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+      <title>Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs</title>
+      <author><name reg="Sayce, Rev. A. H.">Rev. A. H. Sayce</name></author>
+    </titleStmt>
+    <editionStmt>
+      <edition n="1">Edition 1</edition>
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+      <publisher>Project Gutenberg</publisher>
+      <date>April 16, 2008</date>
+      <idno type="etext-no">25080</idno>
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+    </div>
+    <div>
+      <divGen type="encodingDesc" />
+    </div>
+
+    <div rend="page-break-before: always">
+      <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center; bold">Babylonians And Assyrians</p>
+      <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">Life And Customs</p>
+      <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">By The</p>
+      <p rend="font-size: xx-large; text-align: center">Rev. A. H. Sayce</p>
+      <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">Professor of Assyriology at Oxford</p>
+      <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">London</p>
+      <p rend="font-size: large; text-align: center">John C. Nimmo</p>
+      <p rend="text-align: center">14 King William Street, Strand</p>
+      <p rend="text-align: center">MDCCCC</p>
+    </div>
+    <div rend="page-break-before: always">
+      <head>Contents</head>
+      <divGen type="toc" />
+    </div>
+  </front>
+<body>
+
+<pb n='ii'/><anchor id='Pgii'/>
+
+<div>
+<head>Series Advertisement.</head>
+
+<p>
+Series of Handbooks in Semitics
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Edited By
+</p>
+
+<p>
+James Alexander Craig
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures and Hellenistic
+Greek, University of Michigan
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Recent scientific research has stimulated an increasing interest in the
+study of the Babylonians, Assyrians, and allied Semitic races of ancient
+history among scholars, students, and the serious reading public generally.
+It has provided us with a picture of a hitherto unknown civilization, and a
+history of one of the great branches of the human family. The object of
+the present Series is to state its results in popularly scientific form. Each
+work is complete in itself, and the Series, taken as a whole, neglects no
+phase of the general subject. Each contributor is a specialist in the subject
+assigned him, and has been chosen from the body of eminent Semitic scholars
+both in Europe and America.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Series will be composed of the following volumes:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I. <hi rend='bold'>Hebrews. History and Government.</hi> By Professor J. F.
+McCurdy, University of Toronto, Canada.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+II. <hi rend='bold'>Hebrews. Ethics and Religion.</hi> By Professor Archibald
+Duff, Airedale College, Bradford.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+III. <hi rend='bold'>The Sumerians. Language, History, and Religion.</hi> By
+Professor Fritz Hommel, University of Munich, Germany.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+IV. <hi rend='bold'>Babylonians and Assyrians. History to the Fall
+of Babylon.</hi> By Professor Fritz Hommel, University of
+Munich, Germany.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+V. <hi rend='bold'>Babylonians and Assyrians. Religion.</hi> By Professor
+J. A. Craig, University of Michigan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+VI. <hi rend='bold'>Babylonians and Assyrians. Life and Customs.</hi>
+(With special reference to the Contract Tablets and Letters.)
+By Professor A. H. Sayce, University of Oxford.
+<hi rend='italic'>Now Ready.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+VII. <hi rend='bold'>Babylonians and Assyrians. Excavations and
+Account of Decipherment of Inscriptions.</hi> By Professor
+A. V. Hilprecht, University of Pennsylvania.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+VIII. <hi rend='bold'>Arabia. Discoveries in, and History and Religion until
+Mohammed.</hi> By Dr. Eduard Glazer, University of Munich,
+Germany.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+IX. <hi rend='bold'>Development of Islamic Theology, Jurisprudence,
+and Theory of the State.</hi> By
+Professor D. B. MacDonald, Hartford Theological Seminary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In addition to the above the following volumes are to be included in
+the Series, and others may be added from time to time:—
+</p>
+
+<p>
+X. <hi rend='bold'>Phœnicia. History and Government, including Colonies,
+Trade, and Religion.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+XI. <hi rend='bold'>Palestine and Syria. Important Discoveries in
+Recent Years.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+XII. <hi rend='bold'>Arabic Literature and Science Since Mohammed.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+XIII. <hi rend='bold'>The Influence of Semitic Art and Mythology
+on Western Nations.</hi>
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='v'/><anchor id='Pgv'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Editor's Preface</head>
+
+<p>
+Semitic studies, both linguistically and archæologically,
+have advanced by rapid strides during the
+last two decades. Fresh light has fallen upon the
+literary, scientific, theological, mercantile, and other
+achievements of this great branch of the human family.
+What these peoples thought and achieved has a
+very direct bearing upon some of the problems that
+lie nearest to the hearts of a large portion of the
+intelligent peoples of Christendom to-day. Classical
+studies no longer enjoy a monopoly of attention in
+the curricula of our colleges and universities. It is,
+in fact, more and more plainly perceived by scholars
+that among the early peoples who have contributed
+to the ideas inwrought into our present civilization
+there is none to whom we owe a greater debt than we
+do to the Semitic family. Apart from the genetic
+relation which the thought of these peoples bears to
+the Christianity of the past and present, a study of
+their achievements in general has become a matter of
+<pb n='vi'/><anchor id='Pgvi'/>
+general human interest. It is here that we find the
+earliest beginnings of civilization historically known
+to us—here that early religious ideas, social customs
+and manners, political organizations, the beginnings
+of art and architecture, the rise and growth of mythological
+ideas that have endured and spread to western
+nations, can be seen in their earliest stages, and
+here alone the information is supplied which enables
+us to follow them most successfully in their development.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The object of this series is to present, in brief and
+compact form, a knowledge of the more important
+facts in the history of this family in a way that will
+be serviceable to students in colleges, universities,
+and theological seminaries, to the clergy, and to intelligent
+lay readers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It has been the good fortune of the Editor and
+Publishers to secure the interest and co-operation of
+scholars who are fitted by their special knowledge of
+the subjects entrusted to them. Works written on
+Semitic subjects by those whose knowledge is gained
+from other than the original sources are sure to be
+defective in many ways. It is only the specialist
+whose knowledge enables him to take a comprehensive
+view of the entire field in which he labors who is
+able to gain the perspective necessary for the production
+of a general work which will set forth prominently,
+and in their proper relations, the salient and
+most interesting facts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Each contributor to the Series presents his contribution
+<pb n='vii'/><anchor id='Pgvii'/>
+subject to no change by the Editor. In cases
+where it may be deemed of sufficient importance
+to notice a divergent view this will be done in a
+foot-note. The authors, however, will aim to make
+their several contributions consistent with the latest
+discoveries.
+</p>
+
+<p>James Alexander Craig.</p>
+
+<p>University of Michigan,</p>
+<p><hi rend='italic'>September, 1899.</hi></p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='001'/><anchor id='Pg001'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter I. Babylonia And Its Inhabitants</head>
+
+<p>
+Babylonia was the gathering-place of the nations.
+Berossus, the Chaldean historian, tells us that after
+the creation it was peopled by a mixture of races, and
+we read in the book of Genesis that Babel, or Babylon,
+was the first home of the manifold languages of
+mankind. The country for the most part had been
+won from the sea; it was the gift of the two great
+rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, which once flowed separately
+into the Persian Gulf. Its first settlers must
+have established themselves on the desert plateau
+which fringes the Babylonian plain rather than in
+the plain itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The plain is formed of the silt deposited each year
+by the rivers that flow through it. It is, in fact, as
+much a delta as Northern Egypt, and is correspondingly
+fertile. Materials exist for determining approximately
+the rate at which this delta has been
+formed. The waters of the Persian Gulf are continually
+receding from the shore, and Ainsworth<note place="foot">Researches in Assyria,
+Babylonia, and Chaldea (1838), p. 131 <hi rend='italic'>sqq.</hi></note> calculates
+<pb n='002'/><anchor id='Pg002'/>
+that about ninety feet of land are added annually
+to the coast-line. But the rate of deposit
+seems to have been somewhat more rapid in the past.
+At all events, Mohammerah, which in 1835 was forty-seven
+miles distant from the Gulf, stands on the site
+of Spasinus Charax, which, in the time of Alexander
+the Great, was not quite a mile from the sea. In
+2,160 years, therefore, no less than forty-six miles of
+land have been formed at the head of the Persian
+Gulf, or nearly one hundred and fifteen feet each
+year.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The deposit of soil, however, may not have been so
+rapid in the flourishing days of Babylonian history,
+when the canals were carefully attended to and the
+irrigation of the country kept under control. It is
+safer, therefore, to assume for the period preceding
+the rise of the Macedonian Empire a rate of deposit
+of not more than one hundred feet each year. The
+seaport of primitive Chaldea was Eridu, not far from
+Ur, and as the mounds of Abu-Shahrein or Nowâwis,
+which now mark its site, are nearly one hundred
+and thirty miles from the present line of coast, we
+must go back as far as 6500 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi> for the foundation of
+the town. <q>Ur of the Chaldees,</q> as it is called in
+the Book of Genesis, was some thirty miles to the
+north, and on the same side of the Euphrates; the
+ruins of its great temple of the Moon-god are now
+known by the name of Muqayyar or Mugheir. It
+must have been founded on the sandy plateau of the
+Arabian desert at a time when the plain enclosed
+between the Tigris and the Euphrates was still too
+marshy for human habitation. As the Moon-god of
+<pb n='003'/><anchor id='Pg003'/>
+Ur was held to be the son of El-lil of Nippur, Dr.
+Peters is doubtless right in believing that Ur was a
+colony of the latter city. Nippur is the modern
+Niffer or Nuffar in the north of Babylonia, and recent
+excavations have shown that its temple was the
+chief sanctuary and religious centre of the civilized
+eastern world in the earliest epoch to which our
+records reach. Eridu, Ur, and Nippur seem to have
+been the three chief cities of primeval Babylonia. As
+we shall see in a future chapter, Eridu and Nippur
+were the centres from which the early culture and religion
+of the country were diffused. But there was an
+essential difference between them. Ea, the god of
+Eridu, was a god of light and beneficence, who employed
+his divine wisdom in healing the sick and restoring
+the dead to life. He had given man all the
+elements of civilization; rising each morning out of
+his palace under the waters of the deep, he taught
+them the arts and sciences, the industries and manners,
+of civilized life. El-lil of Nippur, on the contrary,
+was the lord of the underworld; magical spells
+and incantations were his gifts to mankind, and his
+kingdom was over the dead rather than the living.
+The culture which emanated from Eridu and Nippur
+was thus of a wholly different kind. Is it possible
+that the settlers in the two cities were of a different
+race?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of this there is no proof. Such evidence as we
+have tells against it. And the contrast in the character
+of the cultures of Eridu and Nippur can be explained
+in another way. Eridu was a seaport; its
+population was in contact with other races, and its
+<pb n='004'/><anchor id='Pg004'/>
+ships traded with the coasts of Arabia. The myth
+which told how Ea or Oannes had brought the elements
+of civilization to his people expressly stated
+that he came from the waters of the Persian Gulf.
+The culture of Eridu may thus have been due to
+foreign intercourse; Eridu was a city of merchants
+and sailors, Nippur of sorcerer-priests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Eridu and Nippur, however, alike owed their origin
+to a race which we will term Sumerian. Its
+members spoke agglutinative dialects, and the primitive
+civilization of Babylonia was their creation.
+They were the founders of its great cities and temples,
+the inventors of the pictorial system of writing
+out of which the cuneiform characters subsequently
+developed, the instructors in culture of their Semitic
+neighbors. How deep and far-reaching was their
+influence may be gathered from the fact that the
+earliest civilization of Western Asia finds its expression
+in the Sumerian language and script. To whatever
+race the writer might belong he clothed his
+thoughts in the words and characters of the Sumerian
+people. The fact makes it often difficult for us
+to determine whether the princes of primitive Chaldea
+whose inscriptions have come down to us were
+Semites or not. Their very names assume Sumerian
+forms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was from the Sumerian that the Semite learnt
+to live in cities. His own word for <q>city</q> was <hi rend='italic'>âlu</hi>,
+the Hebrew <hi rend='italic'>'ohel</hi> <q>a tent,</q> which is still used in the
+Old Testament in the sense of <q>home;</q> the Hebrew
+<hi rend='italic'>'îr</hi> is the Sumerian <hi rend='italic'>eri</hi>.
+<hi rend='italic'>Ekallu</hi>, the Hebrew <hi rend='italic'>hêkal</hi>,
+<q>a palace,</q> comes from the Sumerian <hi rend='italic'>ê-gal</hi> or
+<pb n='005'/><anchor id='Pg005'/>
+<q>great house;</q> the first palaces seen by the Semitic
+nomad must have been those of the Chaldean towns.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But a time came when the Semite had absorbed
+the culture of his Sumerian teachers and had established
+kingdoms of his own in the future Babylonia.
+For untold centuries he lived in intermixture with
+the older population of the country, and the two
+races acted and re-acted on each other. A mixed
+people was the result, with a mixed language and a
+mixed form of religion. The Babylonia of later days
+was, in fact, a country whose inhabitants and language
+were as composite as the inhabitants and language
+of modern England. Members of the same
+family had names derived from different families of
+speech, and while the old Sumerian borrowed Semitic
+words which it spelt phonetically, the Semitic
+lexicon was enriched with loan-words from Sumerian
+which were treated like Semitic roots.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Semite improved upon the heritage he had
+received. Even the system of writing was enlarged
+and modified. Its completion and arrangement are
+due to Semitic scribes who had been trained in Sumerian
+literature. It was probably at the court of
+Sargon of Akkad that what we may term the final
+revision of the syllabary took place. At all events,
+after his epoch the cuneiform script underwent but
+little real change.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sargon was the founder of the first Semitic empire
+in Asia. His date was placed by the native historians
+as far back as 3800 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, and as they had an
+abundance of materials at their disposal for settling
+it, which we do not possess, we have no reason to
+<pb n='006'/><anchor id='Pg006'/>
+dispute it. Moreover, it harmonizes with the length
+of time required for bringing about that fusion of
+Sumerian and Semitic elements which created the
+Babylonia we know. The power of Sargon extended
+to the Mediterranean, even, it may be, to the island
+of Cyprus. His conquests were continued by his
+son and successor Naram-Sin, who made his way to
+the precious copper-mines of the Sinaitic peninsula,
+the chief source of the copper that was used so
+largely in the work of his day. <q>The land of the
+Amorites,</q> as Syria was called, was already a Babylonian
+province, and he could therefore march in
+safety toward the south through the desert region
+which was known as Melukhkha.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How long the empire of Sargon lasted we do not
+know. But it spread Babylonian culture to the distant
+west and brought it to the very border of Egypt.
+It was, too, a culture which had become essentially
+Semitic; the Sumerian elements on which it was
+based had been thoroughly transformed. What
+Babylonian civilization was in the latest days of
+Chaldean history, that it already was, to all intents
+and purposes, in the age of Sargon. The Sumerian
+and the Semite had become one people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the mixture of nationalities in Babylonia was
+not yet complete. Colonies of Amorites, from Canaan,
+settled in it for the purposes of trade; wandering
+tribes of Semites, from Northern Arabia, pastured
+their cattle on the banks of its rivers, and in the
+Abrahamic age a line of kings from Southern Arabia
+made themselves masters of the country, and established
+their capital at Babylon. Their names resembled
+<pb n='007'/><anchor id='Pg007'/>
+those of Southern Arabia on the one hand,
+of the Hebrews on the other, and the Babylonian
+scribes were forced to give translations of them in
+their own language.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But all these incomers belonged to the Semitic race,
+and the languages they spoke were but varieties of
+the same family of speech. It is probable that such
+was the case with the Kaldâ, who lived in the
+marshes at the mouth of the Euphrates, and from
+whom classical geography has derived the name of
+Chaldean. The extension of the name to the whole
+population of Babylonia was due to the reign of the
+Kaldâ prince, Merodach-baladan, at Babylon. For
+years he represented Babylonian freedom in its struggle
+with Assyria, and his <q>Chaldean</q> subjects became
+an integral part of the population. Perhaps,
+too, the theory is right which makes Nebuchadnezzar
+of Kaldâ descent. If so, there is a good reason why
+the inhabitants of Babylonia should have become
+<q>Chaldeans</q> in the classical age.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of wholly different origin were the Kassites,
+mountaineers from the east of Elam, who conquered
+Babylonia, and founded a dynasty of kings which
+lasted for several centuries. They also gave their
+name to the population of the country, and, in the
+Tel-el-Amarna tablets, accordingly, the natives of
+Babylonia are known as <q>Kassi.</q> Sennacherib found
+their kinsfolk in the Elamite mountains, and here they
+still lived in the age of the Greek writers. Strabo
+calls them Kosseans, and it seems probable that they
+are the same as the Kissians, after whom the whole
+of Elam was named. At any rate the Kassites were
+<pb n='008'/><anchor id='Pg008'/>
+neither Sumerians nor Semites; and their language,
+of which several words have been preserved, has no
+known connections. But they left their mark upon
+the Babylonian people, and several family names
+were borrowed from them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Babylonian was thus a compound of Sumerian,
+Semitic, and Kassite elements. They all went to
+form the culture which we term Babylonian, and
+which left such enduring traces on Western Asia and
+the world. Mixed races are invariably the best, and
+the Babylonians were no exception to the rule. We
+have only to compare them with their neighbors, the
+more purely blooded Semitic Assyrians, to assure
+ourselves of the fact. The culture of Assyria was
+but an imitation and reflection of that of Babylonia—there
+was nothing original about it. The Assyrian
+excelled only in the ferocities of war, not in the arts
+of peace. Even the gods of Assyria had migrated
+from the southern kingdom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dual character of Babylonian civilization must
+never be forgotten. It serves to explain a good deal
+that would otherwise be puzzling in the religious and
+social life of the people. But the social life was also
+influenced and conditioned by the peculiar nature of
+the country in which the people lived. It was an
+alluvial plain, sloping toward the sea, and inundated
+by the overflow of the two great rivers which ran
+through it. When cultivated it was exceedingly
+fertile; but cultivation implied a careful regulation of
+the overflow, as well as a constant attention to the
+embankments which kept out the waters, or to the
+canals which drained and watered the soil.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='009'/><anchor id='Pg009'/>
+
+<p>
+The inhabitants were therefore, necessarily, agriculturists.
+They were also irrigators and engineers,
+compelled to study how best to regulate the supply
+of water, to turn the pestiferous marsh into a fruitful
+field, and to confine the rivers and canals within their
+channels. Agriculture and engineering thus had
+their natural home in Babylonia, and originated in
+the character of the country itself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The neighborhood of the sea and the two great
+waterways which flanked the Babylonian plain further
+gave an impetus to trade. The one opened the
+road to the spice-bearing coasts of Southern Arabia
+and the more distant shores of Egypt; the other led
+to the highlands of Western Asia. From the first
+the Babylonians were merchants and sailors as well
+as agriculturists. The <q>cry</q> of the Chaldeans was
+<q>in their ships.</q> The seaport of Eridu was one of
+the earliest of Babylonian cities; and a special form
+of boat took its name from the more inland town of
+Ur. While the population of the country devoted
+itself to agriculture, the towns grew wealthy by the
+help of trade.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Their architecture was dependent on the nature of
+the country. In the alluvial plain no stone was
+procurable; clay, on the other hand, was everywhere.
