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xxviiil
NTRFOI.'I 1I v;CTI O N. INTRODUCTION.
xxix
app;liit;d to aivy and every sta r, and i n IJcrScsh/z'ih Raibbvi.
c. , it, is said, One ) azzzal comrpleteth its circuit i{\
thirty dlays, another completetli it in thirty years."
From certain texts we learn that the star Akrabuzt
was sometimes seen within the halo of the Moon.
Now according to Jensen, 1 Akrabu may mean either
the Scorpion or Venus; but in the case of the star
within the halo of the Moon, Scorpio, and Scorpio
only, is referred to by the astrologer.
It is not always easy to follow the train of reasoning
which guided the derivation of omens; on the other
hand, others are based on common everyday experience.
Thus, dark clouds heralded wind; thunder on
the last day of the Moon was followed by steady
markets; thunder on a cloudless day indicated the
advent of darkness, storm, and-famine; storms were
the heralds of favourable events; earthquakes portended
destruction, the invasion of enemies, insurrections
and the fall of buildings; eclipses typified
disturbance, and their evil effects could only be averted
by prayers. In the series of prayers entitled the
Lifting of the Hand," 2 we find a number of formulae
which are to be recited with the object of securing the
protection of the gods during and after eclipses, and it
is certain that they formed no unimportant section of
the devotional literature of the Assyrians. For the
purpose of accurately recording partial eclipses, the
face of the Moon was divided into four parts, and each
part was identified with a certain country (see p. lxxxv);
1 Kosmologie, p. 71. 2 King, Babylonian Magic and Sorcery.
Uthe portion to the right was Akkad, that to the left
w ras Elam, the upper part was Aharru, and the lower
part Subartu. A total eclipse of the Moon was called
i al ma7zdti, i.e., a "darkness of the countries."
The greatest possible care was taken by the
astrologers to observe and to record the duration and
extent of partial eclipses.
Some of the portents from births recorded in the
Reports are remarkable, and among these may be
mentioned one in which we are told that the writer
f augured an increase of power to the king, because a
sow brought forth a pig which had eight legs and two
tails (see p. xci). This curious object was, we are
told, afterwards preserved in brine.
A perusal of the Astrological Reports will
*convince the reader that the style and language in
which they are written are not only somewhat obscure
and difficult grammatically, but that their writers took
.ainso ttheir m forcasts and portents as unintelligible
to the uninitiated as possible. Whenever
lhey were able they added an alternative portent.
.It is possible, indeed probable, that many of the
difficulties which encompass the study of Babylonian
magic, astrology and sorcery, will be removed by the
publication of abundant material, and that at length
we may obtain to a knowledge of the general
principles which guided the astrologer in formulating
the decisions as to the fu'ture, which exercised such a
i great and lasting influence over the minds of the
dwellers in Mesopotamia.