to eight--a perfectly safe procedure on the part of the =bârû=-priests,
since it is unlikely that the case of more than four births at one time
ever occurred in the whole scope of Babylonian-Assyrian history. The
interpretations in the case of more than triplets appear to have been
consistently unfavorable. Even twins, as is apparent from the above
entries, were generally regarded as unfavorable, because of the deviation
from the normal involved; and this was certainly the case when monstrous
factors were connected with the double birth--the two united at the backs
or at the sides--or when the twins lacked a part of the body such as
noses, hands or feet. The fundamental distinction between the right side
as representing your side and the left as the enemy's side intervenes to
differentiate between the application of the omen to the king or to the
country on the one hand, and to the enemy or his country on the other.
Corresponding to the text above discussed[104], in which interpretations
are offered for all kinds of malformations or peculiarities, in connection
with the ears of newly-born animals, we have a text[105] furnishing omens
in the same way in the case of human births.
If a woman gives birth, (and the child has) a lion's ear, a powerful
king will rule in the land.
If a woman gives birth, and the right ear[106] is missing, the life
of the ruler will come to an end.
If a woman gives birth, and the left ear is missing, the life of the
king will be long.
If a woman gives birth, and both ears are missing, famine will
prevail in the country, and the land will be diminished.
If a woman gives birth, and the right ear is small, the house of the
man will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and the left ear is small, the house of the
man will be enlarged.
If a woman gives birth, and both ears are small, the house of the man
will be overthrown.
If a woman gives birth, and the right ear is detached[107], the house
of the man will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and the left ear is detached, the house of
the opponent will be destroyed, the house of the man[108] will be
enlarged.
If a woman gives birth, and both ears are detached, the house of the
man will encounter misfortune.
If a woman gives birth, and the right ear reaches to the cheek, a
weakling will be born in the man's house.
If a woman gives birth, and the left ear reaches to the cheek, a
strong one will be born in the man's house[109].
If a woman gives birth, and both ears reach to the cheek, that land
will be destroyed, protection will be withdrawn.
If a woman gives birth, and the right ear is deformed, a weakling
will be born in the man's house.
If a woman gives birth, and the left ear is deformed, a strong one
will be born in the man's house[110].
If a woman gives birth, and the right ear of the child lies at the
lower jaw[111], the son of the man will destroy the man's house.
If a woman gives birth, and the left ear lies at the lower jaw, the
son of the man will encircle the man's house[112].
If a woman gives birth, and there are two ears on the right side and
the left ear is missing, the angry gods will return to the land and
the land will have peace.
If a woman gives birth, and there are two ears on the left side and
the right ear is missing, the counsel of the land will be disturbed.
* * * * *
If a woman gives birth, and both ears are flattened,--revolt.
The principle consistently applied throughout these omens is that a defect
or deformity on the right side is an unfavorable sign, and that the same
phenomenon on the left side is unfavorable to the enemy, or favorable to
you. A large ear--suggesting that of a lion--points by association to
enlargement and increased strength.
The text then passes on to other peculiarities.
If a woman gives birth, and (the child has) the mouth of a bird, that
land will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and the mouth is missing, the mistress of the
house will die.
If a woman gives birth, and the right nostril is missing,--injury.
If a woman gives birth, and both nostrils are missing, the land will
experience distress, the house of the man will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and the jaws are missing[113], the days of
the ruler will come to an end, the house will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and the lower jaw is missing, the enemy will
take the boundary strip of my land.
If a woman gives birth, and the arms (?) are missing, the house of
the man will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and the arms (?) are short, he will attain
favor.
* * * * *
If a woman gives birth, and the upper lip rides over the lower
one[114], he will attain favor.
If a woman gives birth, and the lips are missing, the land will
encounter distress, the house of the man will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and one arm is short, that man will be
preferred[115].
If a woman gives birth, and the right hand is missing, that land will
suffer destruction.
If a woman gives birth, and both hands are missing, the enemy will
conquer the city of the new-born[116].
If a woman gives birth, and the fingers of the right hand are
missing, the ruler will be hemmed in by his enemy.
