436 THE FISH OF TOBIAS— DEMONIC POSSESSION 



scope for making love to the bride their jealous wrath might 

 be appeased, or the danger, at any rate, minimised. The 

 alternative to appeasement was deception of the demon ; 

 whence women sometimes disguised themselves as men, and 

 even wore false beards ! 



We find, on returning from this semi-folklore excursion, 

 Prof. Langdon asserting that in Sumero-Babylonian religion 

 each individual is guarded by a divine spirit or god.^ He is 

 called the " Man's God," and the man is defined, in a reUgious 

 sense, as a " Son of God." But this term applies to no females. 



This can hardly be attributed to accident, for our sources 

 of information mention hundreds, even thousands, of men 

 bewitched, and by demonic force abandoned by their indwelling 

 gods, but never a woman. Women not infrequently figure as 

 causing the condition of tabu, but never as having fallen to the 

 powers of devils, or witches, or as being under the protection 

 of a personal god. They never appear in the private penitential 

 psalms. 



But when we recall the high position occupied by women, 

 not only in Babylonian society, but also in the eye of the civil 

 law, which regarded their rights, as often as not, equal to those 

 of men, and that women are often found as priestesses of 

 religious orders, Langdon's statements, resting on recent 

 discoveries, create grounds for surprise. 



To explain the anomaly he conjectures that when the texts 

 refer to sinners, penitents, or sufferers, the title " son of his 

 god " applies in all probability also to women. 



The book of Tobit, whether Persian in its source or Aramaic 

 in its original text, furnishes an example of demonic possession 

 of a woman, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. 



The Jewish conception of demonic possession resembles, 

 indeed probably descends from, the Babylonian. The " seven 

 devils " of Matt. xii. 45, Luke xi. 26, and viii. 2, simply 

 reflect the evil spirits, called in a famous incantation The Seven, 

 who play no small part in Babylonian mythology. 2 



* Babylonian Magic (London, 1914), pp. 223-224, and Le Fuhne Sutnhien, 

 already cited, p. 72, note 3. 



'^ Maspero, Dawn of Civilisation, pp. 634, 776. 



