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Assyrian Prescriptions for the “Hand of a Ghost”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

The following translations are from the texts in my Assyrian Medical Texts for sick men suffering from diseases brought about by the “hand of a ghost”.

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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1929

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References

page 801 note 1 The following abbreviations are used: AH., my Assyrian Herbal; AJSL., Amer. Journ. of Sem. Languages; AM., my Assyrian Medical Texts; CT., Cuneiform Texts; HWB., Delitzseh, Handwōrterbuch; E., Ebeling, in Archiv f. Gesch. d. Medizin; EB., Encyclopœdica Britannica, 11th ed.; KAR., Ebeling, Keils. aus Assur, Relig. Inhalts; KM I., Ebeling, Keils. Medicinischen Inhalts; MA., Muss-Arnolt, Assyr. Dict.; PRSM., Proc. of the Royal Soc. of Medicine; SAI., Meissner, Seltene Assyr. Ideogr.; SM., Budge, Syriac Book of Medicines; TCPP., Trans. Coll. Phys. Philadelphia (Jastrow's article, 1913, 365). Running numbers on the left of the translations, Nos. 260–71, refer to the consecutive numbers of the translations, beginning with No. 1 in PRSM., 1924.

page 801 note 2 = *Tragacanth, (JRAS. 1924), 452Google Scholar.

page 801 note 3 Ši(?)-mit, from šindu (= šimtu), but šimat is the usual form (see AM. 15, 3, 16; 73, 1, 11). Cf. E. xiv, 27.

page 802 note 1 The characters at the end may be read in several ways. Cf. AM. 35, 3, r. 6.

page 802 note 2 M'AS.(*BIR).ZU. Cf. AM. 1, 4, 3 (No. 241), reading text thus in both.

page 803 note 1 Ta-pa-ḫar.

page 804 note 1 Text as given here, but šu-tuk(lut) (? “basket”) in 1. 11.

page 804 note 2 Taḳ-ti-ru, one of the curious forms in AM.

page 804 note 3 BAL.GI.HA, a well-known “fish”, occurring with ŠA.KA + IM (= ILLAMMA).NA. ḪA (e.g. Bavian, , Pognon, 63, 1. 28)Google Scholar. For literature on this latter cf. Dennefeld, , Geburts., 28, 55Google Scholar; Hunger, , Tieromina, 160Google Scholar, SAI. 9236; MA. and HWB., s.v. KAR. 91, r. 11, BAR BAL.GI.ḪA BAR ŠA.KA + IM.NA shows at once that these are water animals with a shell or carapace, BAR being ḳuliptu (“bark” of tamarisk, JRAS. 1924, 454, “rind” of pomegranate, , PRSM. 1926, 44, n. 1Google Scholar).

Additional evidence is LA ŠA. KA + IM. NA. ḪA for the latter (AM. 94, 2, r. 9), LA being used of the shell of an ostrich-egg (AH. 279), as well as for pomegranate- “rind”.

Equally interesting is KAR. 61, r. 15: “Incantation. From one bêru of IM TUM (= ṭit tabali, mud of the dry land, i.e. the dry bank) of the Tigris, two bêru of the dry mud of the Euphrates, BAL.GI.ḪApl-ša ditto (‘its BAL.GI-fish, ditto’), KA + II (?). ḪApl-ša ditto (‘its KA + II(?)-fish, ditto’).” In other words the BAL.GI (and KA + II (?)) “fishes” are water-beasts which inhabit dry land.

We have therefore only to settle which is the tortoise (turtle) and which the crab, which are the only two freshwater animals of Mesopotamia known to me proper to these identifications. They are both common in the rivers. It was Boissier who first suggested “tortoise” for BAL.GI.ḪA (Doc. Ass., ii, p. v, 4, noted by Hunger, , MDVG. 1909, 161)Google Scholar, but Meissner (Bab. Ass., ii, 308, and Arch. Keils., ii, 24) considers the tortoise ŠA.KA + IM.NA.ḪA. But besides the “shell”, the BAL.GI.ḪA has “feet” and “hands” (if a newborn babe has feet and hands like those of a BAL.GI.ḪA, iii, R. 65, 42, 43a; cf. CT. xxvii, 17, 42, 43), and, what is still more indicative, a penis (KAR. 186 r. 18), which at once gives it almost a certain preference for “turtle” (the tail contains the “large copulatory organ”, EB. xxvii, 66).

