GODS ANALOGOUS TO ÆSCULAPIUS.
The great eminence acquired by the Æsculapian myth among the Grecians
might reasonably lead to the belief that it was one entirely special to
that imaginative people. Like many other gods, however, of both high
and low degree, this one was only in part “to the manor born.” There is
good ground for believing that there was what might justly be called a
prototype of the divinity of much repute in both Phœnicia and Egypt.
Dr. Mayo does not hesitate to say that “Æsculapius was actually known
in the Oriental countries before he was in Greece, whither his worship
was brought from Phœnicia by the colony of Cadmus and from Egypt by that
of Danaus.”[286] It is not improbable that the main conception of the
healing god did really long antedate not only the Grecian but both the
Phœnician and Egyptian embodiments of it. Evidence of this will be found
later in the chapter.
The ESMUN “the Eighth” of the Phœnicians, especially worshipped at
Berytus,[287] has been regarded[288] as essentially the same as the
Grecian Æsculapius. He was probably that and something more. Little
definite is known of this personage, of whom the serpent was a symbol,
save what we are told of him in the fragment of an historical work by
Sanchoniathon, preserved by Eusebius, an early Christian writer. “To
Sydyk, called the Just,” it is said, “one of the Titanides[289] bore
Esmun.”[290] He is represented to have been the eighth and chief of those
spared by the deluge, and also of the Cabiri, or Cabeiri,[291] “the seven
sons of Sydyk,”[292] the mighty ones, named, it has been said,[293] after
mountains in Phrygia, and divinities widely, but in general secretly,
adored, in Phœnicia, Carthage,[294] Egypt,[295] and elsewhere.
The belief has been expressed that Noah and his family and the Cabiri
were originally the same.[296] Mr. Faber entertained this view, and
it is fully set forth by him in an interesting work,—one, by the way,
in which is ably presented the so-called Arkite symbolism,[297] which
has excited considerable attention, but which Mr. Tylor, as well as
many others, declares to be “arrant nonsense.”[298] In reference to
Æsculapius he says: “This deity connects the first and second tables of
the Phœnician genealogies, his father, Sydyk, occupying a conspicuous
place in the one, while his mother, Titanis, is enumerated among the
daughters of Cronus, in the other. I am much inclined to think that the
imaginary god of health is in reality the very same person as his reputed
father, Sydyk, both of them being equally the patriarch, Noah, worshipped
in connection with the sun. Macrobius, accordingly, informs us that
Æsculapius was one of the many names of the solar deity, and that he was
usually adored along with Salus, or the Moon.[299] Salus, however, was
no less a personification of the ark than of the moon, those two objects
of idolatrous veneration being allied to each other in consequence of
the union of the Arkite and Sabian superstitions. Thus, while Noah
was revered as the god of health and as one of the eight Cabiri, the
vessel in which he was preserved was honored with the title of Salus, or
Safety.”[300]
Lenormant regards the Cabiri as the seven planets of the ancients; that
is, the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury. “Esmun,”
says he, “invisible to mortal eyes, was supposed to be the connecting
link of the seven others and the one approaching nearest to the
primordial Baal.[301] He presided over the whole sideral system, and was
supposed to preside over the laws and harmonies of the universe, and in
this respect was the same as Taaut.”[302]
Although secret, the worship of the Cabiri was participated in by persons
of either sex and of all ages. In Lemnos and other places the fires were
put out, sacrifices to the dead were made, and fire was brought from
Delos in a sacred vessel and given to the people, who, with it, began a
new and regenerated existence. Phallic rites formed an inseparable part
of the worship, which was indulged in at stated periods.
As showing that Æsculapius was of Phœnician origin, Mr. Faber lays
emphasis on the fact that in the edition of Virgil by Servius the line
telling of the destruction of the god makes him a Phœnician:—
“_Fulmine Pœnigenam Stygias detrusit ad undas._”[303]
The usual and, doubtless, the right reading makes _Pœnigenam_,
_Phœbigenam_.
