by my side!
Keep thou the door of my lips! guard thou my hands, O Lord of light!

ODE TO FIRE

(The original text of this will be found in 4 R 14 l. 6 which is a
lithographic copy of the tablet K, 44. A part of it was translated some
years ago from a photograph of that tablet; see No. 430 of my Glossary.

Very few Assyrian odes are so simple and intelligible as this is:
unfortunately most of them are mystical and hard of interpretation.)

1 O Fire, great Lord, who art the most exalted in the world,
2 noble Son of heaven, who art the most exalted in the world,
3 O Fire, with thy bright flame
4 in the dark house thou dost cause light.
5 Of all things that can be named, Thou dost form the fabric!
6 Of bronze and of lead, Thou art the melter!
7 Of silver and of gold, Thou art the refiner!
8 Of ... Thou art the purifier!
9 Of the wicked man in the night time Thou dost repel the
assault!
10 But the man who serves his god, Thou wilt give him light
for his actions!

ASSYRIAN TALISMANS AND EXORCISMS TRANSLATED BY H.F. TALBOT, F.R.S.

DEMONIACAL POSSESSION AND EXORCISM

Diseases were attributed to the influence of Evil Spirits. Exorcisms were
used to drive away those tormentors: and this seems to have been the sole
remedy employed, for I believe that no mention has been found of medicine.

This is a very frequent subject of the tablets. [Footnote: Taken from 2 R
pl. 18.] One of them says of a sick man:

1 "May the goddess ...
2 wife of the god ...
3 turn his face in another direction;
4 that the evil spirit may come out of him
5 and be thrust aside, and that Good Spirits and Good Powers
6 may dwell in his body!"

Sometimes divine images were brought into the chamber, and written texts
taken from holy books were placed on the walls and bound around the sick
man's brows. If these failed recourse was had to the influence of the
_mamit_, which the evil powers were unable to resist. On a tablet 2 R p.
17 the following is found, written in the Accadian language only, the
Assyrian version being broken off:

1 Take a white cloth: In it place the _mamit_,
2 in the sick man's right hand.
3 And take a black cloth:
4 wrap it round his left hand.
5 Then all the evil spirits.[1]
6 and the sins which he has committed
7 shall quit their hold of him,
8 and shall never return.[2]

[Footnote 1: A long list of them is given.]

[Footnote 2: "Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.,"