, stool, bed, couch, and being bound." Perhaps also III, 22, " Tabu of giving or asking the dregs." APPENDIX. 256 (27) Varioui forms of tabu, II, 83-86. " Whether by something loosed, which he knoweth not, he hath incurred a tabu, (or) by receiving (something) he hath incurred a tabu, (or) by ... he hath incurred a tabu." The particular point to be observed in this list of tabus is that many actions or states are omitted which are well known to be tabu. Notwithstanding the fact that forty-nine lines are so mutilated as to be untranslatable, it is distinctly noticeable that none of the primary unclean tabus are mentioned; childbirth, menstruation, the A;Vi, marriage, touching a dead body (unless the brief mention in 25 be accounted evidence), although the * holy' tabus are included in comprehensive phrases. The reason for this is twofold ; either the unclean tabus are such that in their breach they do not result in sickness, but merely demand purification (such as menstruation and the hWi) ; or, albeit they are of such a nature as to bring sickness, they are so obvious as to leave no doubt as to what has been the cause of the trouble (such as puerperal fever after childbirth). To say this is only a reiteration of the theory that the Surpu series is intended to deal with the ' unwitting ' sins. On the other hand, it may be urged that although the primary unclean tabus are not mentioned, the secondary contagious tabus are quoted at great length; but the reason for this is clear. The primary tabus are in themselves, as we have said above, either innocuous (with regard to disease) or patent to the most heedless; but contagion from such is a very different matter ; for example, the lilith who regards herself as a spirit- wife brings no harm to her human husband, and yet will retaliate on any other who shall interfere with her. Hence this very point adds to our demonstration of the theory of the ' unwitting ' sins. II. — On LooxiNa on a Corpse, p. 35. It is doubtful whether the translation of ana pagri ihirtiinni, given on p. 35 in the sense of having allowed the wax-figure to look on a corpse, is valid. The passage is more probably 256 APPENDIX. to be rendered '* they have looked upoD me as a corpse/' similar to 1. 13 on p. 152. But the tabu is certain, from p. 26. III. — On the meaking of qvzalu, p. 52. GU-ZA-LAL = guzalu, which has been translated ' throne- bearers/ for Gil-GU-ZA = . ku88Uf * throne/ and lal = naiii, * to bear.' This meaning is, however, challenged, although nothing satisfactorily definite has been suggested as an alternative. The comparison, therefore, between the Assyrian spirits and the ' throne-bearers ' of Hebrew and Mohammedan tradition rests on the evidence pro or con for the exact meaning of this word (see Muss-Arnolt, Dict.^ 214). lY. — Additional Note to p. 76, on babren women touching the COBPSE OF A MAN EXECUTED FOB MUBDEB. ** The remedy for sterility was for the woman who wished to become a mother to step over the corpse of an executed criminal, or into a basin of water which had been used to wash his corpse, or to tread on a human skull, or walk between the tombs of a cemetery, or step over some antique resemblance of a cat or other relic of old Egypt " (Lord Cromer's Modern Hgupt, ii, 505). V. — Additional Note to p. 53, on the connection between Jonah and the Moon. On the superstitions of Arabs concerning the swallowing of the moon, and the bearing of this on the story of Jonah^ see G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve Prophets, 1899, ii, 524 ; see also Hans Schmitt, Jona, 1907. 257 INDEX. Abbbxviatxons : — A = Arabic ; Ab = Abyssinian ; As = Assyrian ; C = Coptic ; E s Egyptian; £th=Ethiopic; Qs Greek; H= Hebrew; I = Indian; L= Latin; M= Malay; Macs Macedonian; Med=Medi8eYal, Middle Ages; N.T. eNew Testament ; P « Persian ; Pal » Palestinian ; Phoen = Phoenician ; S s Syriac ; Sab=Sabian; T=Tezidi. Aa, zlii, 245. Aaron, xviii, 219. Ab, month, in magic, As, 141, 209 ; H, 64. Abb& Isaiah, 6. Abbas, 97. AbdnEhadir, 211. Abipones, 127. Abortions: as ghosts. A, H, M, 23; As, 20, 23 ; not to be buried with body of mother, H, 21 ; as demoniac offspring, 132, 236. Abraham, xix, 73, 86, 220, 231, 233. Abramelin, xrii, Ix, 170. Abn'dt-Pnhar, 158. Abu KabOs, 227. Abn Mohammed the Lazy, 62. Abu Babah, 79, 80. Abu Zenna, 159. Abyssinia, patsitn. Adad (Storm -god), xxi, xlii, bdi, 19, 54, 64, 96, 224, 245. ^<{0^ttr-Tes8el, xlv, 26. Adam, xx, 5, 23, 38, 58, 70, 72, 73. Adonai, 1. iElian quoted, xxxri. iBneas, 72. Aeneze tribe, 158. JEschylns, 107. Africa, Ixrii (see Moghrehi) ; East, 60, 237. AfHt, 17, 47, 59, 63, 70, 76, 132, 207 ; see Demont. Agrath bath Mablath, 30, 41, 58. Agukakrime, xxii. ^AAo^M-demon, 41, 43, 100, 192. Ahmad ibn Abubekr, xlix. Ahriman, 119. *Akikah, 229, 231. Alaska, 184. Aleppo, 89. Alexander, xxxviii, 96, 155, 157. Alfoors of Minahassa, 163. Algerians, 62, 211. Ali, 168. Alkali in magic, As, lii, liii. Allah, (XX), avi), bd, (5), (23), (30), 42, (72), (74), (77), (83), (226). (228), (229), (236). Allamu, xxriii. Allegory of Tahweh begetting children ,73. Al-Nooman, 227. Aloe hung up, A, 90. Al-Sameri, 146. Altar, 26, 130, 157, 194, 197, 198, 199, 220. ^M-demon, 39, 71, 81, 122. *Aimh, 63. Alum in magic. A, 88. Amasis, 10, 222. Ameimar, 147. AfneUdispttf lix. America, South, 241. ^ Amorite, 201. 'Amr b. Tarbu*, descended from she- demon, 70. Amulets, xviii, li, bd ; A, xxix, bdii, 90, 106; Ab, 104; As, 41, 84, 154; Maronite, 42 ; against Lilith, 72. AmurrikanUt 171. 8 258 INDEX. Anato, 151, 245. Angels, M, Mi, 6, 52; H, 23, 160, 161 ; daughters of God, A, 74 ; guardian, 46, 200 ; intermarriage with human beings, see Denumt. Angel of Death, A, xx, 86 ; H, 86, 87 ; 8,87. Angel of Lust, H, 66. Angel of Tahweh, 73, 78, 86, 220. Animal forms of demons, see J)emoM. Annual expulsion of demons, 157. Anobret, 222. Anointing as diyine due, 133, 234. Ants in magic, A, As, H, 33. Anu, XX, xxii, xxiii, xxxix, xliii, xlr, 20, 41, 49, 50, 54, 55, 151, 152, 240, 245. Anuk, 1. Anunnaki, 85. Apep, 149. Aplii, xxxTii. Arabia, Arabs, pauitn, Arafat, 16. Arameans, xxii. Arbela, 85. Ardat lilt, spirit, 65 £P., 120. Ardatu emphasizes femininity, 66. Areca in magic, M, Iviii. Ariel, 160, 161. Arihaiu (* menstruating ' P), 67, 83. Aristophanes, 107. Aristotle, 157. Arkat-ilAni, xxxvii. Arluni, 72. Arm in magic, 164. Armenia, xlix, liii. Arrowheads as amulets. A, Ixiii. Arsacid period, xxxriii. Arsacius, 107. Artemis, 230. Arum, XX. Asafodtidainmagic, M, Iviii; Med, 149. Atakku (* feyer ' P), 50, 82, 99, 160, 203 (see Fever) ; not oiakku^ xxxix ; Series, xU. Aiam, 176, 179. Ash in magic. A, xxix, 61, 174 ; As, 139, 208; Babar,201; 0,174; H,ly,lvi, 61,164,187; M,lTiii,36; Malagasy, 213; Tobit, Irii. Ash-heaps, As, 177. Ashdod, metempsychosis of unclean person into woman of, H, 4. ^ftjpM-prieets, xxiif. Asmodeus, 71, 74 if., 77, 134, 197; bom of angel and woman, 75 ; plots against newly wedded, 75, 134. Ass in magic. A, Ixri, 51, 60 ; As, xlir, 50, 51 ; H, 219, 220, 233, 234, 252 ; metempsychosis of unclean person into, H, 4; T, 6; Balaam's ass, 4, 51; asses' urine as libation. As, 34 ; hoof, foot of ghoul, 60. AJSur, xxxi, 85. AlSurbanipal, xxxrii, xxxriii, 10, 55, 65, 100, 178. Aisumafirpal, xxii. AiSur-risila, 85. Assyria, pattim. Asterius, legend, 130. Astride, H, 164. Astronomy, xxxt if. Atargatis, 141. Ater'me8\ in magic, xlr, 26. Athenians, xxxiii, 14, 230. Atonement, xvii, xli, xlri, 114, 175 if. ; As, xxiii, Ivii, 84, 153, 159, 177-9, 181 if. ; H, 177-81, 182 if.; not eaten, 0, 216; contradictions between the atonement ceremonies (Wellhausen), 198; day of, 119, 141, 182, 184. Atonement-money, 182, 225. Atreus, 239. Augustas, xxxri. 'Aulak, 63. Australia, 90, 148, 241. Austria, 170. Aymara Indians, 184. Aza, 44. Azael, 44. Azarias, Ivii. Azazel, 75, 184. Azbuga, 161. Baal, xviii. Ba'al k'ri (one unclean from noctumal pollution), 71, 117, 122, 190; see Tabu. Babar Archipelago, 201. INDEX. 259 Babes, danger to (see Labartu), 164; H, 129; stolen by oats, A, 42; chann against losing, A, 102 ; mother dying with babe at breast becoming ghost, 19 ; new-born sprinkled, A, liii ; Fiji ideas, 38. Babylon, xxi, zxii, xxxy, liii, 78, 79, 02, 178, 239, 240. Babylonians, pauitn. Bachelor-ghost, see Ohost ; married to spirit, 66 if. * Backwards, looking, in magic, 171 ; A, 171, 172, 226; As, 172 (P); Boman, 227. Badagas, 183. Baghdad, 22, 27, 211. Bags hung up as amulets. A, 90 ; cf. H, 146. i^aArtt-fruit, 161. Bakhtashiyah, 169. Balaam, xxr. Balaam's ass, 4, 51. Balak, xxy. Bali in Jara, 184. Ban, Tablet of the. As, 28, 123, 126. Banana in magic, Tonga, 215. Banks Islands, 22. Banning eril spirits, see Binding. Baptism, Hy, 29. Barbary, 1, 17. Bardesan, xxzr. Bdr-0ffdrdf demon, 40. Barley in magic, 102. Barnabas, Epistle of, 106. Barren Yalley, 200. Barren women desiring ofiEspring, 76 if. ; (charm against barrenness, A, 102, 256 ; H, 102) ; figures offered by(P), As, 64 ; Sumatra sacrifice for, 183 ; S.E. Africa superstition, 237. Barrett, Francis, Iz, 68, 91. Bar Shalmon, 71. ^aril-priests, xxi if., xlr. Basket in magic, M, 36, 201 (cf. 163). Bat, metempsychosis of udclean person- into, H, 4. Bat-men with raren faces, As, 81. Bath Horin, 129. Baths haunted, see Demons, Battas of Sumatra, 183. Battie-ritual, As, 157 ; A, H, P, 158 ; E (Eth), 156. Ba*n, xlTiii, 88, 205, 245. Beads in magic. A, 38 ; M, 28. Beans in magic, Boman, 227. Bear in magic, 230. Beard in magic, A, 38. Beasts in magic (see under different names), M, 162. Beating to drire away spirits. A, 60, 105 (of. H, 161); T, 81; Xerxes flogging HeUespont, 230. Bed in magic, 109 ; As, lix, 35, 127, 165, 166, 171, 208; H, 102, 164. Bee, Book of the, quoted, 6. Beelzebub, xlri. Beer in magic, A, 210 ; As, xlir, 187. Beetle in magic. A, 210. Beirut, 80, 226. Beit Nuba, 207. Bekhten, Possessed Princess of, 107. Bel, XX, xxii, 25, 55, 78, 82, 97, 240, 245 ; selects woman, 78 ; Temple of, 78. Bel and the Dragon, 199. Bel-e^, xxxYii. Beliar, 51. BeUt, xxYi, 245. Belit-m, 188. BeUt-Nippur, 245. Belly in magic, M, 36. Berossus quoted, xx. Besisi, 53. Betel-leaYcs in magic, M, 162, 163. Bilkis, 57. Binding a spirit, xxi ; As, xlYii, 45, 172 ; S, xlvii, 51; Tobit, lyii, 74; the tongue, G, 172. Bird in magic, xxxri, 202 ; A, IxYii, 5, 135, 187; As, xxii, 41, 49, 81, 135, 186; Eth, Ixvi; H, 185-8, 252; M, 162; N.T., 02; Sumatra, 183. See Batf Coek, Dove, Eagle, Owl, Paradite, Peacock, Pigeon, Raven, Sparrow, and Swallow, Bisharin, 10, 60. Bitch in magic, xlix, 204. £it'Sala\ incantation, xxxTiii. 