Between the magic of radio and the glories of print media, I'm now much more cleverer than I was before. For instance, I now know that not only did the ancient Babylonians understand the way rabies works (the bite transfers semen into the wound, which then forms tiny puppies which are not conducive to either wound care or overall health and wellbeing), but that they also wrote poetry about it.
urruk birkīšu
aruh lasāmam
īṣ bubūtam
etnuš akālam
ina šinnīšu
e’il nīlšu
ašar iššuku
mārāšu
izzib
In your newfangled modern language, that would be:
Long-kneed,
Swift-running,
Short of victuals,
Lacking in food.
In his teeth
He carries his semen.
Wherever he has bitten
He leaves his offspring.
That's pretty cool. As is the fact that you can hear audio of this and other ancient Babylonian and Assyrian poetry, chants, religious tracts, and other important things, as read by scholars of Ancient Mesopotamia, at http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/mjw65/BAPLAR/Archive
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