The opinion that Æsculapius was essentially the same as ANUBIS among the
early Egyptians has been advanced. Both were viewed as simply divine
personifications of Sirius, or Sothis, the dog-star.[304] This view is
well presented by M. Pluche.
A study of the name[305] Æsculapius may or may not afford evidence in
favor of the idea that there was originally a connection between the god
and the dog-star. Although decidedly a Grecian god, Asklepios does not
appear to be a Greek word. Keightly goes so far as to say, “Of his name
no satisfactory derivation has as yet been offered.”[306] He ventures,
however, to suggest that it may be from the root σχάλλω, the original
meaning of which may have been to cut, whence the Latin _scalpo_ and our
own word _scalpel_. Mr. Keightly forgot that the name was not necessarily
Greek; for that, like nearly all others, was largely a derivative
language. In the Greek as well as the Latin form, it may be Hebrew, or,
what was essentially the same, Phœnician. Taking it to be compounded of
_esh_, _aish_, _isch_, or _ish_,[307] a man, and _caleb_,[308] _caleph_,
or _culap_, a dog, the literal meaning of it is _vir-canis_, or man-dog.
But, as some remarks already made indicate, it may be interpreted to mean
_goat-dog_.[309]
ANUBIS, ANUP, or ANUPU, who in very early times was possibly the same as
Thoth, was regarded as symbolic of that brightest of the fixed stars,
Sirius, “the burning,” whose first appearance in the morning was the
signal of the advent of the warm season, and the Etesian or periodic wind
from the north, as well as the beginning of the year.[310] The rising
of this notable star heliacally—that is, with the sun[311]—told the
Egyptians to prepare at once for the overflow of the waters of the Nile.
By many it was believed to be the cause of the flood. The watch-dog was
evidently a very appropriate symbol for this star of warning. Then, from
the fact that Sirius gave warning of danger, and thus saved the lives
of the people, to the symbols of it the serpent, the life-symbol, was
often and very properly attached. “On this account it was,” says Pluche,
“that Anubis and Æsculapius passed for the inventors of physic and the
preservers of life.”[312]
Others besides the Egyptians regarded Sirius with favor;[313] as, for
example, the Parsis, to whom it was “Tystria, the bright and glorious
star.”[314] In Greece, however, it was not regarded as propitious. To it
were attributed certain diseases. Thus, Homer, who calls it Orion’s dog,
says:—
“His burning breath
Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.”[315]
Remembering the medical history of Sirius, it is worth while recalling
that the “dog-days,” those extending from about the 22d of July to the
23d of August, are often spoken of as the physician’s holiday.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.—ANUBIS.]
One very often hears that THOTH was to the Egyptians the god of medicine,
just as Æsculapius was to the Greeks and Romans. Even the late Dr. Aitken
Meigs, a scholarly physician, accepted this idea. In an address, to be
referred to later, he says: “Æsculapius is, doubtless, the Egyptian
Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus, whose symbols, the staff and twining
serpent, surmounted with the mystic hawk of Horus-Ra and the solar
uræus,[316] appear in the ancient temple Pselcis, near Dakkeh, in Nubia.”
The Doctor is about as wide of the mark as Forbes Winslow, when he says
that the Grecian “Apollo and Minerva answered to the Isis and Osiris of
the Egyptians; and Orpheus, the priest, poet, and physician, usurped the
place of Thoth.”[317]
HERMES, THOTH, or THOT, the TET or TAAUTES of the Phœnicians, was not the
god of medicine among the Egyptians, any more than he was the god of any
other special branch of knowledge. He was the patron god of all kinds of
learning.