260 INDEX. Bitumen in magic, As, lix, 164, 188, 203 ; 0, 106. Black in magic. A, xx, 61, 107, 211 ; As, 154, 161, 165, 170, 171, 188; Barnabas, 106 ; H, Ixy, Ixti, 61, 211 ; I, xxriii, lix ; Lucian, 104 ; Boman, 227 ; S, 92. Black man, demon as, A, 40, 77 (cf. 107) ; Barnabas, 106. Blacksmiths, Jewish, accredited with magic in Abyssinia, 103. Blindness, H, 30, 129, 170 ; Test, of Sol., 43. See Ophthalmia. Blood in magic, 195 if., 203 ; A, 5 ; M, 21 ; Sab, 148 ; sprinkled, 181 ; A, Ixni, 211 ; As, 208 ; H, W, 194, 212; Malagasy, 183; dost sprinkled on, of murdered man, A, 61 ; on altar, 220 ; on honse, A, 58, 228 ; H, 185, 188 (cf. footnote, 228) ; on door- posts, A, 226 ; on monument. A, 227 ; on plonghland, A, 58 ; on saddle. A, 158 ; unlocks treasure. A, 62 ; lures demons, see Demon* ; feeds ghosts, A, G, 16; of sacrifice, on forehead, A, 80, 226, 227 ; on skin. A, 226, 229 ; runs into water. A, 231 ; superstition about bleeding, M; H, 115; as seat of life, 179, 195 ; used in writing, H, 186 ; to create man, As, xx, 195. Blowing in magic, see Breath, BIndan, 78. Blue in magic. A, Ixi, 90 ; Ab, 164 ; H, 164. B'ng Eldhim, 72. Boarinmagic, 0,216; M, 127. SeePi^. Body in magic. A, 211. Boils, 209. BoUvia, 184. Bone in magic. As, xx, xliii. Bone of hyena in magic, Ab, 104. Bones of frog in magic, H, Ixir. Bones removed, see Grave, Borhdt, 5. Borneo, 36, 163, 228. Borsippa, xxxvii. Bottle in magic, A, 180. Bouda, demoniac possession in, Abyssinia, 103, 149. Bow in magic, H, 144. Box in magic. A, 37 ; As, xxTii, 161 (P) ; H, 144 ; Med, 149. Brain in magic, Ixiv. Brazier in magic (see Center) ^ As, xIy, lix. Bread in magic. A, 169, 207, 231 ; As, xlu, xIy, 139, 157, 161, 206, 208 ; H, xxxi, 91, 118, 139, 207; Mac, 207 ; Sab, 139 ; T, 31. Breaking neck of animal, instead of sacrificing, H, 194, 220, 233; not breaking bones. A, 229. Breaking pot, etc., to dissipate demons^ A, 30, 31; As, 28, 124, 206 (cf. 254) ; H, 30. Breast in magic. A, As, 211. Breath in magic. A, 73, 168 ; I, 162 ; IbnEhaldun, 145; P, 168; cf. hot air of Abu Babah, 80; foulness of, H, 129. Brickwork, god of, xIy. Bride, tabu against taking water from, H, 31, 32 ; allowed to wash on Toma, H, 32 ; washes her feet. A, 135 ; snatched away by M^ed, 61 ; customs- concerning, 30 if., 135. Bridegrooms, customs concerning, 30 ff.,. 135. Bridge in magic, As, 152 ; H, 117. Brimstone in magic, Med, 149; see- Sulphur. Bronze in magic, As, 154, 203. Broom in magic. A, xxix, 37. Bruniquel, 239. Buffalo in magic, I, Sumatra, 183 ; M, 228. Building rites, 228 (see Blood) ; As,. xlv. Bukhara, 169. Bull, diyine, 96. Bundle of twigs (P) in magic, As, 166,. 212, 213. Bunene, xlii. Buratu-irood, see Cypress, Burghers, 183. Burial of horse slaughtered, O, 216. Burning in healing. A, Ixiv, 105; As, Ixiy. Bumt-oifering, 194 if. (cf. It). INDEX. 261 Boro, 167. Butter in magio, As, xlii, xIt, 157, 158. Bynay Iri. Bysantme amulets, 42. Caaba, Stone of the, 116. Gain, 187. Gain's father a demon, 73. Gairo, 18, 31, 70, 90. Gall in magic. A, 146 ; £, 222 ; H, 64. Galifomia, 184. Galirrhoe (Zerka Ma'in), 59. Gambodia, 184. Gambyses, 10. Gamel in magic. A, 16, 60, 77, 173, 210, 227; H, XX, 117; P, 167; Sab, 14; in metempsychosis, H, 4. Gandle in magic, H, 119 ; M, 36 ; Maronite, 29. Gannibalism, 232 if. ; eating corpse of man executed for murder, 76. Gaper in magic. As, 33, 34, 253 ; H, 91. Gaptivity, 178. Garmel, 79. Garthaginian battle ritual, 158. Gat in magic. A, Ixrif., 61, 256; 6, 174; H, Ixyif., 61; carry off sleeping babes, A, 42. Cattle in magic. As, lix ; charm for, As(P), S, 50; perceire spirits. A, H, 51 ; attacked by demons. As, 49. See Ox, Caul in magic, H, 194. Cayes haunted, see Demont. Cedar in magic, Armen., 33 ; As, xxii, xxxTiii, 188, 202 ; H, It, 185, 188 ; oil of, in magic. As, 33, 188. Celebes, 163, 201. Cemetery haunted, see Demoru, Censer in magic, Iriii ; A, Ivii ; As, xli, xlii, xIt, iTii, 26. 28, 34, 158, 160, 188, 202, 204, 208 ; Tobit, 75, 134 (of. A, 89, and the hot air of Abu Babah, 80). Geram, 156. Chair in magic. A, 138 ; As, 127. Chaldeans, xxxir, xxxt, xxxri, 100. Challox in magic, 135. Chariot in magic, I, 158. ChauTeau, 239. Chest in magic, A, 37. Chicken in magic, A, 62; Ab, 104; H, 212; I, 183; M. 228. Chidr, 80. Child, see Baie9, Childbed, Childbirth, woman dying in, becomes ghost, A, 20, 22 (cf. 27) ; As, 19, 131 (cf. 6, 22; H, 21, 22) ; I, 22 ; M, 20, 21 ; Melanesia, Pelew, 22; bewitched. Pal, 135; woman in, dangers to, 137; A, 169; charm for, I, xxTiii, Ix ; M, li ; must not see menstruating woman. A, 118 ; must rise when corpse is carried past, A, 27, 137 ; Tinted by Obizuth, Test, of Sol., 41 ; guarded by amulet, H, 72 ; wears sandals, H, 119 ; see Tabu. Virgin Mary assists at, 138. * Children of the Deep,' 214. Child-witch, A, 43; tabu on, 112. See Labartu and Owl, China, xliii, 157, 184. Christ, XXX, xlTii, xlix, Ixri, 9, (51), 74, 91, 101, 107, 208, 223 ; inLucian, 104. Christian superstitions of the Middle Ages, XTii, Ix, 48, 53, 68, SI, 91, 149, 173. Cigarettes in magic, M, 162. Cinnabar in magic, 6, Ixrii. Girde, Magic, Ixif., Ixriii, 189; As, xxiii, IriifF., 123, 126(7), 165, 204, 207 ; I, lix ; Pal, 102. Clay in magic. A, xx, 38 ; As, xx, xIt, 32, 34, 64, 81, 84, 150, 154, 159, 161,204; H, XX, 144. * Clean ' man, H, It. Clean place in magic, 180, 199 ; As, 165, 199, 206, 214 ; H, 199 (cf. 238) ; S, 115. Cloth in magic. A, 88 ; H, 146 ; 1, 163 ; M, Iriii. Clothes in magic. As, Wiii, 26 ; 6, 22 ; clean. As, 138. Coal in magic, H, Inii. Cock in magic. A, 61, 62, 211, 212 (cf. As, 63) ; H, xx, 61, 170 ; M, 230. Cocoanuts in magic, I, 163. 262 INDEX. Coffer of marble in ma^c, A, 37* Cohabitation, tabu on Wednesday and Friday, T, 134; in bed in which child sleeps, H, 135. See Tabu. Coin in magic, M, 162. Gollyridians, 207. Coloured threads or hairs in magic. As, 33, 165 ft.; I, 163, 164; M, 162; Boman, 164. Colt in magic, A, 62. Combing hair on Sunday, tradition, 8,51. Consecration of priests, H, 182. Consumption, remedy for. A, 173. Contagious tabu, see Tabu» Copper in magic, As, 187 ; H, Ixvi. Coptic charm, 172. Corascene, zliz. Cords in magic. As, lyiii, 121, 158, 164 if. ; H, 164, 170; I, 163; Ibn Khaldun, 145 ; M, 162 ; P, 168. See Coloured threadt. Coriander in magic, H, 146. Com in magic, Ab, 26, 32, 188 ; see Cornelians as amulets. A, bdii, Ixiy. Comers of room in magic, A, 89, 135 ; As, 161; H, 89, 186; Pal, 102. Corpse, Arab beliefs about, 5, 137; tabu on, see Tabu ; looking on, tabu. As, 26, 35, 115, 131; H, 118; 8, 114, but see Appendix, 255; when unburied, ghost returns, As, 8, 13, 17, 32 ; of murdered man, ghost returns, A, 61 ; touching, of man executed for murder, 76 (cf. 266) ; eating ditto, 76. Cotton in magic. A, 37, 115, 169 ; H, 115; I, 164. Court, Eastern, of justice, 172. Cow in magic. Pal, 135. Creeping things in magic, As, 186 ; H, 4. Crocodile in magic, E, 143. Cronus, 222. Cross in magic, Ixi ; A, 227. Crossways in magic, li, 177, 201. Croup, H, 129. Crow in magic, zzxi. Crumbs in magic, H, 91, 147. Cucumber (P) in magic. As, 165. Cup in magic. A, 20; As, 125, 127; H, 30, 32. Curses on desecrators of tomb. As, Phoen, 10; Nab, 11. Cutting up slaughtered animal m oath, O, 216. Cypress in magic. As, 34, 158, 188, 202. Cyprian women, prostitution of, 79. Dama, 163. Damascus, 78. Damkina, xxiii, 214, 245. Daniel, xxxy, Ut. Dark colour, Iviii, 32. Dates in magic. A, 107; As, xxiii, xIt, 26, 141, 157, 187, 192 ; H, 144. DsTid, 231. Dawn in magic, As, 56, 84, 161, 165; see Morning. Days, lucky, xxx if. ; reckoning the day, xxxviii. Dead (see OHobU) : raised. A, 9 ; As, 7, 9 ; G, 8, 9 ; H, 9 ; Med. Chr., 91 ; bones of, remoTcd, see Grave; offerings to. A, 15, 16; As, 13 ff.; 6, 16; H, 13 ff. ; Sab, 14; obligations to, S, 14, 15 ; greeting, A, 5. Dead Sea, 231. Deafness, H, 129, Death (see Mourning) : due to God, H, 118 ; angel of, see Angel. Deep, see Sea. Deer in magic, H, xxxi. Deformed children the result of riolating certain animal tabus, M, 23 ; see Abortione and Imperfect men. Del Rio, Martin, quoted, xrii, xxt, Ixii, 68, 72. Demigods, 182, 236. Democritus, xxxW. Demons, names of, 1 ; * Scheiss-Teufel,' 72 ; classes of, 2 ; in N.T., 100. Assume any form, H, 44; animal forms, A, 57, 60, 62, 77 ; As, 8, 54 ; H, Eth, 61 ; camels, A, 77 ; with cocks* feet, H, 61 (of. As, 63) ; with donkeys* legs. A, 60 ; Origen, 60 ; dragons, As, 54 (f) ; Test, of Sol., 76 ; goat, Sab, 57 ; leopard, As, 54 ; INDEX. 