Semitic magic : its origins and development

PURIFICATION IN ASSYRIAN. 213
Bind . . . upon his head ...
When he eats, let him be sated/
At eventide cut it off and
Cast it into the broad places
That the sickness of his head may be assuaged, and
That the headache, which like the dew hath fallen, may be
removed." ^
The ^' bundle of twigs " (the value of the translation is
fairly well vouched for) occurs also in another incantation
" Perform thy goodly incantation and
Make perfect the waters thereof with priestcraft, and
With thy pure incantation do thou cleanse (the sick man) and
Take a bundle of twigs (?),
-Pour the waters thereof on it." ^
The Malagasy, who consider all disease inflicted by an
evil spirit, have recourse to a diviner who removes the
sickness by means of a * faditra ' ; this is some object such,
as a little grass, ashes, a sheep, a pumpkin, the water with
which the patient has rinsed his mouth, and when the
priest has counted on it the evils which may afflict the
patient and charged the * faditra ' to take them away for
ever, it is thrown away, and the malady with it.*
The following is an excellent instance of the removal of
a tabu by purification and fumigation, where the * tabu
is expelled to ' a clean place *
" Incantation :
—
Pure water . . .
:
—
Water from the Euphrates which in a place . . .
Water which hath been kept aright in the deep,
The pure mouth of Ea hath purified it,
^ Translation doubtful.
2 Ibid., ii. Tablet ' P,' 1. 63 ff.
•^
Ibid., ii, series Luh-ka, Tablet YIII, 1. 53 fF.
* Tylor, Primitive Culture, 4th ed., vol. ii, p. 146, quoting Ellis.
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