The priest is instructed to observe whether 'at the nape on the left
side' there is a slit; whether 'at the bottom on the left side of the
bladder' some peculiarity[508] is found or whether it is normal; whether
'the nape to the right side' is sunk and split or whether the viscera
are sound. The proportions, too, in the size of the various parts of the
body appear to have been of moment; and in this way, a large number of
points are given to which the priest is to direct his attention. From a
combination of all peculiarities and signs in a given instance, he
divines the disposition of the god addressed, whether it is favorable or
not. The whole ceremony is brought to a close by another appeal to the
god to send an answer to the question put to him. The priest prays:

By virtue of this sacrificial lamb, arise and grant true mercy,
favorable conditions of the parts of the animal, a declaration
favorable and beneficial be ordained by thy great divinity.
Grant that this may come to pass. To thy great divinity, O
Shamash! great lord! may it[509] be pleasing,[510] and may an
oracle be sent in answer!

In some of the prayers a second series of omen indications are given.
What the oracle announced we are, of course, not told. The ritual is not
concerned with results.

From the analysis just given it will be seen that the consultation of a
deity was often entailed with much ceremony. No doubt the priests did
all in their power to add to the solemnity of such an occasion. The
kings on their side showed their lavishness in furnishing victims for
the sacrifice. Again and again does Esarhaddon solicit Shamash to reveal
the outcome of the military campaigns in which the king was engaged. The
same individual, Kashtariti, and the Gimirrites, Medes, etc., are
mentioned in many other prayers prepared in the course of the campaign;
and elsewhere other campaigns are introduced. What Esarhaddon did, no
doubt his successors also did, as he himself followed the example set by
his predecessors. We are justified, then, in concluding that a regular
'oracle and omen ritual' was developed in Babylonia and Assyria--how
early it is of course impossible to say. There is every reason to
believe that in some form such a ritual existed in Babylonia before the
rise of Assyria, but it is also evident that in a military empire like
Assyria, there would be more frequent occasion for securing oracles than
in Babylonia. The ritual