ns, the heavens created the earth, the earth created the rivers,
the rivers created the canals, the canals created the marshes, and
last of all the marshes created "the worm".

This display of knowledge compelled the worm to listen, and no doubt
the patient was able to indicate to what degree it gave evidence of
its agitated mind. The magician continued:

Came the worm and wept before Shamash,
Before Ea came her tears:
"What wilt thou give me for my food,
What wilt thou give me to devour?"

One of the deities answered: "I will give thee dried bones and scented
... wood"; but the hungry worm protested:

"Nay, what are these dried bones of thine to me?
Let me drink among the teeth;
And set me on the gums
That I may devour the blood of the teeth,
And of their gums destroy their strength--
Then shall I hold the bolt of the door."

The magician provided food for "the worm", and the following is his
recipe: "Mix beer, the plant sa-kil-bir, and oil together; put it on
the tooth and repeat Incantation." No doubt this mixture soothed the
pain, and the sufferer must have smiled gladly when the magician
finished his incantation by exclaiming:

"So must thou say this, O Worm!
May Ea smite thee with the might of his fist."[270]

Headaches were no doubt much relieved when damp cloths were wrapped
round a patient's head and scented wood was burned beside him, while
the magician, in whom so much faith was reposed, droned out a mystical
incantation. The curative water was drawn from the confluence of two
streams and was sprinkled with much ceremony. In like manner the
evil-eye curers, who still operate in isolated districts in these
islands, draw water from under bridges "over which the dead and the
living pass",[271] and mutter charms and lustrate victims.

Headaches were much dreaded by the Babylonians. They were usually the
first symptoms of fevers, and the demons who caused them were supposed
to be bloodthirsty and exceedingly awesome. According to the charms,
these invisible enemies of man were of the brood of Nergal. No house
could be protected against them. They entered through keyholes and
chinks of doors and windows; they crept like serpents and stank like
mice; they had lolling tongues like hungry dogs.

Magicians baffled the demons by providing a charm. If a patient
"touched iron"--meteoric iron, which was the "metal of heaven"--relief
could be obtained. Or, perhap