“My son, what is there that I could add to thy knowledge?—­Merodach, what is there that I could add to thy knowledge?—­That which I know, thou knowest it:—­go then, my son, Merodach,—­lead him to the house of purification of the god who prepares remedies,—­and break the spell that is upon him, draw away the charm which is upon him,—­the ill which afflicts his body,—­which he suffers by reason of the curse of his father,—­or the curse of his mother,—­or the curse of his eldest brother,—­or by the curse of a murderess who is unknown to the man.—­The curse, may it be taken from him by the charm of Ea,—­like a clove of garlic which is stripped skin by skin,—­like a cluster of dates may it be cut off,—­like a bunch of flowers may it be uprooted!  The spell, may heaven avert it,—­may the earth avert it!” The god himself deigned to point out the remedy:  the sick man was to take a clove of garlic, some dates, and a stalk bearing flowers, and was to throw them into the fire, bit by bit, repeating appropriate prayers at each stage of the operation.  “In like manner as this garlic is peeled and thrown into the fire,—­and the burning flame consumes it,—­as it will never be planted in the vegetable garden, it will never draw moisture from the pond or from the ditch,—­its root will never again spread in the earth,—­its stalk will not pierce the ground and behold the sun,—­it will not serve as food for the gods or the king,—­so may it remove the baleful curse, so may it loose the bond—­of sickness, of sin, of shortcomings, of perversity, of crime!—­The sickness which is in my body, in my flesh, in my muscles,—­like this garlic may it be stripped off,—­and may the burning flame consume it in this day;—­may the spell of the sorcerer be cast out, that I may behold the light!” The ceremony could be prolonged at will:  the sick person pulled to pieces the cluster of dates, the bunch of flowers, a fleece of wool, some goats’ hair, a skein of dyed thread, and a bean, which were all in turn consumed in the fire.  At each stage of the operation he repeated the formula, introducing into it one or two expressions characterizing the nature of the particular offering; as, for instance, “the dates will no more hang from their stalks, the leaves of the branch will never again be united to the tree, the wool and the hair will never again lie on the back of the animal on which they grew, and will never be used for weaving garments.”  The use of magical words was often accompanied by remedies, which were for the most part both grotesque and disgusting in their composition:  they comprised bitter or stinking wood-shavings, raw meat, snake’s flesh, wine and oil, the whole reduced to a pulp, or made into a sort of pill and swallowed on the chance of its bringing relief.  The Egyptian physicians employed similar compounds, to which they attributed wonderful effects, but they made use of them in exceptional circumstances only.  The medical authorities in Chaldaea recommended them before all others, and their very strangeness reassured