Demons, Fairies, and Ghosts
Spirits in Everything and Everywhere--The Bringers of Luck and
Misfortune--Germ Theory Anticipated--Early Gods indistinguishable from
Demons--Repulsive form of Ea--Spirit Groups as Attendants of
Deities--Egyptian, Indian, Greek, and Germanic parallels--Elder Gods as
Evil Gods--Animal Demons--The Babylonian "Will-o’-the-Wisp"--"Foreign
Devils"--Elves and Fairies--Demon Lovers--"Adam's first wife,
Lilith"--Children Charmed against Evil Spirits--The Demon of
Nightmare--Ghosts as Enemies of the Living--The Vengeful Dead Mother in
Babylonia, India, Europe, and Mexico--Burial Contrast--Calling Back the
Dead--Fate of Childless Ghosts--Religious Need for Offspring--Hags and
Giants and Composite Monsters--Tempest Fiends--Legend of Adapa and the
Storm Demon--Wind Hags of Ancient Britain--Tyrolese Storm Maidens--Zu
Bird Legend and Indian Garuda Myth--Legend of the Eagle and the
Serpent--The Snake Mother Goddess--Demons and the Moon God--Plague
Deities--Classification of Spirits, and Egyptian, Arabian, and Scottish
parallels--Traces of Progress from Animism to Monotheism.
THE memorable sermon preached by Paul to the Athenians when he stood
"in the midst of Mars’ hill", could have been addressed with equal
appropriateness to the ancient Sumerians and Akkadians. "I perceive", he
declared, "that in all things ye are too superstitious. . . . God that
made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven
and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is
worshipped with men's hands as though he needed any thing, seeing he
giveth to all life, and breath, and all things . . . for in him we live,
and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have
said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the
offspring of
p. 60
[paragraph continues] God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device."
1
Babylonian temples were houses of the gods in the literal sense; the
gods were supposed to dwell in them, their spirits having entered into
the graven images or blocks of stone. It is probable that like the
Ancient Egyptians they believed a god had as many spirits as he had
attributes. The gods, as we have said, appear to have evolved from early
spirit groups. All the world swarmed with spirits, which inhabited
stones and trees, mountains and deserts, rivers and ocean, the air, the
sky, the stars, and the sun and moon. The spirits controlled Nature:
they brought light and darkness, sunshine and storm, summer and winter;
they were manifested in the thunderstorm, the sandstorm, the glare of
sunset, and the wraiths of mist rising from the steaming marshes. They
controlled also the lives of men and women. The good spirits were the
source of luck. The bad spirits caused misfortunes, and were ever
seeking to work evil against the Babylonian. Darkness was peopled by
demons and ghosts of the dead. The spirits of disease were ever lying in
wait to clutch him with cruel invisible hands.
Some modern writers, who are too prone to regard ancient peoples from
a twentieth-century point of view, express grave doubts as to whether
"intelligent Babylonians "really believed that spirits came down in the
rain and entered the soil to rise up before men's eyes as stalks of
barley or wheat. There is no reason for supposing that they thought
otherwise. The early folks based their theories on the accumulated
knowledge of their age. They knew nothing regarding the composition
p. 61
of water or the atmosphere, of the cause of thunder and lightning, or
of the chemical changes effected in soils by the action of bacteria.
They attributed all natural phenomena to the operations of spirits or
gods. In believing that certain demons caused certain diseases, they may
be said to have achieved distinct. progress, for they anticipated the
germ theory. They made discoveries, too, which have been approved and
elaborated in later times when they lit sacred fires, bathed in sacred
waters, and used oils and herbs to charm away spirits of pestilence.
Indeed, many folk cures, which were originally associated with magical
ceremonies, are still practised in our own day. They were found to be
effective by early observers, although they were unable to explain why
and how cures were accomplished, like modern scientific investigators.
In peopling the Universe with spirits, the Babylonians, like other
ancient folks, betrayed that tendency to symbolize everything which has
ever appealed to the human mind. Our painters and poets and sculptors
are greatest when they symbolize their ideals and ideas and impressions,
and by so doing make us respond to their moods. Their "beauty and their
terror are sublime". But what may seem poetic to us, was invariably a
grim reality to the Babylonians. The statue or picture was not merely a
work of art but a manifestation of the god or demon. As has been said,
they believed that the spirit of the god inhabited the idol; the frown
of the brazen image was the frown of the wicked demon. They entertained
as much dread of the winged and human-headed bulls guarding the entrance
to the royal palace as do some of the Arab workmen who, in our own day,
assist excavators to rescue them from sandy mounds in which they have
been hidden for long centuries
p. 62
When an idol was carried away from a city by an invading army, it was
believed that the god himself had been taken prisoner, and was
therefore unable any longer to help his people.
