SCIENCE OF BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA 



and six hundred spirits of earth. " Like the Jews of 

 the -Talmud," he says, "they believed that the world 

 was swarming with noxious spirits, who produced the 

 various diseases to which man is liable, and might be 

 swallowed with the food and drink which support 

 life." Fox Talbot was inclined to believe that exor- 

 cisms were the exclusive means used to drive away the 

 tormenting spirits. This seems unlikely, considering 

 the uniform association of drugs with the magical prac- 

 tices among their people. Yet there is certainly a 

 strange silence of the tablets in regard to medicine. 

 Talbot tells us that sometimes divine images were 

 brought into the sick-chamber, and written texts 

 taken from holy books were placed on the walls and 

 bound around the sick man's members. If these 

 failed, recourse was had to the influence of the mamit, 

 which the evil powers were unable to resist. On a 

 tablet, written in the Accadian language only, the 

 Assyrian version being taken, however, was found the 

 following : 



1. Take a white cloth. In it place the mamit, 



2. in the sick man's right hand. 



3. Take a black cloth, 



4. wrap it around his left hand. 



5. Then all the evil spirits (a long list of them is given) 



6. and the sins which he has committed 



7. shall quit their hold of him 



8. and shall never return. 



The symbolism of the black cloth in the left hand 

 seems evident. The dying man repents of his former 

 evil deeds, and he puts his trust in holiness, symbolized 

 by the white cloth in his right hand. Then follow 

 some obscure lines about the spirits : 