+All buildings, accordingly, were constructed of clay
+bricks, baked in the sun, and bonded together with
+cement of the same material; their roofs were of wood,
+supported, not unfrequently, by the stems of the
+palm. The palm stems, in time, became pillars, and
+Babylonia was thus the birthplace of columnar
+architecture. It was also the birthplace of decorated
+<pb n='010'/><anchor id='Pg010'/>
+walls. It was needful to cover the sun-dried bricks
+with plaster, for the sake both of their preservation
+and of appearance. This was the origin of the stucco
+with which the walls were overlaid, and which came
+in time to be ornamented with painting. Ezekiel
+refers to the figures, portrayed in vermilion, which
+adorned the walls of the houses of the rich.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The want of stone and the abundance of clay had
+another and unique influence upon Babylonian culture.
+It led to the invention of the written clay tablet,
+which has had such momentous results for the
+civilization of the whole Eastern world. The pictures
+with which Babylonian writing began were soon discarded
+for the conventional forms, which could so
+easily be impressed by the stylus upon the soft clay.
+It is probable that the use of the clay as a writing
+material was first suggested by the need there was
+in matters of business that the contracting parties
+should record their names. The absence of stone
+made every pebble valuable, and pebbles were accordingly
+cut into cylindrical forms and engraved with
+signs. When the cylinder was rolled over a lump of
+wet clay, its impress remained forever. The signs
+became cuneiform characters, and the Babylonian
+wrote them upon clay instead of stone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The seal-cylinder and the use of clay as a writing
+material must consequently be traced to the peculiar
+character of the country in which the Babylonian
+lived. To the same origin must be ascribed his
+mode of burial. The tomb was built of bricks;
+there were no rocky cliffs in which to excavate it, and
+the marshy soil made a grave unsanitary. It was
+<pb n='011'/><anchor id='Pg011'/>
+doubtless sanitary reasons alone that caused wood to
+be heaped about the tomb after an interment and set
+on fire so that all within it was partially consumed.
+The narrow limits of the Babylonian plain obliged
+the cemetery of the dead to adjoin the houses of the
+living, and cremation, whether partial or complete,
+became a necessity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even the cosmogony of the Babylonians has
+been influenced by their surroundings. The world,
+it was believed, originated in a watery chaos, like
+that in which the first settlers had found the Babylonian
+plain. The earth not only rested on the waters,
+but the waters themselves, dark and unregulated,
+were the beginning of all things. This cosmological
+conception was carried with the rest of Babylonian
+culture to the West, and after passing through Canaan
+found its way into Greek philosophy. In the Book
+of Genesis we read that <q>darkness was on the face
+of the deep</q> before the creative spirit of God
+brooded over it, and Thales, the first of Greek philosophers,
+taught that water was the principle out of
+which all things have come.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fertility of the Babylonian soil was remarkable.
+Grain, it was said, gave a return of two hundred
+for one, sometimes of three hundred for one.
+Herodotus, or the authority he quotes, grows enthusiastic
+upon the subject. <q>The leaf of the wheat
+and barley,</q> he says, <q>is as much as three inches in
+width, and the stalks of the millet and sesamum are
+so tall that no one who has never been in that country
+would believe me were I to mention their height.</q>
+In fact, naturalists tell us that Babylonia was the
+<pb n='012'/><anchor id='Pg012'/>
+primitive home of the cultivated cereals, wheat and
+probably barley, and that from the banks of the
+Euphrates they must have been disseminated throughout
+the civilized world. Wheat, indeed, has been
+found growing wild in our own days in the neighborhood
+of Hit.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dissemination of wheat goes back to a remote
+epoch. Like barley, it is met with in the tombs of
+that prehistoric population of Egypt which still lived
+in the neolithic age and whose later remains are
+coeval with the first Pharaonic epoch. The fact
+throws light on the antiquity of the intercourse
+which existed between the Euphrates and the Nile,
+and bears testimony to the influence already exerted
+on the Western world by the culture of Babylonia.
+We have, indeed, no written records which go
+back to so distant a past; it belongs, perhaps, to an
+epoch when the art of writing had not as yet been
+invented. But there was already civilization in
+Babylonia, and the elements of its future social life
+were already in existence. Babylonian culture is
+immeasurably old.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='013'/><anchor id='Pg013'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter II. The Family</head>
+
+<p>
+Two principles struggled for recognition in Babylonian
+family life. One was the patriarchal, the
+other the matriarchal. Perhaps they were due to a
+duality of race; perhaps they were merely a result of
+the circumstances under which the Babylonian lived.
+At times it would seem as if we must pronounce the
+Babylonian family to have been patriarchal in its
+character; at other times the wife and mother occupies
+an independent and even commanding position.
+It may be noted that whereas in the old Sumerian
+hymns the woman takes precedence of the man, the
+Semitic translation invariably reverses the order:
+the one has <q>female and male,</q> the other <q>male and
+female.</q> Elsewhere in the Semitic world, where the
+conceptions of Babylonian culture had not penetrated,
+the woman was subordinate to the man, his helpmate
+and not his equal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this respect nothing can be more significant
+than the changes undergone by the name and worship
+of the goddess Istar, when they were carried from
+Babylonia to the Semites of the West. In Babylonia
+she was a goddess of independent power, who stood
+on a footing of equality with the gods. But in
+<pb n='014'/><anchor id='Pg014'/>
+Southern Arabia and Moab she became a male
+divinity, and in the latter country was even identified
+with the supreme god Chemosh. In Canaan she
+passed into the feminine Ashtoreth, and at last was
+merged in the crowd of goddesses who were but the
+feminine reflections of the male. A goddess whose
+attributes did not differ from those of a god was
+foreign to the religious ideas of the purely Semitic
+mind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was otherwise in Babylonia. There the goddess
+was the equal of the god, while on earth the women
+claimed rights which placed them almost on a level
+with the men. One of the early sovereigns of the
+country was a queen, Ellat-Gula, and even in Assyria
+the bas-reliefs of Assur-bani-pal represent the queen
+as sitting and feasting by the side of her husband.
+A list of trees brought to Akkad in the reign of Sargon
+(3800 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>) speaks of them as having been conveyed
+by the servants of the queen, and if Dr. Scheil is
+right in his translation of the Sumerian words, the
+kings of Ur, before the days of Abraham, made their
+daughters high-priestesses of foreign lands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Up to the last the Babylonian woman, in her
+own name, could enter into partnership with others,
+could buy and sell, lend and borrow, could appear
+as plaintiff and witness in a court of law, could
+even bequeath her property as she wished. In a
+deed, dated in the second year of Nabonidos (555
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>), a father transfers all his property to his daughter,
+reserving to himself only the use of it during
+the rest of his life. In return the daughter agrees
+to provide him with the necessaries of life, food and
+<pb n='015'/><anchor id='Pg015'/>
+drink, oil and clothing. A few years later, in the
+second year of Cyrus, a woman of the name of
+Nubtâ, or <q>Bee,</q> hired out a slave for five years in
+order that he might be taught the art of weaving.
+She stipulated to give him one <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi>, or about a quart
+and a half of food, each day, and to provide him with
+clothing while he was learning the trade. It is
+evident that Nubtâ owned looms and traded in woven
+fabrics on her own account.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nubtâ was the daughter of Ben-Hadad-amara, a
+Syrian <emph>settled</emph> in Babylonia who had been adopted
+by another Syrian of the name of Ben-Hadad-nathan.
+After the latter's death his widow brought an action
+before the royal judges to recover her husband's
+property. She stated that after their marriage she
+and Ben-Hadad-nathan had traded together, and that
+a house had been purchased with a portion of her
+dowry. This house, the value of which was as much
+as 110 manehs, 50 shekels, or £62 10s., had been
+assigned to her in perpetuity. The half-brother
+Aqabi-il (Jacob-el), however, now claimed everything,
+including the house. The case was tried at Babylon
+before six judges in the ninth year of Nabonidos,
+and they decided in favor of the plaintiff.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the documents that have come down to us
+from the age of Abraham records the gift of a female
+slave by a husband to his wife. The slave and her
+children, it was laid down, were to remain the property
+of the wife in case either of divorce or of the
+husband's death. The right of the woman to hold
+private property of her own, over which the male
+heirs had no control, was thus early recognized by
+<pb n='016'/><anchor id='Pg016'/>
+the law. In later times it is referred to in numberless
+contracts. In the reign of Nebokin-abla, for
+instance, in the eleventh century <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, we find a field
+bequeathed first of all to a daughter and then to a
+sister; in the beginning of the reign of Nabonidos
+we hear of a brother and sister, the children of a
+naturalized Egyptian, inheriting their father's property
+together; and in the fourth year of Cyrus his
+son Cambyses sued for the payment of a loan which
+he had made to a Babylonian on the security of some
+house-property, and which was accordingly refunded
+by the debtor's wife. Other deeds relate to the
+borrowing of money by a husband and his wife in
+partnership, to a wife selling a slave for a maneh of
+silver on her own account, to a woman bringing
+an action before six judges at the beginning of the
+reign of Nabonidos to recover the price of a slave
+she had sold, and to another woman who two years
+previously was the witness to the sale of a house.
+Further proofs are not needed of the independent
+position of the woman, whether married or single,
+and of her equality with the man in the eyes of the
+law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It would seem that she was on a level with him
+also in the eyes of religion. There were priestesses
+in Babylonia as well as priests. The oracles of Istar
+at Arbela were worked by inspired prophetesses, who
+thus resembled Deborah and Huldah and the other
+prophetesses of Israel. When Esar-haddon inquired
+of the will of heaven, it was from the prophetesses of
+Istar that he received encouragement and a promise
+of victory. From the earliest period, moreover, there
+<pb n='017'/><anchor id='Pg017'/>
+were women who lived like nuns, unmarried and devoted
+to the service of the Sun-god. The office was
+held in high honor, one of the daughters of King
+Ammi-Zadok, the fourth successor of Khammurabi or
+Amraphel, being a devotee of the god. In the reign
+of the same king we find two of these devotees and
+their nieces letting for a year nine feddans or acres
+of ground in the district in which the <q>Amorites</q> of
+Canaan were settled. This was done <q>by command
+of the high-priest Sar-ilu,</q> a name in which Mr.
+Pinches suggests that we should see that of Israel.
+The women were to receive a shekel of silver, or three
+shillings, <q>the produce of the field,</q> by way of rent,
+while six measures of corn on every ten feddans were
+to be set apart for the Sun-god himself. In the previous
+reign a house had been let at an annual rent of
+two shekels which was the joint property of a devotee
+of the Sun-god Samas and her brother. It is clear
+that consecration to the service of the deity did not
+prevent the <q>nun</q> from owning and enjoying property.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Like Samas, the Sun-god, Istar was also served by
+women, who, however, do not seem to have led the
+same reputable lives. They were divided into two
+classes, one of which was called the <q>Wailers,</q> from
+the lamentations with which each year they mourned
+the death of the god Tammuz, the stricken favorite of
+Istar. The Chaldean Epic of Gilgames speaks of the
+<q>troops</q> of them that were gathered together in the
+city of Erech. Here Istar had her temple along with
+her father, Anu, the Sky-god, and here accordingly
+her devotees were assembled. Like the goddess they
+<pb n='018'/><anchor id='Pg018'/>
+served, it would appear that they were never married
+in lawful wedlock. But they nevertheless formed a
+corporation, like the corporations of the priests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Babylonian law and custom prevailed also in Assyria.
+So far as can be gathered from the contracts
+that have come down to us, the Assyrian women enjoyed
+almost as many privileges as their sisters in
+Babylonia. Thus, in 668 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, we find a lady, Tsarpî
+by name, buying the sister of a man whose slave she
+was, for reasons unknown to us, and paying half a
+maneh of silver (£4 10s.) for the girl. Tsarpî was a
+<q>prefectess,</q> like another lady who is called <q>the
+prefectess of Nineveh,</q> and who, in 683 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, purchased
+seventeen slaves and a garden. It is plain
+from this that women could hold civil offices and even
+act as governors of a city.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In fact, wherever Babylonian culture and law extended,
+the principles and practice of it were necessarily
+in force. The Amorite colonies from Canaan established
+in Babylonia for the purposes of trade in the
+age of Abraham were naturally subject to the Babylonian
+laws, and the women among them possessed
+all the rights of their Babylonian neighbors. At the
+very beginning of the dynasty to which Khammurabi
+belonged, an Amorite lady, a certain Kuryatum,
+brought an action for the recovery of a field which
+had been the property of her father, Asalia, and won
+her suit. Kuryatum and her brother were themselves
+subsequently sued by three other <q>Amorites,</q> the
+children of Izi-idrê, one of whom was a woman, for
+a field and house, together with some slaves and palm-trees,
+of which, it was asserted, they had wrongfully
+<pb n='019'/><anchor id='Pg019'/>
+taken possession. The judges, however, after hearing
+both sides, dismissed the case.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not strange that the same laws and principles
+should have held good in Canaan itself, which was
+so long a Babylonian province. Sarah, who was of
+Babylonian origin, owned a female slave (Gen. xvi.
+2, 6, 8, 9), and the Kennizzite Caleb assigned a field
+with springs to his daughter Achsah in the early
+days of the invasion of Canaan (Josh. xv. 18, 19). A
+Canaanitish lady takes part in the Tel-el-Amarna correspondence,
+and writes to the Pharaoh on matters of
+state, while the Mosaic Law allowed the daughter to
+inherit the possessions of her father (Numb. xxxvi. 8).
+This, however, was only the case where there was no
+son; after the Israelitish conquest of Canaan, when
+the traditions of Babylonian custom had passed away,
+we hear no more of brothers and sisters sharing together
+the inheritance of their father, or of a wife
+bequeathing anything which belongs to her of right.
+As regards the woman, the law of Israel, after the
+settlement in Canaan, was the moral law of the
+Semitic tribes. We must go back to the age of Abraham
+and Sarah to find a Hebrew woman possessed of
+the same powers as the Babylonian lady who, in the
+fifth year of Cambyses, sold a slave for two manehs
+and five shekels of silver, her husband and mother
+guaranteeing the value of the chattel that was thus
+sold.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dowry which the woman brought with her on
+marriage secured of itself her independence. It was
+her absolute property, and she could leave it by will
+as she pleased. It protected her from tyrannical conduct
+<pb n='020'/><anchor id='Pg020'/>
+on the part of her husband, as well as from the
+fear of divorce on insufficient grounds. If a divorce
+took place the dowry had to be restored to her in full,
+and she then returned to her father's house or set up
+an establishment of her own. Where no dowry had
+been brought by the bride, the husband was often required
+by the marriage contract to pay her a specified
+sum of money in case of her divorce. Thus a marriage
+contract made in Babylon in the thirteenth
+year of Nebuchadnezzar stipulates that, if the husband
+marries a second wife, the act shall be equivalent to
+a divorce of the first wife, who shall accordingly receive
+not only her dowry, but a maneh of silver as
+well. The payment, in fact, was a penalty on the
+unfaithfulness of the husband and served as a check
+upon both divorce and polygamy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dowry consisted not of money alone, but also
+of slaves and furniture, the value of which was stated
+in the marriage contract. In the contract just referred
+to, for instance, part of the dowry consisted of
+a slave who was valued at half a maneh. Sometimes
+the dowry included cattle and sheep. In the sixth
+year of Nabonidos we hear of three slaves and <q>furniture
+with which to stock the house,</q> besides a maneh
+of silver (£6), being given as the marriage-portion.
+In this instance, however, the silver was not forthcoming
+on the wedding-day, and in place of it a slave
+valued at two-thirds of a maneh was accepted, the remaining
+third being left for payment at a subsequent
+date. Where the dowry could not be paid at once,
+security for the payment of it was taken by the
+bridegroom.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='021'/><anchor id='Pg021'/>
+
+<p>
+The payment was made, not by the bridegroom, as
+among the Israelites and other Semitic peoples, but
+by the father of the bride. If he were dead, or if the
+mother of the bride had been divorced and was in the
+enjoyment of her own property, the mother took
+the place of the father and was expected to provide the
+dowry. In such a case she also naturally gave permission
+for the marriage, and it was from her accordingly
+that consent to it had to be obtained. In one
+instance, however, in a deed dated in the sixteenth
+year of Nabonidos, a sister is given in marriage by her
+two brothers, who consequently furnish the dowry,
+consisting of a piece of ground inherited from the
+mother, a slave, clothes, and furniture. It is evident
+that in this case both the parents must have been dead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the bridegroom's duty and interest to see
+that the dowry was duly paid. He enjoyed the usufruct
+of it during his life, and not unfrequently it was
+employed not only to furnish the house of the newly
+married couple, but also to start them in business.
+It was with his wife's dowry that Ben-Hadad-nathan
+bought in part the house to which his widow laid
+claim after his death, and we read of instances in
+which the husband and wife enter into partnership
+in order to trade with the wife's money. More frequently
+the wife uses her dowry to transact business
+separately, her purchases and loans being made
+in her own name; this is especially the case if she
+otherwise has property of her own.<note place="foot">In certain
+cases the wife seems to have had the power of claiming
+alimony from her husband, though we do not know what were
+the circumstances which were held sufficient to justify the claim.
+Thus, in the third year of Nabonidos, <q>Nahid-Merodach, the son
+of Samas-baladhu-iqbi, voluntarily granted his wife Ramûa and
+his son Arad-Bunene four <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of food and
+three <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of beer daily, as well as fifteen
+manehs of wool, one <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> of sesame, one
+<hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> of salt, and sixty <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+of sweetmeats each year,</q> with the provision
+that the grant should never be cancelled or willed away. The
+son, however, is included in the gift, and it is possible, therefore,
+that Ramûa was little more than a concubine.</note>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='022'/><anchor id='Pg022'/>
+
+<p>
+At times the son-in-law found it difficult to get the
+dowry paid. From a deed dated in the third year of
+Cambyses we gather that the dowry, instead of being
+delivered <q>into the hand</q> of the bridegroom, as
+ought to have been done at the time of the marriage,
+was still unpaid nine years later. Sometimes, of
+course, this was due to the inability of the father-in-law
+to discharge his debt, through bankruptcy, death,
+or other causes. Where, therefore, the money was
+not immediately forthcoming, security was taken for
+its future payment. If payment in full was impossible,
+owing to pecuniary losses incurred after the marriage
+contract had been drawn up, the bridegroom
+was entitled to claim a proportionate amount of it on
+behalf of his wife. The heirs were called upon to pay
+what was due if the father-in-law died between the
+drawing-up of the contract and the actual marriage,
+and when the wife died without children it returned
+to her <q>father's house.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the husband died and his widow married again,
+she carried her former dowry with her. In such a
+case the children of the first marriage inherited two-thirds
+of it upon her death, the remaining third going
+to the children of the second husband. This was in
+accordance with a law which regulated the succession
+<pb n='023'/><anchor id='Pg023'/>
+to the property of a father who had married a second
+time, the children of the first marriage receiving two-thirds
+of it and the remainder being reserved for the
+children of the second wife. The law could only be
+overruled by a will made during the man's lifetime,
+and properly attested by witnesses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dowry could not be alienated by the wife without
+the consent of her parents, if they were still
+alive. In the year of Nergal-sharezer's accession, for
+example, a certain Nergal-ballidh and his wife Dhibtâ
+wished to sell a slave, who had constituted the
+dowry of Dhibtâ, for twenty-five shekels, but the sale
+was not considered valid until the consent of both
+her father and mother had been obtained.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The dowry was not the only property the woman
+was able to hold. She had similar power to hold and
+dispose of whatever else had come to her by inheritance
+or gift. The gains she made in business, the
+proceeds of the sale of her estates, and the interest
+upon the capital she lent, all belonged to herself, and
+to herself alone. For purposes of succession they
+were reckoned along with the dowry as constituting
+her property during life. In the thirty-fourth year
+of Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, a father stipulates
+that the creditors of his daughter's father-in-law
+should have no claim either upon her dowry or upon
+any other part of her possessions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The power of the married woman over her property
+was doubtless the result of the system which provided
+her with a dowry. The principle of her absolute
+control over the latter once admitted, it was extended
+by the law to the rest of her estate. She thus
+<pb n='024'/><anchor id='Pg024'/>
+took rank by the side of the man, and, like him, could
+trade or otherwise deal with her property as she
+chose. The dowry, in fact, must have been her original
+charter of freedom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it was so because it was given by her father,
+and not by the bridegroom. Where it was the gift of
+the bridegroom it was but a civilized form of purchasing
+the bride. In such a case the husband had a
+right to the person and possessions of the wife, inasmuch
+as he had bought her; as much right, in fact, as
+he had to the person and possessions of a slave. The
+wife was merely a superior slave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Where, however, the dowry was the gift of the
+bride's father the conditions were reversed. The
+husband received not only a wife, he received also an
+estate along with her. He it was upon whom the
+benefit was conferred, and he had to accept the conditions
+offered him, not to make them. In a commercial
+state like Babylonia, property represented
+personalty, and the personalty of the wife accordingly
+remained with the family from which her property
+was derived, rather than with the husband, to
+whom the use of it was lent. Hence the independence
+of the married woman in Babylonia and her
+complete freedom of action as regards her husband.
