Medicine also was in a more advanced state than might have been expected. Fragments of an old work on medicine have been found, which show that all known diseases had been classified, and their symptoms described, the medical mixtures considered appropriate to each being compounded and prescribed quite in modern fashion. Here is one of them: 'For a diseased gall-bladder, which devours the top of a man's heart like a ring(?) ... within the sick (part), we prepare cypress-extract, goats' milk, palm-wine, barley, the flesh of an ox and bear, and the wine of the cellarer, in order that the sick man may live. Half an ephah of clear honey, half an ephah of cypress-extract, half an ephah of gamgam herbs, half an ephah of linseed, half an ephah of ..., half an ephah of imdi herbs, half an ephah of the seed of tarrati, half an ephah of calves' milk, half an ephah of senu wood, half an ephah of tik powder, half an ephah of the ... of the river-god, half an ephah of usu wood, half an ephah of mountain medicine, half an ephah of the flesh(?) of a dove, half an ephah of the seed of the ..., half an ephah of the corn of the field, ten measures of the juice of a cut herb, ten measures of the tooth of the sea (sea-weed), one ephah of putrid flesh(?), one ephah of dates, one ephah of palm-wine and insik, and .* one ephah of the flesh(?) of the entrails; slice and cut up; or mix as a mixture, after first stirring it with a reed. On the fourth day observe (the sick man's) countenance. If it shows a white appearance his heart is cured; if it shows a dark appearance his heart is still devoured by the fire; if it shows a yellow appearance during the day, the patient's recovery is assured; if it shows a black appearance he will grow worse and will not live. For the swelling(?), slice (the flesh of) a cow which has entered the stall and has been slaughtered during the day. Seethe it in water and calves' milk. Drink the result in palm-wine. Drink it during the day.'
Generally, however, the prescriptions are not so elaborate as this. They are more usually of this nature: 'For low spirits, slice the root of the destiny tree, the root of the susum tree, two or three other vegetable compounds, and the tongue of a dog. Drink the mixture either in water or in palm-wine.'
Even medical science, however, was invaded by superstition. In place of trying the doctor's prescription, a patient often had the choice allowed him of having recourse to charms and exorcisms. Thus the medical work itself permits him to 'place an incantation on the big toe of the left foot and cause it to remain' there, the incantation being as follows: 'O wind, my mother, wind, wind, the handmaid of the gods art thou; O wind among the storm-birds; yea, the water dost thou make stream down, and with the gods thy brothers liftest up the glory of thy wisdom.' At other times a witch or sorceress was called in, and told to 'bind a cord twice seven times, binding it on the sick man's neck and on his feet like fetters, and while he lies in his bed to pour pure water over him.' Instead of the knotted cord verses from a sacred book might be employed, just as phylacteries were, and still are, among the Jews. Thus we read: 'In the night-time let a verse from a good tablet be placed on the head of the sick man in bed.' The word translated 'verse' is masal, the Hebrew mâshâl, which literally signifies a 'proverb' or 'parable.' It is curious to find the witch by the side of the wizard in Babylonia. 'The wise woman,' however, was held in great repute there, and just as the witches of Europe were supposed to fly through the air on a broomstick so it was believed that the witches of Babylonia could perform the same feat with the help of a wooden staff.
[CHAPTER V]
Manners and Customs; Trade and Government
The monuments of Assyria do not give us the same assistance as those of Egypt in learning about the manners and customs of its inhabitants. We find there no tombs whose pictured walls set before us the daily life and doings of the people. We have to acquire our knowledge from the bas-reliefs of the royal palaces, which represent to us rather the pomp of the court and the conquest of foreign nations than scenes taken from ordinary Assyrian life. It is only incidentally that the manners and customs of the lower classes are depicted. It is true that we can learn a good deal from the contract-tablets and other kinds of what may be called the private literature of Babylonia and Assyria. At present, however, but a small portion of these has been examined, and a literature can never paint so fully and distinctly the manners and customs of the day as the picture or sculpture on the wall. It is only in times comparatively modern that the novelist has sought to give a faithful portrait of the life of the peasant and artisan.