We find ŠA.IM + KA.NA.ḪA thus in vocabularies, after ṣuriru and anduḪallatu (lizards):—

[IḪ ?].ḪA = še-li-bu-u

[ŠA.KA + IM.NA].ḪA = ditto

[…].ḪA = pi-lu ditto

. . . . = a-par ditto

(Scheil, , Rec. de Trav., xxxvi, 186)Google Scholar.

IḪ = še-lib-bu-u

ŠA.KA + IM.NA. [HA] = ditto

(Weidner, , Rev. d'Assyr., xi, 120–1, iv, 9–10)Google Scholar.

Šeli(b)bû is doubtless connected with šelibu “fox”. In the above pilu = “egg”, and apar (possibly connected with apâru “cover”, Meissner) may perhaps be read ṣa-par in Scheil's copy, connected with ṣupru “nail”, i.e. the crab's claw. It is possible that pilu “egg” refers not to the actual egg of the crab, but to the shell-like body. In our present text in AM. we have also the “flesh” mentioned. It may be added that a usual value for IḪ is “louse”, in which case šelibbû with its probable value “crab” would also have the meaning “crab-louse” (i.e. Phthirius inguinalis).

The fact that [ra]ḳ-ḳu (“tortoise,” Meissner, l.c., probably rightly) continues the text in R.A. xiii, after the last ditto of šelibû, surely indicates the beginning of a fresh animal, for which we may perhaps supply BAL.GI.ḪA in the Sumerian column.

We may thus accept BAL.GI. ḪA = “tortoise” or “turtle” (almost certainly Trionyx euphratica) and SA.KA + IM.NA.ḪA = “crab”, the former being suggested by Boissier.

Out of this arises (a) the similarity of the name BAL.GI.ḪA (“tortoise”) to p(b)ulukhu, the Cancer of the Babylonian astronomers, who, it must be remembered, represent this sign of the Zodiac on their boundary stones as a tortoise or turtle, the crab not being included; (b) the interesting sign KA + IM “breath in mouth” shows the great capacity of the Assyrians for observation; “as a rule, crabs breathe by gills, which are lodged in a pair of cavities at the side of the carapace, but in the true land-crabs the cavities become enlarged and modified so as to act as lungs for breathing air” (EB. vii, 356); (c) “tortoise” cannot be accepted as a philological equivalent for šelibbû “crab” nor “tortoise” (as Holma, , ZA. xxviii, 156Google Scholar).

page 806 note 1 I-mi-im i-ka-aṣ-ṣ[a-a-m]a.

page 806 note 2 Ḫa-a-a-(at)-ta-šu ḳar-bi(t), i.e. (sudden) fits of terror coming on him.

page 807 note 1 Aḫî (foreign), v. aḫû.

page 807 note 2 Tukar, PRSM. 1924, 18, n. 2.

page 807 note 3 KAR. Sulphate of iron(?), ending the prescription here.

page 808 note 1 See PRSM. 1924, 10, n. 2.

page 808 note 2 Saḫiru may be a kind of cattle; see MA. s.v., and cf. AM. 103, 6.

page 808 note 3 See PRSM. 1924, 10, n. 2.

page 808 note 4 See AM. 102, 7.

page 809 note 1 V. amMAŠ.

page 809 note 2 KAR. omits.

page 809 note 3 takTU: see my On the Chemistry, 110.

page 809 note 4 Amittu, cf. AM. 40, 5, 17, and 62, 1, iv, 8; distinct from amittu “pestle” (CT. xiv, 16, K. 240, 9), but clearly the same drug as in CT.xiv, 10, 15; 42, K. 4140 B, 12; 43, K. 4419, 5, amitti nâri arḳi, “a green amittu of the river.” Possibly is not the equivalent and ḫulmittu, but perhaps of amittu, but very doubtful.

page 809 note 5 Var. Marduk.

page 810 note 1 I-ḫi-is-su-u.

page 810 note 2 Ub-ba-[al ?].

page 810 note 3 I-tab-ba- [ku], for ittabaku ?

page 810 note 4 Ana na-kas.

page 810 note 5 It is doubtful whether “they” in the preceding sentence is correct, or “him” (instead of “it” ) here.

page 810 note 6 Cf. KAR. 182, r. 35.