If a woman gives birth, and there are six fingers on the right hand,
misfortune will seize the house.
If a woman gives birth, and there are six toes on the right and on
the left foot, the children[117] will encounter misfortune.
If a woman gives birth, and there are six toes on the right foot,
there will be injury[118].
* * * * *
If a woman gives birth, and the genital member is missing, the master
of the house will be weakened, drying up of the field.
If a woman gives birth, and the genital member and the testicles are
missing, the land will encounter misfortune, the woman[119] will
suffer pain, the house[120] will control the palace[121].
If a woman gives birth, and the anus is closed[122], the land will
suffer famine.
If a woman gives birth, and the anus [is missing ?], the king will be
restrained in his palace.
If a woman gives birth, and the right thigh is missing, the land of
the ruler will go to ruin.
If a woman gives birth, and the left thigh is missing, the enemy's
land will go to ruin.
* * * * *
If a woman gives birth, and both feet are missing, the course of the
land will be checked, that house will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and the right foot [of the child] is like
that of a turtle[123], the enemy will destroy the property of the
land.
If a woman gives birth, and hands and feet are like those of a
turtle, the ruler will destroy the product of his land.
If a woman gives birth, and the feet are attached to the belly
(?)[124], the possession of the house will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and the child has only one foot, which is
attached to the belly (?) and does not [touch] the ground[125] the
land will suffer misfortune, the house will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth, and it has three feet of which two are
entwined in one another[126] with the body, destruction will prevail
in the land.
If a woman gives birth, and it has four feet and genital member and
pudenda are there, the land will suffer misfortune, a strange ruler
will appear on the scene.
If a woman gives birth, and the right leg is missing, the land of the
ruler will go to ruin.
If a woman gives birth, and the left leg is missing, the enemy's land
will go to ruin.
In general, malformations are looked upon as unfavorable, as are also
excess organs or parts e. g. six fingers or six toes; and it is only
occasionally that a peculiarity such as shortened arms or a protruding
upper lip, receives a favorable interpretation. The variations in the
interpretations themselves are not numerous, and for the most part are
probably selected in an entirely arbitrary fashion, though here, too, as
has been pointed out several times, association of ideas enters as a
factor, as, e. g., where large ears are made to point to increased power.
At the same time, it is also clear that the great majority of the
malformations and abnormalities in the text that we have just discussed
are such as =actually= do occur and with the help of medical works on
human malformations[127], many of the omens described in this and in other
texts can be identified. There can, therefore, be no doubt that the
collections of the =bârû=-priests dealing with birth-omens observed in
infants, likewise, rest upon actual observations, though the field was
extended by passing on from actual to purely fanciful and impossible
abnormalities. The extent to which this attempt to provide for all kinds
of contingencies was carried in the collections is illustrated by a
portion of the first tablet of a series[128] dealing with human
birth-omens. This section treating in part of the birth of shapeless
abortions reads as follows:
If a woman gives birth to =pudenda=[129], the royal dynasty will be
changed.
If a woman gives birth to a head[130], the land will encounter
distress.
If a woman gives birth to a form of some kind[131], king against
king,--his rival, will prevail.
If a woman gives birth to a foetus[132], the land will encounter
distress.
If a woman gives birth to a foetus in which there is a second, the
rule of the king and of his sons will come to an end ... the power of
the land [will dwindle].
If a woman gives birth to a mass of clay[133], the king's land will
oppose him and cause terror.
If a woman is pregnant with a mass of clay and gives birth to a mass
of clay, misfortune will come, the mother will close off her gate
against the daughter, there will be no protection, the man[134] will
go to ruin, the produce of the field will not prosper.
If a woman gives birth to a male still-birth, Nergal[135] will
destroy, the man[136] will die before his time.
If a woman gives birth to a weak boy, distress, destruction of the
house[137].
If a woman gives birth to a weak girl, that house will be destroyed
by fire.
If a woman gives birth to a lame boy, distress, that house [will be
destroyed].
If a woman gives birth to a lame girl, =ditto=.
If a woman gives birth to a cripple, that house will be plundered.
If a woman gives birth to a crippled girl, that house [will be
destroyed ?].
