I. There were those wizards and witches belonging to

the olden time, who practised their art in simple ways, having no elaborate ritual or written incantations. They were supposed to have to do with demons, and to be in league with them in bringing ^a(j {jreamS) misfortune, diseases, death, etc., upon people. They were therefore condemned by the government and subjected to severe penalties for carrying on their trade. Among those who practised this magic were both men and women.
The names by which the men are known in the Cuneiform inscriptions are kaiapu (sss^DO), episu, sahiru,
rahu. The women were known by corresponding names with the feminine ending, kaiaptu, epistu, sahirtu, rahirtu, etc.
Singular to say, the females, whom we may call witches— reserving " wizards w for the male, were greatly in the ascendency, and seemed to do nearly all the work.
In the Old Testament the existence of witches is implied in Ex. xxii. 17, " Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress (nS)£*DO) to live"; and in the. account of the Witch of
En dor (31M rbyg) in 1 Sam. xxviii. 3 ff.
Wizards and witches were credited with the ability to tear people's hair and clothes, to bring about sickness and even death. They could cause delusions and insanity. Families were divided by discord, lovers were made to hate each other.
Not only had they power over hum&n beings, but they could bring into subjection to them the demons them- selves.
The means they employed were the evil eye, evil
bngue and the evil mouth. But it was' th£ evil word or imprecation that was most powerful*
They tied magic knots, and other acts are assigned to them which we do not clearly understand. Their best known contrivance was to make an image of the person to be acted upon, and to treat this — cut, burn, etc.— just as they wanted the person whose image it was to be dealt with. This is really what we now call " sympathetic magic," ~md it is interesting to note how ancient and widespread this was.
Legal Magic.
Now we come to tfil class of recognized magicians who were called Essepu*br Assipu, the same word as. the
Hebrew ^K and the Syriac |3qa|.\
These were the official magicians, and received from
the state recognition and support. As opposed to the
wizards and witches, their immediate intercourse was
. v
with the good spirits, especially with Ea, her sons Samas,
Marduk, Gibil, and Misku, together with her daughter
Ishtar and her husband Tammuz.
The contrast between the two classes is to be compared vwith the more modern distinction of black and white imagic.
In regard to black magic it will be noted that among fthe Babylonians, as well as among more modern nations, iwoman is a more prominent figure than man. So in [Eden she was first in disobedience.
Mark too that, though among the Babylonians the good spirits were sought to by the official magicians, yet the purpose was mainly to obtain protection from the evil spirits. Worship, prayer, as we find them among
/a MAGIC, DIVINATION, AND DEMONOLOGY
the Hebrews, was rare yet not absent. The interesting collection of prayers published and translated in Mr. King's u Bab. Magic " shows that the Babylonians could offer prayers, as earnest and even as spiritual as the Hebrews. Nevertheless the principal means employed were forms of incantation, medicaments, etc.
But the Babylonian Essepu was more than anything else an exorcist, and this section might, with as much appropriateness, have found its place under Demon- ology.
Like the wizards and witches, the exorcists (Assipi) made much use of the image, and in a similar way. Sometimes. one material .was used to make the likeness of the person ; sometimes different. ingredients were used for the different parts of the body. But the instruments of their art were chiefly medicines, drinks, foods, oint- ments,- ablution and purification. These were certainly in some cases adapted to secure the end desired, and they were selected for this reason. Indeed, in the later and more developed magic of the Babylonians, we have the beginnings of medical science, just as in their astrology we have the beginnings of astronomy. There is some honest striving after the truth in the most lame and grotesque attempts that infant man has made to discover the secrets of the world ; and he has never quite missed the mark.
Egyptian Magic.
There were two sides to Magic in Egypt as in Assyria. It could be used for the benefit of the human race or to the detriment of the same.
Each man's fate was fixed, and what that was could be found out from the planet under which the individual
MAGIC 71
was born. Yet these fates could be controlled by the gods, who often interfered for the purpose of saving their favourites. Even man had power by specific acts and agents to overrule the fixtures of fate. The dead could be overmastered and indeed the gods themselves.
The medical science of the Egyptians was closely connected with their magic, or rather demonology.
The human body was divided into thirty-six parts, and over eacTx of these a deity presided. To keep on good terms with the respective deity was to preserve the part well. This is brought out in chapter xlii. of the " Book of the Dead," from which it appears that Nu saw to the hair, Ra to the face, Hather to the eyes, Assuat to the ears, Anubis to the lips, while Theth had charge of the body in general.
Disease was considered due to demons, and certain formulae were recited, sometimes to be said over and over before they could be successful. The patient swallowed formulae written on papyrus ; amulets were worn.
For further details, see Wied. p. 261 to end.