Although Silik-mulu-khi’s functions were largely medical, it is not to be supposed that he resorted much to the use of medicaments. For it has not yet been made very apparent that medicine, properly so called, was much esteemed by the early Babylono-Assyrian peoples. Not long ago Mr. H. F. Talbot, in an interesting article on Assyrian talismans and exorcisms, said: “Diseases were attributed to the influence of spirits. Exorcisms were used to drive away those tormentors; and this seems to have been the sole remedy employed, for I believe that no mention has yet been found of medicine.”[387] This statement does not hold good now, as will be shown later.[388] In the cure of diseases the Babylono-Assyrian practitioners first duly guarded the entrance to the patient’s chamber. Images or guardian statues of Hea and Silik-mulu-khi were placed one to the right and the other to the left. Texts were put on the threshold and on the statues, after the manner spoken of in Deuteronomy.[389] These were also placed on the brow of the patient and about the room. In bad cases recourse was had to the “mamit,” something which the evil spirits could not resist. Talbot gives the following prescription from an Accadian tablet:— “Take a white cloth. In it place the mamit in the sick man’s right hand; And take a black cloth and wrap it round his left hand. Then all the evil spirits, and the sins which he has committed, Shall quit their hold of him and shall never return.”[390] M. Lenormant gives a translation of an interesting magic tablet. Here is a passage from it which the conjurer, the Shaman, is supposed to speak, ending with the usual adjuration:— “Disease of the bowels, the disease of the heart, The palpitation of the heart, Disease of the vision, disease of the head, Malignant dysentery The humor which swells, Ulceration of the veins, the micturition which wastes,[391] Cruel agony which never ceases, Nightmare,— Spirit of the Heavens,[392] conjure it; Spirit of the Earth,[393] conjure it.”[394] What follows is part of an incantation against “the diseases of the head”:— “The diseases of the head, like doves to their dove-cots, like grasshoppers into the sky, Like birds into space,— May they fly away! May the invalid be replaced in the protecting hands of his god.”[395] Here is the remedy for “diseases of the head,” as given by Hea to Silik-mulu-khi:— “Come my son, Silik-mulu-khi, Take a sieve: draw some water from the surface of the river, Place thy sublime lip upon the water; Make it shine with purity from thy sublime breath, ... Help the man, son of his god.... Let the disease of his head depart; May the disease of his head be dispersed like a nocturnal dew.”[396]