In the early stages of Sumerian culture, the gods and goddesses who
formed groups were indistinguishable from demons. They were vaguely
defined, and had changing shapes. When attempts were made to depict them
they were represented in many varying forms. Some were winged bulls or
lions with human heads; others had even more remarkable composite forms.
The "dragon of Babylon", for instance, which was portrayed on walls of
temples, had a serpent's head, a body covered with scales, the fore legs
of a lion, hind legs of an eagle, and a long wriggling serpentine tail.
Ea had several monster forms. The following description of one of these
is repulsive enough:--
The head is the head of a serpent,
From his nostrils mucus trickles,
His mouth is beslavered with water;
The ears are like those of a basilisk,
His horns are twisted into three curls,
He wears a veil in his head band,
The body is a suh-fish full of stars,
The base of his feet are claws,
The sole of his foot has no heel,
His name is Sassu-wunnu,
A sea monster, a form of Ea.
R. C. Thompson's Translation. 1
Even after the gods were given beneficent attributes;, to reflect the
growth of culture, and were humanized, they still retained many of
their savage characteristics. Bel Enlil and his fierce son, Nergal, were
destroyers
Click to enlarge
WINGED MAN-HEADED LION
In Marble. From N.W. Palace of Nimroud; now in the British Museum.
Photo. Mansell
p. 63
of mankind; the storm god desolated the land; the sky god deluged it
with rain; the sea raged furiously, ever hungering for human victims;
the burning sun struck down its victims; and the floods played havoc
with the dykes and houses of human beings. In Egypt the sun god Ra was
similarly a "producer of calamity", the composite monster god Sokar was
"the lord of fear".
1
Osiris in prehistoric times had been "a dangerous god", and some of the
Pharaohs sought protection against him in the charms inscribed in their
tombs.
2 The Indian Shiva, "the Destroyer", in the old religious poems has also primitive attributes of like character.
The Sumerian gods never lost their connection with the early spirit
groups. These continued to be represented by their attendants, who
executed a deity's stern and vengeful decrees. In one of the Babylonian
charms the demons are referred to as "the spleen of the gods"--the
symbols of their wrathful emotions and vengeful desires. Bel Enlil, the
air and earth god, was served by the demons of disease, "the beloved
sons of Bel", which issued from the Underworld to attack mankind.
Nergal, the sulky and ill-tempered lord of death and destruction, who
never lost his demoniac character, swept over the land, followed by the
spirits of pestilence, sunstroke, weariness, and destruction. Anu, the
sky god, had "spawned" at creation the demons of cold and rain and
darkness. Even Ea and his consort, Damkina, were served by groups of
devils and giants, which preyed upon mankind in bleak and desolate
places when night fell. In the ocean home of Ea were bred the "seven
evil spirits" of tempest--the gaping dragon, the leopard which preyed
upon children, the great Beast, the terrible serpent, &c.
p. 64
In Indian mythology Indra was similarly followed by the stormy
Maruts, and fierce Rudra by the tempestuous Rudras. In Teutonic
mythology Odin is the "Wild Huntsman in the Raging Host". In Greek
mythology the ocean furies attend upon fickle Poseidon. Other examples
of this kind could be multiplied.
As we have seen (
Chapter II)
the earliest group of Babylonian deities consisted probably of four
pairs of gods and goddesses as in Egypt. The first pair was Apsu-Rishtu
and Tiamat, who personified the primordial deep. Now the elder deities
in most mythologies--the "grandsires" and "grandmothers" and "fathers"
and "mothers"--are ever the most powerful and most vengeful. They appear
to represent primitive "layers" of savage thought. The Greek Cronos
devours even his own children, and, as the late Andrew Lang has shown,
there are many parallels to this myth among primitive peoples in various
parts of the world.
Lang regarded the Greek survival as an example of "the conservatism of the religious instinct".