page 810 note 7 Cf. pizalluru, Rev. d'Assyr., 1914, 123, and p. ša ṣê.ri = ḫumbibittu (Weidner, , AJSL. 1922, 198Google Scholar).

page 810 note 8 MI ša ḫal-la imeri ša imitli (?) u Šumeli teliḳḳi (ḳi)-ma. A suggestion comes from AM. 2, 1, obv. 1 + K. 2354 (= No. 285): “Practical prescription for this: a dung-cake (?) (ḫallutanû) which the foot of a [pure] woman [hath trodden ?],” etc. This word ḫallutan [û] = MI.PAP.ḪAL. ANŠU (CT. xiv, 45, 16; cf. 43, 11). MI = pitû (Brünnow, 8921) and as both ḫallu and PAP.ḪAL (= puridu), meaning “anus”, are used in conjunction with pitû (pit ḫalla and pit puridi), pitû is obviously the value for MI here. But pitû would seem certainly to mean “dung” in AM. 73, 2, 4 (No. 182), pi-ti of a sudinnu-bird, just as ḫallu must mean the same in JRAS. 1924, 454, where a plant is described as “like the ḫalla (dung, rather than vent) of the raven”, and asa fœtida as like ḫalla of a dove. Both pitû and hallu therefore would seem to have transferred meanings. Ḫallutanî, presumably derived from ḫallu, must surely have some more special meaning than merely that of ḫallu, and as in the text quoted it is described as “which the foot of a woman . . . ” the probability is that it means the round cake of dung for fuel, which the women in Mesopotamia tread out with their feet before plastering on the wall to dry. Ḫipêti will be the pieces of the dried cake.

page 811 note 1 ŠAR, v. ŠAR.A.

page 811 note 2 La-aš-ḫi.

page 811 note 3 AM. 80, 6, omits.

page 811 note 4 Kima GAR.ḪAR.RA ta-sa-mu-ud(t). GAR.ḪAR.RA = akal tumri “bread cooked in ashes” (see my CT. xvii, 6, 7, and Devils, ii, 18); also probably ripsu (SAI. 9337). If ripsu is also “bread cooked in ashes” it is quite possibly Syr. “bread baked in ashes”, the metathesis being similar to dišpu = Samâdu is unknown to me; cf. (said to be σɛμςαλις) “fine meal”.

page 811 note 5 Ki-im zu-ra-am.

page 812 note 1 KU a-ru-uš-te ta-man-za-'. Arušte (see PRSM. 1924, 15, n. 2) occurs Sarg. Ann. 201, A.BAR munammir aruštišunu “antimony which brightens their arušti”. Arušti may well be from (in spite of ḫiršu ?) “engrave”, and consequently the “antimony” here will be plumbago, as Dr. B. Lambert, F.R.S., has suggested to me, to make the characters stand out in the stone. It is the same idea as in Job xix, 24, where his wish is that his words “were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever”; probably not the usual interpretation that the characters are filled with molten lead, but brightened with plumbago.

page 813 note 1 Tus (š)-ki-e. I was entirely wrong in PESM. 1924, 28 ff., in reading this word as KU ka-a “cornflour”. It must be the same word as the tu-us-ku-u of the Chemical texts, which in my On the Chemistry, 30 ff., I tried to show was oxide of tin, or even cadmia (p. 38), a form of zinc, and possibly the origin of the word tutty. According to Berthelot (Coll., 241) tutty replaced the cadmia of the ancients, which was (ib. 38) an impure oxide of zinc, mixed with oxide of copper, nay, even with oxide of lead, and oxide of antimony, arsenious acid, etc. Cadmia was found in furnaces where copper was smelted (Pliny, Ibn Beithar, Roscoe, see On the Chemistry, 38); Pomet gives the method of obtaining tutty as follows (Hist, of Drugs, 1712, ii, 341): “Tutty is found sticking to Rolls of Earth, which are hung up and placed on Purpose on the Top of the Furnaces where the Founders cast their mixed and Bell-metal to retain the Fume or Vapour, like the Smoke in Chimnies, and by the Means of these Rolls the Vapour is retained and reduced into a Shell of the same Figure as these Rollers.”

