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The 'Shurpu' series introduces Ea and Marduk more particularly. The fifth tablet of this series begins:

Again, in the case of another series, the "Shurpu," in part Babylonian, in part bilingual, since the Babylonian section shows the metrical form, it is likely that the ideographic style represents a transliteration of a phonetic, or pure Babylonian, original. The chief value of the incantation texts lies, naturally, in the insight they afford into the popular beliefs.

The "Maklu" series embraced eight tablets and contained, according to Tallqvist's calculations, originally about 1,550 lines, or upwards of 9,000 words. The "Shurpu" series, although embracing nine tablets, appears to have been somewhat shorter.

It covered no less than nine tablets. Two others bear names that are almost synonymous, "Shurpu" and "Maklu," both signifying 'burning, and so called from the chief topic dealt with in them, the burning of images of the sorcerers, and the incantations to be recited in connection with this symbolical act.

The incantation series 'Shurpu' furnishes us with a long list of wrongs for which a person may be held enthralled in the power of the demons or sorcerers. The exorciser in petitioning that the ban may be relieved, enumerates at length the various causes for which the evil may have been sent:

The translation of these lines follows in all but some minor passages the correct one given by Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, p. 446. Of the sick man. Zimmern, Die Beschwörungstafeln Shurpu, pp. 5, 6. In mercantile transactions. I.e., lied. I.e., did he say one thing, but mean the contrary? Zimmern, ib. pp. 13-20.