1
The grand-mother of the Teutonic deity Tyr was a fierce giantess with
nine hundred heads; his father was an enemy of the gods. In Scotland the
hag-mother of winter and storm and darkness is the enemy of growth and
all life, and she raises storms to stop the grass growing, to slay young
animals, and prevent the union of her son with his fair bride.
Similarly the Babylonian chaos spirits, Apsu and Tiamat, the father and
mother of the gods, resolve to destroy their offspring, because they
begin to set the Universe in order. Tiamat, the female dragon, is more
powerful than her husband Apsu, who is slain by his son Ea. She summons
to her aid the gods of evil, and creates also a brood of
monsters--serpents,
p. 65
dragons, vipers, fish men, raging hounds, &c.--so as to bring
about universal and enduring confusion and evil. Not until she is
destroyed can the beneficent gods establish law and order and make the
earth habitable and beautiful.
But although Tiamat was slain, the everlasting battle between the
forces of good and evil was ever waged in the Babylonian world. Certain
evil spirits were let loose at certain periods, and they strove to
accomplish the destruction of mankind and his works. These invisible
enemies were either charmed away by performing magical ceremonies, or by
invoking the gods to thwart them and bind them.
Other spirits inhabited the bodies of animals and were ever hovering
near. The ghosts of the dead and male and female demons were birds, like
the birds of Fate which sang to Siegfried. When the owl raised its
melancholy voice in the darkness the listener heard the spirit of a
departed mother crying for her child. Ghosts and evil spirits wandered
through the streets in darkness; they haunted empty houses; they
fluttered through the evening air as bats; they hastened, moaning
dismally, across barren wastes searching for food or lay in wait for
travellers; they came as roaring lions and howling jackals, hungering
for human flesh. The "shedu" was a destructive bull which might slay man
wantonly or as a protector of temples. Of like character was the
"lamassu", depicted as a winged bull with human head, the protector of
palaces; the "alu" was a bull-like demon of tempest, and there were also
many composite, distorted, or formless monsters which were vaguely
termed "seizers" or "overthrowers", the Semitic "labashu" and
"ach-chazu", the Sumerian "dimmea" and "dimme-kur". A dialectic form of
"gallu" or devil
p. 66
was "mulla". Professor Pinches thinks it not improbable that "mulla"
may be connected with the word "mula", meaning "star", and suggests that
it referred to a "will-o’-the-wisp".
1 In these islands, according to an old rhyme,
Some call him Robin Good-fellow,
Hob-goblin, or mad Crisp,
And some againe doe tearme him oft
By name of Will the Wisp.
[paragraph continues] Other names are "Kitty", "Peg", and "Jack with a lantern". "Poor Robin" sang:
I should indeed as soon expect
That Peg-a-lantern would direct
Me straightway home on misty night
As wand’ring stars, quite out of sight.
In Shakespeare's
Tempest 2
a sailor exclaims: "Your fairy, which, you say, is a harmless fairy,
has done little better than played the Jack with us". Dr. Johnson
commented that the reference was to "Jack with a lantern". Milton wrote
also of the "wandering fire",
Which oft, they say, some evil spirit attends,
Hovering and blazing with delusive light,
Misleads th’ amaz’d night wand’rer from his way
To bogs and mires, and oft through pond or pool;
There swallowed up and lost from succour far. 3
[paragraph continues]
"When we stick in the mire", sang Drayton, "he doth with laughter leave
us." These fires were also "fallen stars", "death fires", and "fire
drakes":
So have I seen a fire drake glide along
Before a dying man, to point his grave,
And in it stick and hide. 4
p. 67
Pliny referred to the wandering lights as stars.
1
The Sumerian "mulla" was undoubtedly an evil spirit. In some countries
the "fire drake" is a bird with gleaming breast: in Babylonia it assumed
the form of a bull, and may have had some connection with the bull of
Ishtar. Like the Indian "Dasyu" and "Dasa",
2
Gallu was applied in the sense of "foreign devil" to human and
superhuman adversaries of certain monarchs. Some of the supernatural
beings resemble our elves and fairies and the Indian Rakshasas.
Occasionally they appear in comely human guise; at other times they are
vaguely monstrous. The best known of this class is Lilith, who,
according to Hebrew tradition, preserved in the Talmud, was the demon
lover of Adam. She has been immortalized by Dante Gabriel Rossetti:
Of Adam's first wife Lilith, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve)
That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,
And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
And round his heart one strangling golden hair.