Says Ebers: “The discovery of nearly every science is attributed to the
ibis-headed god, Thoth, the writer or clerk of heaven, whom the Greeks
compared to their god, Hermes.”[318]
It is no doubt true, however, that Hermes was credited with taking
considerable interest in medical matters. He was said to have been the
author of six books on the healing art, in which anatomy, pathology, and
therapeutics were treated of, together with diseases of the eye,—a part
of the body which has always suffered much in Egypt. Ebers remarks that
“the book on the use of medicine has been preserved to the present day in
the ‘Papyrus-Ebers.’”[319]
Having referred to the “Papyrus-Ebers,” it may be well to say a few
words about it. It was discovered a few years ago by the learned and
versatile Egyptologist, Herr Ebers, and is the best preserved of all the
ancient Egyptian manuscripts extant. It was written at Sais during the
eighteenth dynasty; that is, in the sixteenth century before our era. It
consists of 110 pages. In it we have the hermetic medical work of the
ancient Egyptians, with the contents of which the Alexandrian Greeks
were familiar. The god Thoth is called in it “the Guide” of physicians,
and the composition of it is attributed to him. This venerable document
treats of many internal and external diseases of most parts of the body.
Special attention is given to the visual organs. Drugs belonging to all
the kingdoms of nature are used, and with those prescribed are numbers
according to which they are weighed with weights and measured with hollow
vessels. Accompanying the prescriptions are noted the pious axioms to
be repeated by the physician while compounding and giving them to the
patient. The German government has published the work in _fac-simile_,
a copy of which I have examined. There is a copy of it, I think, in the
Astor Library, New York.
Medicine certainly consisted of more than charms and the like, at a very
early period, in Egypt. Indeed, in the remains of Manetho’s history of
the country, it is said of the successor of Menes, the first king of
the first dynasty, which dates back to about 4000 years before our era:
“Athothis, his son, reigned 57 years; he built the palaces at Memphis,
and left the anatomical books, for he was a physician.”[320] The custom
of embalming the dead necessarily led to at least a rough knowledge of
the anatomy of the body.
SESOSTRIS, or SESORTOSIS, the second king of the third dynasty, sometimes
gets credit for being “the actual founder of medicine.”[321] Manetho
says of him: “He is called Asclepius by the Egyptians, for his medical
knowledge.”[322]
According to Herodotus and Diodorus, medical practice was carried on in
a highly rational way at an early period in Egypt. Mr. Sayce ventures
to say that in the period of the eighteenth dynasty medicine was “in
almost as advanced a state as in the age of Galen; the various diseases
known were carefully distinguished from one another, and their symptoms
were minutely described, as well as their treatment. The prescriptions
recommended in each case are made out in precisely the same way as the
prescriptions of a modern doctor.”[323] Mr. Sayce bases these statements
on the “Papyrus-Ebers.” However, we are informed by Herodotus that
specialists were common when he visited the country, which was about
450 years before our era; but this must not be accepted as proof that
medicine was necessarily in a very advanced state. Here is what the
Grecian historian says: “Medicine is practiced among them on a plan of
separation; each physician treats a single disorder, and no more. Thus,
the country swarms with medical practitioners, some undertaking to cure
diseases of the eye; others, of the head; others, again, of the teeth;
others, of the intestines; and some, those which are not local.”[324]
As to their philosophy of morbid conditions, he says: “They have a
persuasion that every disease to which men are liable is occasioned by
substances whereon they feed.” This doctrine led them “to purge the body
by means of emetics and clysters” for “three successive days in each
month.”[325]
In respect to medical specialism in Egypt, I may further say that,
according to Ebers,[326] as early as 1500 before our era, any one
requiring a physician sent for him, not to his house, but to the
temple. There a statement was obtained from the messenger concerning
the complaint from which the sick person was suffering; and then it was
left to the principal of the medical staff of the sanctuary to select
that master of the healing art whose special knowledge and experience
qualified him to be best suited for the treatment of the case. No
honorarium was expected from the patient. The fee was paid by the State.
