52 



NA rURE 



[May 17, 1900 



result, because neither of these scholars was able to 

 devote sufficient time to the study of original texts in the 

 British Museum. Great impetus was given to the study 

 when the late Sir Henry Rawlinson published the third 

 part of the "Cuneiform Inscriptions," and Prof. Sayce 

 found therein material for his paper on the " Astronomy 

 and Astrology of the Babylonians," which appeared in 

 1873. During the last twenty-five years the astronomy 

 of the Babylonians has been discussed by Strassmaier, 

 Jensen and others, but little has been done for the older, 

 sister subject of astrology. In the two volumes before us 

 Mr. Campbell Thompson gives us the cuneiform text of 

 what is, practically, the complete series of the Astrological 

 Reports of the Royal Library at Nineveh— that is to say, 

 opies of about two hundred and eighty tablets, and trans- 

 literations of about two hundred and twenty duplicates, 

 without reckoning the transliterations of the texts of the 

 original series. In addition, we find a translation of the 

 tablets in English, and a vocabulary, with references, 

 and a subject index. '^ The work in each of these sections 

 has been carefully done, and we welome Mr. Thompson 

 in the little band of English Assyriologists, because his 

 pages, somehow, suggest that he intends to try to justify 

 his position as assistant in the British Museum. The 

 study of Biblical parallels and the making of Biblical 

 comparisons are interesting and useful enough in their 

 way, but it is useless to dogmatise about any branch of 

 Assyriology as long as the literature relating to it remains 

 unpublished. Mr. Thompson's book is a good proof of 

 this contention. Many have talked glibly and written 

 vaguely about Chaldean astrologers, but now that we 

 have before us the actual texts of the documents which 

 they drew up, we shall find that most of what has been 

 written on the subject before is incorrect. 



The study of astrological astronomy in Western Asia 

 is very ancient, and an old tradition, referred to by Pliny, 

 states that the Babylonians possessed records of calcu- 

 lations which covered a period of 490,000 years ; there is 

 no doubt that we now possess texts of this class which 

 are as old as the reign of Sargon of Agadhe (about B.C. 

 3800); but nothing older than this date has yet been 

 unearthed. The principal astronomical schools in Assyria 

 in the seventh century B.C. were at Ashur, Nineveh and 

 Arbela, and at a later period Sippar, Borsippa and 

 Orchoe, in Babylonia, were famous for their schools. The 

 chief duty of the astrologer in Assyria was to calculate 

 times and seasons, which he did either by observation or 

 by the help of an instrument called abkallu shikla—i.e. 

 " master of measure" (^r reckoning). This instrument 

 may be the clepsydra, which Sextus Empiricus says was 

 known to the Chaldeans. The time measure was called 

 kasbu, and contained two hours ; the month was one of 

 thirty days, and the year contained twelve months. The 

 Assyrians employed one intercalary month (second Adar), 

 and the Babylonians two (Elul and Adar). Both nations 

 had a year of lunar months, and much of the time of the 

 Chaldean star-gazer was spent in observing the sun and 

 moon, with the view of determining when the months 

 began and ended. The seven planets were called Sin 

 (moon), Shamash (sun), Umunpauddu (Jupiter), Dilbat 

 (Venus), Kaimanu (Saturn), Gudud (Mercury), and 

 Mushtabarru-mutanu (Mars). From these, and the 

 Signs of the Zodiac, and indeed most heavenly bodies, 

 NO. 1594, VOL. 62] 



omens were deduced, and from the horns of the moon 

 many portents were derived. Another source of omens 

 were the halos, two of which were known ; the one was 

 of 22°, and the other of 46'. Dark halos always portended 

 rain, and were well known, and Mr. Thompson suspects 

 that the astrologers were acquainted with mock suns 

 also. That they were good weather prophets is tolerably 

 clear from many indications ; indeed, it would be sur- 

 prising if they were not. The omens derived from 

 eclipses are very interesting, but the train of reasoning 

 which guided the composition of birth portents cannot 

 always be fpUowed. Thus, in text No. 277, it is related that 

 a certain butcher, called Uddanu, reported to an astrologer 

 that when his sow littered, one of the young pigs had 

 eight legs and two tails, and that he had preserved the 

 animal in brine ; from this birth the astrologer deduced 

 the omen that the Crown Prince of the day would " grasp 

 power." But why ? Many of the reports sent to the 

 king are interesting, chiefly because of the variety of 

 their contents. When the astrologer had reported the 

 astrological fact asked for, he added any little detail con- 

 cerning mundane affairs which he might have room for 

 on the tablet, or which he thought it would amuse the 

 king to have knowledge of. Sometimes there is nothing of 

 special astrological importance in the report at all— ^.,^. No. 

 22, whereon the writer wishes the king power and riches, 

 and says that as the gods Ashur, Shamash, Nebo and 

 Merodach have delivered Kush and Egypt into his hands, 

 even so will they deliver the Cimmerians and the Mannai. 

 Again, in No. 124, more than one-third of the report is 

 occupied with the discussion of some private afifair, in 

 which the writer says, " Now the king knows I hold no 

 land in Assyria." From the literal translations which 

 Mr. Thompson gives in the second volume of his book, 

 it is clear that the writers of these reports wilfully 

 obscured their meaning by using obscure and difficult 

 words, and that they intended to make it necessary for 

 their recipients, royal or otherwise, to call in the pro- 

 fessional astrologer. If the Assyrians found it difficult 

 to get out a meaning from such documents, there is small 

 wonder that we, in these days, have a difficulty in 

 understanding them also, and as many of the allusions 

 must necessarily be unknown to us, we may have, to wait 

 for new texts which will help us to clear therh up. 

 Meanwhile, Mr. Thompson has dealt carefully with his 

 texts, and has erred rather on the side of being too literal 

 than too paraphrastic in his translations. It is to be 

 hoped that he will find time to continue his investigations, 

 and to give us accurate editions of original documents, 

 which may serve as the foundation of a superstructure of 

 facts rather than theories. 



THE SCIENCE OF NUMBER. 

 Elements de la Theorle des Nombres. Par E. Cahen. 

 Pp. viii + 404. (Paris : Gauthier-Villars et Fils, 1900.) 



TO the contemplative mind the science of arithmetic 

 offers irresistible, if tantalising, attractions. The 

 abstract notion of number underlies all scientific know- 

 ledge and theory whatever ; and it is in terms of it alone 

 that we are compelled to seek for the ultimate statement 

 of the facts of the sensible world. It is most unfortunate 