Lilith is the Babylonian Lilithu, a feminine form of Lilu, the Sumerian Lila. She resembles Surpanakha of the
Ràmàyana, who made love to Rama and Lakshmana, and the sister of the demon Hidimva, who became
p. 68
enamoured of Bhima, one of the heroes of the
Mahàbhàrata,
1
and the various fairy lovers of Europe who lured men to eternal
imprisonment inside mountains, or vanished for ever when they were
completely under their influence, leaving them demented. The elfin Lilu
similarly wooed young women, like the Germanic Laurin of the "Wonderful
Rose Garden",
2
who carried away the fair lady Kunhild to his underground dwelling
amidst the Tyrolese mountains, or left them haunting the place of their
meetings, searching for him in vain:
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As ere beneath the waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon lover . . .
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey dew hath fed
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
Coleridge's Kubla Khan.
Another materializing spirit of this class was Ardat Lili, who
appears to have wedded human beings like the swan maidens, the mermaids,
and Nereids of the European folk tales, and the goddess Ganga, who for a
time was the wife of King Shantanu of the
Mahàbhàrata.
3
The Labartu, to whom we have referred, was a female who haunted
mountains and marshes; like the fairies and hags of Europe, she stole or
afflicted children, who accordingly had to wear charms round their
necks for protection. Seven of these supernatural beings were reputed to
be daughters of Anu, the sky god.
The Alu, a storm deity, was also a spirit which caused nightmare. It endeavoured to smother sleepers like the
p. 69
[paragraph continues]
Scandinavian hag Mara, and similarly deprived them of power to move. In
Babylonia this evil spirit might also cause sleeplessness or death by
hovering near a bed. In shape it might be as horrible and repulsive as
the Egyptian ghosts which caused children to die from fright or by
sucking out the breath of life.
As most representatives of the spirit world were enemies of the
living, so were the ghosts of dead men and women. Death chilled all
human affections; it turned love to hate; the deeper the love had been,
the deeper became the enmity fostered by the ghost. Certain ghosts might
also be regarded as particularly virulent and hostile if they happened
to have left the body of one who was ceremonially impure. The most
terrible ghost in Babylonia was that of a woman who had died in
childbed. She was pitied and dreaded; her grief had demented her; she
was doomed to wail in the darkness; her impurity clung to her like
poison. No spirit was more prone to work evil against mankind, and her
hostility was accompanied by the most tragic sorrow. In Northern India
the Hindus, like the ancient Babylonians, regard as a fearsome demon the
ghost of a woman who died while pregnant, or on the day of the child's
birth.
1
A similar belief prevailed in Mexico. In Europe there are many folk
tales of dead mothers who return to avenge themselves on the cruel
fathers of neglected children.
A sharp contrast is presented by the Mongolian Buriats, whose outlook
on the spirit world is less gloomy than was that of the ancient
Babylonians. According to Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, this interesting people
are wont to perform a ceremony with purpose to entice the ghost to
return to the dead body--a proceeding which is
p. 70
dreaded in the Scottish Highlands.
1
The Buriats address the ghost, saying: "You shall sleep well. Come back
to your natural ashes. Take pity on your friends. It is necessary to
live a real life. Do not wander along the mountains. Do not be like bad
spirits. Return to your peaceful home. . . . Come back and work for your
children. How can you leave the little ones?" If it is a mother, these
words have great effect; sometimes the spirit moans and sobs, and the
Buriats tell that there have been instances of it returning to the
body.
2 In his Arabia Deserta
3
Doughty relates that Arab women and children mock the cries of the owl.
One explained to him: "It is a wailful woman seeking her lost child;
she has become this forlorn bird". So do immemorial beliefs survive to
our own day.