According to Canon Rawlinson, it is an open question whether, as is often
said, the physicians of ancient Egypt formed a special division of the
sacerdotal order; “though, no doubt, some of the priests were required
to study medicine.”[327] It is interesting to connect with this the
following statement from an authoritative work: “There is no sign in the
Homeric poems of the subordination of medicine to religion, which is seen
in ancient Egypt and India.”[328]
It has been asserted that “medicine in Egypt was a mere art, or
profession.”[329] That this assertion is ridiculously untrue any one
knows who is competent to form an opinion on medical subjects, and who
has read the Pentateuch. Moses, whose learning was Egyptian, had a
wonderful knowledge of hygiene,—the most important part of medicine. The
manner of dealing with contagious diseases described in the thirteenth
and fourteenth chapters of Leviticus is far in advance of our practice
to-day. So intent were the Egyptians on knowing the nature of diseases
that _post-mortem_ examinations were, it is said by Pliny, resorted to
for the purpose. Unlike the religion of the Hebrews, theirs did not teach
them to dread touching the dead. But one has the authority of Celsus
for saying that the latter physicians, those of the Alexandrian school,
were not satisfied with the dissection of the dead; they went so far as
to make _ante-mortem_ examinations of criminals. In truth, Mr. Sayce
properly observes that it was “in medicine that Egypt attained any real
scientific eminence.”[330]
Jeremiah, speaking of “the daughter of Egypt,” says: “In vain shalt
thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.”[331] This remark
indicates that the skillful use of medicines by the Egyptians was widely
noised abroad over five centuries before our era. Both Cyrus and Darius
sent to Egypt for physicians.[332] Hippocrates, however, who lived nearly
two centuries later than the prophet, gives no prominence to Egyptian
medicine. But much earlier, indeed, than this time, it is evident from
the works of Homer that it was in repute among the Greeks. Thus, to
remove the grief and rage caused by the death of brave Antilochus, we are
told that the famous Helen of Sparta, who takes on the occasion the rôle
of _une femme médecin_,—
“Mix’d a mirth-inspiring bowl,
Temper’d with drugs of sovereign power t’ assuage
The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage.
...
These drugs so friendly to the joys of life
Bright Helen learn’d from Thone’s imperial wife,[333]
Who sway’d the sceptre, where prolific Nile
With various simples clothes the fatten’d soil.”[334]
Again, it is said of the Pharian or Egyptian race:—
“From Pæon sprung, their patron god imparts
To all the Pharian race his healing arts.”[335]
Such statements as those just made would seem to render it more than
probable that not a little of Grecian medicine was of Egyptian origin.
Pliny, indeed, says that it was claimed that the study of medicine was
begun in Egypt.[336] Blakie, however, ventures to affirm that “the
knowledge of medicine came to the Greeks originally from Thessaly, one
of the earliest seats of Hellenic civilization, as is evident from the
pedigree of Coronis.”[337] At any rate, it is certain that, for some time
before and after the beginning of the Christian era, Alexandria was a
great medical centre. There it was that Herophilus and Erasistratus lived
and imperishably distinguished themselves two centuries or so B.C.
But I must return to Hermes, from whom I have been wandering, perhaps,
too far and too long. Although I am not disposed to give the medical
position to him that some have questionably done, I deem it wise to
say a few words especially about him. Lenormant believes that he was
originally the angel of Baal, Malâk-Baal, who, like him, assimilated with
the Agathodæmon.[338] It is generally believed that he came to Egypt from
Phœnicia.[339] He was usually represented[340] with the head of, not a
hawk, but an ibis, a heart-shaped bird with the plumage white, except
the pinions and tail, which are black, and with long legs and beak, the
latter crooked. This bird was the symbol of him made use of in writing.
Both it[341] and a species[342] black in color are well described by
Herodotus. Mummified specimens of it are to be seen in an excellent state
of preservation in museums, as, for instance, in that of the Academy of
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
I may observe in this connection that an Ibis Society would be the same
as a Hermes Society. Neither title is very suitable for a medical one. I
have heard of an Ibex Society; but, of course, the ibis and the ibex are
entirely different creatures.
