the word "heart," and Jastrow
gives a number of illustrations from Hebrew, Greek and Latin sources
illustrating this usage.

The belief arose that through the inspection of this important organ in
the sacrificial animal the course of future events could be predicted.
"The life or soul, as the seat of life, in the sacrificial animal is,
therefore, the divine element in the animal, and the god in accepting
the animal, which is involved in the act of bringing it as an offering
to a god, identifies himself with the animal--becomes, as it were, one
with it. The life in the animal is a reflection of his own life,
and since the fate of men rests with the gods, if one can succeed in
entering into the mind of a god, and thus ascertain what he purposes to
do, the key for the solution of the problem as to what the future has in
store will have been found. The liver being the centre of vitality--the
seat of the mind, therefore, as well as of the emotions--it becomes in
the case of the sacrificial animal, either directly identical with the
mind of the god who accepts the animal, or, at all events, a mirror in
which the god's mind is reflected; or, to use another figure, a watch
regulated to be in sympathetic and perfect accord with a second watch.
If, therefore, one can read the liver of the sacrificial animal, one
enters, as it were, into the workshop of the divine will."(15)

(15) Morris Jastrow: loc. cit., p. 122.

Hepatoscopy thus became, among the Babylonians, of extraordinary
complexity, and the organ of the sheep was studied and figured as early
as 3000 B.C. In the divination rites, the lobes, the gall-bladder, the
appendages of the upper lobe and the markings were all inspected with
unusual care. The earliest known anatomical model, which is here shown,
is the clay model of a sheep's liver with the divination text dating
from about 2000 B.C., from which Jastrow has worked out the modern
anatomical equivalents of the Babylonian terms. To reach a decision on
any point, the phenomena of the inspection of the liver were carefully
recorded, and the interpretations rested on a more or less natural and
original association of ideas. Thus, if the gall-bladder were swollen on
the right side, it pointed to an increase in the strength of the King's
army, and was favorable; if on the left side, it indicated rather
success of the enemy, and was unfavorable. If the bile duct was long, it
pointed to a long life. Gallstones are not i