y large. All these
peculiarities meant something; and since few if any children are born
without presenting some peculiarities in some part of the body, it would
seem as though the intention of the compilers of the series was to
provide a complete handbook for the interpretation of signs connected
with the birth of children. Naturally the total absence of some member
of the body in case of the new-born or any malformation was a sign of
especial significance. Hence we are told what was portended by a child
born without hands or feet or ears or lips, or with only one of these
members, or with only one eye, or with no mouth or no tongue, or with
six fingers on one or on both hands, or six toes on one or on both feet,
or without generatory organs.[626]

The rarer the phenomenon, the greater the significance is, as we have
seen, a general principle in the science of augury. The birth of twins
accordingly plays an important role in the series. In fact, the opening
tablet is devoted in part to this phase of the subject. We are told, for
example, that[627]

If a woman gives birth to twins, one male and one female, it is
an unfavorable omen. The land is in favor[628], but that house
(wherein the child was born) will be reduced.

And again,

If a woman gives birth to twins, and both are brought out
alive(?),[629] but the right hand of one is lacking, the ruler
(?) will be killed by force, the land will be diminished....

If a woman gives birth to twins, and both are brought out alive
(?), but neither of them have right hands, the produce of the
country will be consumed by the enemy.

If a woman gives birth to twins, and both are brought out alive
(?), but the right foot of one is missing, an enemy will for one
year disturb the fixed order of the country.[630]

It will be observed that these omens bear on public as well as private
affairs. The part played by public matters in them varies, but that the
king and the country are so frequently introduced is an indication again
of the official character given to these omen tablets. Only priests
whose chief concern was with the court and the general welfare would
have been impelled to mingle in this curious way the fate of the
individual with that of the country at large. The birth of twins in
itself is an omen for the house where the event occurs; but twins that
are monstrosities, with a foot or a hand lacking, portend something o