Horus himself, whose “face is in the shape of the divine hawk,”[343] and
who, in some respects, resembles Apollo, was believed to possess medical
power.[344] Murray even says, “Horus was reputed to have been deeply
versed in the practice of medicine, and, accordingly, was compared with
Æsculapius.”[345]
CHONSU, or CHONSU-NEFER-HOTEP,[346] the son of Amun and Mut, the third of
the great Theban triad, was regarded as a healing divinity. Says Tiele:
“He was resorted to for the cure of all diseases, or for the exorcism of
all the evil spirits who inflict them.”[347] He resembled Thoth somewhat.
[Illustration: FIG. 12.—THOTH.]
From the third century before our era forward SERAPIS was highly esteemed
for his healing power.[348] He was in part a Grecian conception, being
first prominent in Pontus, and his worship became popular in many
sections of Greece and Rome; but Alexandria was his chief seat, and
his serapeum there was of great magnificence and renown.[349] He was
represented in various ways, often as a man encircled by a serpent.
The special personage corresponding to Æsculapius, among the Egyptians,
would seem to have been IMHOTEP, EIMOPTH, IMOTHPH, EIMOTHPH, or EMEPH,
a god whose shrine was first discovered by Salt,[350] the Egyptologist,
at Philæ. A Greek inscription on the shrine reads: “Æsculapius, who is
Imuthes, son of Vulcan.” In accordance with the inscription, Sir Erasmus
Wilson says: “Imhotep, the IMUTHES of the Greeks, corresponded with their
Æsculapius.”[351] Ebers, probably the best of authorities on the subject,
says of Imhotep: “He was the son of Ptah, and named Asklepios by the
Greeks. Memphis[352] was the chief city of his worship. He is usually
represented with a cap on his head and a book on his knee. There are
fine statues of him at Berlin, the Louvre, and other museums.”[353] It
is said by Tiele that “he is a personification of the sacrificial fire,”
that “the texts designate him as the first of the Cher-hib,” a class of
priests who were at the same time choristers and physicians, for the
sacred hymns were believed to have a magical power as remedies, and that
his worship, although of ancient date, “does not seem ever to have taken
a prominent place.”[354]
Of Imhotep I may further say, in the way of biography, that he was the
son of Ptah and Sekhet, and was possibly a king of the sixth dynasty. In
the Egyptian system of mythology, Ptah, “he who forms,” the god of fire,
was regarded as the father of the gods and the great artificer of the
world. He bore a resemblance to Hephæstus,[355] a god, indeed, who had
the gift of healing.
After all, it is necessary to say that there is but little evidence
to establish the claim of Imhotep to the title of god of medicine. As
Kenrick says, “He has no attribute which specially refers to the art
of healing, and it may be an arbitrary interpretation of the Greeks
which gave him the name of Æsculapius, as some applied the same to
Serapis.”[356] Whether he was a medical worthy or not, it appears from
quotations from his teachings given in a song, recently translated from a
papyrus in the British Museum, that he was of decidedly epicurean views.
“Fulfill,” says he, “thy desire whilst thou livest;” and again: “Feast in
tranquility, seeing that there is no one who carries away his good things
with him.”[357]
However, as a matter of interest, I will give the name of the god in
the Egyptian characters.[358] The double reed stands for a long _i_, or
_ei_, the owl for _m_, and the other three figures—the table, semicircle,
and square—for _h_ _t_ _p_. As will be observed, the _o_ and _e_ of the
ideographic combination, _hotep_,[359] are not given. The reason of this
is, that in writing, the Egyptians, like the Hebrews and others, commonly
omitted the vowels, except at the beginning and end of words. The meaning
of the name is rendered by Bunsen, “I come with the offering.”[360]
An early Aryan divinity has been stated to be an analogue or even the
prototype of Æsculapius. Mr. Faber refers to Captain Wilford as holding
that the classical health and life restorer “is the Hindoo ASWICULAPA,
or the chief of the race of the horse, and he further intimates that
Aswiculapa was very nearly related to the two hero-gods who are evidently
the same as Castor and Pollux. These were believed to be the children of
the sun and the goddess Devi, the sun at the time of their intercourse
having assumed the form of a horse and Devi that of a mare.”[361] He
hardly presents the real opinion expressed by the Captain, but, at any
rate, what he has to say is not extremely important.[362]
[Illustration: FIG. 13.—IMHOTEP.]
