208
guarded the hair, RA the face, Hathor took the eyes under her protection, Anubis the lips, while Thoth took oversight over all the limbs. Further interesting details on this subject may be obtained
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from Dr. A. Wiedemann’s Religion der alten |
Egypter, p. 146 f. n Babylonia demonology and magie were even ore prevalent than in ancient Egypt. To the nhabitants of the Euphrates and Tigris lands the
xistence of a vast host of demons was an ever- |
present fact. Now demons, as we have already esis out (art. DEMON, DEVIL), are simply a development of Animism. In the words of Prof. Morris Jastrow (Leligion of Babylonia and As- syria, p. 49), ‘the more important and the more uniform of the natural forces became gods, and the inferior ones were, as a general rule, relegated to the secondary position of mere sprites, like the jinns of Arabic belief.’ Mere sprites or demons personify the irregular and destructive forces of nature (cf. Chantepie de la Saussaye, i. p. 214). The incantations, of which so large a number has been supplied to us in the 4th vol. of the Cunei- form Inser. of Western Asia (WAT, occasionally designated Rawl.; see Sayce, Hibbert Lect. ae 441-447), usually deal with bodily or mental afflic- tions, of which evil demons were held to be ‘the cause. These were believed to have obtained power over the human subject owing to the wrath of some deity, or because the victim had been sub- jected to blighting influence through the instru- mentality of some sorcerer or witch. Angry gods made use of demons for the infliction of punish- ment. Moreover, it was believed that domestic misfortunes, such as jealousy, evil reports, and quarrels, were brought about by these supernatural agents. In magic, forms of words constituted the means by which the demons were constrained to work these mischiefs on the unfortunate victim. Or it might be effectuated by poisonous breath or spittle, and yet more often by the evil eye. For in the very earliest times it was a popular superstition that certain beings possessed ἀπε σεῖς power, and could exercise it malignantly on human victims of their displeasure. Jastrow thinks that ‘this belief may have originated in the abnormal appearance presented by certain individuals in consequence of physical deformities. . . . The un- canny impression made by dwarfs, persons with a strange look in their eyes, and, above all, the insane, would give rise to the view that some people possessed peculiar powers. By the side of such as were distinguished by bodily defects, those who outranked their fellows by virtue of natural gifts, by keenness of intellect or cunning, would also be supposed to have received their power through some demoniac source. There would thus be associated ideas of sorcery and witchcraft. The sorcerers might be either maie or female, but, for reasons which are hard to fathom, the preference was given to females.’ Thus among the Baby- lonians, as in medieval Europe, the witch appears more frequently than the male sorcerer. She possesses the power of demons, and in incantations the two are often conjoined.
The predominance of the sorceress may also be observed in Jewish literature as well as in that of other races, notably in that of Greece and Rome (ef. Horace, Zpod. xvii., Sat. i.8 ; Theocritus, /dyilii.). Citations from the Talmud in Blau’s Das alt-Jiid- ische Zauberwesen, p. 23f., show how deep-seated was the belief that sorcery was the work of women. Sorceresses, in fact, abounded ; and according to Simon ben Jochai (A.D. 150) they had increased in number in his time, while Rabbi Eliezer declares that Simeon ben Shetach had hanged eighty of them in Ascalon in one day. Popular belief among the
Jews even assigned rabies among dogs to the agency
| were credited also with acts of unc
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of women. This predominance of the sorceress meets us in ancient Arabia.*
The witch held close personal relations with the demons, and could control them, being able to invoke them at her will in order to effect her malignant purposes on mankind. Magical potions constituted one of the arts which she employed.
| But among the most effective was the method which
has been termed Ballo tel magic’: ‘Under the notion that the symbolical acts of the sorcerers would have their effect upon the one to be be- witched, the male sorcerer or the witch would tie knots ina rope.t Repeating certain formulas with each fresh knot, the witch would in this way sym- bolically strangle the victim, seal his mouth, rack his limbs, tear his entrails, and the like. Still more popular was the making an image of the desired victim in clay or pitch, honey, fat, or other
| soft material, and either by burning it to inflict
physical tortures upon the person representing it, or by undertaking various symbolical acts with it,
| such as burying it among thedead . . . to prognosti-
cate in this way a fate corresponding to one of these acts for the unfortunate victim.’
Cuneiform scholars have devoted much attention to this weird branch of Babylonian literature. Since the days, twenty-five years ago, when Lenor- mant expounded this subject in his Chaldean Magie with much graphic vigour and detail, severa! scholars, including Sayce and recently L. W. Kin, (Babylonian Magic and Sorcery), Tallavist, an Zimmern, have made notable contributions.