CHAPTER III.

THE MEDICINE OF CHALDÆA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA. The Ancient Religion of Accadia akin to Shamanism.—Demon Theory of Disease in Chaldæan Medicine.—Chaldæan Magic.—Medical Ignorance of the Babylonians.—Assyrian Disease-Demons.—Charms.—Origin of the Sabbath. Chaldæa was probably only second to Egypt in the antiquity of its civilization. The founders of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires were a Semitic tribe, and were the first people who worked in metals, and their knowledge of astronomy proves them to have been possessed of some amount of scientific attainments. Their practice of medicine was inextricably mixed with conjurations of spirits, magic, and astrology. The name now given to the primitive inhabitants of Babylon is Accadians. Sayce considers them to have been the earliest civilizers of Eastern Asia. From the Accadians, he thinks the Assyrians, Phœnicians, and Greeks derived their knowledge of philosophy and the arts. Their libraries existed seventeen centuries B.C. The ancient religion of Accad was very similar to the Shamanism professed by Siberian and Samoyed tribes at the present time. There was believed to be a spirit in every object. Good or bad spirits swarmed in the world, and there was scarcely anything that could be done which might not risk demoniacal possession. These good and bad spirits were controlled by priests and sorcerers. All diseases were caused by evil spirits, and the bulls and other creatures which guarded the entrance to houses were there to protect them from their power. The priests were magicians. There were at one period of the development of the Babylonian mythology three hundred spirits of heaven and six hundred spirits of earth; the most dreadful of these latter were the “seven spirits,” who were born without father and mother, and brought plague and evil on the earth. Magic formulæ for warding off the attacks of demons were commonly used, and charms and talismans were extensively employed. The phylacteries of the Jews were talismans, and were of Accadian origin. The sorcerer bound his charm, “knotted with seven knots, round the limbs of the sick man, and this, with the further application of holy water, would, it was believed, infallibly produce a cure; while the same result might be brought about by fixing a sentence out of a good book on the sufferer’s head as he lay in bed.”[202] Accadian literature, Mr. George Smith tells us, is rich in collections of charms and formulæ of exorcism belonging to the very earliest period of Babylonian history. There are magic formulæ of all kinds, some to ward off sorcery, some to bewitch other persons. The following is a specimen of the exorcisms used to drive away evil spirits, and to cure the diseases which were believed to be caused by their agency:— “The noxious god, the noxious spirit of the neck, the spirit of the desert, the spirit of the mountain, the spirit of the sea, the spirit of the morass, the noxious cherub of the city, this noxious wind which seizes the body (and) the health of the body: O, spirit of heaven, remember! O, spirit of earth, remember! “The burning spirit of the neck which seizes the man, the burning spirit which seizes the man, the spirit which works evil, the creation of the evil spirit: O, spirit of heaven, remember! O, spirit of earth, remember! “Wasting, want of health, the evil spirit of the ulcer, spreading quinsey of the gullet, the violent ulcer, the noxious ulcer: O, spirit of heaven, remember! O, spirit of earth, remember! “Sickness of the entrails, sickness of the heart, the palpitation of a sick heart, sickness of bile, sickness of the head, noxious colic, the _agitation_ of terror, flatulency of the entrails, noxious illness, lingering sickness, nightmare: O, spirit of heaven, remember! O, spirit of earth, remember!”[203] In the great magic collection of invocations copied by the order of Asurbanipal, we have a long litany on the “Spirit of Fever”; the lords and ladies of the earth, stars, the light of life, the spirit of Hurki and his talismanic ship, the spirit of Utu, umpire of the gods, and many others are implored to “conjure it.”[204] Professor Lenormant considers that the idea of punishment of sin by means of disease was a dogma of a later school of Chaldæan thought. The old religion of spirits upon which Chaldæan magic was originally founded was independently the doctrine of the priests of magic, so that there were two sets of priests in later Chaldæan civilization—the old class who composed incantations to the spirits who fought with and replaced the disease-demons, and the theological priests who urged repentance for sin as the only means of the cure of disease.