Page:The Babylonian conception of heaven and hell - Jeremias (1902).djvu/42

 Eabani go forth from out the earth like a breath of wind."

Thus then the ghosts of the dead were raised, but to rid oneself of ghosts that had been raised or that had escaped may well have appeared a more difficult matter. "I will raise the dead that they eat and live; more than the living shall the dead be," says Istar. To the Babylonians this was a terrible threat, for by them the shades from the Underworld were regarded as among the most malignant of evil demons. In one exorcism a sick man complains that the wizard and the witch have delivered him into the hands of a wandering ghost, and again the suffering of a man grievously ill is accounted for by the statement "the wicked ghost has come forth" (i.e., from the Underworld). A collection of prayers of the time of Asurbanipal includes the prayer of a man possessed by a ghost. Complaint is made that the ghost will not loose his hold of the sick man day or night, so that his hair stands on end and his limbs are as if paralysed. The Sun god is entreated to free him from this demon, whether it be the shade of one of the family or that of some murdered man that is oppressing his being.