t allusions to them, and to their expulsion, on the
tablets. One runs thus:

1 The god (...) shall stand by his bedside:
2 Those seven evil spirits he shall root out, and shall expel
them from his body.
3 And those seven shall never return to the sick man again!

But sometimes this belief attained the grandeur of epic poetry. There is a
fine tale on one of the tablets [Footnote 2: "Cuneiform Inscriptions of
Western Asia," vol. iv. pl. 5.] of the seven evil spirits assaulting
heaven, and the gods alarmed standing upon the defensive, no doubt
successfully, but unluckily the conclusion of the story is broken off.

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CHARMS

TRANSLATED BY REV. A.H. SAYCE, M.A.

The following are specimens of the imprecatory charms with which the
ancient Babylonian literature abounded, and which were supposed to be the
most potent means in the world for producing mischief. Some examples are
given in the first volume of the "Records of the Past," pp. 131-135 of the
exorcisms used to avert the consequences of such enchantments. The
original Accadian text is preserved in the first column with an
interlinear Assyrian translation: the short paragraphs in Column III also
give the Accadian original; but elsewhere the Assyrian scribe has
contented himself with the Assyrian rendering alone. The charms are
rhythmic, and illustrate the rude parallelism of Accadian poetry. The
Assyrian translations were probably made for the library of Sargon of
Agane, an ancient Babylonian monarch who reigned not later than the
sixteenth century B.C.; but the copy we possess was made from the old
tablets by the scribes of Assur-bani-pal. The larger part of the first
column has already been translated by M. Francois Lenormant in "_La Magie
chez les Chaldeens_" p. 59. The tablet on which the inscription occurs is
marked K 65 in the British Museum Collection and will be published in the
"Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," Vol. IV, plates 7, 8.

ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CHARMS

COLUMN I

1 The beginning[1]--The baneful charm[2] like an evil demon
acts against[3] the man.
2 The voice _that defiles_ acts upon him.
3 The maleficent voice acts upon him.
4 The baneful charm is a spell that originates sickness.[4]
5 This man the baneful charm strangles like a lamb.
6 His god in his flesh makes the wound.
7 His goddess mutual enmity brings down.
8 The voice _that defiles_ like a hyena covers him and subjugates