The following are specimens of the imprecatory charms with which the
ancient Babylonian literature abounded, and which were supposed to be the
most potent means in the world for producing mischief. Some examples are
given in the first volume of the "Records of the Past," pp. 131-135 of the
exorcisms used to avert the consequences of such enchantments. The
original Accadian text is preserved in the first column with an
interlinear Assyrian translation: the short paragraphs in Column III also
give the Accadian original; but elsewhere the Assyrian scribe has
contented himself with the Assyrian rendering alone. The charms are
rhythmic, and illustrate the rude parallelism of Accadian poetry. The
Assyrian translations were probably made for the library of Sargon of
Aganè, an ancient Babylonian monarch who reigned not later than the
sixteenth century B.C.; but the copy we possess was made from the old
tablets by the scribes of Assur-bani-pal. The larger part of the first
column has already been translated by M. François Lenormant in "_La Magie
chez les Chaldéens_" p. 59. The tablet on which the inscription occurs is
marked K 65 in the British Museum Collection and will be published in the
"Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," Vol. IV, plates 7, 8.