which is purely a vampirish quality, although perhaps it does not appear that this was always a physical operation, the actual sucking of blood, as is believed to be the case with the vrykolokas. But Dr. Campbell-Thompson tells us that there were few superstitions which had obtained such a hold over the Assyrians as the belief in the Ekimmu-spirit.
One incantation speaks of the meat and drink of the evil spirit:
Thy food is the food of ghosts,
Thy drink is the drink of ghosts.
In another “Prayer against the Evil Spirits” the Vampires are spoken of in the plainest terms. This incantation is as follows:
Spirits that minish heaven and earth,
That minish the land,
Spirits that minish the land,
Of giant strength,
Of giant strength and giant tread,
Demons (like) raging bulls, great ghosts,
Ghosts that break through all houses,
Demons that have no shame,
Seven are they!
Knowing no care,
They grind the land like corn;
Knowing no mercy.
They rage against mankind:
They spill their blood like rain,
Devouring their flesh (and) sucking their veins.
Where images of the gods are, there they quake
In the Temple of Nabû, who fertilises the shoots of wheat.
They are demons full of violence
Ceaselessly devouring blood.
Invoke the ban against them,
That they no more return to this neighbourhood.
By heaven be ye exorcised! By Earth be ye exorcised![15]
These Seven Spirits re-appear both in Syriac and in Palestinian magic. In his exhaustive and authoritative work Semitic Magic (p. 52) Dr. Campbell Thompson says: “Their predilection for human blood, as described in the cuneiform incantation, is in keeping with all the traditions of the grisly mediaeval Vampires.” An Ethiopic charm prescribes the following invocation: “Thus make perish, O
