ABSTRACT
In every place in our own country and in foreign lands where excavations on the sites of ancient cities have been made, the spade of the excavator has brought to light a number of objects of various kinds and sizes which we may call generally Amulets and Talismans, and regard as the works of men who were believers in Magic. The use of these objects was not confined to any one place, or people, or period, and the great mass of the evidence about the matter now available justifies the statement that the use of amulets and talismans was and, it may be added, still is, universal. We may even go further and say that it is coeval with the existence of Homo sapiens on the earth. It is natural to ask why amulets and talismans are so numerous, and so widely distributed over the earth, and what purpose they served ? The answer to these questions is not far to seek. Early man lived days of misery and nights of anxiety and fear, not to say terror. To feed himself and his woman and their children was often difficult, and to avoid or overcome the beasts and reptiles which were his natural enemies must have taxed his wit and strength to the uttermost; and the fear of the unknown dangers of the darkness and night, when the beasts of prey were prowling round his cave or his thicket, added greatly to his misery. In some places the vicissitudes of climate laid an additional burden upon him and he had to be ever on the watch in order to frustrate the attacks of his human enemies. The physical difficulties which he faced and triumphed over were indeed sufficient to trouble and exhaust him ; but, though why he did so is inexplicable, he proceeded to fashion in his mind a whole host of invisible, hostile beings, Devils, Demons and Evil Spirits. These, he believed, not only had the power to curse him and everything he had, but also to cast upon him and his woman and beasts the Evil Eye, and he went daily and hourly in terror lest they should do so. He attributed all his bodily ills and ailments to the operations of the evil spirits, and any and every misfortune that might befall any member of his family and his servants and other possessions. He attributed horrible forms to them, and thought them capable of assuming any disguises, animal or human, which would enable them to work their wicked wills on him. The men and women who openly made themselves servants of the evil spirits he regarded as Magicians and Witches, and he believed that they as well as the evil spirits could, at will, do him incalculable harm, and compass his death. As time went on his fear of evil spirits did not diminish; on the other hand, it increased, and each generation became more devil-ridden than its predecessor. The civilized Sumerians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, like the savages or half-civilized peoples who were their neighbours, were as much obsessed by the fear of evil spirits as their savage ancestors who had lived in Mesopotamia and Egypt some thousands of years before them. This , in the case of the Sumerians and Babylonians, is made quite clear by the great Legend of the Creation, written in cuneiform, which has come down to us.