263 lion, 8, 54 ; ostriches, A, 57 (cf. 60) ; owls, A, 21, 77; As, 60; M, 21; panther, 8, 64 ; rayen, xxx ; scorpions, 8, 64 ; snake, A, 67 (cf. As, 12, 64) ; 8, 64 ; wolf, 8, 64 ; hairy. A, 67 ; assume human form. A, 67, 62, 77 ; Med, 69 ; Test, of 8ol., 71 ; without shadow, H, 61 ; iuTisihle, without flesh or bones, H, 44; N.T., 100. Eat, A, 68 ; Ab, 104 (lick dishes A, 126); doYOur blood, 196; As 48, 49, 196; Eth, 62; H, 44 Maimonides, 196; Origen, 93, 196 if. Porphyry, 106; 8, 61 (cf. sacrifice A, 68) ; flesh, A, H, 63 ; Eth, 62 8, 61 ; diink. A, 68 ; H, 44 ; smell Origen, 93 (of. Tobit, 76, 134, 197) intermarry with human beings, 236 A, 68-70, 74, 76; As, 66 fl., 132 G, 68 ; H, 71, 73 ; Queensland, 76 8, 74 ; Test, of 8ol., 76 ; Tobit, 74 134 (Lilith attacks solitary sleepers H, 70 ; 8atan seduces Ere, H, 74 demon in form of woman as tempta tion. A, 101, cf. Test, of Sol., 71 have power over woman without wedding ring, 137 ; dangerous to newly wedded, 134) ; propagate, A, 68 ; H, 44 (this denied. As, 49 ; 8, 74) ; some sexless, As, 40, 47, 49 ; take away creative power, A, 77 ; As, 49, 77 ; die, A, 68, 61 ; H, 44. Fly, H, 44 (cf. Origen, 93; cf. 100) ; can pass all doors. As, 60, but not wax. A, 106 ; creep. As, 49, 66 ; 8, 61 ; fight, A, 60 ; stink, As, 49 ; howl, roar, As, 49 ; ride, A, 69, 60 ; have foreknowledge, H, 44; guard treasure, A, 62, 63 (cf. xlix ; T, 6) ; wear dresses of women, A, 71 ; write, A, 62 (cf. 46) ; mislead travellers, A, 60, 90. Bring disease, 2 if., 93; As, 48, 96 (cf. 181); Pal, 100; 'Chaldeans,' 100; death. A, 68, 69; dumbness, A, 62; plagues, droughts, and bad seasons, Origen, 93 (cf . 48) ; malignity of soil, A, 68 ; earthquakes, 8, 64 ; storms. As, 43, 48, 49, 60, 64 ; Med, 48; dust-storms. A, Bisharin, 60; eclipses. As, 62 if. Possession by demons, 93, 96 ; A, 60, 101, 104, 107; Ab, 103; O, 106, 107; H, 101; Lucian, 104; Maronite, 106 ; N.T., 100 ; Pal, 60, 101 ; Josephus, Porphyry, 106 ; 8, 40, 92 (see Madneif) ; apportioned to various members of the body. As, N.Z., 99 (cf. M, 36); enter body by orifices, A, H, 116 ; exit by toe, A, 106, 106 ; by nostrils, Josephus, 106 ; excluded by veil. A, N.T., 74 ; by wax, A, 106; driven away by noise, A, H, M, Mac, Med, 63 ; Orang Laut, 136; Pal, 72; fire, M, 137; beating. A, 60, 106 ; T, 31 ; stench, Tobit, Ivii, Iviii, 76, 134, 197 (cf. Med, 149); thrown sand, etc., A, 169 ; Eth, 168 ; hiid by incantation, Origen, 196; nailed down, A, 17, 18; « bound,' M, 167; Med, 149; Origen, 93; 8, xlvii, 61; Tobit, 74 ; summary, 93 ; can be transferred to figures, M, 162 ; from one person to another, and from human beings into animals, N.T., 100; to water, A, 31; As, 28; H, 29; Maronite, 29; can be recognized. A, 40; are ofbpring of human beings and spirits (cf. 2, 66, 93), As, 66, 71 ; H, 70, 71 ; Kurd, 71 ; Book of Enoch and Test, of 8ol., 76 ; tradition denied, 8, 74; are immature creatures or abortions, H, 23. Earth-demons, A, T, 69 ; fear of scalding them, A, Pal, T, 69 ; come from Underworld, As, 97 ; seven spirits. As, 7, 47 if. ; Pal, 60, 62 ; 8, 60, 61 ; Test. Twelve Patr., 61 ; Zoroaster, 62 ; throne-bearers. As, 47, 48 (P) ; A, H, 62. 8ee Appendix. Haunt baths. A, 90 ; caper bushes, H, 91 ; caves. A, 68, 62, 90 ; As, 66, 81, 90; Maimonides, 90 ; deserts. A, 90 ; As, 28, 39, 44, 66, 84, 90, 97, 161; Eth, 92; H, 67, 91, 116; M, 167 ; Maimonides, 90 ; N.T., 91, 100 ; Origen, 60 ; Pal, 91 ; food and drink. \ 264 INDEX. H, 91 ; Maronite, 42 ; grayeyards, 200 ; A (cf. 6, 171, 172); As, 7, 39 ; H, 29, 91, 118 ; Med, 91 ; N.T., 100 ; houses, A, 91, 92 ; latrines, 200; A, 90; H, 91 ; marshes, As, 41 ; mountainfl, As, 39, 41, 82; S, 83; * Moantain of Sunset and Mountain of Dawn,' As, 66 (cf . Arab superstition about Jebel l^af) ; nut-trees, H, 91 ; OTons, A, 90 ; places of execution, etc.. A, 61 ; Med, 91 ; rivers, A, 90 ; rocky places, Australia, 90 ; ruins, 200 ; A, 90, 92 ; As, 81, 90; Eth, 92; H, 91, 92; Maimonides, 90 ; Origen, 60 ; Pal, 91 ; S, 92 ; sea. As, 39 ; shadows on moon- light nights, H, 91 (cf . Maronite, 42) ; spearworts, H, 91 ; stone, S, 83, 89 ; temples and shrines where incense and blood are offered, Origen, 93 ; thickets and watering-places, Australia, 90; wells, A, 90, 115; H, 118. Ddr Atiyeh, 177. Ddr-ez-zdr, 89. D^ M&r Elia, monastery, 101. Descent of Ishtar, 3, 33. Desecration of grayes, see Grave. Desert, xxyii, 165, 166; haunt of demons, see Demant; see also 153, Clean place. Lady of the Desert^ Plain-god, and Scapegoat, Destiny, A, H, 12 ; As, 11, 12. ' Destroyer,' H, 86. Deyil, the, see Iblie, Satan. Diana of the Ephesians, 65. Dilbat-'piaiii in magic, 187. Dimetu, 83, 192. DinanUf 178. Diodorus quoted, zzxri, 222. Dioskoros, 1. Dish in magic. As, 127. Diyinations, A, As, xxxi ; H, xxxi, 147. Dog in magic, xlix ; A, Ixy if., 169, 174, 207, 210; As, xliy, bay, 49, 161, 204; H, bdi, Ixy, 170, 207; spirit of wicked transmigrating into, T, 6 ; *Dog of the Witch,' 14; easting bread to dogs, see 169, 204, 207 ; cf. 127. Donkey, spirit of wicked transmigrating into, T, 6 ; see Ate. Door in magic. A, 90 ; As, xxyiii, lix, 208 ; Eth, 92 ; H, 1, 161. Doorpost in magic, A, 31, 226 ; lock, A, 37 ; Med, 173. See Threthold. Dough in magic, As, xvii, 28, 33, 83, 160, 206, 207 ; H, 119, 207 ; 1, 168 ; M, 159, 162. Doye in magic, H, xx, 181, 187 ; not sacrificed at Harran, 54. Dragon, As. 54 (?) ; of Reyelation, 43 ; Test, of Sol., 43 ; swallows moon. A, Peru, South Sea, 53 ; demons in shape of. Test, of Sol., 76; Belaud, 199 ; As, 54 (?). Dream, xxxri; A, ly; As, 9, 33, 186; Maronite, 42. Dregs in magic. As, 126, 254 (cf. Eth, 148) ; sayage, 146. SeeZu*u,Itefi4se, and Tabu. Drinking magic writing. A, Ixi ; H, iy, Ixi. Dubsag-Unug-kii 45. Dumah, 4. Dumatii, 222. Dung in magic, As, 153 if., 203, 204 ; H, 147, 194. See Lu'u. Dungheaps haunted (see Demont iu magic), H, 170 ; cf. As, 177. DuiSara, 11. Dust in magic, 142 ; A, 89 ; Armen, 33 ; As, 33 ; H, liy, 33 ; (sand) Kurdistan, 71 ; sprinkled on blood of murdered man. A, 61 ; (grayel) cast against enemy. A, 158 ; (dust) H, 159 ; (sand against demons) Eth, 158; {stones) A, 159 ; equiyalent of water in puri- fication, A, 117; food of spirits. As, 3 ; synonym of Underworld, H, 3 ; dust-storm caused by demons. A, Bisharin, 60; taken from cemetery (sand), A, 171 ; from graye. A, 147 ; As, 33; H, 146; from footprint, A, sayage, 146; As, 163, 154; H, xxxii, 146, 164 ; mud from riyer, H, 164 ; from temple. As, 146 ; from floor of tabernacle, H, ly. Dyaks, 36. INDEX. 265 £a, zzii, zjdii, xxvi, xzzTiii, xliii, zIt, zlyii, zlTiii, Ui, Ut, lix, 8, 26, 46, 47, 61, 66, 63, 88, 98, 123, 160, 162, 171, 188, 203, 206, 210, 211, 213, 214, 230, 246. Ea-bani, zx, 7if., 12. Eagle in magic, H, zz. Ear in magic, Test, of Sol., 43. Earth (see Clap and Dutt), offering poured into, 0, 32, 33. Earth-demons, see Demons. Earthquake, zzzyi ; see Demons. East in magic, As, zzvii, 263 ; H, 164 ; I, zzTiii. Eating with iriends, superstitions about. As, H, 16; eating carcase of sin- offering, 194 ; of atonement-oifering, H, 212; eating magic writing, H, IzTi. See Tabu. Eber, 222. Eclipse (due to demons, see Demons) ^ zzzvi. As, zli, 99; sickness due to, As, 66 ; weddings must not take place during, A, 134. Ed-el-jftj, 212. Eden, S, 6. Edessa, zlvii. Edimmu (correct reading for ekimmu, 3], see Ohost. Eggs in magic, 6, Izvii ; H, Izt, Izyi, 102,139; E.Indies, 166, 163; M, 20. Egypt, zviii, zliz, Ini, Iziii, Izt, 8, 10, 17, 69, 64, 70, 78, 79, 143, 149, 168, 220, 222, 246, 260, 266. Eight in magic. A, 62, 169 ; H, zzzi. Ekimmu (read edimmu^ 3), see Ohost. Ekurra, see Underworld. Elam, 10. Elason, zzz. Eleazar, 106. Elephant in magic, I, 168. El-Hejr, Ixi. EI-Howwara, 63. Elijah, ZTiii, 118; festival, 79. Elul, month, 138. Elymas, zzz. Embaros, 230. Emissions, seminal, see Bd^al k*r%. Encolpius, 164. En-dor, witch of, 9. Enemeesar, 24. England, 72. Enmeduranki, zzi. Enoch, Book of, quoted, 73; SlaTonic, 74. Enquiry, tabu on making, As, 139, 140. Entrails in magic. As, zzii ; H, 197. Enyy (Demon), 201. Ephesus, 66. Epilepsy, 108 ; A, 101, 104 ff., 107 ; G, 107. 203; H, 102, 136, 136; N.T., 101 ; see Demons. Eredkigal, 1, 48. Eridu, zziii, zlviii, lii, liii, 7, 61, 84, 98, 100, 169, 166, 166, 167, 203, 204, 206, 211; Incantation of , lii, 84, 98, 169, 166,203, 206, 211. E-sagila, 186. Esarhaddon, zzii. Eshmunazar, 10, 80. Esquimauz, 184. Essenes, 139. Ethiopians, passim, EuchitsB, 223. Euphemisms, U, 19, 38, 116, 121, 128, 199. Euphrates, zzzv, liii, 26, 80, 144, 213, 250. Euripides, 107. Eustathius quoted, 19. Eve, 23, 72, 74,77, 118. Even numbers in magic, H, zzxi, zzzii. Evening in magic. As, 169, 161, 166, 213; H, 187. %w Sunset. Evil Eye, zviii ; A, 88 if. ; As, 43, 88, 100 (cf. 39), 206; H, 89, 136; Maronite, 42; N.T., 88; S, 89; averted from bed, H, 72 ; by be*ds or headdress, A, 90 (on the Evil Eye among the Hebrews see Aaron Bray's article in Ophthalmology ^ April, 1908, p. 427 if.). Evil man as ghost, 19. Ezcesses, A, 79 ; Psellus, 223. Eztemal soul, see Ohost. Eye in magic, 89. Ezida, zzzvii. Ezra, 74. 