Images of demons were used by the Chaldæans as talismans against the attacks of demons. In a magical hymn to the sun against sorcery and witchcraft, and their influence on the worshipper, the sun is reminded that the images of the bad spirits have been shut up in heaps of corn. The invocation concludes:—
“May the great gods, who have created me, take my hand! Thou who curest my face, direct my hand, direct it, lord, light of the universe, Sun.”[207]
In a hymn composed for the cure of some disease, the priest, addressing the god, speaks of the invalid in the third person:—
“As for me, the lord has sent me, the great lord, Hea, has sent me.———
Thou, at thy coming, cure the race of man, cause a ray of health to shine upon him, cure his disease.
The man, son of his god, is burdened with the load of his omissions and transgressions.
His feet and his hands suffer cruelly, he is painfully exhausted by the disease.
Sun, at the raising of my hands, come at the call, eat his food, absorb his victim, turn his weakness into strength.”[208]
In the “War of the Seven Wicked Spirits against the Moon,” we have an incantation which was destined to cure the king of a disease caused by the wicked spirits.[209]
In the Chaldæan creed all diseases were the work of demons. This is why Herodotus found no physicians in Babylon and Assyria. There was no science of medicine; “it was simply a branch of magic, and was practised by incantations, exorcism, the use of philters and enchanted drinks.”[210]