Samizdat

“No. 257.

When it thunders in Ab, the day is dark, heaven rains, lightning lightens, waters will be poured forth in the channels.

When it thunders on a cloudless day, there will be darkness (or) famine in the land.

Concerning this sickness the king has not spoken from his heart.

The sickness lasts a year: people that are ill recover.

Do thou grant, O king my lord, that they pursue the worship of the gods and pray the gods day and night.

Does truth ever reach the king and his family?

A man should kill a calf (?) without blemish, he should cut it in pieces; he himself should say as follows, ‘A man that is in full health, his days are short (?): he is sick, his days are long.’

From Ištar-šuma-íris.”

Reginald Campbell Thompson, The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon, Vol. II, London, 1900, p. lxxx.