266 INDEX. Face in magic, A, 211. Faditra, Malagasy magic, 213. * Fairy- women,' I, 164. Fan in magic, A, xxix; M, 36. See Tabu. Farde, stones of, 207. Fat in magic. As, zxTii ; H, 194 if., 220. Fauns, 72. Feasts of the Hebrews, 182. February in magic, Iroquois, 184. Fedu, 80, 177, 178, 226 if. Feet in magic. A, 227 ; As, 171 ; Tonga, 215 ; bare feet, Roman, 227. Female in magic, A, 60, 227, 229 ; H, 4, 147, 216, 220. Fern in magic, Maori, 215. Fever, 101, 108, 210; As, lii, 82(?), 99 (P) ; see Atakku ; charma against, A, 83, 168,211; P, 167. Fifteenth day in magic, As, 56. Figs in magic, As, zliii. Figures of plastic material in magic, xli, xlTi, U, lix, Ixi, 142 if., 173, 180, 202 ; Ab, zvii, xxri, lyiii, 28, 32, 34, 35, 83, 84, 116, 150 if., 159, 161, 203, 255 ; £, 143, 149 (Eth), 156, 222; 6, 143; H, 144; I, 158, 163 (cf. examples, 163); Ibn Khaldun, 144; M, 36, 145, 162, 205; oifered by barren women, As, 64 ; of sorcerers in counter-attack, As, xxziz, 26, 150 if. Fihrist quoted, 116. Fiji, 38. Finger in magic. A, 226 ; Roman, 227 ; cf. tabu on pointing with finger, As, 252. Finger of God, H, 97 ; cf . * hand of God,' As, 96. Fire in magic, A, Iviii, bay, 77, 89, 105, 211; As, 140; H, xUx, lyiii, Ixiy, Ixyiii, 58, 119, 144, 160, 220; M, 137, 146; Med, 149. See Fire-god and Tabu. Fire-god (see Nuzhu)^ zxy, xxxix, 66, 162-4, 184, 214. Firstborn in magic, 114, 180, 219 if.; H, 61. Firstfruits in magic, 180, 219 if. ; A, 27; H, 221. Fish in magic (cf. 53), A, 210; Ab, 141 (cf. 63), 186; H, 136; Mac, lyii; S, 141; Test, of Sol., 66; Tobit, Ivii, 76, 134. Fiye in magic (cf . pentacle), 189 ; H, liii. Flax in magic. As, 88 (P). Flood, 44, 197. Florida, 222. Flour in magic, see Meal. Flowers in magic. A, 37 ; I, 163. Fly in magic. A, 210 ; As, 63. Food in magic. As, 163, 204, 206 ; Etii, 148. See DemoM and Ohoat. Foot in magic, Ab, 166. Forehead reoeiying blood of sacrifice, A, 80, 211, 226, 227; ashes. A, XXX ; leaven. A, 31 ; water. A, liii. Foreigners in magic, H, 186. Forty in magic, H, 118. Forty-nine in magic. As, 138. Four in magic. A, 62, 89; Ab, xxxi, xlii; H, XX, xxxi, 102, 186. Fourteen in magic. As, 138 ; H, 207. Fowl in magic, A, Ixiii ; Ab, 104 ; M, 228. Fox in magic. A, 59 ; As, xxxi ; H, xxxi. Friday in magic. A, 77 ; H, 16, 30, 68, 145 ; Y, 134. Fright from ghost, see Ohost. Fringes in magic, H, 169. Frog in magic, H, Ixiy. Fruit in magic, Sab, 14. Fudl Arabs, 211. Fumigation, A, hii, Ixyii, 88, 107, 122 ; As, lyii, 122, 213, 214 ; G, ly ; H, 107 ; M, 205 ; Mac, lyii ; Tobit, lyii. See Censer. ' Funerals, see Mourning. Gabriel, xx, 61, 73, 89, 146, 168, 168. Gadarene swine, 180, 208. Gaffat, 103. Galicia, 30, 129. Galilee, Sea of, 228. Gall in magic, H, 87. Galloi priests, 114. GaUk, 39, 40, 192. Garlic in magic. As, 192 ; Pal, 72. INDEX. 267 Garment in magic, As, xix ; see Chth§$. Gate in magic. As, xxTii, Ivii, 164 ; £, zlix. Gaza, 107, 231. Gazelle in magic, A, 69. Gazelle's horn in magic, As, 34 ; foot in magic, A, 37. Gentile, metempsychosis of unclean person into, H, 4. GhadCir, zxxiL GhasBanide prince, 223. Ghosts : — Ediftimu (not ekinmH), 3, 26, 39. Return, 2 if., 24, 93; As, 3, 7 ; E,8; G, 14; H, 8, 40(F); in white, A, 106; from the grave, As, 7; Hadendowa, 10 ; Arabic beliefs, 6, 27 ; M, 36. Of persons untimely dead : Abortions (cf. 21), A, 23 ; As, 20, 23 ; H, M, 23. Bachelors, As, 19, 23 ; G, 19. Dead of hunger, thirst, drowning, in the desert, marsh, or storm, As, 19. Diseased women. As, 20. Dying by fault of god or sin of king. As, 32. Evil man, As, 19. Falling (?) from date-palm. As, 26. Harlots (1^, As, 19, 120. Immodest (?) women, As, 67, 120. Murdered men. A, 6, 17 ; As, 17, 32; cf. H, 17. Virgins, As, 19, 23, 67, 120 ; G, 19. Women, 67, 120 ; at childbirth. A, 20, 22 (cf. 27) ; As, 19, 120 ; G,22; cf. H,21,22; 1,22; H, 20, 21; Melanesia, 22; Pelew Is. , 22 ; with babe at breast dying also. As, 19 ; who cannot men- struate. As, 67, 120. The owl as ghost. A, M, 21. Restless ghosts : As, 13 ; of unburied body, 3 ; As, 8, 13, 17, 32. Unfed by descendants, 3 ; As, 7, 8, 13,32, 116; £,8; H, 13. Return to wash, H, 27 ; to sit, H, 16 ; to those with whom they had connection during life, As, 24,26,32, 116. Attack of ghosts, 93; As, 36, 109. Fright from ghosts, A , 92 ; As, 86 ; Maronite, 42. Dead husband returning to wife, A, 76 (cf. women married to dead, H, 76). liaying ghosts : By exorcism, 93 ; As, 24, 32 ; M, 36 (cf. Origen, 93) ; by nailing down. A, 17, 18. They feed on dust and mud. As, 3 ; drink wat^ at tombs, A, 6, 16 ; eat dregs. As, £, 8 ; blood, A, G, 16 ; food and drink. As, 14 ; can speak. A, 171 ; pasture and drink, H, 4; thirst, £, 8; can sit(?), H, 16; cannot stand or sit. As, 7. Raising ghosts, 93 ; A, 9 ; As, 7, 9 ; G, 8, 9 ; H, 9 ; Med. Ghr., 91. Ghosts, summary, 93 ; external soul. A, 37, 38 ; As, 38 ; £, 37 ; Fiji, 38 ; H, 38 ; transmigration. A, 6 ; H, 4, 18 ; T, 6 ; binding the soul. As, 38, 166. Ghost-food, As, 8 ; see Dead. Ghost-omens, As, 36. Ghost- worship in the East, 14 ; see Demotu, Ghosts of the family. As, 27, 32, 34. Ghoul described, 60, 90. Gilganush, xx, xxrii, 7fl., 12, 33, 39, 72, 81, 96. Ginger (I) in magic. As, lii, 187. Gimi, xlviii. OX9-MAB, 264. Glands of fish in magic, Mac, Irii. Glass in magic, H, 144 ; M, 20. Gnosti, 223. Goat in magic, 67, 69, 233 ; A, 211, 226, 227 ; As, xUt, 82, 161 ; G, 230 ; H, 183, 198, 216, 219, 262 ; I, 183 ; M, 228. 8ee Kid. Goat-beard in magic. A, xxxiii. 268 INDEX. God; Bukhara, 169 ; I, 164. See Allah and Tahweh, Oodfl attracted by sweet smell, As, H, 1 97 ; eTil god, Ab, 39 ; fault of god, As, 32 ; gods of night, As, xxvii, 150 ; of the watch, As, zxriii ; ' son of his god,' As, 25, 46 if., 167, 206, 245 (cf. 84, 126) ; wise gods. As, 56. Gold in magic, 222 ; As, 230 ; 6, Ixrii ; H, 41, 146; P, 230; S, zz. Gooderoo, 103. Goths, 72. Grass in magic, H, 164; Malagasy, 213. Grasshoppers in magic, Sumatra, 183. Grave in magic, 144 ; A, 256 ; sacred. Pal, 107 ; desecration of, As, Phoen, Nab, 10; remoyal of bones. As, £, H, 10 ; Mahdi*stomb, 11 ; dust from, A, 147 ; As, 33 ; H, 146 ; haunted, see Denuma ; ghosts from grayes. As, 7 ; Hadendowa, 10 ; bed of reeds prevents ghost rising, H, 91. Greece, xxzvi, 174. Greeks, pauim. Green in magic, H, 189. Guardian angels, 46. Guiana, 239. Guilt-offering, 216. Guinea, 184. Gttla, zlWii, 245. Gunura, 88, 205. Gutter(-shadow) haunted, H, 91. Hadendowas, 10. Hades, see Underworld. Hadhramaut, 5, 57. Hair in magic, xlvi, 1, 142 ; A, 38, 229, 236 ; As, Ixiii, Ixiv, 153, 161, 166, 170, 192 ; H, 38, 40, 146, 147, 170, 184 ; M, 36 ; P, 167 ; S, 51 ; Sab, 148 ; savage, 146 ; see Threadt ; on legs, indication of jmniyaht A, 67 ; unbound, H, 1?, 169. Haj superstition, 159. HalflB, 22. Half-human spirits, 2, 65, 93, 132. Saltappan-jlluii, xzvi. Ham&h, 5. Hamath, 68, 78, 79. Hammam Faraun, 59. Hammer in magic, H, 161. Hammurabi, zzi, zzt. Hanania, liv. Hand in magic. As, 165 ; M, 36 ; hand of God, As, 96 (cf. H, < finger of God,' 96) ; hand of ghost. As, 35 ; as amulet, Ixii. Hanged, superstitions about men, 13, 76, and Appendix, 256. Hanifa, 207. Hare in magic, A, 69 ; metempsychosis of unclean person into, H, 4. Rarim&tu 78. Harlots in magic. As, 247 ; H, 32 ; as ghosts(P), As, 19 (cf. 78). Harran, 54. Harut, IxT. Hofar M&wethy 4. Hat (?) in magic, As, 206. Hate-charms, hd, Iziyff. Hathor, 64. HaU&th, 179. Haunted places, see Detnont, Hawk in magic, G, Ixvii. Hayyot (throne-bearers), 52. Head in magic, 226; A, 229 ; As, 33, 38, 161, 165, 166, 171, 206, 211, 213; H, XX, 38 ; M, 36; Maori, 215. Headache, 108; A, 18; (^'m), xlvii, li, 47, 98, 121, 165, 166, 167, 206, 212, 213 ; coming from Underworld, xlirii, 82, 99; from mountains and deserts. As, 82, 83. Headdress warding off demons (Paul), 74 ; evil eye. A, 90. Heart in magic. A, 61 ; As, xlir, 161, 203, 204, 208 ; H, IxYi ; Tobit, Ivii. Heart-plant, As, xUt. Hebrews, poisim. Hector, 254. Heifer in magic, A, Ivi ; H, It, 187. Hejaz, 207. Hejra, 11. Hekate, 14, 201. Helen, 216. Heliopolis, 79 (in Syria), 222 (in Egypt). Hellespont, 230. INDEX. 269 Hen in magic, H, Ixt, 212. HenlMne in magic, A, xUt. Hercoles, 72, 216. HtTtm, 1/6. Hennes Abootat, zliz. Hermes Trismegistos, xlviii, xlix. Herodotus quoted, 10, 78, 79, 122, 239. Hesychius quoted, 14. Hierapolis, liii. Hilarion, 107. Hindu magic, 158. iTtiMa-fleeh, 168. Hippocrates, 107. I^ira, 223. Hifn, Princess, 37. Hollow stone in magic, A, 89. Holy Ghost, 51. Holy tabus, see Tabu. Homer, see 0dy$9€y and Iliad. Honey in magic. As, zlii, xIt, 157, 158 ; H, IxTi ; Pal, 102. Hoof in magic. A, 37, 60 ; As, 32, 33 ; £th, 61. Hoopoe, A, Izir, 172. Hor, 143. Horace quoted, xxxri. Horn in magic, As, 32, 34. Horon, 222. Horse in magic. A, Ix^i, 146; As, 50 (cf. 47); G, 216; I, 158; 8, 57; Sumatra, 183; Test, of Sol., 65; transmigration into, T, 6. Horsehair (?) in magic, H, 144. Horseleach, 63. Horsemen of the air, S, 57. Horns, xIt, xlTi. Hos of India, 184. Hot springs, 59. House in magic, 228 ; As (cf. xxvii), 35, 235; H, 186, 189; I, xxriii ; unclean, H, 23, 186, 253 ; leprosy breaks out, 182, 185 ff. ; sorcery. As, 187 ; Pan- nonia, 72. SuldupfUt lix. Human sacrifice, 221 if. Hums, 228. Hundred in magic, M, lii. Hunnoman, 163. Huns, 72. Hunting souls, H, 38 ; see Ghott. Hurmiz, daughter of lilith, 71 . Humim, son of Lilith, 71. Husband returns as ghost. A, 76 ; ex» eluded from room of wife dying in chUdbirth, A, 22. Hydrophobia, A, 174; H, Ixii, 20. Hyena in magic, Ab, 104. Hyoicyamua mtUmu^ xUt. Hyssop in magic, H, It, Ivi, 185, 188. lamblichus, 117. lao, 1. Ibex in magic. As, 82. Iblis, xxxiii, xxxiy. Ibn Ehaldun quoted, Ixvii, 144. Idlu lilt, 67, 68 ; see Denum$. Igigi, 85. Ignatius, xlvii. 11, 222. Iliad, 251. Imina-bi, 86. Immaculate conception, 73. Imperfect (malformed) men, 132; M, 23. * Incantation of Ea,' 162 ; of Eridu, lii, 84. 98, 159, 166, 167, 203, 204, 206, 211, 212; of the Deep, As, lii,. 45, 214. Incas of Peru, 184. Incense in magic, 133; A, Ixyii, 88, 107 ; As, xU, 26, 214 ; M, 205 ; lures demons, Origen, 93. Incubus, 23, 68, 82, 136, 171. India, passim, * Individual ' atonement, 182. Infidel, 5. Infidels in Mohammedan religion, 5. Intermarriage of human beings with demons, see I^emont ; with gods, 132 ; As, 73, 78 ; E, H, 78 ; with spirits, 234 ; A, 79. Invisibility, charms for, Ixviff. Invoking Christ's voice, G, 173 ; on invoking mighty names, see Names. Iphigeneia, 22. Irak, xxxvii, xliii, 1. Irkalla, 3, 33 ; see also Vndencorld. Imina, 41. 