+ z.e. moves in all directions, and passes to and fro.
t A reference apparently to sexual vigour.
§ z.e, prevents conception, or brings about a miscarriage.
|| 7.e. the moon-god.
{ z.e. ‘May thy face glow with the heat of the fire like the metallic setting of a stone seal cylinder, and then lose its colour —like the heated metal when thrown into the water.’
‘O Nusku, great god, chief of the great gods, Guardian of the offerings of all the Igigi,* Founder of cities, restorer of sanctuaries ;
Brilliant day, whose command is supreme ;
Messenger of Anu,t obedient to the decrees of Bel ;
Mighty in battle, whose attack is powerful.
Nusku, glowing, overthrower of enemies,
Without thee no sacrificial feast is held in E-kur ; t
Without thee Shamash the judge does not execute any judgment.’
Fire being an element common to heaven—as shown by the lightning—and to earth, the god Nusku is appropriately figured as the messenger of the god of heaven, and as obedient to the dictates of Bel, who here represents the god of earth. The presence of fire in the sanctuaries, and its use in the sanctification of the sacrifices brought by the worshippers, suggest the references in the second and eighth lines of this hymn, while its power as an indispensable factor in all forms of civilization and its destructive force in war emphasize two other phases of the god’s nature. Up to this point we appear to have before us a hymn composed in honour of Nusku that might appropriately have been sung in connexion with a sacrificial ritual in a temple erected in honour of the god in question. The following lines, however, reveal the real pur- pose of the invocation. The victim, about to burn the images of the evil powers that have brought about his misfortune, is represented as saying—
‘I, thy servant So and So,§ son of So and So,
Whose god is So and So,|| whose goddess is So and So,
I turn to thee, I seek thee, I raise my hands, I prostrate myself before thee :
Burn my sorcerer and my witch ;
May the life of my sorcerer and my witch be taken hold of and destroyed ! pa Let me live that I may praise thee, and in humility
extol thee.’
The images, as has already been pointed out, were made of various materials, and the second tablet of the ‘Maklu’ series contains no fewer than eight Nusku hymns, introduced as preludes to the formulas prescribed for the burning of the images of the sorcerers and witches. We are to assume, of course, that the officiating priest selects the one appropriate to the occasion and to the material employed for the making of the image, and gives the necessary instructions to the wor- shipper in regard to the ceremonies to be performed in connexion with the exorcizing rites. But the witch and the sorcerer also have recourse to making images of their proposed victims, and have the power of transferring to the individual the sym-
olical tortures and miseries that they inflict upon his counterpart. The fourth tablet of the series is largely taken up with a description of the various manipulations to which the witches submit the images as a means of adding to the tortures of those whom the images represent. To symbolize their victims and thus bring about their death, the witches place the images in coffins and bury them, or immure them, or conceal them under the thresholds of houses—both representing primitive modes of burial,—or they are thrown into wells, or placed on bridges where they would be exposed to being trampled upon, and more of the like. As a counter move, the same treatment was prescribed for the images of the witches, to which, likewise, poisonous plants would be symbolically adminis-
* A designation for the throng of heavenly deities or spirits.
+ The god of heaven,
ft Name of the temple of Bel in Nippur, which, however, has become a generic designation for a sanctuary, and also for the earth in general.
§ Here the name of the victim is to be inserted.
|| Here the victim names the special patron god and goddess, whom each individual is supposed to possess. See J astrow, Religion Babyloniens und Assyriens, p. 194 f.
RELIGION OF BABYLONIA
tered in order to counteract the poison that the witches had, in some way, introduced into the bodies of their victims; and the attempt, it would seem, was also made to find the hidden images made of the victims, and thus to release the un- fortunate ones from the ills with which they were afflicted. An incantation at the beginning of the fifth tablet, to be used in connexion with such rites, reads—
‘The witch and the sorceress—
She sits in the shadow of the wall,
Sits and brings about my bewitchment, makes my images.*
I will send thee khaltappan plant and sesame,
To break up thy charm, to make thy words return to thee ; {
The bewitchment prepared by thee,—may it be for thee!
The images that thou hast made,—may they represent thee !
The water that thou hast concealed,{—may it be for thee!
May thy incantation not come nigh, may thy words have no effect !
By command of Ea, Shamash, Marduk, and the great mistress
of the gods.’ §