The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria Part 36

If a woman gives birth to a child whose lower jaw is lacking, the ground will not bear fruit during the year.

It will be observed that, while most of the portents are evil, the ruler of the land is here generally vouchsafed immunity. The priests had to be somewhat on their guard lest by the very terror that they aroused, the hold of the rulers over the people might be loosened. Moreover, the rulers were sufficiently hedged in by their positions, as we have seen, and were in no danger of regarding themselves as safe from the anger of the G.o.ds.

Still quite frequently even the king is involved in the evil prophecy.

The portion of the series dealing with portents derived from deformed hands and feet contains instances of this kind.

If a woman gives birth to a child with the right hand lacking, the land advances to destruction.

If a woman gives birth to a child with both hands lacking, the city will witness no more births, and the land will be utterly destroyed.

If a woman gives birth to a child with the fingers of the right hand lacking, the ruler will be captured by his enemy.

If a woman gives birth to a child with six toes on the right foot, through distress (?), the house of the man will perish.

If a woman gives birth to a child with six very small toes on the left foot, distress (?) will come to pa.s.s.

If a woman gives birth to a child with six toes on the right foot, some disaster is portending.

Altogether no less than ninety kinds of human deformities in the various parts of the body are enumerated and interpreted.

The significance of the portents is naturally increased if the woman who gives birth to a monstrosity happens to belong to the royal house. In such a case, the omen has direct bearings on national affairs. The good or evil sign affects the country exclusively. From a tablet of this nature,[642] belonging to a different series than the one we have been considering, we learn that six toes on the right foot or six on the left foot mean defeat, whereas six toes on both feet mean victory. Royal twins were a good omen, and so also a royal child born with teeth or with hair on its face or with unusually developed features.

The same desire to find some meaning in deviations from normal types led to the careful observation of deformities or peculiarities in the case of the young of domestic animals. In the fifth tablet of the series that we have chosen as an ill.u.s.tration, the compiler pa.s.ses from babes to the offspring of domestic animals. From the opening line, which is all that has been published as yet,[643] and which reads:

If in the flock[644] a dog is born, weapons will destroy life and the king will not be triumphant

it would appear that the first subject taken up was the anomalous unions among animals, which naturally aroused attention when they occurred.

A number of tablets--at least seven--follow in which monstrosities occurring among the young of sheep are noted.

The series pa.s.ses on to signs to be observed among colts. From this point on, the series is too defective (so far as published) to warrant any further deductions; but it is safe to suppose that, as the young of ewes and mares were considered in special sections, so the young of swine and of cows were taken up in succession. The whole series would thus aim to cover that section of the animal kingdom that concerned man most,--his own offspring, and the young of those animals by which he was surrounded.

In these omens derived from the young of domestic animals, we are again overwhelmed at the ma.s.s of contingencies included by the priests in their compilations. Just as in the case of omens derived from infants, so here the parts of the body are taken up one after the other. All possible, and one is inclined to add various impossible, variations from the normal types are noted. The omen varies as the female throws off one, two, three, or whatever number of young ones up to ten. For example:[645]

If among the sheep, five young ones are born, it is a sign of devastation in the land. The owner of the sheep dies, and his house is destroyed.

This is the omen in the case that the litter consists of five young ones, all normal. But if anomalies occur, as, _e.g._,

If five young ones are born, one with a bull's head, one with a lion's head, one with a dog's head, and one with a sheep's head, there will be a series of devastations in the land.

Again,

If seven young are thrown off, three male and four female, that man[646] will perish.

And so if eight are born, it is a bad sign for the king who, we are told, "will be driven out of the country through sedition." The variations are nigh endless.

If in the flock, young ones are thrown off with five legs, it is a sign of distress in the land. The house of the man will perish and his stalls will be swept away.

If the young ones have six legs, the population will decrease and devastation will settle over the country.

Having finished with litters, the series proceeds to peculiar marks found on single specimens; lambs that have a head and tail shaped like a lion or that have a lion's head and a mane like that of an a.s.s, or a head like a bird's, or like a swine, and so through a long and rather tiresome list.

Malformations in the shape or position of members of the animal, particularly the mouth, ears, tongue, tail, and eyes, or the absence of any one or of several of these parts were fraught with an importance corresponding to these symptoms among new-born babes.

If a young one has its ears on one side, and its head is twisted (?), and it has no mouth, the ruler will cut off the supply of water from his enemy.

In this instance the 'twisting' and the absence of the mouth appear to suggest the act of turning a ca.n.a.l into a different direction, so as to isolate a besieged city. When the text goes on to declare that

If the young one has its ears at its neck,[647] the ruler will be without judgment,

it is the a.s.sociation of ideas between 'ears' and 'judgment,'[648] that supplies the link. A misplaced ear is equivalent to misdirected judgment.

Consistent with this interpretation, the next line informs us that

If the young one has its ears below the neck,[649] the union of the country is weakened.

Such glimpses into the peculiar thought controlling these omens are perhaps all that we will be able to obtain at least for a long time to come. For the rest, comparative studies with the omens of the other nations will alone serve to determine the mult.i.tudinous factors involved in the interpretations of the signs.

Before leaving the subject, however, a few more ill.u.s.trations may be offered. Another portion of the same tablet--the eleventh--continues the omens derived from peculiarities in the ears of lambkins:

If the young one has no right ear, the rule of the king will come to an end, his palace will be uprooted, and the population of the city will be swept away, the king will lose judgment, ...

the produce of the country will be small, the enemy will cut off the supply of water.

If the left ear of the young one is missing, the deity will hear the prayer of the king, the king will capture his enemy's land, and the palace of the enemy will be destroyed, the enemy will lack judgment, the produce of the enemy's land will be taken away and everything will be plundered (?).

If the right ear of the young one falls off, the stall[650] will be destroyed.

If the left ear of the young one falls off, the stall will be increased, the stall[651] of the enemy will be destroyed.

If the right ear of the young one is split (?), that stall will be destroyed, the enemy (?) will advance against the city.

If the left ear of the young one is split (?), that stall will be increased, the king[652] will advance against the enemy's land.

In all these cases it will be observed that a defect in the right ear or an accident happening to it is an evil omen, whereas the same thing occurring in the case of the left is a favorable indication. The greater importance of the right side of anything evidently suggests in this case the interpretation offered, and yet this principle, as we have seen, is far from being of universal application. It depends upon _what_ happens to the right ear. Above, we have seen that an unusually large ear betokens some good fortune, and in the tablet under consideration, ill.u.s.trations are afforded of accidents to the right ear which furnish a good omen, while the same accident in the case of the left ear is regarded as a bad omen.

Our text continues:

If the right ear of the young one is shrunk (?), the house of the owner will prosper.

If the left ear is shrunk, the house of the owner will perish.

If the right ear is torn off, the house of the owner will prosper.

If the left ear is torn off, the house of the owner will perish.

But immediately following this we have again an evil omen for the right ear and a favorable one for the left. Three more tablets are taken up with omens a.s.sociated with all manner of peculiarities in the formation of the ears, head, lips, mouth, and feet of lambkins, and it is not until the fifteenth tablet of the series is reached that another subject, the young of mares, is introduced.

The prognostications in the case of colts have about the same character as those in the case of lambkins. The same signs are singled out for mention, and the omens are not only, just as in the ill.u.s.trations adduced, evenly divided between the fate of the country and its ruler, and of the owner of the colt or mare, but we can also observe a consistent application of the same principles, so far as these principles may be detected. A few ill.u.s.trations will make this clear:[653]