Semitic magic, its origins and development / by R. Campbell Thompson.

  • Reginald Campbell Thompson
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Semitic magic, its origins and development / by R. Campbell Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    In Arabia, as has been mentioned elsewhere, a widow lets a bird fly away with the uncleanness of her widowhood. But there is a still closer parallel in Assyrian to this Levitical magic, found in an incantation prescribed for cleansing a house in which ‘sorcery’ (upsasu) has broken out, which runs as follows:—“ As the water of the Sun- god is borne from the roof (?) 1 when he goeth down, so shall the sorcery which hath appeared in the man’s house, destroying2 the house, admit [its] bondage (?).3 Pour upon the plaister-liquid wine, date wine, and beer from corn4 . . . the vessel of the mixture (?) thou shalt overlay with thy feet and come (away?)5 ... at sunset shall be cast into the river; the man that carrieth it6 shall not enter the house for seven (?) days.7 “ On the second day thou shalt cleanse the house with a vessel of pure water, 6me«(-tamarisk), clilbat-plant, ginger (?), dwarf-palm, skin of a great ox, ‘ strong copper,’ fields. If it flew away, this was a sign of the flight of the enemy ; if it returned, he would die (Folklore of Mossoul, P.S.B.A., 1906, 106, No. 23). Or, after drawing certain images and writing the name of the man and his mother, he might tie his charm to the wings of a dove or other bird, and say, “ I conjure thee, Qaplisiel, and thy whole host that thou drive away So and So, that he be wandering about, to and fro, in the same manner as the Lord drove Cain away,” etc., and then let it fly (Gaster, P.S.B.A., 1900, 345). V' 1 Uru, ‘ beam.’ 2 Susurat biti. 3 GI-C4A-TU GAR-cm, i.e. clupUkki isakan(an). 4 Cf. Lev. xiv, 42, “ and he shall take other mortar, and shall plaister the house.” The words in Assyrian are a-im-par, i.e. me gassi. 5 . . . karpati sa su-luh-ha ta-kat-tam ina sepdn-ka-ma titebbi. 6 Cf. Lev. xiv, 46, “ Moreover, he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the even.” Num. xix, 10, “ And he that gathereth the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the even.” 7 The Assyrian number may be ‘ seven.’ Seven days is the limit in Lev. xiv, 38, for the priest to shut up the house until his return.