" THE SEVEN "—DEMONS 437 



The N.T. confines the instances of evil spirits possessing 

 mankind — more frequently in the psychical rather than in 

 the physical sense — to the Gospels and the Acts, which illus- 

 trate demonic possession of women by {inter alias) the Canaan- 

 itish woman (Matt. xvi. 22) and Mary Magdalene, " from 

 whom seven devils had gone out " (Luke viii. 2).^ 



^ It would seem that the Babylonians intelligently, if unconsciously, 

 anticipated our law of germs, for " the doctrine of disease was that the swarming 

 demons could enter a man's body and cause sickness." On a fragment of a 

 tablet, Budge has found six evil spirits mentioned by name, each of which 

 specialised in attack, the first going for the head, and so on. See Encyc. 

 Bibl., 1073. 



