184 JOUENAL OF THE EOYAL HO ETIC ULTUE AL SOCIETY. 



The vine is often depicted — though in a very conventional form — 

 attached to a date-palm, and this may have perhaps assisted to combine 

 the two. 



Magic. — Professor Sayce has shown most clearly how magic preceded 

 religion ; magical texts belong to an earlier and non-religious period in 

 Babylon. It was thought that any movement was a sign or proof that 

 the object in motion had a spirit, as man himself can move because he 

 is alive. All sicknesses, &c, were supposed to be caused by evil spirits, 

 so that to cure them magic was resorted to ; but, as Professor Sayce says, 

 ''receipts for the cure of diseases, which scarcely differ from those that 

 would be prescribed to-day, are mingled with charms and spells in later 

 periods. The sick man was given his choice between a scientific treat- 

 ment and a recourse to the old system of the primitive medicine man." * 

 Hymns to deities were associated with spells. So was it in the Middle 

 Ages, spells were often remnants of prayers in the fourteenth century in 

 England. 



" It was the existence of disease which first called exorcists into being. 

 The prevention and cure of disease is the main object of the magical 

 texts and incantations. Disease was looked upon as possession by a 

 malevolent spirit." So is it to this day in the uncivilized world. 



But one need only go back to Anglo-Saxon days from the ninth 

 to the eleventh century to find the same superstitions still existing. 

 " Scientific medicine was being clouded over by the mystical philosophy 

 and magic of the Orientals, &c. The sound methods of treatment 

 were being superseded by charms and incantations with misapplied 

 religious rites." t Thus history repeated itself. 



In the sacred books of Babylon, we find prayers to the Sun-god with 

 requests to remove "whatever worketh evil in the body." Professor 

 Sayce observes that it is a " strange mixture of spiritual thought and 

 the arts of the sorcerer. . . . The hymns to the Sun-god were not yet 

 emancipated from the magical beliefs and ceremonies in which they 

 had their origin. . . . They must have been used by a class of priests 

 known as 'Chanters' or 'Enchanters.' . . . In many we have an 

 alternating antiphonal service, portions of them being recited by the 

 priest, the other portions by the worshipper." + 



Coming down to much later days charms appear to have acquired 

 a new use in themselves, and not as prayers, for the words "charms" 

 and "incantations," derived from the Latin carmen a "song" and 

 cantarc to "sing," imply their original meaning as soothing lullabies; 

 but they often degenerated into a long string of Latin words without 

 any coherent sense. These being " droned " over the patient in a subdued 

 voice would have much the same effect as a soporific discourse. But 

 this may have been only a superadded use. The real and original 

 object was to expel the evil spirit which caused the disease. 



Now, in the preceding, plants formed an important element. The 

 following is a good example given by Dr. Payne of the Magic of Henbane. 

 " Dig round the sacred herb Hyoscyamus before sunset with the thumb 



* Hibbert Lectures, 1887, p. 317. 

 f English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times, by Dr. T. F. Payne, pp. 57 fif. 

 % Tlw Religions of Ancient Egijpt and Babylonia, p. 417. 



