[Footnote 10: Similar to these were the phylacteries of the Jews, which were considered to be protections from all evil. Schleusner in his Lexicon of the New Testament says that they were "Strips of parchment on which were written various portions of the Mosaic law, for the Jews believed that these ligaments had power to avert every kind of evil, but especially to drive away demons. as appears from the Targum on the Canticles," etc. We see that the Babylonian precept was to bind holy sentences "around the head" and others "right and left of the threshold of the door." Cf. Deut. xi. 18: "Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and as frontlets between your eyes. "And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house, and upon thy gates."] HOLINESS OF THE NUMBER SEVEN Innumerable are the evidences of this opinion which are found on the tablets. Two or three instances may suffice here: THE SONG OF THE SEVEN SPIRITS [Footnote: "Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch.," vol. ii. 2 p. 58.] 1 They are seven! they are seven! 2 In the depths of ocean they are seven! 3 In the heights of heaven they are seven! 4 In the ocean stream in a Palace they were born. 5 Male they are not: female they are not! 6 Wives they have not! Children are not born to them! 7 Rule they have not! Government they know not! 8 Prayers they hear not! 9 They are seven, and they are seven! Twice over they are seven! This wild chant touches one of the deepest chords of their religious feeling. They held that seven evil spirits at once might enter into a man: there are frequent allusions to them, and to their expulsion, on the tablets. One runs thus: 1 The god (...) shall stand by his bedside: 2 Those seven evil spirits he shall root out, and shall expel them from his body. 3 And those seven shall never return to the sick man again! But sometimes this belief attained the grandeur of epic poetry. There is a fine tale on one of the tablets [Footnote 2: "Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia," vol. iv. pl. 5.] of the seven evil spirits assaulting heaven, and the gods alarmed standing upon the defensive, no doubt successfully, but unluckily the conclusion of the story is broken off. ANCIENT BABYLONIAN CHARMS TRANSLATED BY REV. A.H. SAYCE, M.A.