+The property she possessed, the personalty it represented,
+belonged to herself alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Traces, however, may be detected of an older order
+of things, which once existed, at all events, in the
+Semitic element of the Babylonian population. The
+dowry had to be paid to the husband, to be deposited,
+as it were, in his <q>hand.</q> It was with him that
+<pb n='025'/><anchor id='Pg025'/>
+the marriage contract was made. This must surely
+go back to an age when the marriage portion was
+really given to the bridegroom, and he had the same
+right over it as was enjoyed until recently by the
+husband in England. Moreover, the right of divorce
+retained by the husband, like the fact that the bride
+was given away by a male relation, points in the same
+direction. According to an early Sumerian law, while
+the repudiation of the wife on the part of the husband
+was punishable only with a small fine, for the
+repudiation of the husband by the wife the penalty
+was death. A deed drawn up in the time of Khammurabi
+shows that this law was still in force in the
+age of Abraham. It lays down that if the wife is
+unfaithful to her husband she may be drowned, while
+the husband can rid himself of his wife by the payment
+only of a maneh of silver. Indeed, as late as
+the time of Nebuchadnezzar, the old law remained
+unrepealed, and we find a certain Nebo-akhi-iddin,
+who married a singing-woman, stipulating in the
+marriage contract that if he should divorce her and
+marry another he was to pay her six manehs, but if,
+on the contrary, she committed adultery, she should
+be put to death with <q>an iron sword.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this instance, however, the husband married
+beneath him, and in view of the antecedents of the
+wife the penalty with which she was threatened in
+case of unfaithfulness was perhaps necessary. She
+came to him, moreover, without either a dowry or
+family relations who could give her away. She was
+thus little better than the concubines whom the
+Babylonian was allowed to keep by the side of his
+<pb n='026'/><anchor id='Pg026'/>
+lawful wife. But even so, the marriage contract had
+to be made out in full legal form, and the penalty to
+be paid for her divorce was as much as £54. With
+this she could have lived comfortably and probably
+have had no difficulty in finding another husband.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The concubine was usually a slave who had been
+bought by the bridegroom. Occasionally, by agreement
+with the parents, the wife herself was in much
+the same position. Thus Dagil-ili, who married the
+daughter of a lady named Khammâ, gave the mother
+one and a half manehs of silver and a slave worth
+half a maneh, and agreed that if he married another
+wife he would give her daughter a maneh and send
+her back to her old home. Here the husband practically
+buys his wife, though even so the law obliged
+him to divorce her if he married again, and also fined
+him for doing so. Khammâ was apparently in financial
+difficulties, and consequently, instead of furnishing
+her daughter with a dowry, received money from
+the bridegroom. It was a private arrangement, and
+utterly opposed to the usual custom. The parents
+had, however, the power of selling their children
+before they came of age, and where the parents were
+dead, the same power was possessed—at any rate in
+Assyria—by a brother in the case of a sister. Doubtless
+the power was restricted by law, but the instances
+in which we hear of its being exercised are so rare
+that we do not know what these restrictions were.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nor do we know the reasons which were considered
+sufficient to justify divorce. The language of the
+early laws would seem to imply that originally it was
+quite enough to pronounce the words: <q>Thou art not
+<pb n='027'/><anchor id='Pg027'/>
+my wife,</q> <q>Thou art not my husband.</q> But the loss
+of the wife's dowry and the penalties attached to
+divorce must have tended to check it on the part of
+the husband, except in exceptional circumstances.
+Perhaps want of children was held to be a sufficient
+pretext for it; certainly adultery must have been so.
+Another cause of divorce was a legal one: a second
+marriage invalidated the first, if the first wife was still
+alive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This is a very astonishing fact in a country where
+polygamy was allowed. It proves that polygamy was
+greatly restricted in practice, and that the tendency
+of the law was to forbid it altogether. Among the
+multitudinous contracts of the second Babylonian empire
+it is difficult to find any which show that a man
+had two legitimate wives living at one and the same
+time. The high position of the mother of the family,
+her independence and commercial equality with her
+husband, were all against it. It is only where the
+wife is a bought slave that polygamy can flourish.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In early times, it is true, the rich Babylonian indulged
+in the possession of more than one wife.
+Some contracts of the age of Khammurabi, translated
+by Mr. Pinches, are particularly instructive in this
+respect. We hear in them of a certain Arad-Samas,
+who first married a lady called Taram-Sagila and
+then her adopted sister Iltani. Iltani, it is ordained,
+shall be under the orders of her sister, shall prepare
+her food, carry her chair to the Temple of Merodach,
+and obey her in all things. Not a word is said about
+the divorce of the first wife; it is taken for granted
+that she is to remain at the head of the household,
+<pb n='028'/><anchor id='Pg028'/>
+the younger and second wife acting as her servant.
+The position of Iltani, in fact, is not very different
+from that of a slave, and it is significant that neither
+wife brought a dowry with her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we have seen in the case of Dagil-ili, the law
+and custom of later Babylonia display a complete
+change of feeling and practice. Marriage with a
+second wife came to involve, as a matter of course,
+divorce from the first, even where there had been a
+<hi rend='italic'>mésalliance</hi> and the first wife had been without a
+dowry. The woman had thus gained a second victory;
+the rule that bound her in regard to marriage
+was now applied to the man. The privilege of marrying
+two husbands at once had been denied her;
+usage was now denying a similar privilege to him.
+It was only when the first wife was dead or divorced
+that a second could be taken; the wife might have a
+successor, but not a rival.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The divorced wife was regarded by the law as a
+widow, and could therefore marry again. A deed of
+divorce, dated in the reign of the father of Khammurabi,
+expressly grants her this right. To the remarriage
+of the widow there was naturally no bar;
+but the children by the two marriages belonged to
+different families, and were kept carefully distinct.
+This is illustrated by a curious deed drawn up at
+Babylon, in the ninth year of Nabonidos. A certain
+Bel-Katsir, who had been adopted by his uncle,
+married a widow who already had a son. She bore
+him no children, however, and he accordingly asked
+the permission of his uncle to adopt his step-son,
+thereby making him the heir of his uncle's property.
+<pb n='029'/><anchor id='Pg029'/>
+To this the uncle objected, and it was finally agreed
+that if Bel-Katsir had no child he was to adopt his
+own brother, and so secure the succession of the
+estate to a member of his own family. The property
+of the mother probably went to her son; but she had
+the power to leave it as she liked. This may be
+gathered from a will, dated in the seventh year of
+Cyrus, in which a son leaves property to his father
+in case of death, which had come to him from his
+maternal grandfather and grandmother. The property
+had been specially bequeathed to him, doubtless
+after his mother's death, the grandmother passing
+over the rest of her descendants in his favor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The marriage ceremony was partly religious, partly
+civil; no marriage was legally valid without a contract
+duly attested and signed. The Babylonians
+carried their business habits into all departments of
+life, and in the eyes of the law matrimony was a legal
+contract, the forms of which had to be duly observed.
+In the later days of Babylonian history the legal and
+civil aspect of the rite seems to have been exclusively
+considered, but at an earlier period it required also
+the sanction of religion; and Mr. Pinches has published
+a fragmentary Sumerian text in which the religious
+ceremony is described. Those who officiated
+at it, first placed their hands and feet against the
+hands and feet of the bridegroom, then the bride laid
+her neck by the side of his, and he was made to say
+to her: <q>Silver and gold shall fill thy lap; thou art
+my wife; I am thy husband. Like the fruit of an
+orchard will I give thee offspring.</q> Next came the
+ceremony of binding the sandals on the feet of the
+<pb n='030'/><anchor id='Pg030'/>
+newly wedded pair and of handing them the latchet
+wherewith the shoes should be tied, as well as <q>a
+purse of silver and gold.</q> The purse perhaps symbolized
+the dowry, which was given by the father of
+the bride. In the time of Nebuchadnezzar the ceremony
+was restricted to joining together the hands of
+the bride and bridegroom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Contact with the Assyrians and Babylonians in the
+Exilic period introduced the Babylonian conception
+of the legal character of marriage among the Israelites,
+and, contrary to the older custom, it became
+necessary that it should be attested by a written contract.
+Thus, Raguel, when he gave his daughter <q>to
+be wife to Tobias,</q> <q>called Edna, his wife, and took
+paper and did write an instrument of covenants, and
+sealed it</q> (Tobit vii. 14).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to Herodotus, a gigantic system of public
+prostitution prevailed in Babylonia. Every unmarried
+woman was compelled to remain in the sacred
+enclosure of Mylitta—by which Istar is apparently
+meant—until some stranger had submitted to her
+embraces, while the sums derived from the sale of
+their personal charms by the handsome and good-looking
+provided portions for the ugly. Of all this
+there is not a trace in the mass of native documents
+which we now possess. There were the devotees of
+Istar, certainly—the <hi rend='italic'>ukhâtu</hi>
+and <hi rend='italic'>kharimâtu</hi>—as well
+as public prostitutes, who were under the protection
+of the law; but they formed a class apart, and had
+nothing to do with the respectable women of the
+country. On the contrary, in the age of Khammurabi
+it was customary to state in the marriage contracts
+<pb n='031'/><anchor id='Pg031'/>
+that no stain whatever rested on the bride.
+Thus we read in one of them: <q>Ana-Â-uzni is the
+daughter of Salimat. Salimat has given her a dowry,
+and has offered her in marriage to Bel-sunu, the son
+of the artisan. Ana-Â-uzni is pure; no one has anything
+against her.</q> The dowry, as we have seen, was
+paid by the near relations of the wife, and where there
+was none, as in the case of the singing-woman married
+by Nebo-akhi-iddin, there was no dowry at all.
+The dowries provided for the ugly by the prostitution
+of the rich must be an invention of the Greeks.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Within what degree of relationship marriage was
+permitted is uncertain. A man could marry his
+sister-in-law, as among the Israelites, and, in one
+instance, we hear of marriage with a niece. In the
+time of Cambyses a brother marries his half-sister
+by the same father; but this was probably an imitation
+of the Persian custom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The children, as we have seen, whether boys or
+girls, inherited alike, subject to the provisions of the
+parent's will. The will seems to have been of Babylonian
+origin. Testamentary devolution of property
+went back to an early period in a country in which
+the legal relations of trade had been so fully developed.
+Trade implied private property and the idea
+of individual possession. The estate belonging to a
+person was his absolutely, to deal with pretty much
+as he would. He had the same right to alienate it
+as he had to increase it. In a commercial community
+there could be no community of goods.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As far back, therefore, as our materials carry us,
+the unit in the Babylonian state is the individual
+<pb n='032'/><anchor id='Pg032'/>
+rather than the family. It is he with whom both
+the law and the government deal, and the legal code
+of Babylonia is based upon the doctrine of individual
+responsibility. Private ownership is the key-note of
+Babylonian social life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the whole of this social life was fenced about
+by a written law. No title was valid for which a
+written document could not be produced, drawn up
+and attested in legal forms. The extensive commercial
+transactions of the Babylonians made this
+necessary, and the commercial spirit dominated
+Babylonian society. The scribe and the lawyer were
+needed at almost every juncture of life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The invention of the will or documentary testament,
+followed naturally. The same legal powers
+that were required to protect a man's property during
+his lifetime were even more urgently required
+when he was dead. The will was at first the title
+which gave the heir his father's estate. Gradually it
+developed, until at last it came to be an instrument
+by means of which the testator retained control over
+his property even after his death. As an example of
+the form which it usually assumed, we may take one
+which was drawn up in the seventh year of the reign
+of Cyrus as King of Babylon (532 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>):
+</p>
+
+<quote rend="display">
+Nebo-baladan, the son of Samas-palassar, the son of the
+priest of the Sun-god, has, of his own free-will, sealed all his
+estate, which he had inherited from Nebo-balasu-iqbi, the son
+of Nur-Ea, the son of the priest of the Sun-god, the father of
+his mother, and from Kabtâ, the mother of Assat-Belit, his
+grandmother, consisting of a piece of land, a house and the
+slaves or serfs attached to it, in accordance with the will
+(<hi rend='italic'>literally</hi>
+<pb n='033'/><anchor id='Pg033'/>
+tablet) which his maternal grandfather, Nebo-balasu-iqbi,
+and his maternal grandmother, Kabtâ, had sealed and bequeathed
+to Nebo-baladan, the son of their daughter, and has
+bequeathed them for ever to Samas-palassar, the son of Samas-ina-esi-edher,
+the son of the priest of the Sun-god. As long as
+Nebo-baladan lives the piece of ground, the house, the slaves,
+and all the rest of his property shall continue in his own possession,
+according to the terms of this his will. Whoever shall
+attempt to change them, may Anu, Bel, and Ae curse him;
+may Nebo, the divine scribe of Ê-Saggil, cut off his days!
+This will has been sealed in the presence of Sula, son of
+Bania, son of Epes-ilu; of Bel-iddin, son of Bel-natsir, son of
+the priest of Gula; of Nebo-sum-yukin, son of Sula, son of
+Sigua; of Nebo-natsir, son of Ziria, son of Sumâti; …
+of Nebo-sum-lisir, son of Nebo-sum-iskun, son of the wine-merchant (?),
+and the scribe Samas-zir-yusabsi, son of Zariqu-iddin,
+son of the architect. (Written at) Babylon, the 19th
+day of Sebat (February), the seventh year of Cyrus, king of
+Babylon and the world.
+</quote>
+
+<p>
+In this case it is a son who makes over his property
+to his father should he be the first to die. The will
+shows that the son was absolute master of his own
+possessions even during his father's lifetime, and
+could bequeath it as he chose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A remarkable instance of the application of the
+principles underlying testamentary devolution is to be
+found in the case of Ninip-Sum-iskun, the son of a
+land-surveyor who handed over his property to his
+daughter Dhabtu, while he was still alive, stipulating
+only for the usufruct of it. The text begins by saying
+that the testator called to his daughter: <q>Bring
+me writing materials, for I am ill. My brother has
+deserted me; my son has offended me. To you
+therefore I turn. Have pity on me, and while I live
+<pb n='034'/><anchor id='Pg034'/>
+support me with food, oil, and clothes. The income
+from my surveying business, in which I have two-thirds
+of a share with my brother, do I hand over to
+you.</q> After this preamble the deed is drawn up in
+due form, attested, dated, and sealed. The whole of
+the testator's property is assigned to his daughter
+<q>for ever,</q> <q>the usufruct of his income</q> only being
+reserved to himself <q>as long as he shall live.</q> He
+undertakes accordingly not to <q>sell</q> it, not to give
+it to another, not to pawn it or alienate a portion of
+it. By way of doubly securing that the deed shall
+take effect, the gods are invoked as well as the law.<note place="foot">A
+similar case, in which, however, it is a testatrix who hands
+over her property to her son during her lifetime, is recorded in a
+deed dated at Babylon the 10th day of Sivân, in the second year of
+Nabonidos. The deed is as follows: <q>Gugûa, the daughter of
+Zakir, the son of a native of Isin, has voluntarily sealed and
+delivered to her eldest son, Ea-zir-ibni, her dowry, consisting of
+one maneh which is in the keeping of Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of
+Sula, the son of Egibi; 35 shekels which have been mortgaged to
+Tabnea, the son of Nebo-yusallim, the son of Sin-sadunu, and 20
+shekels which are due from Tasmetum-ramat, the daughter of
+Arad-Bel, the son of Egibi, as well as a field producing 48 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+of seed on the canal of Kish. As regards the maneh and 56
+shekels belonging to Gugûa, which, in the absence of her eldest
+son, Ea-zir-ibni, she has divided between her younger sons, Nebo-akhi-bullidh,
+Nergal-ina-esi-edher, Itti-Samas-baladhu, and Ninip-pir-<hi rend='italic'>utsur</hi>,
+Ea-zir-ibni shall have no claim to them. Gugûa has delivered
+to Ea-zir-ibni, her eldest son, one maneh, now in the hands
+of Nebo-akhi-iddin, 55 shekels in the hands of Tabnea, 50 shekels
+in the hands of Tasmetum-ramat, and a field bearing 48 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of
+seed. As long as Gugûa lives, Ea-zir-ibni shall give his mother Gugûa, as
+interest upon the property, food and clothing. Gugûa shall alienate
+none of it out of affection or will it away. Ea-zir-ibni shall not be
+disturbed in his possession.</q> The names of three witnesses are
+attached to the deed, which was <q>sealed in the presence of Babâ,
+the daughter of Nebo-zir-lisir, the son of Egibi.</q></note>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='035'/><anchor id='Pg035'/>
+
+<p>
+Another case in which a kind of will seems to have
+been made which should take effect during the lifetime
+of the testator, is a document drawn up by order
+of the Assyrian King Sennacherib. We may gather
+from it that Esar-haddon, though not his eldest, was his
+favorite son, a fact which may explain his subsequent
+assassination by two of his other sons, who took advantage
+of their brother's absence in Armenia at the
+head of the army, to murder their father and usurp
+the throne. In the document in question Sennacherib
+makes a written statement of his desire to leave
+to Esar-haddon certain personal effects, which are
+enumerated by name. <q>Gold rings, quantities of
+ivory, gold cups, dishes, and necklaces, all these
+valuable objects in plenty, as well as three sorts of
+precious stones, one and one-half maneh and two
+and one-half shekels in weight, I bequeath to
+Esar-haddon, my son, who bears the surname of
+Assur-etil-kin-pal, to be deposited in the house of
+Amuk.</q> It will be noticed that this document is
+not attested by witnesses. Such attestation was
+dispensed with in the case of the monarch; his own
+name was sufficient to create a title. Whether it
+would have been the same in Babylonia, where the
+king was not equally autocratic and the commercial
+spirit was stronger than in Assyria, may be questioned.
