If a woman gives birth to twins, and both are brought out alive(?),[629] but the right hand of one is lacking, the ruler (?) will be killed by force, the land will be diminished.... If a woman gives birth to twins, and both are brought out alive (?), but neither of them have right hands, the produce of the country will be consumed by the enemy. If a woman gives birth to twins, and both are brought out alive (?), but the right foot of one is missing, an enemy will for one year disturb the fixed order of the country.[630] It will be observed that these omens bear on public as well as private affairs. The part played by public matters in them varies, but that the king and the country are so frequently introduced is an indication again of the official character given to these omen tablets. Only priests whose chief concern was with the court and the general welfare would have been impelled to mingle in this curious way the fate of the individual with that of the country at large. The birth of twins in itself is an omen for the house where the event occurs; but twins that are monstrosities, with a foot or a hand lacking, portend something of import to the general welfare. The tablet proceeds, after finishing one phase of the subject, with omens to be derived from infants whose features resemble those of certain animals. In this case again we will see that the mind of the compiler is now directed towards the fate of the individual and again toward the ruler or the country. In the 2d tablet of the series we read that If a woman gives birth to a child with a lion's head,[631] a strong king will rule in the land. If a woman gives birth to a child with a dog's head, the city in his district[632] will be in distress, and evil will be in the country. ... If a woman gives birth to a child with a swine's head, offspring and possession (?) will increase in that house. ... If a woman gives birth to a child with a bird's head, that land will be destroyed. If a woman gives birth to a child with a serpent's head, for thirty days (?) Nin-Gishzida[633] will bring a famine in the land, and Gilgamesh[634] will rule as king in the land. In the same tablet[635] such monstrosities are taken up as children born with two heads, with a double pair of eyes, or with the eyes misplaced, with two mouths or more than two lips. The two heads, strange enough, generally portend good fortune, though not invariably. Thus an infant with two heads is an omen of strength for the country; and again If a woman gives birth to a child with two heads, two mouths, but the regular number of eyes, hands, and feet[636], it is an omen of vigorous life [for the country, but the son] will seize the king his father and kill him. But