The ASWI, ASVI, or ASVINS were two, and were possibly the prototypes of
the Dioscuri,[363] Castor and Pollux. They were connected with the sun as
horses. Taking them to be forms of the Dioscuri, they might be related to
the two sons of Æsculapius, Machaon and Podalirius, for these have been
regarded as such,—“nothing more than a specific form of the Dioscuri,” to
use the words of De Gubernatis.[364] The conception of Chiron may have
been in part derived from the Asvins.
The Asvins were worshipped from an early period by the Hindus, reference
to them being made in the oldest hymns. Cox says of them, “As ushering
in the healthful light[365] of the sun, they are like Asclepios and his
children, healers and physicians; and their power of restoring the aged
to youth re-appears in Medeia, the daughter of the sun.”[366] In the
“Rig-Veda” they are characterized as “givers of happiness,”[367] and are
said “to be most ready to come to the aid of the destitute.”[368] They
were believed to be conversant with all medicaments.
THRITA of the Parsis, the TRITA of the Hindus, is a remarkable healing,
semi-divine personage, of whom a great deal is said in the “Zend Avesta”
and other sacred books of Aryan peoples of the east. According to the
“Zend Avesta,” which is from a common source with the “Vedas,” he is the
curer of the diseases caused by the great evil spirit, Ahriman. In the
“Vedas” he is said to extinguish illness in men as the gods extinguished
it in him, and he can grant long life. He drinks Sôma, as did Indra, to
acquire strength to kill the demon Vritra.
In the Parsi system of religion, Thrita received from the supreme god,
Ahura-Mazda,[369] ten thousand healing-plants, which had been growing
around the tree of life, the white Hôm,[370] the Sôma of the Hindus.
Thrita appears to have been one of the first priests of the personified
source of life and health,—“the enlivening, healing, fair, lordly,
golden-eyed Hâoma.”[371] The destruction of a great serpent, Azi Dahâka,
the most dreadful Drug,[372] created by Angra-Mainyu, himself a serpent,
to which diseases were attributed, was one of his fabled feats.
There is much that is interesting to the physician in the “Zend Avesta,”
but I cannot present it here. One interesting passage I may quote.
Ahura-Mazda is addressed thus: “O Maker of the material world, thou Holy
One! If a worshipper of Mazda want to practice the art of healing, on
whom shall he first prove his skill? On the worshippers of Mazda, or on
the worshippers of the Dævas?”[373] The reply is: “On the worshippers of
the Dævas he shall first prove himself.” If on these the surgeon use the
knife three times with success, “then is he fit to practice the art of
healing for ever and ever.”[374]
[Illustration: FIG. 14.—SILIK-MULU-KHI.[375]]
SILIK-MULU-KHI, the son of Hea, was a remarkable divinity, of whom I
feel it desirable to speak. In him we have one kindly disposed toward
man, a special friend of humanity, largely medical in character. What
he was has been unveiled, mainly of late, through the decipherment of
cuneiform inscriptions. The Babylonians prized him highly.[376] He became
assimilated with Mardux,[377] or Marodach, of the Babylono-Assyrians,
and Bel, of later times.[378] Space forbids me to give a long account of
him. Much can be learned about him _passim_ in the admirable works of M.
François Lenormant,[379] and in the “Records of the Past.”[380]
Silik-mulu-khi—that is, “He who distributes good among men”[381]—was, as
already stated, the son of Hea, to whom he remained subject. He overcame
the dragon of the deep, and is spoken of as the Redeemer of mankind, the
Restorer of life, and the Raiser from the dead. He took shape among the
Accadio-Sumerians.