270 INDEX. Iron in magic, A, 18, 31, 60, 107, 115 ; Babar, 201 ; Eth, 157; H, IxtI, 17, 146; M(P), 20; Psellos, 137; S, 83. Iroquois, 184. Irrigation-maohine in magic, As, 254. Isaac, 78, 220, 236 ; as demigod, 73. Isaac, a certain Syrian, xz. Isaiah, xzzt, lyiii. Ishmael, 4. Ishtar, 3, 33, 73, 85, 96, 139, 154, 157, 166. Ishum, 86. Ismailiyeh, 229. Israel, xxt, Ivi, 114, 146, 179, 212, 219, 220, 222, 223, 233, 236. Israfil, XX. Issue of blood, H, 201. lyyar, month, 139, 141. Izdubar (= Gilgamish), 72. Jackal in magic. A, 57. Jacob of Edessa, xlvii. Jaffa, 105. Jallalo'ddin, 69. Jamratu'l-Aqaba, 159. jan, 31, 59, 77, 106. January in magic, I, Iroquois, 184. Japan, 184. Java, 184. Jeba, 80. Jehejma marches, 61. Jeho?ah-jireh, 220. Jephthah, 220. Jeremiah, 10. Jericho, 20C. Jerusalem, 11, 101, 156, 227. Jew in magic, 37, 103, 105, 168. Jewess, l^arina as. A, 77. Jewish blacksmiths accredited with magic, Ab, 103. Jeypur, 183. Jidlal (Tidlal), 80. Jinn described, 57 fl. ; see Demont, Jonah, 53, 54, 256. Jordan, liy. Joseph, 10. Josephus quoted, bar, 106, 117, 139, 200. Joshua the Stylite quoted, 96. Journey, days good for, xxxff. Judah, 11, 66. Juneh, 80. Juno, 222. Jupiter, 1 30 ; (Theban) selects woman, 78. Justin Martyr quoted, 73. Eabbala, 4, 18, 29. KabuSf or Kabus en-ndm, 81. Kaffirah, 176, 178, 227, 228. Kafr Harib, 228. Kaiiah, 11. Kaldu, xxxy. Ka-luh^u-lda], 129. Kaphsiel, 187. Karina^ 76 if.; in animal form, dangerous to newly wedded and pregnant women, destroying creatiye power, 77. Earrhai, xx. Easdim, xxxy. KaiUphy xxir. Kaiiapu and kaiiaptu, xxiv. X^mal-ul-hakim, xlriii. Eerak, 58. Eerchiefs in magic, H, 38. Eeres, 106. Kefeb MeriHf 64. Eettu, xlii. Ehamuas, 143. Eheybar, xxix. Eid in magic, xU, 202, 234, 235, 242 ; A, 211 ; As, Ivii, 166, 167, 178, 203, 204, 210, 211 ; 6, 203 ; H, 181, 233, 234. Eidneys in magic, H, 194, 197. Kipper^ 175, 177. Ifird, 62 ; renders dumb, ibid, Eiriaten, 79. Kilkan^^ Hi. Eismet, see Destiny. Eiss in magic, 71 ; H, 89 ; Pal, 103. Eitchener, Lord, 11. Kitrtti, 78; cf. TempU-woman{^), 165. Eneeling in magic. Pal, 103. Enots in magic. A, 90, 168, 169 ; As, xxYii, 33, 166, 167, 170-3 ; H, 169, 170; I, 164; Ibn Ehaldun, 145; M, 162 ; Med, 173 ; P, 168. Korban, Day of. A, 16. INDEX. 271 Kouyunjik, 168. K^phar, 216, 218. JKT'rt, nootarnal emission, 81, 122, 131, ' 132, 133, 255 ; see Ba'al k*H. Knllabi, 45. Kunyit t'rut (Malay), ItUi. Kuppuru, 177, 185, 202, 204, 210. KnrdiBtan, 71. Kurpu, 177, 200 ff. Kuttttra-tova, Ivii. Eiitha, xxii ; (== Underworld), 32, 33. See also Uhdencorld, Zabaitu, zli, 41, 136, 152, 161, 240; Series, zli. See also Child-wUcht La Broosha, and Lamia, Laba9U, 41, 43, 99. La Brootha (LiUth), 42. Lace in magic. As, 153. * Lady of the Desert,' 15, 151 ; cf. IfaAr/M-series, Tablet lY. Lahabiel, 160, 161. Laila, 21. Lailab, not connected etymolog^cally with Lilith, 66; as prince of con- ception, H, 68. LamoMU, liii, 43 ff., 100, 245. Lamattu (= ant), 63. Lamb in magic, 234, 235, 242 ; A, 211 ; As, xlT, 167 ; £, 209 ; H, 216, 219, 220, 233, 234. Lamech, 44. Lamia, 41, 68, 136; A, Byzantine, Maronite, 42 ; H, 41. See also Child- toiteh, LabartUf and La Brootha, Lamp in magic, H, 27 ; N.T., 52. Lamfatu, 63. Land of No Return, 3, 12 ; see Under- world, Langsuyar, 20, 21. Latarag, liz. Latins, 82. Latrine haunted, see Demons, Laying hands on sacrifice, 226. Lazarus, 9. Lead in magic, I, xxriii ; S, xz. Leah, 78. Leather in magic, A, 83, 90, 106 ; As, xxii; Maronite, 42. Leaven in magic, A, 31; As, 32, 33, 204 ; H, 207. Leares in magic, I, xxriii, 162 ; M, Iviii, 205. Lees in magic. As, 153 ; see Dregt, Left hand in magic, A, 46 ; As, xxir, xxTiii, lyii, lix, 27, 34, 166, 170, 171, 202 ; H, xxxi, 164 ; M, 36. Leg in magic, H, 170. Leliurium, 69. Lemburg superstition, 21. Lemon grass in magic, M, Iviii. Lemuria, 227. Leo in magic, Ixrii. Leopard, As, 54. Leprosy, H, liv, 182, 185 fl. ; ezplana* tion of Biblical, 188. Leuconoe, xxxvi. Levites, 236. Libanus, 79. Libation, 139; poured out, As, 32-4, 161 ; into earth, As, 9, 32, 33. LtUn, 70. LiUth, 21, 42, 57, 66, 67, 71, 75, 77, 120, 133, 136, 190, 225; attacks solitary sleepers, 70 ; arerted from bed, worshipped, 72 ; no etymological connection with Lailah, 66 ; counter- part of Asmodeus, 75 ; see Za Brootha and Lamia, Liitiu, 65 ff . LilA, 65 ff., 97, 190. Lime in magic, As, Mi, Iviii, lix. Limes in magic, I, 163; M, 25, 205, 206, 215. Lindinger quoted, 100. Lion in magic, As, Ixiy; H, Ut, 169; S, 54. Liyer in magic. A, 173 ; As, xxii ; H, 174, 197 ; Tobit, lyii. Llama in magic, 184. Loaves in magic, see Br$ad, Lock of door in magic. A, 37; Med, 173. Locust-men, N.T., 81 ; see Oraahoppert, Locusts in magic, 210. Loins in magic. As, 84, 159. Looking on a corpse tabu, As, 26, 35, 115, 131; H, 118; S, 114; but see Appendix, 255. 272 INDEX. Looking-glflM in magic, A, H, 28 ; Pal. Jews, 72. Love-chamiB, bd, Ixii, bay ff. Lncian quoted, liii, 104, 114. Lugalgiira, xzTiii, lix. Zuh'ka, 129. Lunacy charm, 8, 82 ; see Pouettion by Demoiu in Demons, Lust, Angel of, H, 66. Xm'm, 203. Luxor, 22. Macarius, Ixt. Macedonia, Irii, 61, 63, 168, 207. Madness, 108, 160 ; ascnbed to demons, A, 67, 60, 101, 102; H, 102; IJ.T., 60. Magharby, Ixiii. Magians, 92, 119. Magic, distinction between, and religion, xvii. Magicians, see under Attpu^ BarA, Mai- maki, ZammarUf and Jhrieats ; muielA gdimmUf * Raiser of the departed spirit,' As, 9. Mah, goddess, 63. Mab(a)lath, see Agrath. Mahdi, 11. Mahir, 186. MaUnonides quoted, 67, 66, 90, 119, 148, 196, 201. Maize-drink in magic, M, 127. Majhwar, 183. Makan, zUt. JTnAr^M-series, xxxix. Malacca, lii. Malagasy scapegoat, 183; atonement, 213. Malays, pastim. Male in magic. A, 229 ; H, 219. Malim Kaximun, xlviii. Malim Saidi, zlviii. Mamit, 97, 98, 123 ff., 178, 192; see Tabu. Mandan Indians, 184. Mandean superstition, 6. Mandrakes, Ixiv. Manetho quoted, 209, 222. Maniithu, 11. Maoris, 216. Marah, zriii. March in magic, Cambodia, Iroquois, 184. Marduk, xiz, zz, xziii, xxiv, zzyi, zxriii, xxxviii, xl, xlu, xlr, xlrii, xlriii, lu, Uii, lix, 12, 26, 61, 55, 66, 80, 84, 86, 100, 126, 138, 139, 161, 160, 166, 173, 178, 188,' 196, 203, 208, 246. Mare in magic, 8, Ixr. Mttred, 18, 61 ; snatches away bride, 61. Marga, Thomas of, quoted, 92. Maronites, ptusim. Marriage: danger to newly wedded, 30fl., 134, 136 ; A, 77, 134 ; Test, of 8ol., 76; preyented, Med, 173; symbolic, with a cow, Pal, 136 ; discord between married folk. As, 49 ; H, 170. 8ee Tabu. Marut, IxT. Maimasu, xxii, xxir. MassagetsB, 239. lfaJ^toA»/-plant, xxrii, lii. Mati-Anak, 21. Matku-hM, liii. Mazztktn, 68. Meal or flour in magic. As, Ivii, lix, 26, 32, 123, 139, 167, 166, 204; H, It, 181 ; Sab, 139. Meat in magic, 139 ; As, 168 ; H, 136, 170,207; Sab, 14. Med&in S&lih, 63. Mekka, 6, 80, 168, 171, 173, 227. Melam (?), 86. Melancthon quoted, 69. Melanesia, 22. Melito quoted, liii. Menstruation, As, 67; H, 83; theory of, explained as eridence of visit of eril spirit, 133. See T(^u. Mercury, 97. Merlin, 72. MeSaru, xlii. Mesopotamia, xxxri, xliii, liii, 6, 60^ 64, 72, 90, 209, 249. Mesopotamian superstition quoted by Psellus, 69. Metaab (Ibn Bashid), xxix. INDEX. 273 Metawileh, 63, 83. MetempsychoBis, A, 5 ; H, 4 ; T, 6. Mexico, 239. Mice prevented, 174 ; in magic, As, 49. Michael, ix, 61. Midday, Ab, 161. Middle watch in magic, Ab, 36 ; Pal, 102. Midianites, 248. Midwife, sapentition about, H, 137. Milk in magic, A, 20; As, xly; Pal. Jews, 102 ; human, £, xIt. Minahassa, 163. Minsans, 116. Minhah, 176. Minsk, 137. Mirandole, Fran9oiB de la, quoted, 69. Mirzapur, South, 183. ' MiBtress of the Desert,' 16, 151. Moab, xxY. Moahib, 148. Modesty, lack of, resulting in ghost (?), 67. Mogador, 18. Moghrebi as magician, xxx, 62. Mohammed, 23, 74, 158, 168, 229. Mohammed el-GhulEary, liy. Moloch, 222. Molonga, 75. Money in redemption, 219, 225 ; cf. A, 16 ; £, 209. Monkir, 5. Monsters, As, 63, 81, 209 ; H, 64. Moon (see Edipae) ,As, Ixii ; H, 1 1 ; S,40 ; in Scorpio unlucky for weddings. A, 134 ; beginning of month and waning moon faTourable, H, Ixvi } end of month favourable. A, 134 ; Java, 184 ; unfavourable, As, 209 ; swallowed, 63, 256. Moon-god, xliv, 52, 54, 55, 155, 167 ; see Sin» Morad, 158. Morning in magic, As, 161 ; watch, As, 35. Morocco, xxxvi, 18, 72. Moses, xxxii, Ixviii, 10, 169, 222. Mosul, xxxiii, xxxiv, xliv, Ixiii, 18, 22, 27, 61, 62, 70, 92, 101, 106, 107, 144, 158, 161, 172, 210. Mother-goddess, 63. Mountain of Dawn and of Sunset, As, 56. Mountains, home of headache. As, 82 ; lunacy, S, 83. See Demom, Mourning customs. A, 27 ; H, 13 ; Pal. Jews, 27; S, 114; fear of funeral passing in front. A, 27 ; faddish for dead man, 16 ; demons driven away at funeral by noise, H, 53; Jews bum lamp seven days after death, pour out water, 27; turn looking-glasses to wall, 28 ; spirit returns after funeral to wash, H, 27 (see also Ihad and Solw&n) ; one who bears a corpse not to wear shoes, H, 119; burial by heaping up stones, S, 114. Mouth, filling the, in magic. As, 160, 151 ; H, 147. Mule, metempeychosLs of unclean person into, H, 4. Munychia, 230. Munsir, 223. Murdered man as ghost, see Ohat; superstition about grave of, H, 146. Murderers, 116, 256 ; A, Ivi, 76 ; H, 29, 115. Muttabarr^-mtttdnu, 97* Musulleh, 212. Myrrh in magic. A, IxviL Naamah, 44. Naaman, liv. Nabateans, 11, 144. Nabms, 105. Naba, 65, 85, 245. Nagiti, 230. Nailing down spirits, A, 17, 18. Nail-parings in magic, xlvi, 1, 142 ; A, xxxi; As, 153; £th, 148; H, 29, 147 ; M, 145 ; Sab, 148. Nakir, 5. Xakpatu, * modest' (P), 67. Names in magic, 107, 142, 144, 148; A, 30, 42, 72, 77, 148; Ab, 148; As, 26, 158 ; Austr, 148 ; C, 172 ; £, xlix; £ (£th), 155; £th, xlix, 52, 92, 148; H, Ixviii, 144, 159, 160 ; M, 36 ; Maronite, 29, 42 ; N.T., xxx, 101 ; Pal, 107 ; S, 51 ; ink in which they are written to be drunk, 274 INDEX. !