Semitic magic : its origins and development

xliv THE HEART-PLANT.
Prayer for the Toothache.
Ritual for this :—Mix fermented drink, the plant sakilbir, and oil
together, repeat the incantation three times, (and) put it on his
tooth." '
In Mosul I was given some dried henbane berries, which
had been brought down from the hills, and was told on
good native authority that a man with toothache would
fumigate his teeth with them until the * worm ' dropped
out of his mouth.
2
The same principle of ' developed ' magic is apparent in
the charm of the ' Heart-plant,' which is presumably the
Hi/oscyamiis muticus, which grows in Sinai (Makan), the
Arabs calling it sakran, ' drunken '—
*' The Heart-plant sprang up in Makan, and the Moon-god [rooted it
out and],
[Planted it in the mountains] ; the Sun-god brought it down from
the mountains [and]
[Planted it in] the earth ; its root filleth the earth, its horns stretch
out to heaven.
[It seized on the heart of the Sun-god when] he . . . , it seized on
the heart of the Moon-god in the clouds, it seized on the heart of
the ox in the stall,
[It seized on the heart of the goat] in the fold, it seized on the heart
of the ass in the stable,
[It seized on the heart of the] dog in the kennel, it seized on the
heart of the pig in the stye,
[It seized on the heart of the] man in his pleasure, it seized on the
heart of the maid in her sleeping-chamber,
[It seized ou the heart of N.], son of N., . .
' Denis and Evil Spirits, ii, 160.
2 In Les Plantes Magiques, ed. Sedir, 1902, it is recommended to rub
the gums with Senecio vulgaris and then replant it.
' KUchler, Beitr. zur Kenntnis der A ssyr.-Bahyl *
^
Medizin, 9. Stable,'
kennel 'stye,' 'pleasure,' ' sleeping-chamber' are all a little doubtful
as translations. On the Hyoscyamus see preface to Devils i
.
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