Hea, or Ea,[382] “the master of the eternal secrets,” “the god who
presides over theurgical action,” revealed to Silik-mulu-khi “the
mysterious rite, the formula, or the all-powerful hidden name which shall
thwart the efforts of the most formidable powers of the Abyss.”[383] Like
Apollo, he had special medical functions; indeed, Mr. Sayce observes that
“he was emphatically the god of healing, who had revealed medicine to
mankind.”[384]
As the symbol of his office, Silik-mulu-khi carried a reed, which took
the place of both the royal sceptre and magic wand, and which was
transmitted to the Assyrian Mardux.[385] In a hymn it is said:—
“Golden reed, great reed, tall reed of the marshes, sacred bed of
the gods,
...
I am the messenger of Silik-mulu-khi, who causes all to grow young
again.”[386]
Although Silik-mulu-khi’s functions were largely medical, it is not to be
supposed that he resorted much to the use of medicaments. For it has not
yet been made very apparent that medicine, properly so called, was much
esteemed by the early Babylono-Assyrian peoples. Not long ago Mr. H. F.
Talbot, in an interesting article on Assyrian talismans and exorcisms,
said: “Diseases were attributed to the influence of spirits. Exorcisms
were used to drive away those tormentors; and this seems to have been the
sole remedy employed, for I believe that no mention has yet been found of
medicine.”[387] This statement does not hold good now, as will be shown
later.[388]
In the cure of diseases the Babylono-Assyrian practitioners first duly
guarded the entrance to the patient’s chamber. Images or guardian statues
of Hea and Silik-mulu-khi were placed one to the right and the other to
the left. Texts were put on the threshold and on the statues, after the
manner spoken of in Deuteronomy.[389] These were also placed on the brow
of the patient and about the room. In bad cases recourse was had to the
“mamit,” something which the evil spirits could not resist. Talbot gives
the following prescription from an Accadian tablet:—
“Take a white cloth. In it place the mamit in the sick man’s right
hand;
And take a black cloth and wrap it round his left hand.
Then all the evil spirits, and the sins which he has committed,
Shall quit their hold of him and shall never return.”[390]
M. Lenormant gives a translation of an interesting magic tablet. Here is
a passage from it which the conjurer, the Shaman, is supposed to speak,
ending with the usual adjuration:—
“Disease of the bowels, the disease of the heart,
The palpitation of the heart,
Disease of the vision, disease of the head,
Malignant dysentery
The humor which swells,
Ulceration of the veins, the micturition which wastes,[391]
Cruel agony which never ceases,
Nightmare,—
Spirit of the Heavens,[392] conjure it;
Spirit of the Earth,[393] conjure it.”[394]
What follows is part of an incantation against “the diseases of the
head”:—
“The diseases of the head, like doves to their dove-cots, like
grasshoppers into the sky,
Like birds into space,—
May they fly away!
May the invalid be replaced in the protecting hands of his
god.”[395]
Here is the remedy for “diseases of the head,” as given by Hea to
Silik-mulu-khi:—
“Come my son, Silik-mulu-khi,
Take a sieve: draw some water from the surface of the river,
Place thy sublime lip upon the water;
Make it shine with purity from thy sublime breath, ...
Help the man, son of his god....
Let the disease of his head depart;
May the disease of his head be dispersed like a nocturnal dew.”[396]
I have already stated that Silik-mulu-khi became in time assimilated with
the god possessing beauty or splendor, Mardux.[397] Here are extracts
from a hymn addressed to him after the change:—
“Merciful one among the gods,
Generator who brought back the dead to life,
Silik-mulu-khi, king of heaven and of earth.
...
To thee is the lip of life!
To thee are death and life!
I have invoked thy name, I have invoked thy sublimity.
...
May the invalid be delivered from his disease;
Cure the plague, the fever, the ulcer.”[398]