+At all events, when Gigitu, the daughter of
+the Babylonian King Nergal-sharezer, was married to
+one of his officials, the contract was made out in the
+usual form, and the names of several witnesses were
+attached to it, while the deeds relating to the trading
+transactions of Belshazzar when heir-apparent to the
+<pb n='036'/><anchor id='Pg036'/>
+throne differ in nothing from those required from the
+ordinary citizen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Besides possessing the power of making a will,
+the head of the family was able to increase it by
+adoption. The practice of adoption was of long
+standing in Babylonia. The right to become King
+of Babylon and so to claim legitimate rule over the
+civilized world was conferred through adoption by
+the god Bel-Merodach. The claimant to sovereignty
+<q>took the hand of Bel,</q> as it was termed, and
+thereby became the adopted son of the god. Until
+this ceremony was performed, however much he
+might be a sovereign <hi rend='italic'>de facto</hi>,
+he was not so <hi rend='italic'>de jure</hi>.
+The legal title to rule could be given by Bel, and by
+Bel alone. As the Pharaohs of Egypt were sons of
+Ra the Sun-god, so it was necessary that the kings
+of Babylon should be the sons of the Babylonian
+Sun-god Merodach. Sonship alone made them legitimate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This theory of adoption by a god must have been
+derived from a practice that was already well known.
+And the power of adopting children was exercised by
+the Babylonians up to the last. It has been suggested
+that it was due to ancestor-worship, and the
+desire to prevent the customary offerings from being
+discontinued through the extinction of the family.
+But for this there is no evidence. Indeed, it is
+questionable whether there was any worship of
+ancestors in Babylonia except in the case of the
+royal family. And even here it had its origin in the
+deification of the kings during their lifetime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The prevalence of adoption in Babylonia had a
+<pb n='037'/><anchor id='Pg037'/>
+much less recondite cause. It was one of the results
+of the recognition of private property and the principle
+of individual ownership. The head of the
+family naturally did not wish his estate to pass out
+of it and be transferred to a stranger. Wherever
+monogamy is the general rule, the feeling of family
+relationship is strong, and such was the case among
+the Babylonians. The feeling shows itself in the
+fact that when inherited land is sold we find other
+members of the family signing their assent by their
+presence at the sale. The father or mother, accordingly,
+who adopted a child did so with the intention
+of making him their heir, and so keeping the estate
+they had inherited or acquired in the hands of their
+own kin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That this is the true explanation of the Babylonian
+practice of adoption is clear from the case mentioned
+above in which Bel-Katsir was prevented from
+adopting his step-son, because his uncle and adoptive
+father, whose property would then have passed to the
+latter, objected to his doing so. It was entirely a
+question of inheritance. Bel-Katsir had been adopted
+in order that he might be his uncle's heir, and consequently
+the uncle had the right of deciding to whom
+his estate should ultimately go. He preferred that
+it should be the brother of Bel-Katsir, and the brother
+accordingly it was settled to be.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fact that women could adopt, also points in the
+same direction. The woman was the equal of the
+man as regards the possession and management of
+property, and like the man, therefore, she could determine
+who should inherit it.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='038'/><anchor id='Pg038'/>
+
+<p>
+A slave could be adopted as well as a free man. It
+was one of the ways in which a slave obtained his
+freedom, and contracts for the sale of slaves generally
+guarantee that they have not been adopted into the
+family of a citizen. A curious suit that was brought
+before a special court at Babylon in the tenth year of
+Nabonidos illustrates the advantage that was sometimes
+taken of the fact. The action was brought
+against a slave who bears the Israelitish name of
+Barachiel, and may, therefore, have been a Jew, and
+it was tried, not only before the ordinary judges, but
+before special commissioners and <q>elders</q> as well.
+The following is a translation of the judgment which
+was delivered and preserved in the record office:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Barachiel is the slave of Gagâ, the daughter of … ,
+redeemable with money only. In the thirty-fifth
+year of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon (570
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>), he was given to Akhi-nuri, son of Nebo-nadin-akhi,
+as security for a debt of twenty-eight shekels.
+Now he claims that he is the adopted son of Bel-rimanni,
+who has joined the hands of Samas-mudam-miq,
+the son of Nebo-nadin-akhi, and Qudasu, the
+daughter of Akhi-nuri, in matrimony. The case was
+pleaded before the commissioners, the elders, and the
+judges of Nabonidos, King of Babylon, and the arguments
+were heard on both sides. They read the deeds
+relating to the servile condition of Barachiel, who
+from the thirty-fifth year of Nebuchadnezzar, King of
+Babylon, to the seventh year of Nabonidos, King of
+Babylon, had been sold for money, had been given as
+security for a debt, and had been handed over to
+Nubtâ, the daughter of Gagâ, as her dowry—Nubtâ,
+<pb n='039'/><anchor id='Pg039'/>
+had afterward, by a sealed deed, given him with a
+house and other slaves to her son, Zamama-iddin,
+and her husband, Nadin-abla—and they said to
+Barachiel: You have brought an action and called
+yourself an adopted son. Prove to us your adoption.
+Barachiel thereupon confessed: Twice did I run away
+from the house of my master and for many days was
+not seen. Then I was afraid and pretended to be an
+adopted son. My adoption is non-existent; I was
+the slave of Gagâ, redeemable with money. Nubtâ,
+her daughter, made a present of me, and by a sealed
+deed transferred me to her son, Zamama-iddin, and
+her husband, Nadin-abla. After the death of Gagâ
+and Nubtâ, I was sold by sealed contract to Itti-Merodach-baladhu,
+the son of Nebo-akhi-iddin, the
+son of Egibi. I will go and [perform each of my
+duties. The commissioners,] the elders, and the
+judges heard his evidence and restored him to his
+servile condition, and [confirmed] his possession by
+Samas-mudammiq [the son of Nebo-nadin-akhi] and
+Qudasu, the daughter of Akhi-nuri, who had given
+him as a dowry (to his daughter).</q> Then follow the
+names of the judges and secretary, and the date and
+place where the judgment was delivered, two of the
+judges further affixing their seals to the document,
+as well as a certain Kiribtu who calls himself <q>the
+shield-bearer,</q> but who was probably one of the
+commissioners sent to investigate the case.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a slave had been adopted, it was in the power
+of the adoptive father to cancel the act of adoption
+and reduce him to his former state of servitude if he
+had not performed his part of the contract and the
+<pb n='040'/><anchor id='Pg040'/>
+parties who had witnessed it were willing that it
+should be cancelled. We learn this from a deed that
+was drawn up in the thirteenth year of Nabonidos.
+Here we read:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Iqisa-abla, the son of Kudurru, the son of Nur-Sin,
+sealed a deed by which he adopted his servant,
+Rimanni-Bel, usually called Rimut, in return for his
+receiving food and clothing from Rimanni-Bel. But
+Rimanni-Bel, usually called Rimut, has violated
+the contract ever since the deed by which he was
+adopted was sealed, and has given neither food, oil,
+nor clothing, whereas Ê-Saggil-ramat, the daughter
+of Ziria, the son of Nabâ, the wife of Nadin-Merodach,
+the son of Iqisa-abla, the son of Nur-Sin, has taken
+her father-in-law, has housed him, and has been kind
+to him and has provided him with food, oil, and
+clothing. Iqisa-abla, the son of Kudurru, the son of
+Nur-Sin, has, therefore, of his own free will, cancelled
+the deed of adoption, and by a sealed deed has given
+Rimanni-Bel to wait upon Ê-Saggil-ramat and Nubtâ,
+the daughter of Ê-Saggil-ramat and Nadin-Merodach,
+the grandson of Nur-Sin; Ê-Saggil-ramat and Nubtâ,
+her daughter, shall he obey. After the death of Ê-Saggil-ramat
+he shall wait on Nubtâ, her daughter.
+Whoever shall change these words and shall destroy
+the deed which Iqisa-abla has drawn up and given
+to Ê-Saggil-ramat and Nubtâ, her daughter, may Merodach
+and the goddess Zarpanit denounce judgment
+upon him!</q> Then come the names of four witnesses
+and the clerk, the date and place of writing, and the
+statement that the deed was indented in the presence
+of Bissâ, the daughter of Iqisa-abla.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='041'/><anchor id='Pg041'/>
+
+<p>
+It is clear that the testator had little or no property
+of his own, and that he was too old, or otherwise incapacitated,
+to earn anything for himself. It is also
+clear that the adopted slave, who is described by the
+milder term <hi rend='italic'>gallu</hi>, or <q>servant,</q> had acquired some
+wealth, and that this was the motive for his adoption.
+He, however, deserted and neglected his adopted
+father after his freedom had been secured to him, and
+thereby failed to carry out his part of the contract.
+Iqisa-abla accordingly had the legal right to break
+it also on his side.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the effects of the system of adoption was
+to give the privileges of Babylonian citizenship to a
+good many foreigners. The foreign origin of Barachiel,
+as evidenced by his name, was no obstacle to
+his claim to be a citizen, and the numerous contracts
+in which it is certified of a foreign slave that he has
+never been adopted prove the fact conclusively. A
+commercial community cannot afford to be exclusive
+on the ground of race and nationality.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such, then, was the family system in the Babylonia
+of the historical period. Polygamy was rare,
+and the married woman possessed full rights over
+her property and could employ or bequeath it as
+she chose. The dowry she brought from her father
+or other near relation made her practically independent
+of her husband. Sons and daughters alike
+were able to inherit, and the possessor of property
+had the power of making a will. The law seems to
+have placed but few restrictions upon the way in
+which he could bestow his wealth. A family could
+be increased or prevented from dying out by means
+<pb n='042'/><anchor id='Pg042'/>
+of adoption, and new blood could thus be introduced
+into it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The rights and duties of the individual were fully
+recognized; it was with him alone that the law had
+to deal. Nevertheless, a few traces survived of that
+doctrine of the solidarity of the family which had
+preceded the development of individual ownership
+and freedom of action. The bride was given in
+marriage by her parents, or, failing these, by her
+nearest male relations, and when an estate was sold
+which had long been in the possession of a certain
+family, it was customary for the rest of the family
+to signify their consent by attending the sale. We
+may gather, however, that the sale was not invalidated
+if the consent was not obtained. In the older days
+of Babylonian history, moreover, it was usual for the
+property of a deceased citizen to be divided among
+his heirs without the intervention of a will. It went in
+the first instance to his widow, and was then divided
+equally among his children, whether body heirs or
+adopted ones, the eldest son alone receiving an additional
+share in return for administering the estate.
+But disputes frequently arose over the division, and
+the members of the family went to law with one
+another. In such cases it became the custom to
+place the whole of the property in the hands of the
+priests of the city-temple, who thus corresponded to
+the English Court of Chancery, and made the division
+as they judged best. The results, however,
+were not always satisfactory, and it was doubtless in
+order to avoid both the litigation and the necessity of
+appointing executors who were not members of the
+<pb n='043'/><anchor id='Pg043'/>
+family, that the will came to play so important a part
+in the succession to property. In bequeathing his
+possessions the head of the family was expected to
+observe the usual rule of division, but it ceased to
+be obligatory to do so.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='044'/><anchor id='Pg044'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter III. Education And Death</head>
+
+<p>
+One of the lesson-books used in the Babylonian
+nursery contains the beginning of a story, written in
+Sumerian and translated into Semitic, which describes
+the adventures of a foundling who was picked up in
+the streets and adopted by the King. We are told
+that he was taken <q>from the mouth of the dogs and
+ravens,</q> and was then brought to the <hi rend='italic'>asip</hi>
+or <q>prophet,</q> who marked the soles of his feet with his seal.
+What the precise object of this procedure was it is
+difficult to say, but the custom is alluded to in the
+Old Testament (Job xiii. 27). Certain tribes in the
+south of China still brand the soles of a boy's feet,
+for the purpose, it is said, of testing his strength and
+hardihood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After the operation was performed the boy was
+handed over to a <q>nurse,</q> to whom his <q>bread, food,
+shirt, and (other) clothing were assured for three
+years.</q> At the same time, we may assume, he received
+a name. This giving of a name was an important
+event in the child's life. Like other nations
+of antiquity the Babylonians conformed the name
+with the person who bore it; it not only represented
+him, but in a sense was actually himself. Magical
+<pb n='045'/><anchor id='Pg045'/>
+properties were ascribed to the name, and it thus
+became of importance to know what names were
+good or bad, lucky or unlucky. An unlucky name
+brought evil fortune to its possessor, a lucky name
+secured his success in life. A change of name influenced
+a man's career; and the same superstitious
+belief which caused the Cape of Storms to become
+the Cape of Good Hope not unfrequently occasioned
+a person's name to be altered among the nations of
+the ancient East.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The gods themselves were affected by the names
+they bore. A knowledge of the secret and ineffable
+name of a deity was the key to a knowledge of his
+inner essence and attributes, and conferred a power
+over him upon the fortunate possessor of it. The
+patron god of the dynasty to which Khammurabi
+belonged was spoken of as <q>the Name,</q> Sumu or
+Samu, the Shem of the Old Testament; his real
+title was too sacred to be uttered in speech. The
+name of a thing was the thing itself, and so too the
+name of a god or person was the actual god or person
+to whom it was attached.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A large proportion of Babylonian names includes
+the name of some divinity. In spite of their length
+and unwieldiness they tended to increase in number
+as time went on. In ordinary life, however, they
+were frequently shortened. In the contract given in
+the last chapter, the slave Rimanni-Bel is said to
+have been usually called Rimut, the one name signifying
+<q>Love me, O Bel,</q> the other <q>Love.</q> In
+other instances we find Samas-musezib contracted
+into Samsiya and Suzub, Kabti-ilâni-Merodach into
+<pb n='046'/><anchor id='Pg046'/>
+Kabtiya, Nebo-tabni-uzur into Tabniya. The Belesys
+of Greek writers is the Babylonian Balasu,
+which is a shortened form of Merodach-balasu-iqbi,
+and Baladan, which is given in the Old Testament as
+the name of the father of Merodach-baladan, has lost
+the name of the god with which it must originally
+have begun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sometimes a change in the form of the name was
+due to its being of foreign origin and consequently
+mispronounced by the Babylonians, who assimilated
+it to words in their own language. Thus Sargon of
+Akkad was properly called Sargani, <q>The Strong One,</q>
+or, more fully, Sargani-sar-ali, <q>Sargani, the King of
+the City,</q> but his Sumerian subjects turned this into
+Sar-gina or Sargon, <q>The Established King.</q> The
+grandson of Khammurabi bore the Canaanitish name
+of Abesukh, the Abishua of the Israelites, <q>The
+Father of Welfare,</q> but it was transformed by the
+Babylonians into Ebisum, which in their own dialect
+meant <q>The Actor.</q> Eri-Aku or Arioch was an
+Elamite name signifying <q>The Servant of the Moon-god;</q>
+the Babylonians changed it into Rim-Sin and
+perhaps even Rim-Anu, <q>Love, O Moon-god,</q>
+<q>Love, O Sky-god.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At other times the name was changed for political
+or superstitious reasons. When the successful general
+Pul usurped the throne of Assyria he adopted the
+name of one of the most famous of the kings of the
+older dynasty, Tiglath-pileser. His successor, another
+usurper, called Ululâ, similarly adopted the name of
+Shalmaneser, another famous king of the earlier
+dynasty. It is probable that Sargon, who was also
+<pb n='047'/><anchor id='Pg047'/>
+a usurper, derived his name from Sargon of Akkad,
+and that his own name was originally something else.
+Sennacherib tells us that Esar-haddon had a second
+name, or surname, by which he was known to his
+neighbors. In this respect he was like Solomon of
+Israel, who was also called Jedidiah.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is doubtful whether circumcision was practised
+in Babylonia. There is no reference to it in the inscriptions,
+nor is it mentioned by classical writers as
+among Babylonian customs. In fact, the words of
+the Greek historian Herodotus seem to exclude the
+practice, as the Babylonians are not one of the
+nations of Western Asia who are said by him to
+have learnt the rite from the Egyptians. Moreover,
+Abraham and his family were not circumcised until
+long after he had left Babylonia and had established
+himself in Canaan. Africa, rather than Asia, seems
+to have been the original home of the rite.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the boy were the son of well-to-do parents he
+was sent to school at an early age. One of the texts
+which, in Sumerian days, was written as a head-line
+in his copy-book declared that <q>He who would excel
+in the school of the scribes must rise like the dawn.</q>
+Girls also shared in the education given to their
+brothers. Among the Babylonian letters that have
+been preserved are some from ladies, and the very
+fact that women could transact business on their own
+account implies that they could read and write.
+Thus the following letter, written from Babylon by a
+lover to his mistress at Sippara, assumes that she
+could read it and return an answer: <q>To the lady
+Kasbeya thus says Gimil-Merodach: May the Sun-god
+<pb n='048'/><anchor id='Pg048'/>
+and Merodach, for my sake, grant thee everlasting
+life! I am writing to enquire after your health;
+please send me news of it. I am living at Babylon,
+but have not seen you, which troubles me greatly.
+Send me news of your arrival, so that I may be
+happy. Come in the month Marchesvan. May you
+live forever, for my sake!</q> The Tel-el-Amarna
+collection actually contains letters from a lady to the
+Egyptian Pharaoh. One of them is as follows: <q>To
+the king my lord, my gods, my sun-god, thus says
+Nin, thy handmaid: At the feet of the king my
+lord, my gods, my sun-god, seven times seven I prostrate
+myself. The king my lord knows that there
+is war in the land, and that all the country of the
+king my lord has revolted to the Bedâwin. But
+the king my lord has knowledge of his country,
+and the king my lord knows that the Bedâwin have
+sent to the city of Ajalon and to the city of Zorah,
+and have made mischief (and have intrigued with)
+the two sons of Malchiel; and let the king my lord
+take knowledge of this fact.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The oracles delivered to Esar-haddon by the
+prophetesses of Arbela are in writing, and we have no
+grounds for thinking that they were written down by
+an uninspired pen. Indeed, the <q>bit riduti,</q> or <q>place
+of education,</q> where Assur-bani-pal tells us he had
+been brought up, was the woman's part of the palace.
+The instructors, however, were men, and part of the
+boy's education, we are informed, consisted in his
+being taught to shoot with the bow and to practise
+other bodily exercises. But the larger part of his
+time was given to learning how to read and write.
+<pb n='049'/><anchor id='Pg049'/>
+The acquisition of the cuneiform system of writing
+was a task of labor and difficulty which demanded
+years of patient application. A vast number of
+characters had to be learned by heart. They were
+conventional signs, often differing but slightly from
+one another, with nothing about them that could
+assist the memory; moreover, their forms varied in
+different styles of writing, as much as Latin, Gothic,
+and cursive forms of type differ among ourselves, and
+all these the pupil was expected to know. Every
+character had more than one phonetic value; many of
+them, indeed, had several, while they could also be
+used ideographically to express objects and ideas.
+But this was not all. A knowledge of the cuneiform
+syllabary necessitated also a knowledge of the
+language of the Sumerians, who had been its inventors,
+and it frequently happened that a group of
+characters which had expressed a Sumerian word
+was retained in the later script with the pronunciation
+of the corresponding Semitic word attached to
+them, though the latter had nothing to do with the
+phonetic values of the several signs, whether pronounced
+singly or as a whole.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The children, however, must have been well taught.
