oof that the
oldest incantation texts were written in the ideographic style, and that
for this reason the custom was continued down to the latest period. On
the other hand, the addition of the transliteration points to a period
when the old style could no longer be read by the priests with facility
without some guide, and incidentally proves again that the texts have
gone through an editing process. But in the course of time, additions to
the ritual were made, written in the phonetic style; and then it would
happen, as a concession to religious conservatism, that the text would
be translated back into the ideographic form. We would then have a
"bilingual" text, consisting of Babylonian and an artificial
"Sumero-Akkadian." That incantations were also composed in pure
Babylonian without reference to any "Sumero-Akkadian" original is
conclusively shown by the metrical traits frequently introduced. Many of
the sections--by no means all--can be divided into regular stanzas of
four, six, or eight lines, and frequently to the stanza is added a line
which forms what Professor D. H. Mueller[343] calls the "response." The
same metrical traits being found in other parts of the Babylonian
literature,--so, _e.g._, in the creation epic,--their occurrence in the
incantation texts is of course not accidental. When, therefore, we come
across a ritual as the "Maklu" series, written exclusively in the
phonetic style, and giving evidence of being in part a metrical
composition, we are justified in assuming this to have been the original
form. Again, in the case of another series,--the "Shurpu," in part
Babylonian, in part bilingual,[344]--since the Babylonian section shows
the metrical form, it is likely that the ideographic style represents a
transliteration of a phonetic, or pure Babylonian, original.

The chief value of the incantation texts lies, naturally, in the insight
they afford into the popular beliefs. As among other nations, so among
the Babylonians, the use of certain formulas to secure release from
ills, pains, and evils of any kind, either actual or portending, rests
upon the theory that the accidents and misfortunes to which man is heir
are due largely to the influence of more or less powerful spirits or
demons, acting independently or at the command of higher powers,--the
gods.

Through the incantation rituals we are enabled to specify the traits
popularly ascribed to these demons and the means employed to rid oneself
of