26 
NATURE 
[NOVEMBER 12, 1903 
one as being admirable descriptions of useful work, 
well conceived and ably executed. 
As a separate establishment the Imperial Institute 
thas ceased to exist, and is now a department of the 
Board of Trade. In its time it has played many parts. 
It has exhibited nuggets to us, sold us cakes and ale, 
discoursed sweet music to our ears, and charmed our 
eyes with its fairy-lamps and coloured fires. These 
things have vanished, as have also many of the 
‘splendid, but rather nebulous, generalities which we 
used to hear concerning the Institute’s prospects and 
probable influence as a factor in Imperial affairs. But 
at least the definite work of the scientific staff remains, 
‘and, presumably, such services as those now rendered 
will be more and more brought into requisition as 
time goes on. It may well happen that Prof. 
Dunstan’s laboratory will—to paraphrase a remark of 
Huxley’s—become the forecourt of the temple of 
success for some at least of the original aims of the 
Institute, whatever may be the fate of the remainder. 
C. SIMMONDS. 
BABYLONIAN. DEMONOLOGY. 
‘The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia. Vol. i. By 
R. C. Thompson, M.A. Pp. Ixv+212; with 2 plates. 
(London: Luzae and Co.) 
is) Rae present volume is the first of two which Mr. 
Thompson intends to devote to a study of the 
evil spirits and devils of Babylonia, and it will, we 
believe, be welcomed by readers of many classes. We 
jhave been long familiar with the generalisations which 
writers are fond of making upon this fascinating sub- 
ject, but so far as we know, no one has_ before 
attempted to give a systematic account of Chaldean 
demonology, and to add at the same time the reasons 
for the faith which is in him. Those who are interested 
‘in cuneiform decipherment will remember that some 
few years ago the Trustees of the British Museum 
‘began to publish a series of classified Assyrian and 
Babylonian texts, which they issued in parts, each con- 
taining 50 plates of text. The earliest parts contained 
all the material for the syllabary and grammar, then 
followed lists of words, and afterwards Mr. L. W. 
King’s edition of the Creation tablets. In the present 
‘year were published the sixteenth and seventeenth 
parts of the series, which supplied copies of all the 
tablets relating to ‘‘ evil spirits,’’ ‘‘ fever-sickness,”’ 
and ‘‘ headache,’’ carefully made by Mr. R. C. Thomp- 
son, and these are the sources of the materials which 
have been translated in the present volume. 
Mr. Thompson gives transliterations of his cunei- 
form texts on the left hand pages, and English trans- 
lations on the right; this is an open and honest way of 
working, and we hope that English Assyriologists in 
general will follow his example. Nowadays the 
student demands facts, and the text is the greatest fact 
-of all; no linguistic study can flourish upon bad found- 
ations, and in our opinion the work of the man who 
hides his texts, or only makes them partially avail- 
able for students, should be viewed with suspicion. 
TEven a bad text is better than none, for at least 
eyworkers in England, France, and Germany can 
NO. 1776, VOL. 69] 
correct it sooner or later. In the present case the 
British Museum publishes the texts, and Messrs. Luzac 
the translations, and as each portion of the work is 
done by the same man we are able to ascertain our 
position from a scholarly point of view to a nicety. 
The publication of evil spirit texts, like so much else, 
was begun by the late Sir H. Rawlinson, K.C.B., and 
attempts were made to translate his copies first by 
Lenormant and secondly by Prof. Sayce. Sir H. 
Rawlinson, however, only published selections from 
the great mass of cuneiform literature in the British 
Museum, and it follows, as a matter of course, that 
even where they could translate the texts, the con- 
clusions of Lenormant and Prof. Sayce were based on 
incomplete and insufficient evidence. The subject of 
Chaldean demonology is at the best a difficult one, and 
we have no hesitation in saying that the earlier works 
on it rather hindered than helped the understanding 
of the matter. Now that the tablets are joined up, and 
their right sequence found, it becomes clear that the 
Assyrian scribes were not so stupid as some have 
thought, and that there really was method in their 
madness. 
It is to Mr. Thompson’s credit that he has found out 
what the Assyrian method was in respect of the evil 
spirit tablets, and having found this his translations 
possess unusual value. He will hardly, we think, 
claim to have settled all the difficulties which he has 
encountered, but there is little doubt that his present 
work will form the standard one on the subject for 
many years to come. In the course of his study we 
find that he had destroyed a few ideals, and more than 
one favourite and popular theory. It was fashionable 
to assert a few years ago that the British Museum 
contained a tablet which bore on it an allusion to the 
Garden of Eden, but now that the fragment referred 
to has been put in its right order, we see that the text 
on it has nothing whatever to do with the Garden of 
Eden, and that the tree which was supposed to be 
nothing more or less than the Tree of Life is the kish- 
kanu plant, which grew in Eridu, and was believed 
merely to possess magical properties. Mr. Thompson 
has taken great pains to thresh this matter out, and 
we think that he has proved his points very thoroughly. 
We can only hope that this exposure will deter that 
class of Assyriologist which seeks for reputation and 
popularity by the ‘‘ finding ”’ of ‘‘ Biblical parallels ”” 
from continuing its charlatanic practices. More — 
harm has been done to Assyriology by such things 
than by all the mistakes which its followers, from 
Rawlinson down to Thompson, have made; for even 
the results which are certain have been discredited by 
many first-rate Semitic scholars who were unable to 
read cuneiform. 
Another important result of Mr. Thompson’s work is 
the proof that, au fond, the demonology of the Semitic 
peoples of Mesopotamia who used the cuneiform system 
of writing is of Sumerian origin, and there is good 
reason to suspect that the greater part of Babylonian 
psychology and eschatology were borrowed directly 
from their non-Semitic predecessors in the country. 
This remark applies also to many of the beliefs which 
the Hebrews took over from the Babylonians their 
kinsmen. Want of space will not permit the mention 
