ABSTRACT
Assyria,therewasaspecialmagiclanguage,and thatthatisthelanguagewhichisnownamedbyboth FrenchandEnglishscholarstheAccadiantongue.' Thesacredbooksofthemagicians,whichAssurbanipalhadcopiedagainintheseventhcentury,forthe instructionofhispriests,werewrittenintheAccadian, onlyaSemiticAssyrianversionhadbeenaddedto themataveryearlyepoch,inordertorendertheincantationsintelligibletothosewhohadtorecitethem, buttheAccadianwasclearlytheonlyproperly liturgicaltext.Wehaveaproofofitinthefact thatsomelineswhicharerepeatedorareveryeasy tounderstand,havenotranslationattachedtothem. ThusatthepresentdaytheCopticpriestsalways haveanArabicversionaccompanyingtheirmissals,so thattheymayunderstandthewordsoftheritualwhile theyrecitethemintheCoptictongue.Themagic formulreengravedupontheamuletsofhardstone, evenupontheamuletsfoundinAssyria,evidentlyof Assyrianwork,andbelongingtothelastepochofthe empireofNineveh,areatleastmostoftheminthe Accadianlanguage;andwhilemorethanahundred havetheirlegendsinAccadian,Ihaveasyetonly metwiththreebearingAssyrianinscriptionsinallthe variousEuropeancollections.Soalsointhefragmentsofthegreatmagiccollectioncopiedbythe scribesofAssurbanipal,therearemanyincantations andhymnsofwhichtheprimitiveAccadiantextwas, nodoubt,lostatanearlyperiod,sinceonlyanAssyrian versionexistsatthepresenttime,bearingmarks
however of great antiquity. Still there are not more than ten in this condition amongst many hundred formulre in the Accadian.
