Similarly, music had magical origin as an imitation of the voices of spirits--of the piping birds who were "Fates", of the wind high and low, of the thunder roll, of the bellowing sea. So the god Pan piped on his reed bird-like notes, Indra blew his thunder horn, Thor used his hammer like a drumstick, Neptune imitated on his "wreathed horn" the voice of the deep, the Celtic oak god Dagda twanged his windy wooden harp, and Angus, the Celtic god of spring and love, came through budding forest ways with a silvern harp which had strings of gold, echoing the tuneful birds, the purling streams, the whispering winds, and the rustling of scented fir and blossoming thorn. Modern-day poets and singers, who voice their moods and cast the spell of their moods over readers and audiences, are the representatives of ancient magicians who believed that moods were caused by the spirits which possessed them--the rhythmical wind spirits, those harpers of the forest and songsters of ocean. The following quotations from Mr. R.C. Thompson's translations of Babylonian charms will serve to illustrate their poetic qualities:-- Fever like frost hath come upon the land. Fever hath blown upon the man as the wind blast, It hath smitten the man and humbled his pride. Headache lieth like the stars of heaven in the desert and hath no praise; Pain in the head and shivering like a scudding cloud turn unto the form of man. Headache whose course like the dread windstorm none knoweth. Headache roareth over the desert, blowing like the wind, Flashing like lightning, it is loosed above and below, It cutteth off him, who feareth not his god, like a reed ... From amid mountains it hath descended upon the land. Headache ... a rushing hag-demon, Granting no rest, nor giving kindly sleep ... Whose shape is as the whirlwind. Its appearance is as the darkening heavens, And its face as the deep shadow of the forest. Sickness ... breaking the fingers as a rope of wind ... Flashing like a heavenly star, it cometh like the dew. These early poets had no canons of Art, and there were no critics to disturb their meditations. Many singers had to sing and die ere a critic could find much to say. In ancient times, therefore, poets had their Golden Age--they were a law unto themselves. Even the "minors" were influential members of society. CHAPTER XI. THE GOLDEN AGE OF BABYLONIA