The Babylonian ghosts of unmarried men and women and of those without
offspring were also disconsolate night wanderers. Others who suffered
similar fates were the ghosts of men who died in battle far from home
and were left unburied, the ghosts of travellers who perished in the
desert and were not covered over, the ghosts of drowned men which rose
from the water, the ghosts of prisoners starved to death or executed,
the ghosts of people who died violent deaths before their appointed
time. The dead required to be cared for, to have libations poured out,
to be fed, so that they might not prowl
p. 71
through the streets or enter houses searching for scraps of food and
pure water. The duty of giving offerings to the dead was imposed
apparently on near relatives. As in India, it would appear that the
eldest son performed the funeral ceremony: a dreadful fate therefore
awaited the spirit of the dead Babylonian man or woman without
offspring. In Sanskrit literature there is a reference to a priest who
was not allowed to enter Paradise, although he had performed rigid
penances, because he had no children.
1
There were hags and giants of mountain and desert, of river and
ocean. Demons might possess the pig, the goat, the horse, the lion, or
the ibis, the raven, or the hawk. The seven spirits of tempest, fire,
and destruction rose from the depths of ocean, and there were hosts of
demons which could not be overcome or baffled by man without the
assistance of the gods to whom they were hostile. Many were sexless;
having no offspring, they were devoid of mercy and compassion. They
penetrated everywhere:
The high enclosures, the broad enclosures, like a flood they pass through,
From house to house they dash along.
No door can shut them out;
No bolt can turn them back.
Through the door, like a snake, they glide,
Through the hinge, like the wind, they storm,
Tearing the wife from the embrace of the man,
Driving the freedman from his family home. 2
[paragraph continues] These furies did not confine their unwelcomed attentions to mankind alone:
They hunt the doves from their cotes,
And drive the birds from their nests, p. 72
And chase the marten from its hole. . . .
Through the gloomy street by night they roam,
Smiting sheepfold and cattle pen,
Shutting up the land as with door and bolt.
R. C. Thompson's Translation.
The Babylonian poet, like Burns, was filled with pity for the animals which suffered in the storm:
List’ning the doors an’ winnocks rattle,
I thought me o’ the ourie cattle,
Or silly sheep, wha bide this brattle
O’ winter war. . . .
Ilk happing bird, wee, helpless thing!
That in the merry months o’ spring
Delighted me to hear thee sing,
What comes o’ thee?
Whare wilt thou cow’r thy chittering wing,
And close thy e’e?
According to Babylonian belief, "the great storms directed from
heaven" were caused by demons. Mankind heard them "loudly roaring above,
gibbering below".
1 The south wind was raised by Shutu, a plumed storm demon resembling Hraesvelgur of the Icelandic Eddas:
Corpse-swallower sits at the end of heaven,
A Jötun in eagle form;
From his wings, they say, comes the wind which fares
Over all the dwellers of earth. 2
The northern story of Thor's fishing, when he hooked and wounded the
Midgard serpent, is recalled by the Babylonian legend of Adapa, son of
the god Ea. This hero was engaged catching fish, when Shutu, the south
wind, upset his boat. In his wrath Adapa immediately attacked the storm
demon and shattered her pinions. Anu, the sky god, was moved to anger
against Ea's son
Click to enlarge
TWO FIGURES OF DEMONS
The upper head is that of Shutu, the demon of the south-west wind, whose wings were broken by Adapa, son of Ea
(British Museum)
Photo. Mansell
p. 73
and summoned him to the Celestial Court. Adapa, however, appeared in garments of mourning and was forgiven.
Anu offered him the water of life and the bread of life which would
have made him immortal, but Ea's son refused to eat or drink, believing,
as his father had warned him, that the sky god desired him to partake
of the bread of death and to drink of the water of death.
Another terrible atmospheric demon was the south-west wind, which
caused destructive storms and floods, and claimed many human victims
like the Icelandic "corpse swallower". She was depicted with lidless
staring eyes, broad flat nose, mouth gaping horribly, and showing
tusk-like teeth, and with high cheek bones, heavy eyebrows, and low
bulging forehead.
In Scotland the hag of the south-west wind is similarly a
bloodthirsty and fearsome demon. She is most virulent in the springtime.
At Cromarty she is quaintly called "Gentle Annie" by the fisher folks,
who repeat the saying: "When Gentle Annie is skyawlan (yelling) roond
the heel of Ness (a promontory) wi’ a white feather on her hat (the foam
of big billows) they (the spirits) will be harrying (robbing) the
crook"--that is, the pot which hangs from the crook is empty during the
spring storms, which prevent fishermen going to sea. In England the wind
hag is Black Annis, who dwells in a Leicestershire hill cave. She may
be identical with the Irish hag Anu, associated with the "Paps of Anu".
