withdraw afar, they shall retire from the city and descend into the earth (the Underworld)," says the exorcist. These demons of Hades were imagined as blood-devouring, blood-sucking monsters, not sparing even the images of the gods. Like serpents they glided into houses. "They take away the wife from her husband, tear the child from his father's bosom, drive the master away from his household." "From land to land they go, driving the maidens from their chambers, the son they lead away from the house of his parents-in-law, they drive the child from his father's house, they snatch the doves from the dove-cot, the bird out of its nest, they drive the swallows from their nests. They smite the oxen, they smite the lambs; mighty spirits (?), evil demons, hunters are they." "In the pastures they attack the folds, they bring sickness into the stalls of the horses, they fill the mouth of the asses with dust, they bring trouble into the stable of the she-asses." Almost every part of the body was threatened by its own special demon. Ashakku brought fever to the brain, Namtar threatened life with pestilence, Utukku attacked the throat, Alu the chest, Ekimmu the loins, Rabiszu the skin. Labartu was the nightmare, Labaszu epilepsy, while Lilu and Lilit, spirits known also to Jewish superstition, brought infirmities of the night. The words of Rev.