* * * * *
If a woman gives birth to something that has no face[138], the land
will experience sorrow, that house will not prosper.
If a woman gives birth to a weakling, that city[139] [will experience
misfortune ?].
If a woman gives birth to a crippled being, the land will experience
sorrow, that house [will not prosper].
If a woman gives birth to a deaf mute, the house will be shut in.
* * * * *
If a woman gives birth to a dwarf[140] of a half-shape, that city
will be opposed.
If a woman gives birth to a half-shaped being with bearded lips[141],
talking[142], and that moves about, and has teeth[143]--hostility of
Nergal, the crushing force of a powerful attack on the land, a
god[144] will destroy, streets will be attacked, houses will be
seized.
One may question whether all of such monstrosities actually occurred,
though they are all possible, if we add the factor of fancy to account for
some of the descriptions. The conventional character of the
interpretations and the constant repetition of the same prognostications
likewise indicate the desire on the part of the =bârû=-priests to exhaust
their medical knowledge of monstrosities and malformations that could
occur, in order to swell the collections to the largest possible
proportions. The first tablet of the series[145] of which an extract has
just been given, begins with an enumeration of various animals to which a
newly born infant bears a resemblance and which is expressed, similarly to
what we found in the animal birth-omens, by the phrase that the woman
gives birth to the animal in question. The series begins as follows:
If a woman gives birth, and the offspring cries in the womb, the land
will encounter sickness.
If a woman gives birth, and the offspring cries in the womb and it is
distinctly heard, a powerful enemy will arise and overthrow the land,
destruction will sweep the land, the enemy will destroy the precious
possession, or the master's house will be destroyed.
If a woman gives birth to a lion, that city will be taken, the king
will be captured.
If a woman gives birth to a dog, the master of the house will die and
that house will be destroyed, confusion, Nergal will destroy.
If a woman gives birth to a pig, a woman will seize the throne.
If a woman gives birth to an ox, the king of universal rule will
prevail in the land.
If a woman gives birth to an ass, the king of universal rule will
prevail in the land.
If a woman gives birth to a lamb, the ruler will be without a rival.
If a woman gives birth to a Sâ[146], the ruler will be without a
rival.
If a woman gives birth to a serpent[147], I will surround the house
of the master.
If a woman gives birth to a dolphin (?)[148], the house of the [man
will be enlarged ?].
If a woman gives birth to a fish-being[149], the rule of the king
will prosper, the gods [will return to the land].
If a woman gives birth to a bird[150],...
These examples will suffice to show the part played by the supposed
resemblance of a new-born infant with one animal or the other in the
Babylonian-Assyrian birth-omens; nor is it difficult to see how the
thought of such resemblances should arise, for, as a matter of fact, the
shape of the head of an infant easily suggests that of a dog or a bird.
The ear if unusually large might recall a donkey's ear; a small eye, that
of a pig, and a large one, that of a lion[151]. The association of ideas
with the various animals no doubt suggests the interpretation in most
cases, though in others the interpretation appears to be of a purely
conventional type and as a rule favorable.
VI
Now what does all this mean? Is there any larger significance in these
elaborate collections of birth-omens? Do investigations of this character
serve any purpose beyond finding out how foolish many millions of people
were thousands of years ago, though to be sure it may be some satisfaction
to ascertain for oneself that foolishness has so venerable an ancestry.
Bouché-Leclercq says at the close of his introduction to his great work on
Greek Astrology[152] that 'it is not a waste of time to find out how other
peoples wasted theirs'. But there would be small comfort even in such a
reflection, if studies in the history of divination did not furnish a
larger outlook on the development of human thought--if in short such
studies did not have some important bearing on the cultural history of
mankind. Let us see whether this is the case.