According to Gaelic lore, this wind demon of spring is the "Cailleach"
(old wife). She gives her name In the Highland calendar to the stormy
period of late spring; she raises gale after gale to prevent the coming
of summer. Angerboda, the Icelandic hag, is also a storm demon, but
represents the east wind. A Tyrolese folk
p. 74
tale tells of three magic maidens who dwelt on Jochgrimm mountain,
where they "brewed the winds". Their demon lovers were Ecke, "he who
causes fear"; Vasolt, "he who causes dismay"; and the scornful Dietrich
in his mythical character of Donar or Thunor (Thor), the thunderer.
Another Sumerian storm demon was the Zu bird, which is represented
among the stars by Pegasus and Taurus. A legend relates that this
"worker of evil, who raised the head of evil", once aspired to rule the
gods, and stole from Bel, "the lord" of deities, the Tablets of Destiny,
which gave him his power over the Universe as controller of the fates
of all. The Zu bird escaped with the Tablets and found shelter on its
mountain top in Arabia. Anu called on Ramman, the thunderer, to attack
the Zu bird, but he was afraid; other gods appear to have shrunk from
the conflict. How the rebel was overcome is not certain, because the
legend survives in fragmentary form. There is a reference, however, to
the moon god setting out towards the mountain in Arabia with purpose to
outwit the Zu bird and recover the lost Tablets. How he fared it is
impossible to ascertain. In another legend--that of Etana--the mother
serpent, addressing the sun god, Shamash, says:
Thy net is like unto the broad earth;
Thy snare is like unto the distant heaven!
Who hath ever escaped from thy net?
Even Zu, the worker of evil, who raised the head of evil [did not escape]!
L. W. King's Translation.
In Indian mythology, Garuda, half giant, half eagle, robs the Amrita
(ambrosia) of the gods which gives them their power and renders them
immortal. It had assumed a golden body, bright as the sun. Indra, the
thunderer,
p. 75
flung his bolt in vain; he could not wound Garuda, and only displaced
a single feather. Afterwards, however, he stole the moon goblet
containing the Amrita, which Garuda had delivered to his enemies, the
serpents, to free his mother from bondage. This Indian eagle giant
became the vehicle of the god Vishnu, and, according to the
Mahàbhàrata, "mocked the wind with his fleetness".
It would appear that the Babylonian Zu bird symbolized the summer
sandstorms from the Arabian desert. Thunder is associated with the rainy
season, and it may have been assumed, therefore, that the thunder god
was powerless against the sandstorm demon, who was chased, however, by
the moon, and finally overcome by the triumphant sun when it broke
through the darkening sand drift and brightened heaven and earth,
"netting" the rebellious demon who desired to establish the rule of evil
over gods and mankind.
In the "Legend of Etana" the Eagle, another demon which links with
the Indian Garuda, slayer of serpents, devours the brood of the Mother
Serpent. For this offence against divine law, Shamash, the sun god,
pronounces the Eagle's doom. He instructs the Mother Serpent to slay a
wild ox and conceal herself in its entrails. The Eagle comes to feed on
the carcass, unheeding the warning of one of his children, who says,
"The serpent lies in this wild ox":
He swooped down and stood upon the wild ox,
The Eagle . . . examined the flesh;
He looked about carefully before and behind him;
He again examined the flesh;
He looked about carefully before and behind him,
Then, moving swiftly, he made for the hidden parts.
'When he entered into the midst,
The serpent seized him by his wing.
p. 76
[paragraph continues]
In vain the Eagle appealed for mercy to the Mother Serpent, who was
compelled to execute the decree of Shamash; she tore off the Eagle's
pinions, wings, and claws, and threw him into a pit where he perished
from hunger and thirst.
1
This myth may refer to the ravages of a winged demon of disease who was
thwarted by the sacrifice of an ox. The Mother Serpent appears to be
identical with an ancient goddess of maternity resembling the Egyptian
Bast, the serpent mother of Bubastis. According to Sumerian belief,
Nintu, "a form of the goddess Ma", was half a serpent. On her head there
is a horn; she is "girt about the loins"; her left arm holds "a babe
suckling her breast":
From her head to her loins
The body is that of a naked woman;
From the loins to the sole of the foot
Scales like those of a snake are visible.