In the Chemical Texts one part of tuskû to 360 of clear crystal glass renders the glass opaque (parute aššaki), and half a part more of tuskû gives it a reddish tinge. There is a difficulty about this latter proportion, which is very small, if “oxide of tin” is accepted as correct. But it is one of the essentials in making [red coral], by adding 32 parts with one of gold to 7,200 of zukû-glass (together with 20 of antimony and some mil'u-salt), and here oxide of tin would suit this ancient receipt for the “Purple of Cassius” well. In the Medical Texts tus(š)-ka-a or tu-uš-ka-a occurs thus: (a) tus-ka-a is one of the ingredients for an eye-salve (AM. 9, 1, 34; PRSM. 1924, 28); (b) it is to be brayed alone and put into kurunnu-beer, boiled, mixed with honey and refined oil, allowed to steam, and then be given “without a meal” to a man with a cough, and the result will be vomiting (AM. 80, 7, 7, No. 132); (c) [tu]-uš-ki-e (ša) amnappaḫi nipṣa (here), probably for a seizure of some kind (nipṣa, see MA. s.v., nipiṣ erê, with the same ideogram as ipri erê “dust of copper”; cf. also AM. 14, 5, 7, No. 287, ni-ip-ṣa erê; the root is “crush”); (d) taktu-uš-ka-[a] with arsenic, etc., for painful eyes (AM. 15, 4, 5).

Now every one of these instances is evidence for cadmia: in (a) and (d) the use for eyes (cf. SM. ii, for eyes passim), with the indication that it is a mineral in (d); in (c) the mention of the “smith”, indicating the source (the “furnace” of Pliny, etc.); in (b) particularly its use to make a man with a cough vomit, with which cf. Quain, Diet, of Medicine, 1883, 311: “An emetic of ipecacuanha, sulphate of zinc (italics mine), or mustard, may be useful in relieving cough, by expelling secretion when this has accumulated in large quantity.” Sulphate of zinc “may be prepared by dissolving the oxide of the metal in dilute sulphuric acid; but it is always procured by acting on the metal itself, which is oxidized by the decomposition of water, with the oxygen of which it combines and evolves the hydrogen” (Penny Cydopædia, 1843, xxvii, 783Google Scholar). The mediaeval method of obtaining tutty is described by Pomet (Hist, of Drugs, 1712, ii, 341Google Scholar).

The fact that the word is written tuškû or tuškû interchangeably is not, I think, of serious importance; it is not a common word, and is found only in specially medical or chemical texts, as far as I know. I propose to take it as cadmia or tutty.

page 814 note 1 But note in 1. 20 that there are traces of ŠlM as determination (i.e. “liquidambar”).

page 814 note 2 KAR and AM. 96, 4 include “anoint with oil”.

page 814 note 3 iṣuZa (?)-sur ana pašaši.

page 814 note 4 Ibarrû ukal, see AM. 5, 7, 3, and 98, 3, 5; and cf. Dennefeld, Bab. Ass. Geburts., s.v. ibaru.

page 815 note 1 Note dup. on KAR. 202.

page 815 note 2 Saḫindu (from KAR.) compressit: cf. nurmâ saḫ-ma (AM. 69, 12, 4) “squeezed pomegranate”. Cf. also AM. 98, 3, 2.

page 815 note 3 Tap-ta- [tar].

page 816 note 1 ṬU = takaltu.

page 816 note 2 Here should be quoted the fragment A M. 6,7, 1. 4, [INIM. INIM]. MA di-kiš. …

page 816 note 3 This is a demon producing the result of squinting right and left (JRAS. 1924, 452). There are a large number of receipts for anointing a man on whom this demon has seized in KAR. 186, obv. 23 ft. Mentioned CT. xiv, 16, No. 93084, rev. 6.

page 816 note 4 Uz-za-nu.

page 817 note 1 Bu-ḫa-li piṣî.

page 817 note 2 Ku-bu-uš kim-ṣi ameluti. Kubšu is a “turban” or other headgear, and as there is no doubt about kim-ṣi this is the only suggestion I can make for it, unless it means “leg-binding” (puttee).

page 817 note 3 Rîm sinništi pa-ḳar-ti, the latter word new, doubtless the equivalent of the Syr. (Efpa.) deflorata est.

page 818 note 1 = *Tragacanth (JRAS. 1924, 452).

page 818 note 2 Omitted in CT. xxiii, which adds instead uAŠ§, Asa (dulcis) at the end.

page 818 note 3 KAR “Seven drugs,” adding uAŠ, Asa (dulcis).

page 818 note 4 Different order on AM.

