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to show that in Babylon, Greece, and Rome the use of
magic decreased as these nations progressed; on the
contrary, it increased as they dcchned. It is not true
that "rehgion is the despair of magic"; in reahty,
magic is but a disease of rehgion.
'rhe disease has been widespread; but if one land may be designated as the liome of magic it is Chaldea, or Southern Babylonia. The earliest written records of magic are found in the cuneiform incantation in- scriptions which Assyrian scribes in 800 B. c. copied from Babylonian originals. Although the earliest religious talilcts refer to divination and in the latest Chaldean period astrology proper absorbed the en- ergy of the Babylonian hierarchy, medicinal magic anti nature magic were largely practised. The Baru- priest as the diviner seems to have held the foremost rank, but hardly inferior was the Ashipu-priest, the priest of incantations, who recited the magical formu- laries of the "Shurpu", "Maklu", and "Utukku". "Shurpu" (burning) was a spell to remove a curse due to legal uncleanness; "Maklu" (consuming) was a counter-spell against wizards and witches; "Utukki limmuti" (evil spirits) was a series of sixteen forraulse against ghosts and demons. The "Asaski marsuti" was a series of twelve formulae against fevers and sick- ness. In this case the evil influence was first trans- ferred to a wax figure representing the patient or an animal carcass, and the formulae were recited over the substitute. Ti'i tablets, nine in number, give recipes against headache. The "Labartu" incanta- tions repeated over little figures were supposed to drive away the ogres and witches from children. All these formula pronounced over the figures were ac- companied by an elaborate ritual, e. g., "A table thou shalt place behind the censer which is before the Sun- God (Statue of Shamash), thou shalt place thereon 4 jugs of sesame wine, thou shalt set thereon 3X12 loaves of wheat, thou shalt add a mixture of honey and butter and sprinkle with salt: a table thou shalt place behind the censer which is before the Storm-God (Statue of Adad) and behind the censer which is before Mero- dach".
The magicians mentioned above were authorized and practi-sed "white", or benevolent, magic; the "Kash- shapi", or unauthorized practitioners, employed " black " magic against mankind. That the latter had preternatural powers to do harm no one doubted; hence the severe punishment meted out to them. The Code of Hammurabi (c. 2000 b. c.) appointed the or- deal by water for one who was accused of being a sorcerer and for his accuser. If the accused was drowned, his property went to the accuser; if he was saved, the accuser was put to death and his property went to the accused. This of course took place only if the accusation could not be satisfactorily proven otherwise. The principal god invoked in Chaldean Magic were Ea, source of all wisdom, and Marduk (Merodach) his son, who had inherited his father's knowledge. A curiously naive scene was supposed to be enacted before the application of a medicinal spell : Marduk went to Ea's house and said: " Father, head- ache from the underworld hath gone forth. The patient does not know the reason; whereby may he be reheved?" Ea answered: "O Marduk, my son, what can I add to thy knowledge? What I know thou knowest also. Go, my son Marduk"; and then fol- lows the prescription. This tale was regularly re- peated before use of the recipe.
Without suggesting the dependence of one national system of magic upon another, the similarity of some ideas and practices in the magic of all peoples must be noted. All rely on the power of words, the utter- ance of a hidden name, or the mere existence of the name on an amulet or stone. Magic was supposed to be the triumph of intellect over matter, the word being the key to the mysteries of the physical world: utter the uame of a malignant influence and its power
is undone; utter the name of a benevolent deity and
force goes out to destroy the adversary. The re-
peated naming of Gibel-Nusku and his attributes de-
stroyed the evil influence in the wax figure represent-
ing the person concerned. The force of the Gnostic
lAii was notorious. In Egyptian magic a mere ag-
glomeration of vowels or of meaningless syllables was
supposed to work good or evil. Their barbarous
sounds were the object of ridicule to the man of com-
mon sense. In many eases they were of Jewish, or
Babylonian, or Aramaic origin and because unin-
telligible to Egyptians, the words were generally cor-
rupted beyond recognition. Thus on a demotic papy-
rus is found the prescription: "in time of storm and
danger of shi]3wreck cry Anuk Adonai ('J1S1JS) and
the disaster will be averted"; on a Greek papyrus the
name of the Assyrian Ereskihal is found as Epca-yix<'^\.
So potent is a name that if an inscribed amulet be
washed and the water drunk, or the charm written
on papyrus be soaked in water and this taken, or if
the word be written on hard-boiled eggs without shell
and these eaten, preternatural powers come into play.
Another prevalent idea in magic is that of substitu-
tion: the person or thing to be affected by the spell
is replaced by his image, or, like the "ushabtiu"
figures in Egyptian tombs, images replace the pro-
tective powers invoked, or lastly some part (hair, nail-
parings, garments, etc.) take the place of the whole
person. The almost universal "magic circle" is only
a mimic wall against the wicked spirits outside and
goes back to Chaldean magic under the name of
usurtu, made with a sprinkling of lime and flour. If
the medical wizard or the Indian sorcerer surrounds
himself or others with a rampart of little stones, this
is again but the make-believe of a wall.
After Babylonia Egypt was foremost in magic ; the medieval practice of alchemy shows by its name its Egyptian origin. Coptic exorcisms against all sorts of diseases abound amongst the papyri pertaining to magic, and magic claims a great part of ancient Egyptian literature. Unlike Babylonian magic, how- ever, it seems to have retained to the last its medicinal and preventive character; it rarely indulged in astrol- ogy or prediction. Egyptian legend spoke of a magi- cian Teta who worked miracles before Khufu (Cheops) (c. 3800 B. c), and Greek tradition tells of Nectane- bus, last native King of Egypt (358 b. c), as the greatest of magicians.
That the Jews were prone to magic is evidenced by the strict laws against it and the warnings of the Prophets (Exod., xxii, 18; Deut., xviii, 10; Is., iii, 18, 20; Ivii, 3; Mich., v, 11 ; cf. IV Kings, x.xi, 6). Never- theless, Jewish magic flourished, especially just before the birth of Christ, as appears from the Book of Enoch, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, and the Testament of Solomon. Origen testifies that in his day to adjure demons was looked upon as specifically "Jewish", that these adjurations had to be made in Hebrew and from Solomon's books (In Math., xxvi, 63, P. G., XIII, 1757). The frequency of Jewish magic is also corroborated by Talmudic lore.
The Aryan races of Asia seem somewhat less ad- dicted to magic than the Semitic or Turanian races. The Medes and the Persians, in the earlier and purer period of their Avesta religion, or Zoroastrianism, seem to have a horror of magic. When the Persians, after their conquest of the Chaldean Empire, finally ab- sorbed Chaldean characteristics, the magi had become more or less scientific astronomers rather than sor- cerers. The Indians, likewise, to judge from the Rig- veda, were originally free from this superstition. In the Yajurveda, however, their liturgical functions are practically magic performances; and the Atharvaveda contains little else than magical recitations against every ill and for every happening. The Sutras, fi- nally, especially those of the Grihya and Sautra ritual, show how the higher aspects of rehgion had been over-