+This is clear from the remarkably good spelling
+which we find in the private letters; it is seldom
+that words are misspelt. The language may be conversational,
+or even dialectic, but the words are
+written correctly. The school-books that have survived
+bear testimony to the attention that had been
+given to improving the educational system. Every
+means was adopted for lessening the labor of the
+<pb n='050'/><anchor id='Pg050'/>
+student and imprinting the lesson upon his mind. The
+cuneiform characters had been classified and named;
+they had also been arranged according to the number
+and position of the separate wedges of which
+they consisted. Dictionaries had been compiled of
+Sumerian words and expressions, as well as lists of
+Semitic synonyms. Even grammars had been drawn
+up, in which the grammatical forms of the old language
+of Sumer were interpreted in Semitic Babylonian.
+There were reading-books filled with extracts
+from the standard literature of the country.
+Most of this was in Sumerian; but the Sumerian text
+was provided with a Semitic translation, sometimes
+interlinear, sometimes in a parallel column. Commentaries,
+moreover, had been written upon the works
+of ancient authors, in which difficult or obsolete terms
+were explained. The pupils were trained to write
+exercises, either from a copy placed before them or
+from memory. These exercises served a double purpose—they
+taught the pupil how to write and spell,
+as well as the subject which the exercise illustrated.
+A list of the kings of the dynasty to which Khammurabi
+belonged has come to us, for instance, in
+one of them. In this way history and geography
+were impressed upon the student's memory, together
+with extracts from the poets and prose-writers of
+the past.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The writing material was clay. Papyrus, it is true,
+was occasionally used, but it was expensive, while
+clay literally lay under the feet of everyone. While
+the clay was still soft, the cuneiform or <q>wedge-shaped</q>
+characters were engraved upon it by means
+<pb n='051'/><anchor id='Pg051'/>
+of a stylus. They had originally been pictorial, but
+when the use of clay was adopted the pictures necessarily
+degenerated into groups of wedge-like lines,
+every curve becoming an angle formed by the junction
+of two lines. As time went on, the characters
+were more and more simplified, the number of
+wedges of which they consisted being reduced and
+only so many left as served to distinguish one sign
+from another. The simplification reached its extreme
+point in the official script of Assyria.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first the clay tablet after being inscribed was
+allowed to dry in the sun. But sun-dried clay easily
+crumbles, and the fashion accordingly grew up of
+baking the tablet in a kiln. In Assyria, where the
+heat of the sun was not so great as in the southern
+kingdom of Babylonia, the tablet was invariably
+baked, holes being first drilled in it to allow the
+escape of the moisture and to prevent it from cracking.
+Some of the early Babylonian tablets were of
+great size, and it is wonderful that they have lasted
+to our own days. But the larger the tablet, the more
+difficult it was to bake it safely, and consequently
+the most of the tablets are of small size. As it was
+often necessary to compress a long text into this limited
+space, the writing became more and more minute,
+and in many cases a magnifying glass is needed to
+read it properly. That such glasses were really used
+by the Assyrians is proved by Layard's discovery of
+a magnifying lens at Nineveh. The lens, which is of
+crystal, has been turned on a lathe, and is now in the
+British Museum. But even with the help of lenses,
+the study of the cuneiform tablets encouraged short
+<pb n='052'/><anchor id='Pg052'/>
+sight, which must have been common in the Babylonian
+schools. In the case of Assur-bani-pal this
+was counteracted by the out-of-door exercises in
+which he was trained, and it is probable that similar
+exercises were also customary in Babylonia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A book generally consisted of several tablets, which
+may consequently be compared with our chapters.
+At the end of each tablet was a colophon stating what
+was its number in the series to which it belonged,
+and giving the first line of the next tablet. The
+series received its name from the words with which
+it began; thus the fourth tablet or chapter of the
+<q>Epic of the Creation</q> states that it contains <q>one
+hundred and forty-six lines of the fourth tablet (of
+the work beginning) <q>When on high unproclaimed,</q></q>
+and adds the first line of the tablet which follows.
+Catalogues were made of the standard books to be
+found in a library, giving the name of the author
+and the first line of each; so that it was easy for the
+reader or librarian to find both the work he wanted
+and the particular chapter in it he wished to consult.
+The books were arranged on shelves; M. de Sarzec
+discovered about 32,000 of them at Tello in Southern
+Chaldea still in the order in which they had been put
+in the age of Gudea (2700 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Literature of every kind was represented. History
+and chronology, geography and law, private and
+public correspondence, despatches from generals and
+proclamations of the king, philology and mathematics,
+natural science in the shape of lists of bears and birds,
+insects and stones, astronomy and astrology, theology
+and the pseudo-science of omens, all found a place
+<pb n='053'/><anchor id='Pg053'/>
+on the shelves, as well as poems and purely literary
+works. Copies of deeds and contracts, of legal decisions,
+and even inventories of the property of private
+individuals, were also stored in the libraries of
+Babylonia and Assyria, which were thus libraries and
+archive-chambers in one. In Babylonia every great
+city had its collection of books, and scribes were kept
+constantly employed in it, copying and re-editing the
+older literature, or providing new works for readers.
+The re-editing was done with scrupulous care.
+Where a character was lost in the original text by a
+fracture of the tablet, the copyist stated the fact, and
+added whether the loss was recent or not. Where
+the form of the character was uncertain, both the
+signs which it resembled are given. Some idea may
+be formed of the honesty and care with which the
+Babylonian scribes worked from the fact that the
+compiler of the Babylonian Chronicle, which contains
+a synopsis of later Babylonian history, frankly
+states that he does <q>not know</q> the date of the battle
+of Khalulê, which was fought between the Babylonians
+and Sennacherib. The materials at his disposal
+did not enable him to settle it. It so happens
+that we are in a more fortunate position, as we are
+able to fix it with the help of the annals of the Assyrian
+King.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+New texts were eagerly collected. The most precious
+spoils sent to Assur-bani-pal after the capture
+of the revolted Babylonian cities were tablets containing
+works which the library of Nineveh did not
+possess. The Babylonians and Assyrians made war
+upon men, not upon books, which were, moreover,
+<pb n='054'/><anchor id='Pg054'/>
+under the protection of the gods. The library was
+usually within the walls of a temple; sometimes it
+was part of the archives of the temple itself. Hence
+the copying of a text was often undertaken as a pious
+work, which brought down upon the scribe the blessing
+of heaven and even the remission of his sins.
+That the library was open to the public we may
+infer from the character of some of the literature
+contained in it. This included private letters as
+well as contracts and legal documents which could
+be interesting only to the parties whom they concerned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The school must have been attached to the library,
+and was probably an adjacent building. This will
+explain the existence of the school-exercises which
+have come from the library of Nineveh, as well as the
+reading-books and other scholastic literature which
+were stored within it. At the same time, when we remember
+the din of an oriental school, where the pupils
+shout their lessons at the top of their voices, it is
+impossible to suppose that the scribes and readers
+would have been within ear-shot. Nor was it probable
+that there was only one school in a town of any
+size. The practice of herding large numbers of boys
+or girls together in a single school-house is European
+rather than Asiatic.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The school in later times developed into a university.
+At Borsippa, the suburb of Babylon, where the
+library had been established in the temple of Nebo,
+we learn from Strabo that a university also existed
+which had attained great celebrity. From a fragment
+of a Babylonian medical work, now in the British
+<pb n='055'/><anchor id='Pg055'/>
+Museum, we may perhaps infer that it was chiefly
+celebrated as a school of medicine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Assyria education was mainly confined to the
+upper classes. The trading classes were perforce
+obliged to learn how to read and write; so also were
+the officials and all those who looked forward to a
+career in the diplomatic service. But learning was
+regarded as peculiarly the profession of the scribes,
+who constituted a special class and occupied an important
+position in the bureaucracy. They acted as
+clerks and secretaries in the various departments of
+state, and stereotyped a particular form of cuneiform
+script, which we may call the chancellor's hand, and
+which, through their influence, was used throughout
+the country. In Babylonia it was otherwise. Here
+a knowledge of writing was far more widely spread,
+and one of the results was that varieties of handwriting
+became as numerous as they are in the modern
+world. The absence of a professional class of scribes
+prevented any one official hand from becoming universal.
+We find even the son of an <q>irrigator,</q> one
+of the poorest and lowest members of the community,
+copying a portion of the <q>Epic of the Creation,</q>
+and depositing it in the library of Borsippa for
+the good of his soul. Indeed, the contract tablets
+show that the slaves themselves could often read and
+write. The literary tendencies of Assur-bani-pal
+doubtless did much toward the spread of education
+in Assyria, but the latter years of his life were
+troubled by disastrous wars, and the Assyrian empire
+and kingdom came to an end soon after his death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Education, as we have seen, meant a good deal more
+<pb n='056'/><anchor id='Pg056'/>
+than merely learning the cuneiform characters. It
+meant, in the case of the Semitic Babylonians and
+Assyrians, learning the ancient agglutinative language
+of Sumer as well. In later times this language ceased
+to be spoken except in learned society, and consequently
+bore the same relation to Semitic Babylonian
+that Latin bears to English. In learning Sumerian,
+therefore, the Babylonian learned what was equivalent
+to Latin in the modern world. And the mode of
+teaching it was much the same. There were the same
+paradigms to be committed to memory, the same lists
+of words and phrases to be learned by heart, the same
+extracts from the authors of the past to be stored up
+in the mind. Even the <q>Hamiltonian</q> system of
+learning a dead language had already been invented.
+Exercises were set in translation from Sumerian
+into Babylonian, and from Babylonian into Sumerian,
+and the specimens of the latter which have survived
+to us show that <q>dog-Latin</q> was not unknown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the dead language of Sumer was not all that
+the educated Babylonian or Assyrian gentlemen of
+later times was called upon to know. In the eighth
+century before our era Aramaic had become the common
+medium of trade and diplomacy. If Sumerian
+was the Latin of the Babylonian world, Aramaic was
+its French. The Aramaic dialects seem to have been
+the result of a contact between the Semitic languages
+of Arabia and Canaan, and the rising importance of
+the tribes who spoke them and who occupied Mesopotamia
+and Northern Arabia caused them to become
+the language of trade. Aramaic merchants were
+settled on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris,
+<pb n='057'/><anchor id='Pg057'/>
+and conveyed the products of Babylonia and Phœnicia
+from one country to the other. Many of the commercial
+firms in Babylonia were of Aramaic origin,
+and it was natural that some part at least of their business
+should have been carried on in the language of
+their fathers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Hence it was that, when the Rab-shakeh or Vizier
+of Sennacherib appeared before Jerusalem and summoned
+its inhabitants to submit to the Assyrian King,
+he was asked by the ministers of Hezekiah to speak
+in <q>Aramæan.</q> It was taken for granted that
+Aramaic was known to an Assyrian official and diplomatist
+just as it was to the Jewish officials themselves.
+The Rab-shakeh, however, knew the Hebrew
+language as well, and found it more to his purpose to
+use it in addressing the Jews.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here, then, we have an Assyrian officer who is acquainted
+not only with Sumerian, but also with two
+of the living languages of Western Asia. And yet
+he was not a scribe; he did not belong to the professional
+class of learned men. Nothing can show more
+clearly the advanced state of education even in the
+military kingdom of Assyria. In Babylonia learning
+had always been honored; from the days of Sargon
+of Akkad onward the sons of the reigning king did
+not disdain to be secretaries and librarians.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The linguistic training undergone in the schools
+gave the Babylonian a taste for philology. He not
+only compiled vocabularies of the extinct Sumerian,
+which were needed for practical reasons, he also
+explained the meaning of the names of the foreign
+kings who had reigned over Babylonia, and from
+<pb n='058'/><anchor id='Pg058'/>
+time to time noted the signification of words belonging
+to the various languages by which he was surrounded.
+Thus one of the tablets we possess contains
+a list of Kassite or Kossean words with their
+signification; in other cases we have Mitannian,
+Elamite, and Canaanite words quoted, with their
+meanings attached to them. Nor did the philological
+curiosity of the scribe end here. He busied himself
+with the etymology of the words in his own language,
+and just as a couple of centuries ago our own dictionary-makers
+endeavored to find derivations for all
+English words, whatever their source, in Latin and
+Greek, so, too, the Babylonian etymologist believed
+that the venerable language of Sumer was the key to
+the origin of his own. Many of the words in Semitic
+Babylonian were indeed derived from it, and accordingly
+Sumerian etymologies were found for other
+words which were purely Semitic. The word <hi rend='italic'>Sabattu</hi>,
+<q>the Sabbath,</q> for instance, was derived from the
+Sumerian <hi rend='italic'>Sa</hi>, <q>heart,</q>
+and <hi rend='italic'>bat</hi>, <q>to cease,</q> and so
+interpreted to mean the day on which <q>the heart
+ceased</q> from its labors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+History, too, was a favorite subject of study. Like
+the Hebrews, the Assyrians were distinguished by a
+keen historical sense which stands in curious contrast
+to the want of it which characterized the Egyptian.
+The Babylonians also were distinguished by the same
+quality, though perhaps to a less extent than their
+Assyrian neighbors, whose somewhat pedantic accuracy
+led them to state the exact numbers of the
+slain and captive in every small skirmish, and the
+name of every petty prince with whom they came
+<pb n='059'/><anchor id='Pg059'/>
+into contact, and who had invented a system of
+accurately registering dates at a very early period.
+Nevertheless, the Babylonian was also a historian;
+the necessities of trade had obliged him to date his
+deeds and contracts from the earliest age of his
+history, and to compile lists of kings and dynasties
+for reference in case of a disputed title to property.
+The historical honesty to which he had been trained
+is illustrated by the author of the Babylonian
+Chronicle in the passage relating to the battle of
+Khalulê, which has been already alluded to. The
+last king of Babylonia was himself an antiquarian,
+and had a passion for excavating and discovering
+the records of the monarchs who had built the great
+temples of Chaldea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Law, again, must have been much studied, and so,
+too, was theology. The library of Nineveh, however,
+from which so much of our information has come,
+gives us an exaggerated idea of the extent to which
+the pseudo-science of omens and portents was cultivated.
+Its royal patron was a believer in them, and
+apparently more interested in the subject than in
+any other. Consequently, the number of books relating
+to it are out of all proportion to the rest of the
+literature in the library. But this was an accident,
+due to the predilections of Assur-bani-pal himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The study of omens and portents was a branch of
+science and not of theology, false though the science
+was. But it was based upon the scientific principle
+that every antecedent has a consequent, its fallacy
+consisting in a confusion between real causes and
+mere antecedents. Certain events had been observed
+<pb n='060'/><anchor id='Pg060'/>
+to follow certain phenomena; it was accordingly
+assumed that they were the results of the phenomena,
+and that were the phenomena to happen again
+they would be followed by the same results. Hence
+all extraordinary or unusual occurrences were carefully
+noted, together with whatever had been observed
+to come after them. A strange dog, for
+instance, had been observed to enter a palace and
+there lie down on a couch; as no disaster took place
+subsequently it was believed that if the occurrence
+was repeated it would be an omen of good fortune.
+On the other hand, the fall of a house had been preceded
+by the birth of a child without a mouth; the
+same result, it was supposed, would again accompany
+the same presage of evil. These pseudo-scientific
+observations had been commenced at a very early
+period of Babylonian history, and were embodied in
+a great work which was compiled for the library of
+Sargon of Akkad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another work compiled for the same library, and
+containing observations which started from a similarly
+fallacious theory, was one in seventy-two books on the
+pseudo-science of astrology, which was called <q>The
+Illumination of Bel.</q> But in this case the observations
+were not wholly useless. The study of astrology
+was intermixed with that of astronomy, of which
+Babylonia may be considered to be the birthplace.
+The heavens had been mapped out and the stars
+named; the sun's course along the ecliptic had
+been divided into the twelve zodiacal signs, and
+a fairly accurate calendar had been constructed.
+Hundreds of observations had been made of the
+<pb n='061'/><anchor id='Pg061'/>
+eclipses of the sun and moon, and the laws regulating
+them had been so far ascertained that, first,
+eclipses of the moon, and then, but with a greater
+element of uncertainty, eclipses of the sun, were
+able to be predicted. One of the chapters or books
+in the <q>Illumination of Bel</q> was devoted to an
+account of comets, another dealt with conjunctions
+of the sun and moon. There were also tables of
+observations relating to the synodic revolution of the
+moon and the synodic periods of the planet Venus.
+The year was divided into twelve months of thirty
+days each, an intercalary month being inserted from
+time to time to rectify the resulting error in the
+length of the year. The months had been originally
+called after the signs of the zodiac, whose names
+have come down to ourselves with comparatively little
+change. But by the side of the lunar year
+the Babylonians also used a sidereal year, the star
+Capella being taken as a fixed point in the sky, from
+which the distance of the sun could be measured at
+the beginning of the year, the moon being used as a
+mere pointer for the purpose. At a later date, however,
+this mode of determining time was abandoned,
+and the new year was made directly dependent on
+the vernal equinox. The month was subdivided into
+weeks of seven days, each of which was consecrated
+to a particular deity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These deities were further identified with the stars.
+The fact that the sun and moon, as well as the evening
+and morning stars, were already worshipped as
+divinities doubtless led the way to this system of
+astro-theology. But it seems never to have spread
+<pb n='062'/><anchor id='Pg062'/>
+beyond the learned classes and to have remained to
+the last an artificial system. The mass of the people
+worshipped the stars as a whole, but it was only as
+a whole and not individually. Their identification
+with the gods of the state religion might be taught
+in the schools and universities, but it had no meaning
+for the nation at large.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From the beginning of the Babylonian's life we
+now pass to the end. Unlike the Egyptian he had
+no desert close at hand in which to bury his dead,
+no limestone cliffs, as in Palestine, wherein a tomb
+might be excavated. It was necessary that the
+burial should be in the plain of Babylonia, the same
+plain as that in which he lived, and with which
+the overflow of the rivers was constantly infiltrating.
+The consequences were twofold. On the one hand,
+the tomb had to be constructed of brick, for stone
+was not procurable; on the other hand, sanitary reasons
+made cremation imperative. The Babylonian
+corpse was burned as well as buried, and the brick
+sepulchre that was raised above it adjoined the cities
+of the living.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The corpse was carried to the grave on a bier, accompanied
+by the mourners. Among these the wailing
+women were prominent, who tore their hair and
+threw dust upon their heads. The cemetery to
+which the dead was carried was a city in itself, to
+which the Sumerians had given the name of Ki-makh
+or <q>vast place.</q> It was laid out in streets, the tombs
+on either side answering to the houses of a town.
+Not infrequently gardens were planted before them,
+while rivulets of <q>living water</q> flowed through the
+<pb n='063'/><anchor id='Pg063'/>
+streets and were at times conducted into the tomb.
+The water symbolized the life that the pious Babylonian
+hoped to enjoy in the world to come. It relieved
+the thirst of the spirit in the underground
+world of Hades, where an old myth had declared that
+<q>dust only was its food,</q> and it was at the same time
+an emblem of those <q>waters of life</q> which were believed
+to bubble up beneath the throne of the goddess
+of the dead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the corpse reached the cemetery it was laid
+upon the ground wrapped in mats of reed and covered
+with asphalt. It was still dressed in the clothes and
+ornaments that had been worn during life. The man
+had his seal and his weapons of bronze or stone; the
+woman her spindle-wheel and thread; the child his
+necklace of shells. In earlier times all was then
+thickly coated with clay, above which branches of
+palm, terebinth, and other trees were placed, and the
+whole was set on fire. At a more recent period ovens
+of brick were constructed in which the corpse was
+put in its coffin of clay and reeds, but withdrawn before
+cremation was complete. The skeletons of the
+dead are consequently often found in a fair state of
+preservation, as well as the objects which were buried
+with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While the body was being burned offerings were
+made, partly to the gods, partly to the dead man himself.
