Seven are they, they are seven, In the subterranean deep, they are seven, Perched (?) in the sky, they are seven, In a section of the subterranean deep they were reared, They are neither male nor are they female, They are destructive whirlwinds, They have no wife, nor do they beget offspring. Compassion and mercy they do not know, Prayer and supplication they do not hear, Horses bred on the mountains, are they Hostile to Ea[352] are they, Powerful ones among the gods are they. To work mischief in the street they settle themselves in the highway. Evil are they, they are evil, Seven are they, they are seven, seven, and again seven[353] are they. These seven spirits, who are elsewhere compared to various animals, have power even to bewitch the gods. The eclipse of the moon was attributed to their baneful influence. The number seven is probably not to be taken literally. As among so many nations,[354] seven had a sacred significance for the Babylonians; but largely, if not solely, for the reason, as I venture to think, because seven was a large number. In the Old Testament seven is similarly used to designate a large number. A group of seven spirits, accordingly, meant no more than a miscellaneous mass of spirits, and we may therefore regard this 'song of the seven' as a general characterization of the demons who, according to this view, appear to move together in groups rather than singly. Elsewhere[355] we are told of this same group of spirits 'that they were begotten in the mountain of sunset,' _i.e._, in the west, 'and were reared in the mountain of sunrise,' _i.e._, the east; 'that they dwell in the hollow of the earth, and that they are proclaimed on the mountain tops.' Evidently a description of this kind is intended to emphasize the universal presence of the spirits. There is no place where they are not found; and when we are furthermore told (apparently in contradiction to what has just been said) 'that neither in heaven nor earth is their name pronounced (_i.e._, are they known to be), that among the gods of the earth (_i.e._, the pantheon) they are not recognized, that neither in heaven nor earth do they exist,' this is but the reverse of the picture intended to illustrate the capability of the spirits to disappear without leaving any trace of their presence. They are everywhere and yet invisible. They come and they go, and no one knows their place. Nothing is proof against their approach. Of all the demons it is true, as of this group, that they slip through bolts and doorposts and sockets, gliding, as we are told, 'like snakes.' Such are the demons against whom man must seek to protect himself.