e
Assyrian version being taken, however, was found the following:

1. Take a white cloth. In it place the mamit,
2. in the sick man's right hand.
3. Take a black cloth,
4. wrap it around his left hand.
5. Then all the evil spirits (a long list of them is given)
6. and the sins which he has committed
7. shall quit their hold of him
8. and shall never return.

The symbolism of the black cloth in the left hand seems evident. The
dying man repents of his former evil deeds, and he puts his trust in
holiness, symbolized by the white cloth in his right hand. Then follow
some obscure lines about the spirits:

1. Their heads shall remove from his head.
2. Their heads shall let go his hands.
3. Their feet shall depart from his feet.

Which perhaps may be explained thus: we learn from another tablet that
the various classes of evil spirits troubled different parts of
the body; some injured the head, some the hands and the feet, etc.,
therefore the passage before may mean "the spirits whose power is
over the hand shall loose their hands from his," etc. "But," concludes
Talbot, "I can offer no decided opinion upon such obscure points of
their superstition."(15)

In regard to evil spirits, as elsewhere, the number seven had a peculiar
significance, it being held that that number of spirits might enter into
a man together. Talbot has translated(16) a "wild chant" which he names
"The Song of the Seven Spirits."

1. There are seven! There are seven!
2. In the depths of the ocean there are seven!
3. In the heights of the heaven there are seven!
4. In the ocean stream in a palace they were born.
5. Male they are not: female they are not!
6. Wives they have not! Children are not born to them!
7. Rules they have not! Government they know not!
8. Prayers they hear not!
9. There are seven! There are seven! Twice over there are
seven!

The tablets make frequent allusion to these seven spirits. One starts
thus:

1. The god (---) shall stand by his bedside;
2. These seven evil spirits he shall root out and shall expel
them from his body, 3. and these seven shall never return to the sick man
again.(17)

Altogether similar are the exorcisms intended to ward off disease.
Professor Sayce has published translations of some of these.(18) Each of
these ends with the same phrase, and they differ only in regard to the
particular maladies from which freedom is desired. One reads:

"From