Semitic magic : its origins and development

Hi THE INCANTATION OF ERIDU.
of the ceremony consists in administering an extraordinary
mixture, called in Selangor the 'Hundred Herbs/ but in
Malacca merely * pot-herbs,' which is concocted from all
kinds of herbs, roots, and spices. The ingredients are put
into a large vessel of water and left to soak, a portion of
the liquor being strained off and given to the patient as
a potion every morning for about ten days.^
Another Assyrian spell is still more explicit— "May
all that is evil ... [in the body] of N., [be carried off]
with the water of his body and the washings of his hands,
and may the river carry it away down- stream." ^ The
explanation of the phrase "perform the Incantation of
Eridu," which is so often prescribed, must be some simple
ceremony of this kind, for Eridu is the home of Ea, the
sea-god. It is not probable, as an alternative explanation,
that the doctors recommended a frequent use of the
ceremony which begins "In Eridu groweth the kishanUy'^^
the possibility being that the scribe, as usual, refers to
the spell by part of its first line. It is very elaborate,
however, to be merely an adjunct to the main exorcism,
and further, in this same text mention is made of an
" Incantation of the Deep,'* which is probably a purification
of a similar kind.
The following treatment is interesting :
"[Marduk hath seen:] 'What I'; Go, my son,
Against the (fever-)heat and cold unkindly for the flesh,
Fill a bowl with water from a pool that no hand hath touched.
Put therein tamarisk, mastakal, ginger (?), horned alkali, mixed (?)
WHie
' Skeat, Mahci/ Metric, 347.
- W.A.I., ii, 516, 11. 1 fF. For the evil influences washed away by
water see footnote to p. 129.
' Devils, i, Tablet ' K,' 1. 183 ft'. The Sumerian begins with the
word NUN-KT, i.e. Eridu.
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