[205] In the Accadian philosophy there was in everything a dualism of spirits. Innumerable hosts of them caused all the phenomena of nature, from the movements of the stars to the life and death, the health and disease of every human being. This dualism was as marked as that of the religion of Zoroaster; everywhere and in everything the good spirits fought against the evil ones, discord prevailed throughout the universe; and on this conception rested the whole theory of sacred magic. Man’s only help against the attacks of bad spirits, and the plagues and diseases which they brought upon him, lay in the invocation of good spirits by means of priests, sacred rites, talismans, and charms. These could put to flight the demons by helping the good spirits in their constant warfare with them. Magic therefore became a system elaborated with scientific exactness, and a vast pantheon of gods became necessary. Hea was the great god of conjurational magic; he was the supreme protector of men and of nature in the war between good and evil. When neither word, nor rite, nor talisman, nor help of the other divinities of heaven availed to help mankind, Hea was all-powerful; and this was because, as Lenormant says,[206] Hea was alone acquainted with the awful power of the supreme name. “Before this name everything bows in heaven and in earth and in Hades, and it alone can conquer the _Maskim_ (a species of evil demon), and stop their ravages. The gods themselves are enthralled by this name, and render it obedience.” Images of demons were used by the Chaldæans as talismans against the attacks of demons. In a magical hymn to the sun against sorcery and witchcraft, and their influence on the worshipper, the sun is reminded that the images of the bad spirits have been shut up in heaps of corn. The invocation concludes:— “May the great gods, who have created me, take my hand! Thou who curest my face, direct my hand, direct it, lord, light of the universe, Sun.”[207] In a hymn composed for the cure of some disease, the priest, addressing the god, speaks of the invalid in the third person:— “As for me, the lord has sent me, the great lord, Hea, has sent me.——— Thou, at thy coming, cure the race of man, cause a ray of health to shine upon him, cure his disease. The man, son of his god, is burdened with the load of his omissions and transgressions. His feet and his hands suffer cruelly, he is painfully exhausted by the disease. Sun, at the raising of my hands, come at the call, eat his food, absorb his victim, turn his weakness into strength.”[208] In the “War of the Seven Wicked Spirits against the Moon,” we have an incantation which was destined to cure the king of a disease caused by the wicked spirits.[209] In the Chaldæan creed all diseases were the work of demons. This is why Herodotus found no physicians in Babylon and Assyria. There was no science of medicine; “it was simply a branch of magic, and was practised by incantations, exorcism, the use of philters and enchanted drinks.”[210] Of course the priests made it their business to compound their drinks of such drugs as they had discovered to possess therapeutic virtue. In ancient times magic and medicine were thus closely united. It could not have been always faith alone which cured the patient, but faith plus a little poppy juice would work wonders in many cases. It became therefore greatly to the interest of the priests and magicians to learn the properties of herbs, and the value of the juices and extracts of plants. Out of evil, therefore, mankind reaped this great and valuable knowledge. The two gravest and most fatal diseases with which the Chaldæans were acquainted, says M. Lenormant,[211] were the plague and fever, the _Namtar_ and the _Idpa_. Naturally they were represented as two demons, the strongest and most formidable who afflict mankind. An old fragment says:— The execrable _Idpa_ acts upon the head of man, The malevolent _Namtar_ upon the life of man, The malevolent _Utug_ upon the forehead of man, The malevolent _Alal_ upon the chest of man, The malevolent _Gigim_ upon the bowels of man, The malevolent _Telal_ upon the hand of man.[212] The use of magic knots as a cure for diseases was firmly believed in by the ancient Chaldees. M. Lenormant[213] gives a translation of one of the formulæ supposed to have been used against diseases of the head. Knot on the right and arrange flat in regular bands, on the left a woman’s diadem; divide it twice in seven little bands; ... gird the head of the invalid with it; gird the forehead of the invalid with it; gird the seat of life with it; gird his hands and his feet; seat him on his bed; pour on him enchanted waters. Let the disease of his head be carried away into the heavens like a violent wind; ... may the earth swallow it up like passing waters! Sir Henry Rawlinson has discovered that there were three classes of Chaldæan doctors, exactly in accordance with the enumeration of the prophet Daniel. These were the _Khartumim_, or conjurors, the _Chakamim_, or physicians, and the _Asaphim_, or theosophists (see Daniel ii. 2; v. ii). The Babylonian doctrine of disease was that the hosts of evil spirits in the air entered man’s body, and could only be expelled by the incantations of the exorcist. These disease-demons were addressed as “the noxious neck spirit,” “the burning spirit of the entrails which devours the man.” Headache was caused by evil spirits which were commanded by the charmer to fly away “like grasshoppers” into the sky.