+They consisted of dates, calves and sheep, birds
+and fish, which were consumed along with the corpse.
+Certain words were recited at the same time, derived
+for the most part from the sacred books of ancient
+Sumer.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='064'/><anchor id='Pg064'/>
+
+<p>
+After the ceremony was over a portion of the ashes
+was collected and deposited in an urn, if the cremation
+had been complete. In the later days, when this
+was not the case, the half-burnt body was allowed to
+remain on the spot where it had been laid, and an
+aperture was made in the shell of clay with which it
+was covered. The aperture was intended to allow a
+free passage to the spirit of the dead, so that it might
+leave its burial-place to enjoy the food and water that
+were brought to it. Over the whole a tomb was built
+of bricks, similar to that in which the urn was deposited
+when the body was completely burned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tombs of the rich resembled the houses in
+which they had lived on earth and contained many
+chambers. In these their bodies were cremated and
+interred. Sometimes a house was occupied by a
+single corpse only; at other times it became a family
+burial-place, where the bodies were laid in separate
+chambers. Sometimes tombstones were set up commemorating
+the name and deeds of the deceased; at
+other times statues representing them were erected
+instead.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tomb had a door, like a house, through which
+the relatives and friends of the dead man passed
+from time to time in order to furnish him with the
+food and sustenance needed by his spirit in the world
+below. Vases were placed in the sepulchre, filled
+with dates and grain, wine and oil, while the rivulet
+which flowed beside it provided water in abundance.
+All this was required in that underworld where popular
+belief pictured the dead as flitting like bats in
+the gloom and darkness, and where the heroes of old
+<pb n='065'/><anchor id='Pg065'/>
+time sat, strengthless and ghostlike, on their shadowy
+thrones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The kings were allowed to be burned and buried
+in the palace in which they had lived and ruled.
+We read of one of them that he was interred in <q>the
+palace of Sargon</q> of Akkad, of another that his
+burial had taken place in the palace he himself had
+erected. A similar privilege was granted to their
+subjects only by royal permission.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Want of space caused the tombs of the dead to be
+built one upon the other, as generations passed away
+and the older sepulchres crumbled into dust. The
+cemetery thus resembled the city; here, too, one generation
+built upon the ruins of its predecessor. The
+houses and tombs were alike constructed of sun-dried
+bricks, which soon disintegrate and form a
+mound of dust. The age of a cemetery, like the age
+of a city, may accordingly be measured by the number
+of successive layers of building of which its
+mound or platform is composed. In Babylonia they
+are numerous, for the history of the country goes
+back to a remote past. Each city clustered round a
+temple, venerable for its antiquity as well as for its
+sanctity, and the cemetery which stood near it was
+consequently under the protection of its god. At
+Cutha the necropolis was so vast that Nergal, the god
+of the town, came to be known as the <q>lord of the
+dead.</q> But the cemeteries of other towns were
+also of enormous size. Western Asia had received
+its culture and the elements of its theology from
+Babylonia, and Babylonia consequently was a sacred
+land not only to the Babylonians themselves, but to
+<pb n='066'/><anchor id='Pg066'/>
+all those who shared their civilization. The very
+soil was holy ground; Assyrians as well as Babylonians
+desired that their bodies should rest in it.
+Here they were in the charge, as it were, of Bel of
+Nippur or Merodach of Babylon, and within sight
+of the ancient sanctuaries in which those gods were
+worshipped. This explains in part the size of the
+cemeteries; the length of time during which they
+were used will explain the rest. As Dr. Peters says
+of each:<note place="foot">Journal of the American Oriental
+Society, xviii., p. 167.</note> <q>It is difficult to convey anything like a
+correct notion of the piles upon piles of human relics
+which there utterly astound the spectator. Excepting
+only the triangular space between the three principal
+ruins, the whole remainder of the platform, the
+whole space between the walls, and an unknown
+extent of desert beyond them, are everywhere filled
+with the bones and sepulchres of the dead. There is
+probably no other site in the world which can compare
+with Warka in this respect.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Babylonia is still a holy land to the people of
+Western Asia. The old feeling in regard to it still
+survives, and the bodies of the dead are still carried,
+sometimes for hundreds of miles, to be buried in its
+sacred soil. Mohammedan saints have taken the
+place of the old gods, and a Moslem chapel represents
+the temple of the past, but it is still to Babylonia
+that the corpse is borne, often covered by costly rugs
+which find their way in time to an American or
+European drawing-room. <q>The old order changes,
+giving place to new,</q> but the influence of Chaldean
+culture and religion is not yet past.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='067'/><anchor id='Pg067'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter IV. Slavery And The Free Laborer</head>
+
+<p>
+Slavery was part of the foundation upon which
+Babylonian society rested. But between slavery as
+it existed in the ancient oriental world and slavery in
+the Roman or modern world there was a great difference.
+The slave was often of the same race as his
+master, sometimes of the same nationality, speaking
+the same language and professing the same religion.
+He was regarded as one of the family, and was not
+infrequently adopted into it. He could become a
+free citizen and rise to the highest offices of state.
+Slavery was no bar to his promotion, nor did it imprint
+any stigma upon him. He was frequently a
+skilled artisan and even possessed literary knowledge.
+Between his habits and level of culture and those of
+his owners was no marked distinction, no prejudices
+to be overcome on account of his color, no conviction
+of his inferiority in race. He was brought up with
+the rest of the family to which he was considered to
+belong and was in hourly contact with them. Moreover,
+the large number of slaves had been captives
+in war. A reverse of fortune might consign their
+present masters to the same lot; history knew of instances
+in which master and slave had changed places
+<pb n='068'/><anchor id='Pg068'/>
+with one another. There were some slaves, too, who
+were Babylonians by birth; the law allowed the parent
+to sell his child, the brother his sister, or the
+creditor his debtor under certain circumstances, and
+the old Sumerian legislation ordained that a son who
+denied his father should be shorn and sold as a slave.
+In times of famine or necessity a man even sold himself
+to be quit of a debt or to obtain the means of
+subsistence. A slave was always fed and clothed;
+the free laborer at times could get neither food nor
+clothing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There were three classes of slaves—those who were
+the property of a private individual, the serfs who
+were attached to the soil which they cultivated, and
+the temple slaves who had been dedicated to the service
+of the gods. Of the second class but few traces
+are found in Babylonia. Agriculture was carried on
+there either by free laborers, or by the slaves of the
+private land-owners. Where the land belonged to
+priests, it was of course usually the temple slaves who
+tilled it. What was the exact legal position of the
+Jews and other exiles who were transported to Babylonia
+by Nebuchadnezzar we do not know, but they
+were neither serfs nor slaves. The practice of transportation
+had been borrowed from Assyria, and under
+the Assyrian system the exiled population was
+treated as a colony. Israelites appear among the
+Assyrian officials in contracts of the second Assyrian
+empire, and Jewish names are found in the Babylonian
+contracts of the age of Nebuchadnezzar and his
+successors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Babylonians were not a military people, and
+<pb n='069'/><anchor id='Pg069'/>
+after the Kassite conquest their wars of aggression
+were not sufficiently numerous or extensive to provide
+them with a supply of captives who could be
+made into slaves. Slave-merchants are rarely, if
+ever, referred to in the Babylonian contract tablets,
+and the slaves must have been home-born, the children
+and descendants of those who had been slaves
+before them. In the age of Abraham it was doubtless
+different. Then the power of Babylonia extended
+throughout Western Asia, and the constant wars in
+the East and West must have filled the market with
+foreign captives. The white slaves brought from
+Kurdistan and the north were especially prized.
+Thus in the reign of Ammi-Zadok, the fourth successor
+of Khammurabi, some <q>white Kurdish
+slaves</q> were sold for 3 homers and 24⅔ <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of oil,
+which were valued at 20⅔ shekels, and in the time
+of his son Samsu-ditana <q>a white slave</q> from Suri
+or Northern Mesopotamia fetched as much as 20
+shekels, or £3.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The earliest code of Sumerian laws known to us
+takes the slave under its protection. It assumes the
+principle that the life of the slave is not absolutely
+at his master's disposal, and enacts that, if the slave
+is killed, beaten, maimed, or injured in health, the
+hand that has so offended shall pay each day a measure
+of wheat. This must mean that the payment
+shall be continued until the slave recovers from his
+ill-treatment. Light is thrown upon it by a later
+Babylonian law, according to which, if the services of
+a slave have been hired by a second person and the
+slave falls ill or is otherwise rendered incapable of
+<pb n='070'/><anchor id='Pg070'/>
+work, the hirer is fined for as long a time as the illness
+or incapacity continues. The object of the law
+is clear. It was intended to prevent the slave from
+being overworked by one who had not, as it were, a
+family interest in him. It protected the slave and at
+the same time protected the master to whom he belonged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There are several instances of its application.
+Thus in the eighth year of Cyrus a slave named Nidinti
+was apprenticed for six years by his master and
+mistress to a certain Libludh in order that he might
+learn the trade of fulling. It was stipulated that
+he was to learn it thoroughly, and if at any time he
+was unable to work Libludh was to pay each day
+3 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> (or about 4½ quarts) of wheat for his support.
+At the end of the period, when the trade had been
+learned, Libludh was to receive a cloth worth 4
+shekels (12 s.) and hand over Nidinti to the service of
+the Sun-god of Sippara. In the same year another
+slave was apprenticed to the stone-cutter Quddâ, who
+was himself a slave and belonged to the heir-apparent,
+Cambyses. Quddâ undertook to teach his trade
+to the apprentice in four years, and if he failed to do
+so was to be fined 20 shekels. Six years earlier
+Qubtâ, the daughter of Iddina-Merodach, had given
+the slave of another person to a weaver for a period
+of five years, in order that he might be taught the art
+of weaving, at the same time agreeing to provide
+him with 1 <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> (1⅗ quarts) of food each day and to
+pay his teacher something besides. If, however, he
+was incapacitated from learning, the weaver was required
+to pay a daily fine of half a <q>measure</q> of
+<pb n='071'/><anchor id='Pg071'/>
+wheat, which we are told was the wage of the slave.
+Any infringement of the contract would be punished
+by a penalty of 20 manehs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The slave was able to apprentice himself without
+the intervention of his owners. Thus in the sixth
+year of Cyrus one slave apprenticed himself of his
+own accord to another in order to learn a trade. In
+this case also the penalty for not being taught the
+trade was half a <q>measure</q> of wheat each day, which
+is again stated to be the wage of the slave. The
+wage, however, it would seem, had to be paid to the
+master, at all events in some cases; this is clear
+from a document which relates to the conclusion of
+the apprenticeship in which Nubtâ took part. The
+slave she had apprenticed had learnt his trade, and
+his master accordingly received from the teacher 5
+shekels, which it was calculated were the equivalent
+of the services the apprentice had rendered. Ordinarily
+the 5 shekels would have been considered a
+return for the slave's maintenance during the term
+of his apprenticeship; but in this instance, for reasons
+unknown to us, the maintenance had been provided
+by a lady and the payment for the slave's
+services was consequently clear gain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The slave, however, was allowed to accumulate
+capital for himself, to trade with it, and even to become
+rich enough to lend money to his own master
+or to purchase his own freedom. That a similar
+privilege was allowed to the slaves of the Israelites
+we may gather from the fact that Saul's slave offered
+to pay the seer Samuel a quarter of a shekel
+which he had about him, though it is true that this
+<pb n='072'/><anchor id='Pg072'/>
+might have been the property of his master. In
+Babylonia the possession of property by the slave
+was not at all uncommon. In the sixth year of
+Cambyses, for example, a female slave named
+Khunnatu received a large quantity of furniture,
+including five beds, ten chairs, three dishes, and
+various other kitchen utensils, and agreed to pay
+the rent of the house in which she deposited them.
+Her master also lent her 122 shekels of silver,
+which were expended in buying fifty casks of beer,
+besides other things, and upon which she was to
+pay interest. Apparently she wanted to set up
+an inn or drinking-shop; the fact that the money
+was lent to her by her master proves that she
+must have been engaged in business on her own
+account. In other contracts we find the slave taking
+a mortgage and trading in onions and grain or
+employing his money in usury. In one case a slave
+borrows as much as 14 manehs 49 shekels, or
+£138 3s., from a member of the Egibi firm. In another
+case it is a considerable quantity of grain in
+addition to 12 shekels of silver that is borrowed
+from the slave by two other persons, with a promise
+that the grain shall be repaid the following month
+and the money a year later. The contract is drawn
+up in the usual way, the borrowers, who, like the
+witnesses, are free-born citizens, giving the creditor
+a security and assuming a common responsibility for
+the debt. The grain, however, was to be repaid in
+the house of the slave's master; it seems evident,
+therefore, that the slave had no private house of his
+own. The slave, nevertheless, could own a house or
+<pb n='073'/><anchor id='Pg073'/>
+receive it in payment of a debt. This is illustrated
+by an interesting contract in which reference is made
+to Ustanni, the Tatnai of the Book of Ezra, who is
+called <q>the governor of Ebir-nâri,</q> <q>the other side
+of the river.</q> The contract is as follows:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>Two manehs of silver lent by Kurrulâ, the slave
+of Ustanni, the governor of Babylon and Ebir-nâri, to
+Merodach-sum-ibni, the son of Sula, the son of Epes-ilu.
+The house of the latter, which is by the side of
+the road of the god Bagarus, is Kurrulâ's security.
+No one else has any prior claim to it. The house is
+not to be let or interest taken upon the loan.</q> Then
+come the names of five free-born witnesses, and the
+document is dated at Babylon in the third year of
+Darius. The terms of the contract are precisely the
+same as those exacted by Cambyses, when he was
+crown-prince, from a certain Iddin-Nebo, to whom he
+had lent money through the agency of his secretary,
+receiving a house as security for the debt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In some instances the slave was merely the confidential
+agent of his master, to whom therefore all or
+most of the profits went. Thus a deed dated in the
+ninth year of Cyrus describes a field situated opposite
+the gate of Zamama at Babylon, which had been assigned
+by <q>the judges</q> to a lady named Ê-Saggil-belit,
+and afterward mortgaged by her to a slave of
+Itti-Merodach-baladhu, one of the members of the
+Egibi firm. The lady, however, still wanted money,
+and accordingly proposed to Itti-Merodach-baladhu
+that if he would make her a <q>present</q> of 10 shekels
+she would hand over to him her title-deeds. This
+was done, and the field passed into the possession of
+<pb n='074'/><anchor id='Pg074'/>
+Itti-Merodach-baladhu, with whom the mortgage had
+really been contracted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In spite of the privileges possessed by the Babylonian
+slave, he was nevertheless a chattel, like the
+rest of his master's property. He could constitute
+the dowry of a wife, could take the place of interest
+on a debt or of the debt itself, and could be hired
+out to another, the wages he earned going into the
+pocket of his master. In the age of Khammurabi we
+find two brothers hiring the services of two slaves,
+one of whom belonged to their father and the other to
+their mother, for ten days. The slaves were wanted
+for harvest work, and it was agreed that a <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> (or 180
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>) of grain should be paid them. This, of course,
+ultimately went to their owners. In the reign of
+Cambyses a man and his wife, having borrowed 80
+shekels, gave a slave as security for the repayment of
+the loan; the terms of the contract are the same as
+if the security had been a house. On another occasion
+a slave is security for only part of a debt which
+amounted to a maneh and twenty shekels, interest being
+paid upon the shekels. His service was regarded
+as equivalent to the interest upon the maneh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When a slave was sold the seller guaranteed that
+he was not disobedient, that he had not been adopted
+by a free citizen, that there was no prior claim to him,
+and that he had not been impressed into the royal
+service, or, in the case of female slaves, been a concubine
+of the king. Purchasers had to be on their
+guard on all these points. Strict honesty was not
+always the rule in the Babylonian commercial world,
+and a case which came before the judges in the early
+<pb n='075'/><anchor id='Pg075'/>
+part of the reign of Nabonidos shows that ladies were
+capable of sharp practice as well as men. The judicial
+record states that a certain <q>Belit-litu gave the
+following evidence before the judges of Nabonidos,
+King of Babylon: <q>In the month Ab, in the first
+year of Nergal-sharezer, King of Babylon, I sold
+my slave, Bazuzu, for thirty-five shekels of silver to
+Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of Sulâ, the descendant of
+Egibi; he has pretended that I owed him a debt,
+and so has not paid me the money.</q> The judges heard
+the charge, and caused Nebo-akhi-iddin to be summoned
+and to appear before them. Nebo-akhi-iddin
+produced the contract which he had made with Belit-litu;
+he proved that she had received the money and
+convinced the judges. And Ziria, Nebo-sum-lisir and
+Edillu gave (further) evidence before the judges that
+Belit-litu, their mother, had received the silver. The
+judges deliberated and condemned Belit-litu to (pay)
+fifty-five shekels (by way of fine), the highest fine
+that could be inflicted on her, and then gave it to
+Nebo-akhi-iddin.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The prices fetched by slaves varied naturally.
+We have seen that in the Abrahamic age 20 shekels
+(£3) were given for a white slave from the North,
+the same price as that for which Joseph was sold.
+In the reign of Ammi-zadok 4½ shekels only were
+paid for a female slave. In later times prices were
+considerably higher, though under Nebuchadnezzar
+we hear of a slave given as part of a dowry who was
+valued at 30 shekels, and of a female slave and her
+infant child whose cost was only 19 shekels. In the
+first year of Nergal-sharezer a slave-merchant of
+<pb n='076'/><anchor id='Pg076'/>
+Harran sold three slaves for 45 shekels, while a little
+later 32 shekels were given for a female slave. The
+same sum was given for a slave who was advanced
+in years, while a slave girl four years of age only
+was sold for 19 shekels. In the sixth year of Cambyses
+an Egyptian and her child three months old,
+whom the Babylonian Iddin-Nebo had <q>taken, with
+his bow,</q> was sold by him for 2 manehs or 120
+shekels, a bond for 240 <hi rend='italic'>gurs</hi> of dates being handed
+over to him as security for the payment of the sum.