▼, Ixi if. ; not to be mentioned, A, 21 ; knowing name of demon, ilyi, 1. Ix; A«, xU. 32, 149; E, 149; G, 106; Med, 149; Origen, 160; Test, of Sol., 150. Nuntaru, 51(^,83 if., 99. Nanida, lix. NatiTities, xxxr. Nazazeth, 101. Nazarite ritual, 182 ; clam, 236. NebiTehiidali, 211, 212. Nebk. Uy, 76, 78, 229. Nebocbadnezzar, Ut. Neck in magic, Ab, 38, 96, 166, 211 ; £, 164 ; I, 163, 164 ; L, 164. Necklaoe-chaim, M, 21, 22. Nectaneboa, 156. Needles in magic (siron?), H, 144; M, 20. Negroes, 184. Neilgberry Hilla, 183. Nelens, 216. Nergal, xxiv, Iviu, Ux, 8, 97 (P), 157. Neetorians, 14, 114, 116. Netin magic, Ajb, 123,173; Rosaia, 173. New Guinea, 163, 201. New South Wales, 237. New things in magic, A, 17. New year in magic, Japan, Buasia, 184 ; H, 91 ; New York, 89. New Zealand, 99. Nicknames, Ab, 149. Niddah (menstruating woman), 118, 133. Nightmare,A,81; As,67,81; Maronite,42. Nimroud, plaque from, 86. Nin-aba-^uddu, xlriii. Nine in magic. A, 42, 168 ; As, 141 ; H, 91, 212 ; I, 162, 163. Nineteen in magic. As, 138, 139. Mneyeh, xxxvii, Ixii, 24, 66, 70, 169 ; Queen of, 66. Ningal, 246. Ninib, xxir, 246. Ninkasi, 214. Nin-tu, 63, 64. Nisaba, lix, 123, 124. Nisan, month, xxxTiii, 207. J^Tm Iro/t-series, xxxix. Noah, 9. Noise driring away demona, see Dimon9, Noon in magic. As, 161. Nose in magic, A, 38 ; H, 164. Nnr-ed-Din, 134. Nuraing-women, danger to, 170. Nusairiyeh, 16, 229. Nuts in magic, H, 135 ; Sab, 139. Nut-trees in magic, H, 91. Nuzku, xlviii, lix, bb, 163 ; see Fire-^od, Oar in magic. As, 88 (?). Oath on Iki penU, A, 78 ; Jephthah's TOW, 220. See Tabu, Obizuth, 41. Odysseus, 8. Odyssey, 16, 107. CEthanes, xxxyi. Offerings, 53; As, 139, 157, 161; to dead. As, H, 13 ff.; Sab, 14; in gratitude. A, 169 (?) ; As, 86 ; poured into earth, As, 9, 32, 33 ; cast into aea, A, 231 ; As, P, 230. See also SacrifieeM vidi Lead, Offspring, Semitic desire for, 13, 64. Oil in magic, As, xxii, xliy, xly, 26, 33, 168, 188; H, 91, 136. Old woman in magic, As, 121. Olympias, 166. Omahas, 139. Omdurman, 11. Omens from ghoets, 36 ; obserred, xxxi, 129; from monstrous births, 209, 221; eclipses, As, 56 ff . Onion in magic, H, 139 ; M, lyiii. Ophthahnia, As, 141, 170, 171 ; H, 212. See Blindneu. Oracles, 9, 223 ; see Enqmry, Orang Laut, 136. Ordeal by water, As, xxy ; for adultery, H,ly. Orifices of body entrance of spirit. A, 116; H, 115, 129; cf. 132. (See Skeat, JVatoy Magie, 401.) Origen quoted, 60, 93, 145, 150, 196. Omias, 71. Orontee, 79. Osiers in magic, H, 170. Ostrich, form of Jinn, A, 67; ghoul, 60 ; in magic. A, 58. INDBX. 275 Ovens haunted, see I>emoHt, OTid quoted, 227. Owl as spirit, A, 20, 21, 77 ; As, 60 ; M, 20, 21. Ox in magic, 233 ; A, 210, 226 ; As, zUt, 32, 33, 49, 187, 188, 210, 252 ; H, 198, 219, 248, 252; Malagasy, 183 ; S, 51. Ozair, 74. Palestine, pauim. Palm in magic, As, Iviii, 26, 187, 188, 253; Celebes, 163; Pal, 88; H, 164. Paneas, 80. Pannonia, 72. Panoi = ghostland in Melanesia, 22. Paradise, S, 6 ; birds of. A, 61. Parchment in magic, A, Ixiii ; H, 160, 161 ; Med, 149. Parsees, 251. Passover, 129, 135, 182, 231, 240. Pausanias quoted, 216. Peacock in magic, H, xz. Peas in magic, zxxi. Pelew Islands, 22. Pentecost, 182. Perak, 21. 'Periodic' Atonements, 184; H, 182. Persia, Persians, Ixii, 14, 167. Persian Gulf, 230. Persius quoted, 164. Peru, 53, 184. Petronius quoted, 164. Phaniel, 161. Pharaoh, xviii, 143 ; A, 59. Pharisees, zlvi. Philip of Macedon, 158. Philosopher's stone, xx. Phoenicians, xxxvi, 10, 201, 221, 222. Physician prohibited from healing on Sabbath, As, 139. Pickling useless if done by menstmous woman, A, 119. Picture in magic, H, 160, 161, 187; Maronite, 105. Pig, spirit of wicked tranamigTating into, T, 6 ; in magic, xli, xliv, 202, 209 ; A, 209, 210 ; Abiponee, 127 ; As, 161, 208 if.; £, 209; G, 209; H, 115, 209; I, 183; N.T., 180, 208. Pigeon in magic, As, 49. Hlate, 129. Piles for houses in magic, H, 186, 189. Pillows in magic, A, 207 ; Eth, 148 ; H, 38. Pins in magic, M, 145. Pitch in magic, G, 14. Placenta in magic, 201. Plague removed, H, 182. Phigue-god, As, 48 (?), 51 (?), 83 i!.. 99, 159 ; see Namtaru and Ura. Phun-god, xxviii. Planets, xzxv. Plantain in magic, Tonga, 215. Plants in magic, A, xxx ; Ab, 104 ; As, U, 12, 121, 150-4 ; £ (Bth), 155 ; H, 107 ; Josephus, 106 ; M, U, lii ; puUed up, tabu, see Taiu. Plaque, magical, Ixvii, 168. Plaster in magic. As, 187, 188; H, 187. Plutarch quoted, xxxv, 107, 125. Polynesia, 95, 125. Polyphemus, 239. Polypus, H, 129. Pomegranate in magic, 135. Pomoe of California, 184. Porcupine in magic, A, 59. Porphyry quoted, 106, 130, 222. Pot in magic. As, xxvii ; broken. A, 30, 31 ; As, (28), (29), (214) ; H, xlix, Iv, (Ivi), (Ixii), (28), 80, 170, 185; I, 162, 163; M. lu (cf. 206) ; S, 196. Potato in magic, Maori, 215. Prehistoric man, 238. Prieetly Code, 177, 178. Priests, xviil, xxiif., xlif., xlv; conse- crated, 182, 202 ; allowed to eat sin- offering, 194 if. ; when not allowed to make divination. As, 139 ; Galloi prieslB, 114. Prison; escape from, in magic, Ixvi. Prostituiionof women, BabyloniayCyprus, Hdiopolis, 79 ; A, 78, 79. Psdlus quoted, xxx, 69, 137, 209, 223. Fnhu, 177. n 276 nn)EX. Pampkin in magic, Malagasy, 213. * Pore Abode ' « Erida, 7. Purple in magic, 135. ' Qoeen of Heaven,' H, 207. ' Queen of Nineveh,' 65. Queenaland, Central, 75. Babba, 71. Babban Hormizd, xlvi. Babbi Akiba, xzx, 1. Rabbi Ashi, zx. Babbi Hanina, zxxii. Babbi Hyya, zx. Babbi Isaac Loria, 18. Babbi Jehudah, 135. Babbi Joshua, 1. Babbi Joshua ben Hananiah, izxiii. Babbi Meir, 135. Babbi Nathan, 129. Babbi Papa, 24. Babbi Pinchas ben Tair, 4. Babbi Yochanan, 18, 66. Babbit, metempsychosis of unclean person into, Kabbala, 4. Babies, A, 20, 174 ; H, Izii, 174. SabifH-demoTL, liii, 39, 40, 44, 100. Bag in magic, 1 ; A, 88 ; Ab, 104 ; As, 153. Baguel, 74. Bahab, 200. Bahabiel, 161. Bain-time in magic, 135. Baising dead, see Dead and Oho»t9» Baisins in magic, 139. Bam in magic, H, 220, 231. Baphael, 75, 134, 160. Jtoffodt 62 ; guardian of treasure, A, 62. Bat in magic, A, Ixvi. Bavensinmagio,A,zxz; H, xx; 8,92; raven faces of bat-men, As, 81. Beading ihema*, tabu on, 15. Bed in magic. A, xx ; As, 171 ; H, Iv, Ivi, 160; I, 183. See ^S^Mir^^ Bedeeming the life, Pal, 102; the soul, A, 16; the firstborn, 180, 219 ff.; in Borne, 227. Beed in magic. As, 204, 206, 253 ; reed- bed prevents spirit leavinggrave, H, 91 . * Befuse ' in magic. As, 153, 204 ; see Z«'». Beptilee, As, 186 ; H, 4. Besurrection, A, 16 ; S, 6. Bhenmatasm, As, Ixiii, 204. Bice in magic, Borneo, Celebes, 163; £. Indies, 156. Bight hand or side in magic, A, 46; As, xxiv, xxviii, Ivii, lix, 157, 166, 171, 202 ; H, xxxi, 164. Bing in magic. As, lii ; H, Ixvi ; Josephus, 106; Pal, 135; Tyrol^ 137. Bimmon, see Adad. Bio, Martin Del, quoted, xvii, xxv, Ixii,. 68, 72. Biver-god, As, liv, 214. Bivers, confluence of two, in magic, As, li, 154, 212 ; cf. H, 144 ; haunted, see Detnom ; carry away tabu, As, lii, 130, 186, 187 ; Pen, 168 ; clay from river-banks, H, 144, 164 ; in ordeal, xxv ; charm to dry up, H, Ixviii. Bobenhausen, 239. Bocky places haunted, 90. Bome, 174, 227. Boof( -shadow) haunted, H, 91. Boots in magic, H, 164 ; Josephus, 106 ; Pal, 107. Bope in magic. A, xviii. Bound in magic, H, 186, 189. Boyal Tabu, see Tabu. Buala, battle ritual, 158. Bue in magic, Pal. Jews, 72. Buins haunted, see Detnont. Bunning water in magic, see Water, Bussia, 169, 173, 184, 237. Sabbath, Ixviii, 15, 61, 58, 72, 119,. 138ff., 170, 252. Sabians, 14, 57, 119, 148, 195, 223. Sacred names invoked, see Namee, Sacrifices, 80, 93, 121, 133, 139, 157, 194 fP., 221 fP.; to dead. A, G, 16; Phoen, 201 ; to demons. A, 58 ; H, 198 ; Sprenger, 77 ; human, A, 133 ; As, 223 ff. ; H, 22 1 ff . See also under the names of sacrificial animals. Sa*dadin, 80. INDEX. 277 Sadunu, zxxrii. SadCbr, xxni. BaAron in magic, As, liii ; H, 147, 161, 164. Safri^, 62. Saint-Aubin, 239. Saints, A, 79 ff . ; inflict punishment, A, 97 ; in India, 78. Sakai of Perak, 21, 253. Sakilkir'piaxii, zliv. Saknet Abu Darwtsh, 105. Sala, 245. Salt in magic, A, 88, 119 ; As, xxTii, xlii, liii ; Borneo, 163 ; H, 89, 102 ; Pal, 102. Samaria, zxx. Samal, xxi, zxii (Sun), xxir, xxvi, xzziz, xlii, xliii (Sun), xUt (Sun), xlr, xlyii (Sun), Ixii (Sun), 26, 33, 34, 64, 67 (Sun), 122 (Sun), 126, 152, 154 (Sun), 157, 158, 160 (Sun), 187 (Sun), 188, ^ 210, 214, 217, 245, 252 (Sun). 8amaii-8um-ukin, 10, 55, 56, 97. Sammael, 86, 87. Samson, 38, 73, 78. Samuel, 9, 24. Sandarach, Ixrii. l^appan, xxvii. Sarah, 73, 78. Sarah, daughter of Raguel, Ivii, 74, 75, 134. Savazoff-ga, 160. i^arpanitum, 56, 138, 245. Sarpedon, 72. SaUn, xxxiiif., 42, 74, 86, 87, 100, 222, 223 ; the Devil, 23 ; the enemy, 54. Saturday, A, xxxi; H, 15, 119. Saturn, 222. Saul, 9. Scapegoat, 178, 182 ff., 200; no proof of its existence in Assyria, 185. Scarlet in magic, H, W, 185, 188; threads or hair in magic, see iiMf. Scents, Oriental desire for, 133. < Soheiss-Teufel,' 72. Scorpio, moon in, unlucky time for weddings, A, 134. Scorpion in magic. A, 20, 173 ; S, 54. Scorpion-men, 81. Sea in magic, 180 ; A, 231 ; As, xxiii, xIt, lii, Ut, lix, 25, 55, 88, 159, 205, 208, 214, 230 ; £ (Eth), 155, 156; M, 157, 206; P, 230; S, liu; haunted, 39 (cf. 47} ; see Ineantaium oftheLiep* Sea-monster, 64 ff. Seals in magic, C, 173; H, Ixii; of ^ demon, 149. Sm, 44. iidim^ 44, 55, 6^^ 58 ; see Demon: Sedu, liii, 43 ff., 100, 245 ; see Demm: $ei*ar change to were-wolres, 57. Seiyid Ahmed el-Bedawi, 79. Selangor, lii. Semi-human spirits, 2, 65, 93; see Demons, Seneeio vulgaris, xlir. Senjero, 237. Sennacherib, xxii, 12, 40, 230. Sephardim, 138. Sepher Sasiel, Ixviii. September in magic, Inoas, 184. SOTaph, Iviii. Serpent, see Snake, Senrius Tullius, 72. Sesame in magic. A, xlix ; As, xxvi. Sesame-wine in magic. As, xlii, xlr, 34. Seyen in magic. A, xx, 5, 16, 37, 58, 62, 89, 166, 167, 169, 207, 229 ; As, liii, iTiii, lix, 32, 33, 100, 138, 166, 167, 170, 187, 188, 206, 208, 214 ; Babar, 201; Borneo, 163; C, 173; H, It, Ixiv, 17, 21, 27, 144, 170, 185 ff., 217, 252; I, 162; M. 36, 205; N.T., 52; P, 168; S, 114. See Demons, the Seven Spirits. Seyf el-HuIook, 37. Seyide, 231. Shabriri, 30 (see Ixii). Shade of moonlight haunted, see Demons. Shadowless demons, H, 61. Shalameans, 11. Shammar, xxix. Shans of China, 184. Sharing in magic, A, xxxi, 229; As, 153; S, 114. Sheba, 57. Shebat, 56. 