R. C. Thompson's Translation.
The close association of gods and demons is illustrated in an obscure
myth which may refer to an eclipse of the moon or a night storm at the
beginning of the rainy season. The demons go to war against the high
gods, and are assisted by Adad (Ramman) the thunderer, Shamash the sun,
and Ishtar. They desire to wreck the heavens, the home of Anu:
They clustered angrily round the crescent of the moon god,
And won over to their aid Shamash, the mighty, and Adad, the warrior,
And Ishtar, who with Anu, the King,
Hath founded a shining dwelling.
The moon god Sin, "the seed of mankind", was darkened by the demons who raged, "rushing loose over
p. 77
the land" like to the wind. Bel called upon his messenger, whom he
sent to Ea in the ocean depths, saying: "My son Sin . . . hath been
grievously bedimmed". Ea lamented, and dispatched his son Merodach to
net the demons by magic, using "a two-coloured cord from the hair of a
virgin kid and from the wool of a virgin lamb."
1
As in India, where Shitala, the Bengali goddess of smallpox, for
instance, is worshipped when the dreaded disease she controls becomes
epidemic, so in Babylonia the people sought to secure immunity from
attack by worshipping spirits of disease. A tablet relates that Ura, a
plague demon, once resolved to destroy all life, but ultimately
consented to spare those who praised his name and exalted him in
recognition of his bravery and power. This could be accomplished by
reciting a formula. Indian serpent worshippers believe that their
devotions "destroy all danger proceeding from snakes".
2
Like the Ancient Egyptians, the Babylonians also had their kindly
spirits who brought luck and the various enjoyments of life. A good
"labartu" might attend on a human being like a household fairy of India
or Europe: a friendly "shedu" could protect a household against the
attacks of fierce demons and human enemies. Even the spirits of Fate who
served Anu, god of the sky, and that "Nom" of the Underworld,
Eresh-ki-gal, queen of Hades, might sometimes be propitious: if the
deities were successfully invoked they could cause the Fates to smite
spirits of disease and bringers of ill luck. Damu, a friendly fairy
goddess, was well loved, because she inspired pleasant dreams, relieved
the sufferings of the
p. 78
afflicted, and restored to good health those patients whom she selected to favour.
In the Egyptian
Book of the Dead the kindly spirits are
overshadowed by the evil ones, because the various magical spells which
were put on record were directed against those supernatural beings who
were enemies of mankind. Similarly in Babylonia the fragments of this
class of literature which survive deal mainly with wicked and vengeful
demons. It appears probable, however, that the highly emotional
Sumerians and Akkadians were on occasion quite as cheerful a people as
the inhabitants of ancient Egypt. Although they were surrounded by
bloodthirsty furies who desired to shorten their days, and their nights
were filled with vague lowering phantoms which inspired fear, they no
doubt shared, in their charm-protected houses, a comfortable feeling of
security after performing magical ceremonies, and were happy enough when
they gathered round flickering lights to listen to ancient song and
story and gossip about crops and traders, the members of the royal
house, and the family affairs of their acquaintances.
The Babylonian spirit world, it will be seen, was of complex
character. Its inhabitants were numberless, but often vaguely defined,
and one class of demons linked with another. Like the European fairies
of folk belief; the Babylonian spirits were extremely hostile and
irresistible at certain seasonal periods; and they were fickle and
perverse and difficult to please even when inclined to be friendly. They
were also similarly manifested from time to time in various forms.
Sometimes they were comely and beautiful; at other times they were
apparitions of horror. The Jinn of present-day Arabians are of like
character; these may be giants, cloudy shapes, comely women, serpents or
cats, goats or pigs.
p. 79
Some of the composite monsters of Babylonia may suggest the vague and
exaggerated recollections of terror-stricken people who have had
glimpses of unfamiliar wild beasts in the dusk or amidst reedy marshes.
