licant or not. While it is proper, therefore, to distinguish
incantations from prayers, the combination of the two could scarcely be
avoided by the priests, who, rising in a measure superior to the popular
beliefs, felt it to be inconsistent with a proper regard for the gods
not to give them a superior place in the magical texts. The addition, to
the sacred formulas, of prayers directly addressed to certain gods may
be put down as due to the adaptation of ancient texts to the needs of a
later age; and, on the other hand, the addition of incantations to what
appear to have been originally prayers, pure and simple, is a concession
made to the persistent belief in the efficacy of certain formulas when
properly uttered. Such combinations of prayers and incantations
constituted, as would appear, a special class of religious texts; and,
in the course of further editing,[415] a number of prayers addressed to
various deities were combined and interspersed with incantation and
ceremonial directions which were to accompany the prayers.

The incantations accordingly lead us to the next division in the
religious literature of the Babylonians,--the prayers and hymns.

FOOTNOTES:

[341] _Die Assyrische Beschwoerungsserie, Maqlu_, p. 14.

[342] There are some preserved solely in the ideographic style, and
others of which we have only the phonetic transliteration.

[343] _Die Propheten in ihrer urspruenglichen Form_, pp. 1, 6. This work
is a valuable investigation of the oldest form of the poetic
compositions of the Semites.

[344] The fifth and sixth tablets of the series. It is probable that
several editions were prepared,--some wholly Babylonian, others
bilingual.

[345] Haupt, _Akkadische und Sumerische Keilschrifttexte_, p. 83. col.
I. ll. 1-10.

[346] Wherever feasible, the Babylonian name of the demon will be used
in the translations.

[347] Our word 'nightmare' still embodies the same ancient view of the
cause of bad dreams as that found among the Babylonians.

[348] See above, p. 182.

[349] IV R. pl. 5.

[350] See Perrot and Chiplez, _History of Art in Chaldaea and Assyria_,
i. 61, 62; ii. 81 for illustrations.

[351] IV R. 2, col. v. ll. 30-60.

[352] The god of humanity. The phrase is equivalent to saying that the
spirits are hostile to mankind.

[353] Literally, 'to their second time,' _i.e._, repeat 'seven are
they.'

[354] See Hopkins, _The Holy Numbers in the Rig-Veda_ (Oriental
Studies), pp. 144-1