278 INDEX. Sheep, A, ld» 226, 227, 229, 231 ; Ab, 104; Ai, 49, 50fP., 157; H, 219, 233, 252 ; Malagasy, 213; S, 61. Shein, 9. Shemai, 139. Shedl, 3, 4, 6, 9, 234 ; see Underworld. Shewbread, 207. Shi'ah tradition, 28. Shibbeta, 129. Ships in magic, 154 if. ; A, 231 ; As, 230, 253 ; H, 186, 189, 254 ; £, 1. ShitU, 6. Shoes worn by women in childbed, H, 119; but [not by one carrying coipse, H, 119; in magic, As, 153; H, 184. Shoulders in magic, A, 211 ; I, 163. Shroud in magic, H, 169. Sibylline books, xixvi. Sickness due to demons (see Demons), As, 96 ; Celebes, 163 ; N.T., ' Chal- deans,* 100 ; to eclipse, As, 55 ; to saints, A, 97 ; to gods, 96 ; to breach of Ubu, 96, 119, 191 fP., 218; to unwashed hands, 129 ; to eating fish or dates, 14 1 ; to crossing a riTcr, 141 . Si'Ut, 70. Silk in magic, A, Ixrii ; Ab, 164 ; H, XX ; I, 164. Siloam, 31. SUver in magic, A, xxix, Ixiii, 89 ; P, Ldi. Simon of Samaria, xxx. Sin, xxiy, xxW, xxxix, 55, 245 ; see Moori'pod. Sin, 193 ; origin of, among Semites, 128. Sin-offering, 182 ff., 194,216, 218,243. Sinai, 117. Sinaitic Peninsula, xUt, lyiii, Ixiii, 40, 59, 89, 159, 173. Sinjar Hills, 6. Sippar, xxi, xxii. Sirens, 68. 8'Mm, 57, 59. Sisters, two marrying on the same day tabu, H, 135. Sitlamtaea, lix. $it-napishtim, 12. Situa, 184. Six in magic, H, xxxi, 102. Sixty in magic, H, 91. Skimming-spoon in magic, H, 118. Skin in magic, A, 211 ; As, 187 ; £th, 148. Skull in magic, A, 256. Sleep, A, XXX ; magic does not work if sorcerer is asleep. A, xxxii. Smoke in magic, H, Ixviii. Snake in magic. A, 20 ; As, 12, 49, 54, 63, 64 ; £, XTiii, xix ; H, xxxi ; S, 54 ; form of Jinn, 57. SSda, Arab demon, 107. Solomon, 57, 77, 106, 150, 180^ 231 ; Baths of, 79. Solw^H, 147. Son of God, 73, 74 ; see B'ni JSUMm. Soudan, xxxTi, Ixiii, 10, 11, 60. Soul, see Ohoet ; hymn of, S, 5 ; beliefs concerning, 3 ff. ; transmigration of, see GKoat ; external soul, see Ohoet, South Sea Islands, 53. Sozomen quoted, 79, 107. Spain (' ex Gagate '), Ixii. Sparrow in magic, A, 37* Speaking with tabooed person renders tabu. Sab, 119. Spearworts in magic, H, 91. a^yia, 216. Spices in magic, H, 147 ; M, lii. Spinning in magic, As, bdv, 166, 167, 171 ; P, 167. Spirit, see Demone, OhoeU ; spirit- wife, 66, 67 ; classes of, 2. Spitting in magic, Roman, 227. Spittle in magic, 33, 145 ; A, xt, 89, 107, 147, 168; As, 33, 153, 185, 206 ; Ibn Ehaldun, 145 ; M, 22, 36 ; N.T., 147 ; Psellus, xxx- Sprenger quoted, xxx, Ixiy, 69, 77. Spring in magic. A, 211. Square in magic, H, 186, 189. St. Anthony, 54, 105. St. Cyprian, 42. St. George, 231. St. John, liv. St. Maxime de Turin, 53. St. Nino, 33. St. Paul, xxx, 74. St. Peter, IxTi. INDEX. 279 Stag in magic, Abipones, 127. Stench drives away demons, see Detnons. Stick in magic, H, xxxi. Stolen money to be restored by magic, A, 62. Stone in magic, A, xxziii, 89, 158 if. ; As, Ixiii; H, Ixviii, 18, 207; I, lix ; S, 83, 89; T, 31 ; Philosopher's Stone, XX. Stones thrown by demons, A, 18. Storm-god, see Adad. Storms caused by demons, As, 43, 48, 54 ; Med, 48. Strabo quoted, xxxt. Street (market-place, broad places) in magic. As, 41, 43, 44, 47, 129, 160, 166, 204, 213. Suakin, xxxri. Snbari, xxiii. Subarti, 240. Substitutes in magic, 103, 163, 178, 180, 183, 195, 202, 218; A, 177. 229; As, 178, 206, 208, 211; G, 230; H, 212 (cf. 226, 226 ff.); M, 162, 230 ; N.T., 209. Succuba, succubus, 23, 68ff., 171. Suez, 40. Sugar in magic. Pal, 102. Sulphur in magic, 6, 106 ; M, Iviii. ^ See £rittutone, Sumft, xxxvii. Suma-ukina, xxxvii. Sumatra, 183. SufM-^&ih,' 158, Sumerians, 178. Summer in magic, 135. Sun (see SamaS)^ Esquimaux, 184; H, 1 1 ; South Sea Islands, 53 ; unclean woman not allowed to see, 133 ; sun- rise in magic. A, 159 ; As, xxvii, xlii, 165, 254; sunset in magic, As, xxrii, 66, 187. 217 ; M, Iviii. i^ur^-series, xxxix. Surrounding with water, H, 107 ; with meal. As. 204 ; with lime. As, Ivii ff. See also Circle. Swallows in magic, A, 61 ; As, 49 ; Sumatra, 183. Sweat in magic, Eth, 148. Sweetmeats in magic, Pal, 102 ; Sab, 14. Sword in magic, see Iron, *' Sword of Moses," Ixviii, 169. Sympathetic magic, 142 ff., 173,. 178. Sjrria, passim, Tabarjan, 14. Tabernacle, It, 130. Tabernacles, Feast of, 182. Table in magic, As, xlii, 25. Tabu, xxi, xxii, xxxix, xl, Ht, Ixrii, 95ff., 108ff., 130 ff., 178, 180 ff., 231, 245 ff.; contagious, 30, 108, 125 ff., 182, 190; H, Maori. 215 ; holy, 110, 245; unclean, 110, 254; touching hSremy H, 176, 215 ; speaking with tabooed person. As, Sab, 1 19 ; cleansed, As, 186 ; overcome by magic. As, 165. — on adultery, 247. — on beasts, 262; M. 23; passing under the rope of a camel, or under the camel itself, or between two camels, H, 117. — on bribery, 249. — on cardinal sins, 125. 128 ; fl*. 182. See abo under the names. — on clothes, etc. ; clean clothes, As, 139 ; wearing phylacteries, H, 15 ; putting on shoes, H, 119, 184. — on cursing, 139. — on dead bodies, 109, 112, 190; A. 27, 118, 210; As, 26, 27, 115, 131 ff., 254; H. Ivi, 17, 27, 118, 182. 255; lamblichus. 117; S, 114; Tobit, 114 ; passing odour of carcase, H, 117 ; sleeping in a cemetery, H, 29. — on dregs. As, 126, 254 (cf. 153). — on easing nature. A, 116; H, 132. — on families, 246, 247. — on fire, 250. 252 ; As, 140, 254 ; H, 139. {See 9\fioBke&t, Malay Moffie, 319.) — on food. H, 184 ; eating with friends, H, 15; things cooked in fire (on Sabbath). As, 139 ; half-baked bread or meat taken with a skimming-spoon, H, 118; bread cooked in ashes or cooked meat, As, 139 ; eating totems. 280 INDEX. 191 ; giring toteniB (animals) to dogs to eat, Abipones, 127; eating torn flesh, H, 207 ; upsetting maize drink, Abipones, 127 ; drinking vegetables (P), As, 140 (cf. 2-54) ; drinking water drawn oyemight, H, 29; drinking from a grayeyard well, H, 118. Tabn on lying, 248 ; H, 182. — on monming, 251. — on murder, 257. — on murderers, 116. — on nail-parings being scattered, H, 29. — on oaths, 254 ; G, 216 ff. ; H, 182, 215, 216 ff. — on offerings, 189, 246. — on perfume, H, 184. — on physician's work, 139. — on plimts, pulling up, 253 ; As, 140 ; M, 22 (cf. uxi, 165). — on pointing with finger, 252. — on priestiy tabus. As, 139 ; H, 182, 202. — on prisoners, 247. — on riding forth, 139. — Royal, As, 138 ff., 202 ; H, 182, 202; Tonga, 215. — Sabbath, 138; H, 252; speaking loudly. As, 139, 140 ; riding, As, 139 ; making enquiry. As, 139 ; cooking, E, 139 (cf. As, 139). — on sedition, 249. — on seeing the sun, 126. — on sexual functions (113, 116): marriage, 113, 134 ff.; A, 116 ff.; As, 121 ff., 131, 255; H, 116ff., 184; lamblichus, 117; Min, 116; cohabitation in bed where child sleeps, H, 135 ; two sisters marrying on same day, H, 135 ; intercourse with bond- maid promised to another, H, 182; menstruation, 113, 190; A, 116ff. ; As, 120 ff., 126, 131, 255 ; H, 116 ff., 136; P, 251; S, 116; issues, 113, 190; As, 121 ff., 131, 255; H, 117, 182; childbirth, 112, 113, 134ff., 190; As, 122, 131, 135, 255; H, 136, 182. — on sorcery, 252. — on speech, loose, 249. Tabu on stealing and cheating, 248. — on strife, stirring up, 128. — on sunstroke. As, 252. ~ Tribal, 182. — on various places (253) : threshing- floor, winnowing fan (and meal), 251. — on yessels, 30. — on Toice raised (cf. xxxi), 139, 140. — on washing, H, 14, 32, 140, 184 ; unwashed hands, 120, 129 ff.; tabu removed by washing, H, 180. See also JFathinff. — on water, 250; on pouring out, H, 28 ; on the ground. A, Pal, T, 59; on passing under a bridge over a dry watercourse, H, 117 ; from unclean, I, 163. See also, on JFathinff. — on weapons, 251. (See also Skeat, Malay Magie, 258, 259.) — on women : a woman passing between two men, or a num passing between two women (risk of menstruous tabu ?), H, 117 ; widowhood. A, 135. — on work, 138 ff. — on writing materials, 251. Tacitus quoted, liii. Tak-i-Bustan, Ixii. TakpirtUf zxxviii, 177. Tallow in magic. As, xxvii, 154, 158 ; Maronite, 29. See Wax, Tamar, 66. Tamarisk in magic. A, 88, 253 ; As, xziii, m, Iviu, 187, 188. Tammuz, 3, 203 ; month, 64, 139. Tanta, 79. Tantalus, 239. Taper in magic, M, 62 ; see Torch, Tasmit, 245. Tearing up plants in magic. As, 165 ; see Tabu, Teima, 53. Teiresias, 8. Tellal, xzix. TeU-el-kadi, 80. Temple, 93 ; of Bel, 78 ; of Ezida, zxxvu ; of Hierapolis, liii ; of Jerusalem, 117; of Samaj, zxii ; of Theban Jupiter, 78 ; fire-temple, 92. INDEX. 281 Ten in magio, H, mi ; BC, lii. Tent, saorifioe for, 228. Terah, 222. Terebinth in magic, 139. Tertullian quoted, 9. Test of amulet, Ixiii. Thabatha, 107. Tbeban Jupiter selects woman, 78. Theft (stolen money) to be restored by magic, A, 62. Thickets haunted, 90. Thigh, 168; of woman, swelling, H, It ; of camel in magic. Sab, 14. Thirty in magic, As, 209 ; S, 114. Thirty-six in magic. As, xlii. Thomas of Marga quoted, 92. Thorn in magic. A, Ivili; As, 33 (P), 34, 206, 253. Threads in magic. A, Ixvii, 169 ; H, Ixrii, 146 ; coloured or Tariegated (see Colound and Cor^Q, A, 169; As, 33, 166, 170 ; H, 146 ; L, 164 ; M, 162. Three in magic, A, Ixtu, 37, 38, 42, 89 ; As, zxri, zlii, zliy, zIy, Ixir, 26, 34, 167, 161, 167, 171, 214 ; £, 222 ; H, 63, 89, 129, 144 (?), 146, 186, 189, 212 ; I, xxviii, 163, 164 ; H, Iviii, 162, 206; Haronite, 29; P, 168; Roman, 227 ; Test, of Sol., 43. Three hundred and sixty in magic, As, xlv. Threshold in magic, 136 ; A, 17, 30, 77, 227, 228; As, xxri, lix, Ixir, 152, 188; H, 89, 170; M, Mii; Pal, 102 ; S, 116. Throne of Ood, A, 6, 62. Throne-bearers, 47, 48, 62; but see Appendix, 266. Thunder in magic. A, 171 ; bolt. As, Ixii ; stone, H, 161. Tiamat, xl, 196. Tiberias, 18. Tigris, xxxY, Ivii, 26. Tigritiya, Abyssinian madness, 104. 