A History of Science (Vol. 1-5). Edward Huntington Williams

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СКАЧАТЬ 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:

      1. Their heads shall remove from his head.

       2. Their heads shall let go his hands.

       3. 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 the feet, etc., therefore the passage before may mean "the spirits whose power is over the hand shall loose their hands from his," etc. "But," concludes Talbot, "I can offer no decided opinion upon such obscure points of their superstition."(15)

      In regard to evil spirits, as elsewhere, the number seven had a peculiar significance, it being held that that number of spirits might enter into a man together. Talbot has translated(16) a "wild chant" which he names "The Song of the Seven Spirits."

      1. There are seven! There are seven!

       2. In the depths of the ocean there are seven!

       3. In the heights of the heaven there are seven!

       4. In the ocean stream in a palace they were born.

       5. Male they are not: female they are not!

       6. Wives they have not! Children are not born to them!

       7. Rules they have not! Government they know not!

       8. Prayers they hear not!

       9. There are seven! There are seven! Twice over there are

      seven!

      The tablets make frequent allusion to these seven spirits. One starts thus:

      1. The god (—) shall stand by his bedside;

       2. These seven evil spirits he shall root out and shall expel

      them from his body, 3. and these seven shall never return to the sick man

      again.(17)

      Altogether similar are the exorcisms intended to ward off disease. Professor Sayce has published translations of some of these.(18) Each of these ends with the same phrase, and they differ only in regard to the particular maladies from which freedom is desired. One reads:

      "From wasting, from want of health, from the evil spirit of the ulcer, from the spreading quinsy of the gullet, from the violent ulcer, from the noxious ulcer, may the king of heaven preserve, may the king of earth preserve."

      Another is phrased thus:

      "From the cruel spirit of the head, from the strong spirit of the head, from the head spirit that departs not, from the head spirit that comes not forth, from the head spirit that will not go, from the noxious head spirit, may the king of heaven preserve, may the king of earth preserve."

      As to omens having to do with the affairs of everyday life the number is legion. For example, Moppert has published, in the Journal Asiatique,(19) the translation of a tablet which contains on its two sides several scores of birth-portents, a few of which maybe quoted at random:

      "When a woman bears a child and it has the ears of a lion, a strong king is in the country." "When a woman bears a child and it has a bird's beak, that country is oppressed." "When a woman bears a child and its right hand is wanting, that country goes to destruction." "When a woman bears a child and its feet are wanting, the roads of the country are cut; that house is destroyed." "When a woman bears a child and at the time of its birth its beard is grown, floods are in the country." "When a woman bears a child and at the time of its birth its mouth is open and speaks, there is pestilence in the country, the Air-god inundates the crops of the country, injury in the country is caused."

      Some of these portents, it will be observed, are not in much danger of realization, and it is curious to surmise by what stretch of the imagination they can have been invented. There is, for example, on the same tablet just quoted, one reference which assures us that "when a sheep bears a lion the forces march multitudinously; the king has not a rival." There are other omens, however, that are so easy of realization as to lead one to suppose that any Babylonian who regarded all the superstitious signs must have been in constant terror. Thus a tablet translated by Professor Sayce(20) gives a long list of omens furnished by dogs, in which we are assured that:

      1. If a yellow dog enters into the palace, exit from that

       palace will be baleful.

       2. If a dog to the palace goes, and on a throne lies down, that

       palace is burned.

       3. If a black dog into a temple enters, the foundation of that

       temple is not stable.

       4. If female dogs one litter bear, destruction to the city.

      It is needless to continue these citations, since they but reiterate endlessly the same story. It is interesting to recall, however, that the observations of animate nature, which were doubtless superstitious in their motive, had given the Babylonians some inklings of a knowledge of classification. Thus, according to Menant,(21) some of the tablets from Nineveh, which are written, as usual, in both the Sumerian and Assyrian languages, and which, therefore, like practically all Assyrian books, draw upon the knowledge of old Babylonia, give lists of animals, making an attempt at classification. The dog, lion, and wolf are placed in one category; the ox, sheep, and goat in another; the dog family itself is divided into various races, as the domestic dog, the coursing dog, the small dog, the dog of Elan, etc. Similar attempts at classification of birds are found. Thus, birds of rapid flight, sea-birds, and marsh-birds are differentiated. Insects are classified according to habit; those that attack plants, animals, clothing, or wood. Vegetables seem to be classified according to their usefulness. One tablet enumerates the uses of wood according to its adaptability for timber-work of palaces, or construction of vessels, the making of implements of husbandry, or even furniture. Minerals occupy a long series in these tablets. They are classed according to their qualities, gold and silver occupying a division apart; precious stones forming another series. Our Babylonians, then, must be credited with the development of a rudimentary science of natural history.

      BABYLONIAN MEDICINE

      We have just seen that medical practice in the Babylonian world was strangely under the cloud of superstition. But it should be understood that our estimate, through lack of correct data, probably does much less than justice to the attainments of the physician of the time. As already noted, the existing tablets chance not to throw much light on the subject. It is known, however, that the practitioner of medicine occupied a position of some, authority and responsibility. The proof of this is found in the clauses relating to the legal status of the physician which are contained in the now famous code(22) of the Babylonian King Khamurabi, who reigned about 2300 years before our era. These clauses, though throwing no light on the scientific attainments of the physician of the period, are too curious to be omitted. They are clauses 215 to 227 of the celebrated code, and are as follows:

      215. If a doctor has treated a man for a severe wound with a lancet of bronze and has cured the man, or has opened a tumor with a bronze lancet and has cured the man's eye, he shall receive ten shekels of silver.

      216. If it was a freedman, he shall receive five shekels of silver.

      217. If it was a man's slave, the owner of the slave shall СКАЧАТЬ