thou, sorceress, who bears her evil word within her heart,
Through whose tongue my misfortune is produced,
Through whose lips I have been poisoned,
In whose footsteps death follows?
Sorceress, I seize thy mouth, seize thy tongue,
I seize thy searching eyes,
I seize thy ever-moving feet,
I seize thy knees ever active,
I seize thy hands ever stretched out,
I tie thy hands behind thee.
May Sin ... destroy thy body,
May he cast thee into an abyss of fire and water.
Sorceress, as the circle of this seal-ring,[402]
May thy face grow pale and wan.

Of the same character as this, are a variety of other incantations, all
applicable to cases in which the sorceress is unknown. As the last
specimen of the 'Maklu' series, I choose an incantation addressed to the
demons, which is interesting because of the direct character of the
commands it contains:

Away, away, far away, far away,
For shame, for shame, fly away, fly away,
Round about face, go away, far away,
Out of my body, away,
Out of my body, far away,
Out of my body, away for shame,
Out of my body, fly away,
Out of my body, round about face,
Out of my body, go away,
Into my body, come not back,
Towards my body, do not approach,
Towards my body, draw not nigh,
My body torture not.
By Shamash the mighty, be ye foresworn.
By Ea, the lord of everything, be ye foresworn.
By Marduk, the chief magician of the gods, be ye foresworn.
By the fire-god, be ye foresworn.
From my body be ye restrained!

Repetition and variation in the use of certain phrases make up, as will
be seen from the specimens given, a large part of the incantation. A
curious illustration of the importance attributed to such repetition is
furnished by the eighth and last tablet of the 'Maklu' series. It
consists of seven divisions, each beginning with a repetition of the
headlines of the various sections of the preceding seven tablets; and
only after the headlines of each of the tablets have been exhausted,
does the real incantation begin. This eighth tablet contains therefore a
kind of summary of all the others, the purpose of which is to gather
together all the power and influence of the seven others.

The 'Maklu' ritual deals so largely with the fire-god that a specimen
from another series, to illustrate the position of Ea and Marduk in the
incantations, seems called for. The 'Shurpu' series introduces Ea and
Marduk more particularly.