them destruction of cattle. They conditioned the fertility of the
country, but pestilence was often caused by the evaporation of the
waters. Again, military expeditions were usually undertaken in the
spring of the year before the great heat set in, and in a country like
Assyria, it was safe to hazard a vague prediction that hostilities would
ensue, and that some district would be diminished.

What may be called the 'eclectic' character of the omen series under
consideration thus becomes apparent. The lists consisted, on the one
hand, of omens obtained on certain occasions and with reference to some
specific circumstance, such as a campaign against some country, and, on
the other hand, of prognostications of a more general character, based
on the general climatic conditions of the country, and referring to
events of frequent occurrence. All that the scribes in preparing the
series were concerned with, was to collect as many omens as they could,
and to arrange them in some convenient order. Just as they prepared
lists referring to military events, so they put together others in which
some other theme was treated. The reports and omen tablets thus
complement one another. The latter are based on the former, and the
former were obtained by the interpretation of phenomena, furnished by
the tablets and applied to the particular case submitted to the priests.
We need not, of course, suppose that _all_ prognostications found in the
series, especially in those parts of it which are of a more general
character, were based upon reports actually made, any more than that the
official reports to the kings even in later days were always based upon
a consultation of some series of tablets. Individual judgment, both in
compiling a series and in interpreting phenomena, must at all times have
played some part. The reports and the series also embody to some extent
the results of experience not previously put to writing; but these
considerations do not alter the general proposition set forth in this
chapter as to the practical purpose served by the omen series as well as
by the reports, and the pragmatic origin of both.

The importance of eclipses gave to omens connected with such events a
special significance. Eclipses, however, were after all rare events, and
while because of their rarity they always portended something of great
moment, still the ordinary phenomena were the ones that had to be
studied by the astrologers with great care in