T.;:,tpres:nted parallel phenomena. Divination andt-he practice of occult sciences prevailed in t e Dlains of the Nile as much as in those of the Snates In E.TPt the division of time among the hit'her divine powers was earned to such an Pv?en["that even every hour of day and night 'vas° Uotttl to some goddess (thougli not to the r»ew"° deities). The character of the divinity determined the destiny of the period over w-hich that divinity presided. By turning up the calen- dar of he days of the month it was thought Dossible to -ail. a glimpse into futuntv and decide vheUier a particuhir day was favourable or unfav- ourable w-hat should be done and what omitted ; and wlmt prospects awaited the d'f j'^" ^l^'''^ born upon it. We have an example of such a calendar"n the papyrus Sallier iv. belonging to the 19th dyn in whicl. there are instructions cover- J^,' several months of the year. ^^ e select the following in reference to one montli—
. 4th Paophi : unfavourable, favourable, ta™"™^'^^*;'',^'-' X'
'"f=.?h ■ • unfavourable, unfavourable, unfavourable. By no
the crocodile." _ .
To what particular mode of divination allusion ia made in G^n 44», where the silver bowl with which Joseph practised the art is referred to, cannot be determined from ancient Egyptian sources. It has been supposed that some form of Y^'X^JoUet "spoaa^Tdl was in the writer's mind. Ihe goblet vSled with water and the sun's rays were ad- mtued and, as the goblet was moved the circles ^f li'-ht Uiat were formed were closely observed aambiichus. de n.jsteriis, ■^^■M\-\l^^l<^Z^^l marked with letters and a divining-ring toucliea Suliere or there and conclusions were deduced therefrom (Amm. Marcellinus, 29) ; 'f- ^ '"""• «" loc. These are, however, conjectures onlj ■
Knl»^^ variously rendered in LXX ^^ao.So. ■; I A„.K^»( rin Dn 1™ <ro<4i(TTal, Theudotion
S: . '^ir? ib word is prob^ably derived froni t^Xstyi^ for graving words, since the arts o the ■' • Wiedenmnn, JHe lidigion dtr alten Aegypter, p. Ul.
ma.'ician or soothsayer were based, in the mor« elaborate systems of Babylonia and Egypt, upon carefuUv written rituals. ,. , ,
Dreams.-In ancient ^m6ic belief sleep was con- si.fJred in a mysterious sense to be f ^J^d 'md subject to the control of demons.* All Arabs revirence a man sleeping ; he is, .as it were, in
Z^:Xi^^ ;;: z:i;M;of i:^ids they pious^,
withdraw, nor will they lightly molest !>"".■ +ft s not surprising, therefore,, that the s.gnilc^nce attached to dreSms is a universal feature ot anti- quHy Tl"e ancient Eg,jptuins believed in the ^i'nfl^cance of the dream as the state of mind t frou d. which deities entered into persona re- lition-ship with men and gave t leni |;»^ »"^«- Thus Ka Harmachis appeared to king /''Othmes IV when he rested in the chase near the l^reat Sphinx and commanded him to have the statue ^ o,.t of the sand. A sure means of obtaining a l°oi letic dream was to betake oneself .to one of Ui'e temples that were sacred to divinities -ho
vouchsafed oracles, and t>i<=i^« /l<^f ; Jj^^^f S of Serapis was one of the most celebrated of these ^hrSike the temple of -«-"W.ius a Epidauru^ where dreams were bestowed m "'"'h ^rnedes were communicated agamst d'^f^f . >™^*;°'^ as a last resort magic was appealed to in o^de^ «>_ pvtort the dream from the reluctant deity. W lede- mann (i'<^ion der aUcnAcg>ij>ter, p.. 144) cites one of ?he magical texts from a ^"f !« OTe^f^"^ rnmiiarati\^elv late date preserved in tjie Lejaen Mu?eum! entitled ' AgrctLles' Recipe for sendtng a Dream,' which runs thus—
Mommom Thoth, ^''''Vrwho is a"o« the heaven [other name, j!;;i<^%rt»n^?o=£j W -^t -M.. the said dream) ""fSle world fier^gST, put thyself Tn con- power. Lo-d/ '''''^"^anhrr thamara tlat'ha mommom thana- nexionwith N.M. ,^"^", '„" „„ for I wUl pronounce the
Sea^'^^r-SS "^^q^fX name^or
all needs. Put thyself in conne>L.on with N.N
Here we find soothsaying passing over into magic, to which it stands, as we have already explained so closely related The apparently meaningless mi innatyn'of syllables which the "lagi-n e- r,lnvs contains the names of deities, ^onipare tne Fiame .W,«a/< borrowed from the Jewish Ho y bcrin- tmes to which a mysterious potency was ascribed. 'Ties; must be reproduced in their exact original f.rn! No translation was tolerated : not only did rr^nde^UieTarm inoperative J^J't br-^^-f ,-> evils upon the magic^ 'tt'^E-jitilns, atCl^ed J UnniXnc":'to d'^eat! cff^JhU wi have two
^^«ll€^'Ent^e^--" , Sb^ni^SS^ ^^l-ria, and tliou ..^t^
tS from tha day. onl. heLnciu''ered the Kinv mtrians who had attacked the people of his land
Hues 95-105).-The other passage occurs m col v. 0^-11 Aim-banipal's troops feared to cross the ?did6 but mar of Arbela appeared to them in a in, and said- 'I go before Asurbanipal, the ■ng"wirm r,^'liands^iave -ade.^ Conliding m
this dream, his troops crossed the IdidS saieiy.
• Wcllhausen, i.e. p. 163fl. , „ ojoff
t Douthly, Araiia Deserta, voL L p. 24»n-
SOOTUSAYER SOOTHSAYING
SOOTHSAYER, SOOTHSAYING GOl
It should be noted that one special branch of the art of the priest-soothsayer in Biib5'lonia con- sisted in the interpretation of the manifold appear- ances in dreams. A considerable portion of the oinen-documeuts in cuneiform consists of the rules laid down as to what the dili'erent features in a dream may portend.
If a lion appear? to a man, it means that a man will carry out bia |)ui'poiif. If a jackal, tliat he will suciire favour in the cyca of llu- '^-aLj. a dOs' portcnda sorrow ; a muuutaiii {;oat, that "the nianV son will die uf some disease ; a stap, that his daughter will die, etc (Bezold'e Catalogve, pp. 1437, 1438, cited by Jastrow).