[214] Herodotus says of the Babylonians: “The following custom seems to me the wisest of their institutions. They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves, or have known any one who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.”[215] A Babylonian exorcism of disease-demons has been found in the following terms: the translation is by Prof. Sayce.[216] “On the sick man, by means of sacrifice, may perfect health shine like bronze; may the sun-god give this man life; may Merodach, the eldest son of the deep, give him strength, prosperity, and health; may the king of heaven preserve, may the king of earth preserve.” A curse against a sorcerer declares that “by written spells he shall not be delivered.” The elementary spirits were supposed to be seven baleful winds, which were considered general causes of disease. One of the formulæ of exorcising these dreadful seven is translated by Mr. Smith from a great collection of hymns to the gods which was compiled B.C. 2000. “Seven (are) they, seven (are) they. In the abyss of the deep seven (are) they. In the brightness of heaven seven (are) they. In the abyss of the deep in a palace (was) their growth. Male they (are) not, female they (are) not. Moreover the deep (is) their pathway. Wife they have not, child is not born to them. Law (and) kindness know they not. Prayer and supplication hear they not. (Among) the thorns of the mountain (was) their growth. To Hea (the god of the sea) (are) they hostile. The throne-bearers of the gods (are) they. Disturbing the watercourse in the canal are they set. Wicked (are) they, wicked (are) they. Seven (are) they, seven (are) they, seven twice again are they.”[217] M. Lenormant gives a translation of a very long Accadian incantation against disease-demons; it is in the form of a litany, and each verse ends with the words:— “Spirit of the heavens, conjure it! Spirit of the earth, conjure it!” There are some twenty-eight verses in all, and a great number of diseases are mentioned. I have only space for a few of these. “Ulcers which spread, malignant ulcers.” “Disease of the bowels, the disease of the heart, the palpitation of the diseased heart, Disease of the vision, disease of the head,” etc. “Painful fever, violent fever, The fever which never leaves man, Unremitting fever, The lingering fever, malignant fever. Spirit of the heavens, conjure it,” etc., etc. In the Assyrian version it seems to be hinted that the expectoration of phthisical patients was as dangerous as our modern bacteriologists declare it to be, for we have these words:— “The poisonous consumption which in the mouth malignantly ascends.”[218] In the course of Layard’s excavations at Nineveh, a divining chamber was discovered, at the entrance to which figures of the magi were found. One of the orders of these magicians was the “Mecasphim,” translated by Jerome and the Greeks “enchanters,” such as used noxious herbs and drugs, the blood of victims, and the bones of the dead for their superstitious rites. Another class was the “Casdim,” who were a sort of philosophers, who were exempt from all employment except the duty of studying physic, astrology, the foretelling of future events, the interpretation of dreams by augury, etc.[219] The Assyrians had different demons for different diseases—some injured the head, others attacked the hands and feet.[220] The Assyrians believed that seven evil spirits might enter a man at the same time; and there is a tablet which tells of the protection afforded by a god against such demons. When the deity stands at the sick man’s bedside, “those seven evil spirits he shall root out, and shall expel them from his body, and those seven shall never return to the sick man again.”[221] “Sometimes images of the gods were brought into the sick-room, and written texts from the holy books were put on the walls, and bound round the sick man’s brains. Holy texts were spread out on each side of the threshold.”[222] In Mr. George Smith’s _History of Assyria from the Monuments_, there is a translation of an Assyrian tablet from Assur-bani-pal’s library. The tablet is on the charms to expel evil curses and spells. “It is supposed in it,” says Mr. Smith, “that a man was under a curse, and Merodach, one of the gods, seeing him next to the god Hea, his father, enquired how to cure him. Hea, the god of wisdom, in answer related the ceremonies and incantations for effecting his recovery, and these are recorded in the tablet for the benefit of the faithful in after times.” TRANSLATION OF TABLET.