members. If these failed, recourse was had to the influence of
the mamit, which the evil powers were unable to resist. On a
tablet, written in the Accadian language only, the 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