Diseases were attributed to the influence of Evil 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 been found of medicine.
This is a very frequent subject of the tablets. [Footnote: Taken from 2 R
pl. 18.] One of them says of a sick man:
1 "May the goddess ...
2 wife of the god ...
3 turn his face in another direction;
4 that the evil spirit may come out of him
5 and be thrust aside, and that Good Spirits and Good Powers
6 may dwell in his body!"
Sometimes divine images were brought into the chamber, and written texts
taken from holy books were placed on the walls and bound around the sick
man's brows. If these failed recourse was had to the influence of the
_mamit_, which the evil powers were unable to resist. On a tablet 2 R p.
17 the following is found, written in the Accadian language only, the
Assyrian version being broken off:
1 Take a white cloth: In it place the _mamit_,
2 in the sick man's right hand.
3 And take a black cloth:
4 wrap it round his left hand.
5 Then all the evil spirits.[1]
6 and the sins which he has committed
7 shall quit their hold of him,
8 and shall never return.[2]
[Footnote 1: A long list of them is given.]
[Footnote 2: "Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.," vol. ii. p. 56.]
The symbolism of the black cloth in the left hand seems evident. The dying
man repudiates all his former evil deeds. And he puts his trust in
holiness, symbolized by the white cloth in his right hand. Then follow
some obscure lines about the spirits--
Their heads shall remove from his head:
their hands shall let go his hands:
their feet shall depart from his feet:
which perhaps may be explained thus--we learn, from another tablet, that
the various classes of evil spirits troubled different parts of the body.
Some injured the head, some the hands and feet, etc., etc. Therefore the
passage before us may mean: "The spirits whose power is over the hand,
shall loose their hands from his," etc. But I can offer no decided opinion
on such obscure points of their superstition.