+The Egyptian, it may be noted, received a Babylonian
+name before being put up for auction. In
+the same reign we hear of 3 manehs being paid for
+two slaves, of a maneh for a single slave, and of
+7 manehs 56 shekels for three female slaves. This
+would be at the rate of 2 manehs 38 shekels or £23
+14s. for each. On the whole, however, the average
+price seems to have been about 30 shekels. This, at
+any rate, was the case among the Israelites, not only
+in the Mosaic period (Exod. xxi. 32) but also in
+the time of the Maccabees (II. Macc. viii. 9, 10).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fact that slaves sometimes ran away from their
+masters, like Barachiel, who pretended to be a free
+citizen, and that in contracts for their sale their
+obedience is expressly guaranteed, proves that they
+were not always content with their lot. Indeed, it is
+not strange that it should have been so. They were
+merely chattels, subject to the caprices and tyranny
+of those who owned them, and their lives were as
+little valued as that of an ox. Thus in the fortieth
+year of Nebuchadnezzar a judgment was delivered
+that, if it could be proved by witnesses that a certain
+<pb n='077'/><anchor id='Pg077'/>
+Idikhi-ilu had murdered the slave of one of the
+Arameans settled in the town of Pekod, he was to be
+fined a maneh of silver; that was all the slave's life
+was worth in the eyes of the law, and even that was
+paid to the master to compensate him for the loss of
+his property. Sometimes the name of the slave was
+changed; as we have seen, the captive Egyptian
+woman received a Babylonian name, and a contract
+of the time of Khammurabi, relating to the female
+slave of a Babylonian lady, who had been given to
+her by her husband, and who, it is stipulated, shall not
+be taken from her by his sons after his death, mentions
+that the name of the slave had been changed.
+In this case, however, the reason seems to have been
+that the girl was adopted by her mistress, though the
+adoption was not carried out in legal form and was
+therefore technically invalid. The contract accordingly
+describes her by her proper name of Mutibasti,
+but adds that <q>she is called Zabini, the daughter of
+Saddasu,</q> her mistress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That the law should nevertheless have regarded the
+slave as a person, and as such possessed of definite
+rights, appears strange. But Babylonian law started
+from the principle of individual responsibility and
+individual possession of property, and since the slave
+was a human being and could, moreover, hold property
+of his own, it necessarily seemed to place him
+more and more on a footing of equality with the free-born
+citizen. The causes which brought about the
+legal emancipation of women worked in the same direction
+in favor of the slave. Hence the power he had
+of purchasing his freedom out of his own earnings and
+<pb n='078'/><anchor id='Pg078'/>
+of being adopted into a citizen's family. Hence, too,
+the claim of the law to interfere between the slave-owner
+and his property.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A slave, in fact, could even act as a witness in
+court, his testimony being put on the same legal level
+as that of a native Babylonian. He could also be a
+party to a suit. Thus we find a slave called Nergal-ritsua,
+in the tenth year of Nabonidos, bringing a suit
+for the recovery of stolen property. He had been
+intrusted by his master with the conveyance of 480
+<hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of fruit to the ships of a Syrian, named Baal-nathan,
+who undertook to carry it to Babylon, and to
+be responsible for loss. On the way part of the
+fruit was stolen, and Baal-nathan, instead of replacing
+it, absconded, but was soon caught. The slave
+accordingly appeared against him, and the five judges
+before whom the case was brought gave a verdict in
+his favor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A slave could even own another slave. In the
+twenty-seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar, for example,
+the porter of the temple of the Sun-god at Sippara,
+who was <q>the slave of Nebo-baladh-yulid,</q> purchased
+a female slave for two-thirds of a shekel (2s.).
+The amount was small, but the purchaser did not
+possess so much at the moment, and credit was consequently
+allowed him. The list of witnesses to the
+contract is headed by a slave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The condition of the slave in Assyria was much
+what it was in Babylonia. The laws and customs
+of Assyria were modelled after those of Babylonia,
+whence, indeed, most of them had been derived. But
+there was one cause of difference between the two
+<pb n='079'/><anchor id='Pg079'/>
+countries which affected the character of slavery.
+Assyria was a military power, and the greater part
+of its slaves, therefore, were captives taken in war.
+In Babylonia, on the contrary, the majority had been
+born in the country, and between them and their
+masters there was thus a bond of union and sympathy
+which could not exist between the foreign captive
+and his conqueror. In the northern kingdom slavery
+must have been harsher.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Slaves, moreover, apparently fetched higher prices
+there, probably on account of their foreign origin.
+They cost on the average as much as a maneh (£9)
+each. A contract, dated in 645 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, states that one
+maneh and a half was given for a single female slave.
+One of the contracting parties was a Syrian, and an
+Aramaic docket is accordingly attached to the deed,
+while among the witnesses to it we find Ammâ, <q>the
+Aramean secretary.</q> Ammâ means a native of the
+land of Ammo, where Pethor was situated. About
+the same time 3 manehs, <q>according to the standard
+of Carchemis,</q> were paid for a family of five slaves,
+which included two children. Under Esar-haddon a
+slave was bought for five-sixths of a maneh, or 50
+shekels, and in the same year Hoshea, an Israelite,
+with his two wives and four children, was sold for 3
+manehs. With these prices it is instructive to compare
+the sum of 43 shekels given for a female slave
+in Babylonia only four years later.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a specimen of an Assyrian contract for the sale
+of slaves we may take one which was made in 709
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, thirteen years after the fall of Samaria, and
+which is noticeable on account of the Israelitish
+<pb n='080'/><anchor id='Pg080'/>
+names which it contains: <q>The seal of Dagon-melech,</q>
+we read, <q>the owner of the slaves who are
+sold. Imannu, the woman U——, and Melchior, in
+all three persons, have been approved by Summa-ilâni,
+the bear-hunter from Kasarin, and he has
+bought them from Dagon-melech for three manehs
+of silver, according to the standard of Carchemish.
+The money has been fully paid; the slaves have
+been marked and taken. There shall be no reclamation,
+lawsuit, or complaints. Whoever hereafter shall
+at any time rise up and bring an action, whether it
+be Dagon-melech or his brother or his nephew or
+any one else belonging to him or a person in authority,
+and shall bring an action and charges against
+Summa-ilâni, his son, or his grandson, shall pay 10
+manehs of silver, or 1 maneh of gold (£140), to the
+goddess Istar of Arbela. The money brings an
+interest of 10 (<hi rend='italic'>i.e.</hi>, 60) per cent. to its possessors;
+but if an action or complaint is brought it shall not
+be touched by the seller. In the presence of Addâ
+the secretary, Akhiramu the secretary, Pekah the
+governor of the city, Nadab-Yahu (Nadabiah) the
+bear-hunter, Bel-kullim-anni, Ben-dikiri, Dhem-Istar,
+and Tabnî the secretary, who has drawn up the deed
+of contract.</q> The date is the 20th of Ab, or August,
+709 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The slaves are sold at a maneh each, and bear
+Syrian names. Addâ, <q>the man of Hadad,</q> and Ben-dikiri
+are also Syrian; on the other hand, Ahiram,
+Pekah, and Nadabiah are Israelitish. It is interesting
+to find them appearing as free citizens of Assyria,
+one of them being even governor of a city. It serves
+<pb n='081'/><anchor id='Pg081'/>
+to show why the tribes of Northern Israel so readily
+mingled with the populations among whom they were
+transported; the exiles in Assyria were less harshly
+treated than those in Babylonia, and they had no
+memories of a temple and its services, no strong
+religious feeling, to prevent them from being absorbed
+by the older inhabitants of their new homes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Assyria, as in Babylonia, parents could sell their
+children, brothers their sisters, though we do not
+know under what circumstances this was allowed by
+the law. The sale of a sister by her brother for half
+a maneh, which has already been referred to, took
+place at Nineveh in 668 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi> In the contract the
+brother is called <q>the owner of his sister,</q> and any
+infringement of the agreement was to be punished
+by a fine of <q>10 silver manehs, or 1 maneh of gold,</q>
+to the treasury of the temple of Ninip at Calah.
+About fifteen years later the services of a female
+slave <q>as long as she lived</q> were given in payment
+of a debt, one of the witnesses to the deed being
+Yavanni <q>the Greek.</q> Ninip of Calah received
+slaves as well as fines for the violation of contracts
+relating to the sale of them; about 645 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, for instance,
+we find four men giving one to the service of
+the god. Among the titles of the god is that of <q>the
+lord of workmen;</q> and it is therefore possible that
+he was regarded as in a special way the patron of
+the slave-trader.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seems to have been illegal to sell the mother
+without the children, at all events as long as they
+were young. In the old Sumerian code of laws it
+was already laid down that if children were born to
+<pb n='082'/><anchor id='Pg082'/>
+slaves whom their owner had sold while still reserving
+the power of repurchasing them, he could nevertheless
+not buy them back unless he bought the children
+at the same time at the rate of one and a half shekels
+each. The contracts show that this law continued in
+force down to the latest days of Babylonian independence.
+Thus the Egyptian woman who was sold in
+the sixth year of Cambyses was put up to auction
+along with her child. We may gather also that it
+was not customary to separate the husband and wife.<note place="foot">We
+hear, however, of a <q>little girl of six years of age</q> being
+sold for 17 shekels in the thirteenth year of Nabonidos, but she was
+doubtless an orphan.</note>
+When the Israelite Hoshea, for instance, was put up
+for sale in Assyria in the reign of Esar-haddon, both
+his wives as well as his children were bought by the
+purchaser along with him. It may be noted that
+the slave was <q>marked,</q> or <q>tattooed,</q> after purchase,
+like the Babylonian cattle. This served a
+double purpose; it indicated his owner and identified
+him if he tried to run away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a country where slaves were so numerous the
+wages of the free workmen were necessarily low.
+There were, however, two classes of free workmen,
+the skilled artisan and the agricultural laborer. The
+agricultural character of the Babylonian state, and the
+fact that so many of the peasantry possessed land of
+their own, prevented the agriculturist from sinking
+into that condition of serfdom and degradation which
+the existence of slavery would otherwise have
+brought about. Moreover, the flocks and cattle were
+tended by Bedâwin and Arameans, who were proud
+<pb n='083'/><anchor id='Pg083'/>
+of their freedom and independence, like the Bedâwin
+of modern Egypt. In spite, therefore, of the fact
+that so much of the labor of the country was performed
+by slaves, agriculture was in high esteem and
+the free agriculturist was held in honor. Tradition told
+how Sargon of Akkad, the hero of ancient Babylonia,
+had been brought up by Akki the irrigator, and had
+himself been a gardener, while the god Tammuz, the
+bridegroom of Istar, had tended sheep. Indeed, one
+of the oldest titles of the Babylonian kings had been
+that of <q>shepherd.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the same time there was a tendency for the free
+laborer to degenerate into a serf, attached to the soil
+of the farm on which he and his forefathers had been
+settled for centuries. A contract dated in the first
+year of Cyrus is an illustration of the fact. It records
+the lease of a farm near Sippara, which belonged to
+the temple of the Sun-god, and was let to a private
+individual by the chief priest and the civil governor
+of the temple. The farm contained 60 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of arable
+land, and the lease of it included <q>12 oxen, 8 peasants,
+3 iron plough-shares, 4 axes, and sufficient grain
+for sowing and for the support of the peasants and
+the cattle.</q> Here the peasants are let along with the
+land, and presumably would have been sold with it
+had the farm been purchased instead of being let.
+They were, in fact, irremovable from the soil on which
+they had been born. It must, however, be remembered
+that the farm was the property of a temple,
+and it is possible that serfdom was confined to land
+which had been consecrated to the gods. In that
+case the Babylonian serfs would have corresponded
+<pb n='084'/><anchor id='Pg084'/>
+with the Hebrew Nethinim, and might have been
+originally prisoners of war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We learn some details of early agricultural life in
+Babylonia from the fragments of an old Sumerian
+work on farming which formed one of the text-books
+in the Babylonian schools. Passages were extracted
+from it and translated into Semitic for the use of the
+students, and difficult words and expressions were
+noted and explained. The book seems to have resembled
+the <q>Works and Days</q> of the Greek poet
+Hesiod, except that it was not in verse. We gather
+from it that the agricultural year began, not with
+Nisan, or March, but with Tisri, or September, like
+the Jewish civil year; at all events, it was then that
+the tenure of the farmer began and that his contract
+was drawn up with the landlord. It was then, too,
+after the harvest, that he took possession of the land,
+paying his tax to the government, repairing or making
+the fences, and ploughing the soil.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His tenure was of various kinds. Sometimes he
+undertook to farm the land, paying half the produce
+of it to the landlord or his agent and providing the
+farming implements, the seeds, and the manure himself.
+Sometimes the farm was worked on a co-operative
+system, the owner of the land and the tenant-farmer
+entering into partnership with one another
+and dividing everything into equal shares. In this
+case the landlord was required to furnish carts, oxen,
+and seeds. At other times the tenant received only a
+percentage of the profits—a third, a fourth, a fifth, or
+a tenth, according to agreement. He had also to pay
+the <hi rend='italic'>esrâ</hi> or tithe.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='085'/><anchor id='Pg085'/>
+
+<p>
+The most common form of tenure seems to have
+been that in which a third of the produce went to
+the lessor. Two-thirds of the rent, paid either in
+dates or in their monetary equivalent, was delivered
+to the landlord on the last day of the eighth month,
+Marchesvan, where the dates had been gathered and
+had been laid out to dry. By the terms of the lease
+the tenant was called upon to keep the farm buildings
+in order, and even to erect them if they did not exist.
+His own house was separate from that in which the
+farm-servants lived, and it was surrounded by a garden,
+planted for the most part with date-palms. If
+the farm-buildings were not built or were not kept in
+proper repair a fine was imposed upon him, which in
+the case quoted by the writer of the agricultural work
+was 10 shekels, or 30s. The tenant was furthermore
+expected to pay the laborers their wages, and
+the landlord had the power of dismissing him if the
+terms of the contract were not fulfilled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The laborers were partly slaves, partly freemen,
+the freemen hiring themselves out at so much a
+month. A contract of the age of Khammurabi, for instance,
+states that a certain Ubaru, had thus hired himself
+out for thirty days for half a shekel of silver, or 1s.
+6d., but he had to offer a guarantee that he would not
+leave his master's service before the expiration of the
+month. In other cases it was a slave whose services
+were hired from his owner; thus, in a document from
+Sippara, of the same age as the preceding, we read:
+<q>Rimmon-bani hires Sumi-izitim as a laborer for his
+brother, for three months, at a wage of one shekel and
+a half, 3 measures of grain and 1½ <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> of oil. There
+<pb n='086'/><anchor id='Pg086'/>
+shall be no withdrawal from the agreement. Ibni-A-murru
+and Sikni-Ea have confirmed it. Rimmon-bani
+hires the laborer in the presence of Abum-ilu
+(Abimael), the son of Ibni-Samas, Ilisu-ibni, the son
+of Igas-Rimmon, and Arad-Bel, the son of Akhuwam.
+(Dated) the first day of Sivan.</q> The wages evidently
+went to the slave, so that he was practically in the
+position of a free laborer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we come down to a later period, we find in
+contract, dated at the end of the second year of
+a Cyrus, Bunene-sar-uzur, <q>the son of Sum-yukin,</q>
+hired, as a servant for a year, <q>from the month
+Nisan to the month Adar,</q> for 3 shekels of silver.
+These were paid beforehand to a third person, and
+the payment was duly witnessed and registered.
+Bunene-sar-uzur was not a slave, though 9 shillings
+does not seem much as wages for a whole year.
+However, three years later only 1 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi>, or about 50
+quarts of meal, were given for a month's supply of
+food to some men who were digging a canal. The
+hours of work doubtless lasted from sunrise to sunset,
+though we have a curious document of the Macedonian
+period, dated in the reign of Seleucus II., in
+which certain persons sell the wages they receive for
+work done in a temple during the <q>sixth part</q> of a
+day. The sum demanded was as much as 65 shekels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Aramean Bedâwin, who acted as shepherds,
+or cattle-drovers, probably received better wages
+than the native Babylonians. They were less numerous
+and were in more request; moreover, it was necessary
+that they should be trustworthy. The herds and
+flocks were left in their charge for weeks together, on
+<pb n='087'/><anchor id='Pg087'/>
+the west bank of the Euphrates, out of sight of the
+cultivated fields of Babylonia and exposed to the
+attacks of marauders from the desert. Early Babylonian
+documents give long lists of the herdsmen and
+shepherds, and of the number of sheep or oxen for
+which they were responsible, and which were the
+property of some wealthy landowner. In the seventeenth
+year of Nabonidos, five of the shepherds received
+one shekel and a half of silver, as well as a
+<hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>, or about 250 quarts, of grain from the royal
+granary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some of the songs have been preserved to us with
+which the Babylonian laborer beguiled his work in
+the fields. They probably formed part of the treatise
+on agriculture which has already been described; at
+any rate, we owe their preservation to the educational
+text-books, in which they have been embodied,
+along with Semitic translations of the original Sumerian
+text. Here is one which the peasants sang
+to the oxen as they returned from the field:
+</p>
+
+<lg>
+<l>My knees are marching,</l>
+<l>My feet are not resting;</l>
+<l>Taking no thought,</l>
+<l>Drive me home.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<p>
+In a similar strain the ploughman encouraged his
+team with the words:
+</p>
+
+<lg>
+<l>A heifer am I,</l>
+<l>To the mule I am yoked.</l>
+<l>Where is the cart?</l>
+<l>Go, look for grass;</l>
+<l>It is high, it is high!</l>
+</lg>
+
+<pb n='088'/><anchor id='Pg088'/>
+
+<p>
+Or again, the oxen, while threshing, would be addressed
+with the refrain:
+</p>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Before the oxen,</l>
+<l>As they walk,</l>
+<l>Thresh out the grain.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<p>
+Ploughing, harrowing, sowing, reaping, and threshing
+constituted the chief events of the agricultural
+year. The winters were not cold, and the Babylonian
+peasant was consequently not obliged to
+spend a part of the year indoors shivering over a
+fire. In fact fuel was scarce in the country; few
+trees were grown in it except the palm, and the fruit
+of the palm was too valuable to allow it to be cut
+down. When the ordinary occupations of the farmer
+had come to an end, he was expected to look after
+his farm buildings and fences, to build walls and
+clean out the ditches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ditches, indeed, were more important in
+Babylonia than in most other parts of the world.
+Irrigation was as necessary as in Egypt, though for
+a different reason. The Chaldean plain had originally
+been a marsh, and it required constant supervision
+to prevent it from being once more inundated
+by the waters and made uninhabitable. The embankments
+which hindered the overflow of the Euphrates
+and Tigris and kept them within carefully
+regulated channels, the canals which carried off the
+surplus water and distributed it over the country,
+needed continual attention. Each year, after the
+rains of the winter, the banks had to be strengthened
+or re-made and the beds of the canals cleared
+<pb n='089'/><anchor id='Pg089'/>
+out. The irrigator, moreover, was perpetually at
+work; the rainy season did not last long, and during
+the rest of the year the land was dependent on the
+water supplied by the rivers and canals. Irrigation,
+therefore, formed a large and important part of the
+farmers' work, and the bucket of the irrigator must
+have been constantly swinging. Without the irrigator
+the labors of the farmer would have been of
+little avail.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='090'/><anchor id='Pg090'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter V. Manners And Customs</head>
+
+<p>
+Babylonia was a land of bricks. Stone was not
+found nearer than the mountains of Elam on the one
+side or the desert plains of Northern Arabia on the
+other. Clay, on the contrary, was plentiful, and the
+art of making bricks and building a house by means
+of them must have been invented by the first settlers
+in the country. The bricks were dried in the sun,
+the heat of which was sufficient to harden them.
+The clay was further bound together by being mixed
+with chopped reeds, though the use of the latter was
+not universal, at all events in the earlier times. In
+the later days of Babylonian history, however, they
+were generally employed, and we learn from the contracts
+that a bed of reeds grown for the sake of the
+brick-makers' trade was by no means an unprofitable
+investment. Either clay or bitumen took the place
+of mortar; the bitumen was procured from Hit or
+from the Kurdish hills, where there are still springs of
+naphtha; after the conquest of Canaan it may have
+been brought from the neighborhood of the Dead
+Sea. Some scholars have thought that this is referred
+to by Gudea, the priest-king of Lagas (2700
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>).
