ABSTRACT
The tablets of the Babylonians and Assyrians have preserved for posterity a long list of exorcising formulae in which various substances like onions, dates, palm clusters, bits of sheep’s hide and goat skin and coloured wool are introduced to be peeled or torn to pieces, and as each bit is thrown into the fire an incantation is recited. The rite is purely symbolical and in the case of the onion is the following: As this onion is peeled and thrown into the fire, Consumed by the glowing fire-god, Never to be planted again in a garden, Never to be harrowed, never to take root, Will never again be placed in the ground, Its stalk will never grow, will never see the sunlight again, Will never come onto the table of a God or King, So may the ban curse, pain and woe, Sickness, groans, injury, sin, misdeed and transgression, So may the sickness in my body, in my flesh, in my limbs As this peeled onion, be consumed by the glowing fire-god.