But they cannot be wholly accounted for in this way. While animals were
often identified with supernatural beings, and foreigners were called
"devils", it would be misleading to assert that the spirit world
reflects confused folk memories of human and bestial enemies. Even when a
demon was given concrete human form it remained essentially non-human:
no ordinary weapon could inflict an injury, and it was never controlled
by natural laws. The spirits of disease and tempest and darkness were
creations of fancy: they symbolized moods; they were the causes which
explained effects. A sculptor or storyteller who desired to convey an
impression of a spirit of storm or pestilence created monstrous forms to
inspire terror. Sudden and unexpected visits of fierce and devastating
demons were accounted for by asserting that they had wings like eagles,
were nimble-footed as gazelles, cunning and watchful as serpents; that
they had claws to clutch, horns to gore, and powerful fore legs like a
lion to smite down victims. Withal they drank blood like ravens and
devoured corpses like hyænas. Monsters were all the more repulsive when
they were partly human. The human-headed snake or the snake-headed man
and the man with the horns of a wild bull and the legs of a goat were
horrible in the extreme. Evil spirits might sometimes achieve success by
practising deception. They might appear as beautiful girls or handsome
men and seize unsuspecting victims in deathly embrace or leave them
demented and full of grief, or come as birds and suddenly assume awesome
shapes.
Fairies and elves, and other half-human demons, are
p. 80
sometimes regarded as degenerate gods. It will be seen, however, that
while certain spirits developed into deities, others remained something
between these two classes of supernatural beings: they might attend
upon gods and goddesses, or operate independently now against mankind
and now against deities even. The "namtaru", for instance, was a spirit
of fate, the son of Bel-Enlil and Eresh-ki -gal, queen of Hades.
"Apparently", writes Professor Pinches, "he executed the instructions
given him concerning the fate of men, and could also have power over
certain of the gods."
1
To this middle class belong the evil gods who rebelled against the
beneficent deities. According to Hebridean folk belief, the fallen
angels are divided into three classes--the fairies, the "nimble men"
(aurora borealis), and the "blue men of the Minch". In
Beowulf
the "brood of Cain" includes "monsters and elves and sea-devils--giants
also, who long time fought with God, for which he gave them their
reward".
2
Similarly the Babylonian spirit groups are liable to division and
subdivision. The various classes may be regarded as relics of the
various stages of development from crude animism to sublime monotheism:
in the fragmentary legends we trace the floating material from which
great mythologies have been framed.
Footnotes
60:1 The Acts, xvii, 22-31.
62:1 Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. ii, p. 149
et seq.
63:1 Egyptian Myth and Legend, xxxix, n.
63:2 Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt, J. H. Breasted, pp. 38, 74.
64:1 Custom and Myth, p.45
et seq.
66:1 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 108.
66:2 Act iv, scene 1.
66:3 Paradise Lost, book ix.
66:4 Chapman's
Cæsar and Pompey.
67:1 Natural History, 2nd book.
67:2 Indian Myth and Legend, 70,
n.
68:1 Indian Myth and Legend, pp. 202-5, 400, 401.
68:2 Teutonic Myth and Legend, p. 424
et seq.
68:3 Indian Myth and Legend, p. 164
et seq.
69:1 Popular Religion and Folk Lore of Northern India, W. Crooke, vol. p. 254.
70:1
When a person, young or old, is dying, near relatives must not call out
their names in case the soul may come back from the spirit world. A
similar belief still lingers, especially among women, in the Lowlands.
The writer was once present in a room when a child was supposed to be
dying. Suddenly the mother called out the child's name in agonized
voice. It revived soon afterwards. Two old women who had attempted to
prevent "the calling" shook their heads and remarked: "She has done it!
The child will never do any good in this world after being called back."
In England and Ireland, as well as in Scotland, the belief also
prevails in certain localities that if a dying person is "called back"
the soul will tarry for another twenty-four hours, during which the
individual will suffer great agony.
70:2 A Journey in Southern Siberia, Jeremiah Curtin, pp. 103, 104.
70:3 Vol. i, p. 305.
71:1 Adi Parva section of
Mahàbhàrata, Roy's trans., p. 635.
71:2 Jastrow's
Aspects of Religious Belief in Babylonia, &c., p. 312.
72:1 R. C. Thompson's trans.
72:2 The Elder or Poetic Edda, Olive Bray, part i, p. 53.
76:1 Babylonian Religion, L. W. King, pp. 186-8.
77:1 The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, R. Campbell Thompson, vol. i, p. 53
et seq.
77:2 Omens and Superstitions of Southern India, E. Thurston, p. 124.
80:1 The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, p. 110.
80:2 Beowulf, Clark Hall, p. 14.
Myths of Babylonia and Assyria, by Donald A. MacKenzie, [1915]
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