page 819 note 1 Ibarrura. Cf. CT. xxiii, 23, i, 1 (dup. KAR. 202, 1, 1, and TCPP. 1, my No. 285), I, birratu, and for barâru, PRSM. 1924, 18.

page 819 note 2 Rimutu, from ramî “be loosed”. Cf. AM. 20, 1, 36 (dup. of KAR. 188, r. 14), and 38 (dups. of CT. xxiii, 40, 4 and 6), “if a man has tib (v. tib (ib)) ŠAK.KI and has rimutu”, 52, 5, 4,“[If] … his flesh has šimmatu and rimutu”; 82, 2, 7, “To ease a man of šipir mi”; KAR 185, IV, 5, Ana šimmatim u rimutim, AM. 5, 6, 7, “to ease a man of … and rimutu.” Cf. KAR. 157, 18, and Langdon, Bab. Wisdom, 45, 10, kal pagri-ia itaḫaz rimutu.

page 819 note 3 Ridati (v. ridâti, 1. 45); cf. Maqlu, iii, 147, edimmu (v. utukku) ri-da-a-ti ḫarrani-ki u-ša-as-[ ]. The parallel ḫar-ba-ti “ruins” in AM. 88, 4, 6, shows that we probably have here a word from ridû “tread”, i e. roadways, or perhaps (forgotten) tracks haunted by ghosts. The addition of the phrase “an evil wind hath blown on me” (itipanni, etêpu) as concomitant, indicates the idea of the ghostly visitant coming with the wind. The patient is set with his face to the north (= IM.SI.SA, the direction of the “right” wind) to counteract this.

page 819 note 4 kušaḫḫû, a cloth. For tahKA “red iron oxide”, see my On the Chemistry, 123, and note the quotations on pp. 122, 123, for the quality of the oxides in giving a blood red colour. The use here is obviously magical to symbolize blood.

page 819 note 5 It must be the full moon, or nearly, not the crescent.

page 820 note 1 See note 3 on previous page.

page 820 note 2 Assaku, presumably for aššaku, parallel in meaning to the other two verbs.

page 820 note 3 Symbolic for the cleansing, but also perhaps that the ghost should not recognize the patient.

page 820 note 4 Nullate, see PRSM. 1926, 73, n. 8.

page 820 note 5 Da-rik-šu. The root darâku, comparable to “tread, march”, occurs in dirkatu, darkatu similar to ahrâtu “posterity” (coming afterwards). Darku must have the meaning of “step”, i.e. “promotion” or “advancement” here. It would be too fanciful to see in this the dariku “Daric” of a later period.

page 820 note 6 SAL libbi-šu la ir-'-[am].

page 821 note 1 See SAI., No. 3383.

page 821 note 2 Taḫ-zib.

page 821 note 3 It-te-nim (?)-mi-ru.

page 821 note 4 Ur pî-šu; cf. “if his tongue and ur pî-šu” (CT. xxxvii, 37, 13).

page 821 note 5 I-ta-nab-b [al].

page 821 note 6 . . . [i ?]-na da-ba-bi ša-pil.

page 821 note 7 (= ridû)-Šu.

page 822 note 1 Ma-al-ta-ra, cf. ana maltariš “correspondingly ?”, AM. 83, 1, r. 17 (No. 135), and Kuchler, , Beitr, iii, 1, 27 ff.Google Scholar, where the patient is (e g, 1. 34) to drink usaḫlanu (alone) in strong wine, if his symptoms are that he neither eats nor drinks, but his stomach ana parê itenilasa rupušta mâdiš ittadi mêina pî-šu maltariš illaku, etc. Tell-el-Amarna (Bezold-Budge), No. 11, rev. 52, … šalI-u-ni aššati-ia li-il-[lik]. a-na ma-al-ta-ri-iš-ma u ammar-[šipri] … šalI-u-ni aššati-ia a nali-il-li-ku a-na ma-al-ta- [riš] …(section ends). Doubtful.

page 822 note 2 NAK. MEŠ, obviously equivalent to NAK NAK in the preceding receipt. Cf. also the use of the plural sign in KAR. 184, rev. 1, šumma NA edimmu isbat-su-ma UŠpl-šu, where UŠpls is clearly the equivalent of UŠ.UŠ here in 1. 17.

page 822 note 3 UŠ.UŠ-šu.

page 822 note 4 UR.