Such is the curious nature of man that his science starts with
superstition. The intellectual effort involved in developing what to us at
least must appear as a foolish and erroneous notion, nevertheless, results
in some positive advantage. We often hear it said that medicine starts
with religion, and this is true in the sense that the cure of disease was
once closely bound up with the belief that all suffering was due to some
demon or invisible spirit that had entered the body--a view that is after
all not so far removed from the modern 'germ' theory holding for so many
diseases, for the germs are practically invisible and their demoniac
character will assuredly not be denied. The cure of a disease in primitive
medicine consisted in driving the demon out of the body, for which again
we might without much difficulty find an equivalent in modern medicinal
methods. Incantations were supposed to have the power of frightening the
demon or in some other way of inducing them to leave the body of the
victim, but it was soon discovered that certain herbs and concoctions
helped to this end--not that it was at first supposed that such herbs and
concoctions were useful to the patient, but that they were =obnoxious= to
the demons who preferred to leave their victims rather than endure the
nasty and ill-smelling combinations that frequently form the medical
prescriptions attached to the incantations[153]. What we would regard as
medicinal remedies were originally given to the patient, with a view and
in the hope of disgusting the demon that had caused the disease--a
supplement therefore to the power attributed to the recitation of certain
combinations of words, and all with a view to force the demons to release
their hold on the sufferer by quitting his body. From such superstitious
beginnings medicine, closely bound up with the prevailing religious
beliefs, took its rise. In the same way, liver divination though as a
practice it belongs to the period of primitive culture and rests on an
asumption which from the modern scientific point of view is the height of
absurdity, nevertheless, led to the study of anatomy and as a matter of
fact, the observation of the liver for purposes of divination represents
the beginnings of the study of anatomy[154]. Astrology led to astronomy,
and in the same way the observation of birth-omens gave rise to another
science or at least to a mental discipline that until quite recently was
regarded as a science--namely, the study of human and animal physiognomy.
The importance given to any and to all kinds of peculiarities in the case
of the young of animals and in new-born infants naturally sharpened the
powers of observation, and led people to carefully scrutinize and study
the features of the new-born. The large part played in this scrutiny by
the supposed resemblance of the features of an infant to those of some
animal formed a natural starting point, from which it was not a very large
step to the position that this supposed resemblance had a bearing on the
child itself. In other words the birth-omens in so far as they referred to
phenomena among infants had a double significance; they portended
something of moment either to the general welfare or to the house in which
the birth took place and also to the child.
It is certainly not accidental that in the study of Human Physiognomy as
carried on among the Greeks and Romans as well as among mediaeval Arabic
and Christian writers, the supposed resemblances of people to animals was
one of the chief methods employed for determining the character of an
individual. This phase of Human Physiognomy I venture to trace back
directly to divination through birth-omens, which would by a natural
process lead to the study of human features as a means of ascertaining the
character of an individual. Among the Greeks, the great Plato[155] was
supposed to approve of the theory that a man possesses to some extent the
traits of the animal that he resembles; and it seems to be a kind of
poetic justice that a philosopher holding so manifestly absurd a theory
should himself, as will presently appear, have been compared by a
celebrated physiognomist of the 16{th} century to a dog--though to be sure
to a dog of the finer type. Polemon and Adamantius many centuries after
Plato are among the significant names of those who tried to work out the
theory in the form of an elaborate science[156]. Aristotle who can
generally be counted upon to have sane views on most subjects opposed this
method of studying human character, though until a few decades ago a work
on Human Physiognomy[157] based on the theory of a man's possessing the
traits of the animal that he resembles passed as a production of
Aristotle. It is one of the many merits of modern scholarship to have
removed this stigma from the prince of Greek philosophers. Aristotle, as a
matter of fact, in a significant passage in his =de Generatione Animalium=
(IV, 54) denies the possibility of the crossing of an animal of one
species with that of another, and adds that malformations can produce
=apparent= similarities between animals of different species, but which
are to be explained through the workings of natural laws. These laws
condition deviations from the normal as well as all normal phenomena.
Nothing in nature, Aristotle sums up, can be =contra naturam=. It would
appear from passages like this that in Aristotle's days the resemblances
between an animal of one species and that of another, and the resemblance
between man and animals had led to the belief of cross breeds to account
for such resemblances, while monstrosities among animals and among men
were looked upon as omens sent by the gods as a warning or as curses for
crimes committed--a point of view that, as we shall see, is likewise to be
traced back to Babylonian-Assyrian influences.