Lecture VII. The Sacred Books. 375
“In the mountain of the sunset, it is said,“those seven were
born;”
in the mountain of the sunrise those seven grew up;
in the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling;
on the high-places of the earth their names are proclaimed.
As for them, in heaven and earth they have no dwelling,
hidden is their name.
Among the sentient gods they are not known.
Their name in heaven and earth exists not.
Those seven from the mountain of the sunset gallop forth,
those seven in the mountain of the sunrise are bound to rest.
In the hollows of the earth they set the foot;
on the high-places of the earth they lift the neck.
They by nought are known; in heaven and earth there is no
knowledge of them.”The hymn or incantation which thus describes them belongs to
a late period in the history of Babylonian religion. The animism
of primitive times has been replaced by the gods and goddesses
of the later official faith. But the belief in the seven evil spirits
still lingered, not only in the popular mind, but also in the ranks
of the official hierarchy; and it was still remembered that they
had been at the outset the spirits of the tempest, born in the clefts
of the ravine or on the stormy mountain-top, from whence they
issued like wild horses. The flame of sacrifice could alone avert
their onset, and incantations were still composed under official
sanction, with the help of which they might be driven away. The
fact shows to how late an epoch the composition of spells and
incantatory hymns may come down, even when the atmosphere
they breathe is still that of Eridu, and the language in which they
are written is still the sacred Sumerian. But there are collections
of magical hymns and formulæ which are even yet later in date. [410]
The eight books of the so-called Maqlû or“Burning”collection