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.

    79/362 (page 7)
    Now if the attentions of its friends on earth should cease, and the soul should find nothing to eat or drink, then it was driven by force of hunger to come back to earth to demand its due. This is described on an Assj^rian tablet which begins— “ The gods which seize (upon man) Have come forth from the grave ; The evil wind-gusts Have come forth from the grave ; To demand the payment of rites and the pouring of libations They have come forth from the grave ; All that is evil of those seven 1 Hath come like a whirlwind.”2 Or another— “ The evil Spirit, the evil Demon, the evil Ghost, the evil Devil, From the earth have come forth ; From the Pure Abode unto earth they have come forth ; In heaven they are unknown, On earth they are not understood. They neither stand nor sit. He cannot eat food nor drink water.”3 * In this latter text, however, the reference is more to devils' or demons than to ghosts, but, as will be seen later, the classes of spirits are much confused with one another. One of the most interesting passages in the Gilgamish legend describes the raising of the spectre of Ea-bani 1 I have adopted Hehn’s correction of my previous translation : “jene Sieben [in der semitischen Zeile ; ihre Gesamtheit — sie alle] ” (Siebenzahl und Sabbat, 3907, 5). 2 Devils, ii, Tablet ‘ Y.’ 3 Ibid., Tablet ‘ CC.’ The last line refers to the patient ; cf. ibid., Tablets ‘A,5 15 ; XI, 67 ; IX, 63; ‘T,’ 25. The “Pure Abode” is a name for Eridu (cf. Devils, xv, 5).