7*t't-series, xli. Timarchides quoted, 130. Timor-laut, 166. Tisri, month, xxxTiii, 14, 210, 212. Tobacco in magic, Borneo, 163; £. Indies, 166. Tobias, Ivii, 74, 76, 134. Tobit, iTii, 114, 134; cf. 136 for similar story. Toe, place of exit for demon. A, 106, 106. Tomb, see Grave, Tonga, 215. Tongue in magic, C, etc., 172. Tonquin, 184. Tooth in magic. A, xlir, 174 ; As, xliii, xlir ; China, M, xliii. Torch in magic, As, Ivii, 28, 160, 202, 204, 208 ; see Taper. Tom flesh, H, 207. Tortoise in magic, As, 33 (?) ; Abipones, 127. Totems, 191, 221, 236. Touching corpse of man executed for murder, A, 76 (cf. Appendix, 266). Touching unclean things, see Tabu. Towel in magic, H, 27. Transference of spirits to water, see Demone ; to animals and wax figures, see Atonement, Transmigration, 4 ff. ; H, 18, 29. Treasures, xlix, 62. Trees in magic, xviii, 201 ; H, xxxii ; S, xlyii. Trespass offering, 177, 180, 182. Trinity, Ix, 61. Tripoli, 17. Trumpet in magic, A, 6 ; H, 21, 63. Tuesday in magic, H, 30, 68. Tumnt, 139. Tuna, Esquimaux spirit, 184. Turning seats upside down after death, H, 16. Twelre in magic, As, xlii, 161. Twenty in magic, As, xxxi, 141. Twenty-eight in magic, As, 138. Twenty-five in magic, As, xxxi. Twenty-one in magic, As, 138; I, 164. Twenty-seyen in magic. As, 210. Twenty-two in magic. As, xxxi ; I, 164. Twigs in magic. As, 166, 212, 213. Two in magic. A, Ixvii, 46 ; As, xxxi, xIy, U, lix, 166, 166, 202, 204, 212; H, IxTii, 46, 144, 164, 200 ; H, 32 ; 282 INDEX. S, liii ; see Coloured for two-coloiired cords. Two Brothers, Tale of the, 37. Tyndarens, 216. Tyrol, 137. Uhati, 78. Ultz (Westphalia), 239. Umm'el'Subyan, 42. Unas, zlix. TJnhuried ghost, see Gho8t. Unclean : heasts, 4, 191, 216 ff. ; food, 203 ; place, H, 91, 200. Underworld, A, 5, 58 ; As, zlvii, 3, 8, 12, 49, 82, 97, 99 ; £, xlix, 8 ; Eth, 6; H, 3, 4; Melanesia, 22 ; (Kntha), 32, 33 ; (Ekurra), 68, 82. See SheSl. Unguent in magic. A, zxx; As, liii, 35, 162, 161 (P). Unripe things in magic, H, 136. Untimely birth aa ghost, see Abortion. Untimely dead as ghost, see Ghott, Unwashed hands in magic, As, 120; see Tabu. * Unwitting' sins, 182, 191 ff, ; cf. 266. Upuntu-meal or -plant in magic, 9, 26, 66, 160, 158. Ur, 222. Ura, 84 ff. Urine, Ixr ; of ass in libation. As, 34 ; of camel as medicine, A, 173. Uript, 224. Urkarinnu-ytood, xxxriii. Ufurtu, xxiii, Iviii, 126. Uterus of animals in magic, 201. Utukki limn&tif xl. Utukku, 8, 39, 44, 46, 97. Vampires, 62. Variegated threads or hair in magic, As, 33 ; see (floured. Veils protect from demons, 74. Venus, Ixii, 79, 223. Villeneuve-Saint-Oeorges, 239. Vinegar in magic. A, 174 ; H, 164. Virgin Idd, As, 166, 167. Virgin lamb, As, 167. Virgin Mary, lx?i, 64, 73, 74, 138, 207. Virgin parchment, H, 160. Virgins as ghosts, see Oho$U married to spirits ; see Woimn. Viscera in magic, H, 197. Vomiting in magic, As, 163, 204, 260 ; M, 36. Wafer, Holy, in magic, 123. Waist in magic, I, 163. Washing in magic, A, 122, 126, 136, 266 ; As, xx, lii, 34, 122, 129 fP., 188, 202, 208, 212, 213, 254 ; G, It, 130 ; H, 14, 28, 129, 140, 184, 187; 1, 163 ; Eoman, 227; S, 116; Tonga, 215. Watches of the night. As, xx^ii ; see Morning and Middle. Water in magic, li, Ixi, 218 ; A, IxTii, 28-32, 77, 114, 117. 130, 186, 256 ; As, xxii, xxTi, xxvii, lii, liii, 26, 26, 28-32, 34, 98, 100, 123, 129 fP., 152, 163, 167, 160, 161, 166, 187, 188, 202, 208, 212-14; E (Eth), 155; G, 28 ; H, xviii, Iv, Iviii, 27-32, 91, 129, 146 ; I,xxviii, 162, 163 ; M,lii; Malagasy, 213; Maronite, 28-32; Pal, 102, 107 ; S, Ixv ; Tonga, 216. Running, A, 79 ; H, Ivi, 29, 164 (cf. 117), 186, 188 (cf. As, 254). Spring, Roman, 227. Watering-places haunted, 90 ; give con- ception, 79, 80; troubled by spirit, 80. Wax in magic, xli, xlyi, li, 142, 159 ; As, 115, 150; E, 143, 149, 222; (Eth), 156 ; H, 144 ; M, 146, 206 ; impassable by demons, A, 106 (cf. wax dropped in water at Maronite baptism, 29). Weddings, A, 30, 134 ; H, 136 ; Y, 31. Wednesday in magic, Y, 134. Wells in magic. A, Ixvii, 6, 168 ; H, 146 ; haunted, see Demons. West in magic. As, xxvii, 84, 159, 162, 263 ; E, 8 ; H, 164 ; I, xxviii. Westcar Papyrus, 143. Wheat in magic. As, xlii, xlv ; H, xxxi ; Pal, 102. See Com. * Wheat-stones,' Ixiiiff. White in magic, A, xx, Iv, 6, 105 ; As, 161, 166, 170, 171, 203 ; H, 30, 212. nn)£X. 283 Wicks in magic, Ixir. Widowhood undean, A, 186, 187. Wier quoted, 69, 82. Willow in magic, H, 170. Wind in magic. As, 7, 8, 54, 60, 83 ; bears tabu, Sab, 119 (cf. As, 166) ; sorcery, H, 147. Wine in magic. A, 210 ; As, xlv, lii, 158, 187 ; H, 201. Wiping away a tabu, 215. Wise-woman, As, 121, 165, 166 ; Babar, 201 ; Borneo, 36, 163 ; I, 164. Witches, xxi, xxivff., 68, 77, 147, 150 fP., 166, 188, 252. 'Witting' sins, 217. Wizards, 68 ; casting spell, zxiy ff., Ixiy, 166; Ab, 103; wise-man, Borneo, 36. Wolf, S, 54. Wolves, were*, 57. Women married to spirits, 72 ; see Virffifu (see also Barren and OhoiU) ; stepping OTer nail-parings, H, 147. Wood in magic, A, xriii, 8 ; As, xliii, 154; Borneo, 163. Wool in magic, A, IxTii ; Ab, 164 ; As, 167, 171, 192; H, Ixyii, 164. Word of power, xlyi ff., Ix, Ixri, Ixyii, Ixyiii, 31, 42. Worm in magic. A, xliv, 210 ; As, xliii. (On worms in teeth see Skeat, Malay Magie, 359.) Wormwood in magic, H, 87. Wotyaks, 184. Wrist in magic, A, 169 ; P, 168. Xenocrates quoted, 203. Xerxes, xxxyi, 230. TaghQth, 158. Yahweh, xyiii, ly, (Ixyi), 4, (6), 9, (11), 12, 24, 29, (33), (38), (51), (52), (58), (66), 78, (74). 78, 86, (107), (118), 139, 140, (148), (149), (158), (172), 176, 182, 187, 197, 216, 219, 220, 222, 226, 231, 236, 246. Tellow in magic, I, 163. Tezidis, 6, 31, 59. Tuseph el-hagg, liy. ^miruirti-priests, xxiff., xly ('singer') Zebedani, 226. Zemzem, 5, 80. Zerka Ma'in, 59. Zeus, 254. Zoroaster quoted, 119 (cf. 52) Za, 11. 285 LIST OF BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS. Genesis: — xii, 1, 2 . X2ii, Iff. xxix, 31 . XXX, 14 Exodus : — iv . . . viii, 19 xii, 23 . . xiii, 2, 12 fP. xiii» 13 xiii, 19 XV, 25 . . XYii, 6 . . xviii, 15 ff. xix, 15 xxi, 17 xxii, 1 . . xxii, 18 . xxii, 20 . xxii, 2S . xxii, 31 . xxiii, 1 xxiii, 4 xxiii, 8 xxix, IfF. 182 xxix, 12, 14 A A X • • • XXX, 10, Id xxxii, 33 . XXXT, 3 . page 73,78 . 220 . 78 . Ixiy xriii, XIX . 97 . 86 . 219 . 220 . 10 . XVlll . XYIU . 219 117, 247 . 247 . 248 xxix, 252 . 246 246, 249 . 207 . 248 . 252 . 249 , 194, 198 . 198 . 194 . 182 . 12 139, 251 Letitxcts : — i . . . i, 1-7 . . iii, 16 . . iv . . . 182 198 197 194, 198 iv, 1 fP., 3, 13 ff. 182 iv, 22 . . 140, 182 iv, 27 ff. . . . 182 V 215 y, Iff., loff. . 182 Leyiticvs (cont V, 2. . vi . . vii, 38. viii, Iff. IX . .182 ix, 9-15 X. I. 2 . X. 16-20 xi, 29-38 xii, 2 . xii, 2 ff. xiii . . xiv . . xiv, 38, 46 xiv, 51, 52 XV . . . XV, 2 ff . . XV, 16-18 XV, 19 . . xvi. . 182 xrii, 7 . . xvii, 11, 14 xvii, 15 . xviii, 1 ff. . xviii, 19 . xix, 11 xix, 12 . xix, 15 . xix, 19 . xix, 20 ff. xix, 26, 31 xix, 32 . xix, 35, 36 XX, 2 . . XX, 6 . . XX, 9, 10 . xxi, 10 xxii, 4 . . xxii, 14 xxii, 27 • • • XXIU . . y.— page . 27 . 182 . 198 182, 194 194, 198 . 198 . 139 . 198 . 30 . 136 . 182 . 182 182, 194 . 187 . 188 116, 194 . 182 . 117 . 136 184, 198 59, 198 . 195 . 130 . 247 . 118 . 248 . 254 117» 249 . Ixvii . 182 . 252 . 247 . 248 . 222 . 252 . 247 . 251 27, 116 . 182 . 252 182, 194 Numbers: — 1,51 . lu, 12 . iii, 13 . ▼, 1 . V, 6 V, 11 ff. vi, 1 vi, 9ff. vi, 13 ff. viu, 6 . ix, 6 . XV, 24 XV, 27 . XV, 38 . xvi, 26 xvi, 46 xviii, 15 ff xix, 1 ff. xix, 10 xix, 15 xix, 16. xix, 17 ff. xxii, 4 xxii, 5 xxiii, 24 xxiv, 8 xxviii . xxix, 1 ff. xxxi, 19-24 xxxi, 22, 23 Deuteronomy xu, 16 xu, 23 xii, 30, 31 xviii, 10 xviii, 11 xviii, 18 xix, 14 xxi, 1 . xxii, 1 . page . 130 . 236 . 220 114, 116 . 182 . It . 114 . 182 . 182 . 182 . 114 . 182 . 182 . 164 . 108 . 182 219, 220 . It . 187 . 28 . 17 . 182 . 116 XXT, . 241 . 241 . 182 182, 202 . 110 . Iviii 20 195 222 xxix 252 222 248 200 252. 286 LIST OF BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS. DiVT. (cont.) : — page xxii, 6. ... 252 xxiii, 21 ... 246 XXV, 13-16 . . 248 xxYi, 14 . . . 14 xxni, 16 ... 247 xxvii, 17 . . . 248 xxxii» 17 . . . 44 Joshua: — Yi, 23 . . . . 200 Ti, 26 . . . . 228 Tii 176 viii, 29 ... 13 JuDOBs : — xiii, 3 ... 73, 78 1 Samuel: — ii, 6 . . . . 9 iv, 7 . . . . 1/58 xxviii, 7 . . . 9 xxTiii, 14 . . • 4 2 Sakuil: — xxiv, 16 . . . 86 1 EiNOs: — xviii .... xviii 2 Kings: — V, 10 . . . . liv xvi, 3 .... 222 xTii, 31 ... 222 xix, 36 . . . 86 xxiii, 10 . . . 222 1 Chroniclbs: — xxi, 1 . . . . 87 Job: — i, ii 87 ii, 13 . . . . 16 iv, 16 . . . 8, 40 vii, 10 . . . . 3 X, 21 ... . 3 xi, 8 . . . . 3 XTii, 16 . . . 3 Psalms: — xxix, 3-9 .. . 30 Ixxxviii, 6 . . 4 Ixxxix, 48 . . 87 cvi, 37 . . . 44, 222 cvi, 38 . . . . 222 cix, 6 . . . . 87 PROTERRS : — xxvii, 9 XXX, 16 . ECCLBSIASTBS : iv, 12 . . Isaiah: — vi, 6 . . viii, 19 xiv . . . xxxviii, 10 xxxviii, 18 xlvii, 12, 13 Ivii, 8 . . Jbrbmiah : — vii, 18 . ^•ii, 30-2 viii. Iff. xi, 19 . xix, 3-5 xxxii, 36 Ezbkibl: — iv. 1, 2 xiii, 18 xvi, 20, 21 • • • XXUl . xxxii, 27 xliu, 7-9 xliii, 18 ff. xlv, 18 ff. HosBA : — ix, 4 . . Jonah : — i, 14 . . i, 17 . . Zbchariau : — • • • m . . . Matthbw : — ui, 6 . . iv, 1 . . vii, 22 . . viii, 28 ff. xii, 24 . . xvii, 14 . xxvii, 24 . Mark: — V, 1 ff. vii, 22 . . page 133 63 167 Iviii 14 4 3 4 XXXV 128 207 222 10 206 222 222 166 38 222 73 4 114 182 182 14 1 53 87 liv 91 xlvi 208 xlvi 101 130 208 88 page . 101 xlvi . 149 . 208 . xlvi 60,91 . 80 60 . XXX . Ixvi XXX . XXX . XXX XXX. xxxvi Mark (oont.) : — ix, 14 . ix, 38 . Lukb: — iv, 34 . viii, 26 ff. ix, 49 . xi, 24 . John : — ▼.4 . X, 20 . Acts: — vui, 9 . xii, 7ff. xui, 6 . xvi, 16 xix, 13 xix, 19 1 Corinthians X, 20 ... . 198 Hbbrbws : — ix, 22 . . . . 196 Rbtblation: — iii, 1 . . . . 62 iv, 6 . . . . 62 V, 6 . . -. . 62 ix, 7 . . . . 81 xii, 4 . . . . 43 XV, 6 ... . 61 xviii, 2 ... 92 Tobit: — i, 16 . . . . 24 ii, 9 .... 114 iii, 17 ... . 74 vi, 7 . . . . Ivii vi. 14 . . . 74, 134 viu, 2 . . Ivii, 134 viii. 3 . . . . Ivii xii, 12, 16 . . 62 Wisdom : — xii, 4-6 ... 222 ECCLBSIASTICUS : — xxi, 27 ... 87 Bauuch : — vi, 29 . . . . 121