If an ewe gives birth to four fully developed lambs, [locusts (?)] will come and [destroy] the country.
If an ewe gives birth to four, approach of an usurper, the country will be destroyed.
If an ewe gives birth to five, destruction will ravage the country, the owner of the house will die, his stall will be destroyed.
If an ewe gives birth to five, one with the head of a bull[50], one with a lion-head, one with a jackal-head, one with a dog-head and one with the head of a lamb[51], devastation will take place in the country.
If an ewe gives birth to six, confusion among the population.
If an ewe gives birth to seven,—three male and four female—, the king will perish.
If an ewe gives birth to eight, approach of an usurper, the tribute of the king will be withheld.
If an ewe gives birth to nine, end of the dynasty.
If an ewe gives birth to ten, a weakling will acquire universal sovereignty[52].
The general similarity of the interpretations may be taken as a further indication that the bârû-priests were simply giving their fancy free scope in making prognostications for conditions that could never arise; nor is it of serious moment that in the case of triplets the interpretation is favorable to the owner of the ewe, or that in the case of ten lambs, even the official interpretation is not distinctly unfavorable—in view of the purely ‘academic’ character of such entries.