+</p>
+
+<pb n='091'/><anchor id='Pg091'/>
+
+<p>
+The employment of brick had a very direct effect
+upon the character of Babylonian architecture. Thick
+walls, supported by buttresses and devoid of sculpture,
+were necessitated by it. The buildings of Babylonia
+were externally plain and flat; masses of brick
+were piled up in the form of towers or else built into
+long lines of wall of unbroken monotony. The roofs
+were made of the stems of palm-trees, which rested
+on the stems of other palm-trees, where the space between
+one brick wall and another was too great to be
+safely spanned. The upright stems became columns,
+which were imitated first in brick and then in stone.
+Babylonia was thus the birthplace of columnar architecture,
+and in the course of centuries columns of
+almost every conceivable shape and kind came to be
+invented. Sometimes they were made to stand on
+the backs of animals, sometimes the animal formed
+the capital. The column which rested against the
+wall passed into a brick pilaster, and this again assumed
+various forms.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The monotony of the wall itself was disguised in
+different ways. The pilaster served to break it, and
+the walls of the early Chaldean temples are accordingly
+often broken up into a series of recessed panels,
+the sides of which are formed by square pilasters.
+Clay cones were also inserted in the wall and brilliantly
+colored, the colors being arranged in patterns.
+But the most common form of decoration was where
+the wall was covered with painted stucco. This,
+indeed, was the ordinary mode of ornamenting the
+internal walls of a building; a sort of dado ran
+round the lower part of them painted with the figures
+<pb n='092'/><anchor id='Pg092'/>
+of men and animals, while the upper part was left in
+plain colors or decorated only with rosettes and similar
+designs. Ezekiel<note place="foot">Xxiii. 14.</note>
+refers to the figures of the
+Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion on the walls of their
+palaces, and the composite creatures of Babylonian
+mythology who were believed to represent the first
+imperfect attempts at creation were depicted on the
+walls of the temple of Bel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Among the tablets which have been found at Tello
+are plans of the houses of the age of Sargon of
+Akkad. The plans are for the most part drawn to
+scale, and the length and breadth of the rooms
+and courts contained in them are given. The rooms
+opened one into the other, and along one side of a
+house there usually ran a passage. One of the houses,
+for example, of which we have a plan, contained five
+rooms on the ground floor, two of which were the
+length of the house. The dimensions of the second
+of these is described as being 8 cubits in breadth
+and 1 <hi rend='italic'>gardu</hi> in length. The
+<hi rend='italic'>gardu</hi> was probably
+equivalent to 18 cubits or about 30 feet. In another
+case the plan is that of the house of the high priest
+of Lagas, and at the back of it the number of slaves
+living in it is stated as well as the number of workmen
+employed to build it. It was built, we are told,
+in the year when Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon,
+made the pavement of the temples of Bel at Nippur
+and of Istar at Nin-unu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The temple and house were alike erected on a platform
+of brick or earth. This was rendered necessary
+by the marshy soil of Babylonia and the inundations
+<pb n='093'/><anchor id='Pg093'/>
+to which it was exposed. The houses, indeed, generally
+found the platform already prepared for them by
+the ruins of the buildings which had previously stood
+on the same spot. Sun-dried brick quickly disintegrates,
+and a deserted house soon became a mound
+of dirt. In this way the villages and towns of Babylonia
+gradually rose in height, forming a <hi rend='italic'>tel</hi> or mound
+on which the houses of a later age could be erected.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In contrast to Babylonia the younger kingdom of
+Assyria was a land of stone. But the culture of Assyria
+was derived from Babylonia, and the architectural
+fashions of Babylonia were accordingly followed
+even when stone took the place of brick. The platform,
+which was as necessary in Babylonia as it was
+unnecessary in Assyria, was nevertheless servilely
+copied, and palaces and temples were piled upon it
+like those of the Babylonians. The ornamentation
+of the Babylonian walls was imitated in stone, the
+rooms being adorned with a sculptured dado, the
+bas-reliefs of which were painted in bright colors.
+Even the fantastic shapes of the Babylonian columns
+were reproduced in stone. Brick, too, was largely
+used; in fact, the stone served for the most part
+merely as a facing, to ornament rather than strengthen
+the walls.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Babylonian princes had themselves set the example
+of employing stone for the sake of decoration.
+Stone was fetched for the purpose from the most
+distant regions, regardless of cost. Gudea, the priest-king
+of Lagas, imported limestone from the Lebanon
+and from Samalum, near the Gulf of Antioch, while
+the statues which adorned his palace, and are now in
+<pb n='094'/><anchor id='Pg094'/>
+the Louvre, are carved out of diorite from the Peninsula
+of Sinai. The diorite doubtless came by sea,
+but the blocks of hewn stone that were brought from
+<q>the land of the Amorites</q> must have been conveyed
+overland.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even more precious materials than stone were used
+for decorative purposes. Gold and silver, bronze
+and ivory, lapis-lazuli and colored glass, ornamented
+the cornices and other parts of the interior of the
+palace. Gudea tells us that he had sent to the deserts
+which bordered on Egypt for gold-dust and acacia-wood,
+to Arabia for copper, and to Mount Amanus
+for beams of cedar. The elephant was still hunted on
+the banks of the Euphrates near the city of Carchemish,
+and lapis-lazuli was furnished by the mountains
+of Persia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A garden was planted by the side of the house.
+The Babylonians were an agricultural people, and
+even the cities were full of the gardens attached to
+the houses of all who could afford to have them.
+Originally the garden was little more than a grove of
+palms. But herbs and vegetables soon began to be
+grown in it, and as habits of luxury increased, exotic
+trees and shrubs were transplanted to it and flowers
+were cultivated for the sake of their scent. Tiglath-pileser
+I. of Assyria tells us how he had <q>taken and
+planted in the gardens of his country cedars</q> and other
+trees <q>from the lands he had conquered, which none of
+the kings his predecessors had ever planted before,</q>
+and how he had <q>brought rare vines which did not
+exist in Assyria and had cultivated them in the land
+of Assyria.</q> At a later date Sennacherib laid out a
+<pb n='095'/><anchor id='Pg095'/>
+pleasure-garden or <q>paradise</q> by the side of the
+palace he erected, filling it with cypresses and other
+trees as well as fragrant plants, and digging a lake
+in the midst of it by means of which it could be
+watered. One of the bas-reliefs in the palace of Assur-bani-pal
+represents the King and Queen dining
+in the royal garden under the shadow of its palms,
+while an attendant drives away the insects with a fan.
+The Assyrians did but imitate their Babylonian
+neighbors, and in the gardens of Nineveh we must
+see many copies of the gardens that had been laid out
+in Babylonia long ages before. The very word <q>paradise,</q>
+which in the Persian age came to signify a
+pleasure-park, was of Babylonian origin. It is given
+in the exercise-book of a Babylonian school-boy as the
+name of a mythical locality, and an etymological pun
+attempts to derive it from the name of the god Esu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was, of course, only the houses of the rich and
+noble which were artistically furnished or provided
+with a garden. The poorer classes lived in mud huts
+of conical form, which seldom contained more than
+one or two rooms. Air and light were admitted
+through the door or through small apertures in the
+walls. In the better class of houses, on the other
+hand, the windows were of large size, and were
+placed near the ceiling. The air was excluded by
+means of curtains which were drawn across them
+when the weather was cold or when it was necessary
+to keep out the sunlight. The houses, moreover,
+consisted of more than one story, the upper stories
+being approached by a flight of steps which were
+open to the air. They were usually built against one
+<pb n='096'/><anchor id='Pg096'/>
+of the sides of a central court, around which the
+rooms were ranged, the rooms on the upper floors
+communicating with one another by means of a covered
+corridor, or else by doors leading from one chamber
+to the other. The apartments of the women
+were separate from those of the men, and the servants
+slept either on the ground-floor or in an outbuilding
+of their own.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The furniture, even of the palaces, was scanty from
+a modern point of view. The floor was covered with
+rugs, for the manufacture of which Babylonia was
+famous, and chairs, couches, and tables were placed
+here and there. The furniture was artistic in form;
+a seal-cylinder, of the age of Ur-Bau, King of Ur, the
+older contemporary of Gudea, represents a chair, the
+feet of which have been carved into the likeness of
+those of oxen. If we may judge from Egyptian analogies
+the material of which they were formed would
+have been ivory. The Assyrian furniture of later days
+doubtless followed older Babylonian models, and we
+can gain from it some idea of what they must have
+been like. The chairs were of various kinds. Some
+had backs and arms, some were mere stools. The
+seats of many were so high that a footstool was required
+by those who used them. The employment
+of the footstool must go back to a considerable antiquity,
+since we find some of the Tel-el-Amarna correspondents
+in the fourteenth century before our era
+comparing themselves to the footstool of the King.
+Chairs and stools alike were furnished with cushions
+which were covered with embroidered tapestries. So
+also were the couches and bedsteads used by the
+<pb n='097'/><anchor id='Pg097'/>
+wealthier classes. The poor contented themselves
+with a single mattress laid upon the floor, and since
+everyone slept in the clothes he had worn during the
+day, rising in the morning was not a difficult task.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tables had four legs, and the wood of which
+they were composed was often inlaid with ivory.
+Wood inlaid with ivory and other precious materials
+was also employed for the chairs and sofas. Tripods
+of bronze, moreover, stood in different parts of the
+room, and vases of water or wine were placed upon
+them. Fragments of some of them have been found
+in the ruins of Nineveh, and they are represented in
+early Babylonian seals. The feet of the tripod were
+artistically shaped to resemble the feet of oxen, the
+clinched human hand, or some similar design. At
+meals the tripod stood beside the table on which the
+dishes were laid. Those who eat sat on chairs in the
+earlier period, but in later times the fashion grew up,
+for the men at any rate, to recline on a couch. Assur-bani-pal,
+for example, is thus represented, while
+the Queen sits beside him on a lofty chair. Perhaps
+the difference in manners is an illustration of the
+greater conservatism of women who adhere to customs
+which have been discarded by the men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Vases of stone and earthenware, of bronze, gold,
+and silver, were plentifully in use. A vase of silver
+mounted on a bronze pedestal with four feet, which
+was dedicated to his god by one of the high-priests
+of Lagas, has been found at Tello, and stone bowls,
+inscribed with the name of Gudea, and closely resembling
+similar bowls from the early Egyptian tombs,
+have also been disinterred there. A vase of Egyptian
+<pb n='098'/><anchor id='Pg098'/>
+alabaster, discovered by the French excavators in
+Babylonia, but subsequently lost in the Tigris, bore
+upon it an inscription stating it to have been part of
+the spoil obtained by Naram-Sin, the son of Sargon
+of Akkad, from his conquest of the Sinaitic peninsula.
+In Assyrian days the vases were frequently of
+porcelain or glass; when these were first introduced
+is still unknown. Various articles of furniture are
+mentioned in the later contracts. Under Nabonidos,
+7 shekels, or 21 shillings, were given for a copper kettle
+and cup, the kettle weighing 16 manehs (or 42
+pounds troy) and the cup 2 manehs (5 pounds 7
+ounces troy). These were left, it may be noted, in
+the safe-keeping of a slave, and were bought by a
+lady. At a later date, in the third year of Cambyses,
+as much as 4 manehs 9 shekels, or £36 7s., were paid
+for a large copper jug and <hi rend='italic'>qulla</hi>, which was probably
+of the same form as the <hi rend='italic'>qullas</hi> of modern Egypt.
+The female slave who seems to have started an inn
+in the sixth year of Cambyses provided herself with
+five bedsteads, ten chairs, three dishes, one wardrobe (?),
+three shears, one iron shovel, one syphon,
+one wine-decanter, one chain (?), one brazier, and
+other objects which cannot as yet be identified. The
+brazier was probably a Babylonian invention. At all
+events we find it used in Judah after contact with
+Assyria had introduced the habits of the farther East
+among the Jews (Jer. xxxvi. 22), like the gnomon or
+sun-dial of Ahaz (Is. xxxviii. 8), which was also of
+Babylonian origin (Herod., ii., 109). The gnomon
+seems to have consisted of a column, the shadow of
+which was thrown on a flight of twelve steps representing
+<pb n='099'/><anchor id='Pg099'/>
+the twelve double hours into which the diurnal
+revolutions of the earth were divided and which
+thus indicated the time of day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What the chairs, tables, footstools, and couches
+were like may be seen from the Assyrian bas-reliefs.
+They were highly artistic in design and character,
+and were of various shapes. The tables or stands
+sometimes had the form of camp-stools, sometimes
+were three-legged, but more usually they were furnished
+with four legs, which occasionally were placed
+on a sort of platform or stand. At times they were
+provided with shelves. Special stands with shelves
+were also made for holding vases, though large jars
+were often made to stand on tripods.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If we may judge from the old lists of clothing that
+have come down to us, the Babylonians must have
+been fond of variety in dress. The names of an immense
+number of different kinds of dress are given,
+and the monuments show that fashions changed from
+time to time. Thus the earliest remains of Chaldean
+art exhibit three successive changes in the head-dress,
+and similar changes are to be noticed in the dress of
+the Assyrian kings as it is represented in the bas-reliefs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To the last, however, the principal constituents of
+Babylonian dress remained the same. There were a
+hat or head-dress, a tunic or shirt, and a long robe
+which reached to the ankles, to which in cold weather
+was added a cloak. The hat or cap was made of
+some thick substance like felt and was sometimes
+quilted. The Babylonian King Merodach-nadin-akhi
+(1100 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>) is represented in a square cap which is
+<pb n='100'/><anchor id='Pg100'/>
+ornamented with a row of feathers; below these is a
+band of rosettes. The Assyrian King generally wore
+a lofty tiara; this was a survival of the tiara of the
+early Babylonians. Above his head was carried a
+parasol to protect him from the sun; but the use of
+the parasol was confined to the upper classes, if not
+to the royal family alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tunic was of linen, or more often of wool,
+which was manufactured in Babylonia on a large
+scale. It reached half-way down the knees and was
+fastened round the waist by a girdle. Under it a
+second tunic or vest was sometimes worn in cold
+weather. Drawers were seldom used, though in the
+time of the second Assyrian empire the cavalry and
+heavy-armed bowmen wore tightly fitting drawers of
+plaited leather, but the custom was probably introduced
+from the north. A bilingual vocabulary, however,
+gives a Sumerian word for this article of dress,
+which may therefore have been occasionally adopted
+in pre-Semitic days.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The long robe was usually sleeveless and ornamented
+with a fringe. It opened in front, and in
+walking allowed the left leg to be seen. The girdle was
+often tied around it instead of round the tunic. The
+Assyrian King is sometimes represented as wearing a
+sort of richly embroidered cape over the robe. The
+cape or cloak, however, was specially characteristic
+of the Babylonians, as the Assyrians found it inconvenient
+in war or active exercise, and accordingly preferred
+to discard it. Most of them wore it only on
+state occasions or when in full dress.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The feet were shod with sandals, though the Babylonians,
+<pb n='101'/><anchor id='Pg101'/>
+as a rule, went barefoot. So also did the
+lower classes among the Assyrians, as well as a portion
+of the army. The sandals were attached to the
+foot by leather thongs, and the heel was protected by
+a cap. The boot, however, was introduced from the
+colder regions of the north before the twelfth century
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi> At all events, Merodach-nadin-akhi is depicted
+as wearing soft leather shoes, and Sennacherib
+adopted a similar foot-covering. This was laced in
+front like the high-laced boots with which the Assyrian
+cavalry were provided toward the end of the
+reign of Tiglath-pileser III.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The priest was distinguished by a curiously
+flounced dress, made perhaps of a species of muslin,
+which descended to the feet, and is often pictured on
+the early seals. Over his shoulders was flung a
+goat's skin, the symbol of his office, like the leopard's
+skin worn by the priests in Egypt.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the early Babylonian period the dress of all
+classes was naturally much more simple than that of
+a later date. The poor were contented with a short
+kilt, the King and his family with a long one. One
+of the early rulers of Lagas, for instance, is represented
+as wearing only a skull-cap and a kilt which
+reaches nearly to the ankles. It was under the
+Semitic empire of Sargon of Akkad that the long
+robe seems first to have become common. But it was
+worn over the left shoulder only, and as the tunic was
+not yet introduced into ordinary use, the right shoulder
+was left bare. Even Naram-Sin, the conqueror of
+Sinai, is depicted as clad in this simple costume in a
+bas-relief found near Diarbekr. The robe is quilted,
+<pb n='102'/><anchor id='Pg102'/>
+and on the King's head is a conical cap of felt. The
+statues of the age of Gudea also show no sign of the
+tunic. The development out of the kilt must belong
+to a later age.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The costume of the women does not appear to
+have differed much from that of the men. Both
+alike adopted the long robe. But representations
+of women are unfortunately rare. The Queen of Assur-bani-pal
+is dressed in a long, sleeveless robe,
+over which is a fringed frock reaching to the knees,
+and over this again a light cape, also fringed and embroidered
+with rosettes. This may, therefore, be
+regarded as the official dress of a grand lady in the
+closing days of the Assyrian empire.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Both men and women were fond of jewelry, and
+adorned themselves with rings, bracelets, ear-rings,
+and necklaces. The women also wore anklets, like
+many of the Oriental women of to-day. The men
+carried a stick in the street, and all who could afford
+it had a small engraved cylinder of stone attached to
+the wrist by a ring which passed through an orifice
+in the cylinder. The cylinder served the purpose of
+a seal, and was constantly required in business transactions.
+No deed was valid without the seal or mark
+of the contracting parties; when either of them was
+too poor to possess a seal, a nail-mark was impressed
+upon the clay of the contract tablet, and a note added
+stating to whom it was that the mark belonged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The seal-cylinder was a Babylonian invention.
+In a land where there were no stones every pebble
+was of value, and the Babylonians accordingly
+became expert gem-cutters at a very early period.
+<pb n='103'/><anchor id='Pg103'/>
+Gem-cutting, in fact, was a highly developed art
+among them, and the seal-cylinder of Ibni-sarru, the
+librarian of Sargon of Akkad, which is now in a private
+collection in Paris, is one of the most beautiful
+specimens of the art that has ever been produced.
+The pebble was cut in a cylindrical shape, and various
+figures were engraved upon it. The favorite design
+was that of a god or goddess to whom the owner
+of the seal is being introduced by a priest; sometimes
+the King takes the place of the deity, at other times it
+is the adventures of Gilgames, the hero of the great
+Chaldean Epic, that are represented upon the stone.
+The design is usually accompanied by a few lines of
+inscription, giving the name of the owner of the seal,
+as well as that of his father, and stating of what god
+or King he was <q>the servant.</q> The seals were often
+kept in stock by their makers, a blank space being
+left for the inscription, which was to be engraved
+upon them as soon as they had found a purchaser.
+Hence it is that at times the names have never been
+filled in.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The style and pattern of the cylinder changed in
+the course of centuries, as well as the favorite materials
+of which it was made. Under the dynasty of
+Ur, which preceded that of Khammurabi, for instance,
+hæmatite was more especially in vogue; in the
+age of Nebuchadnezzar crystal became fashionable.
+At one period, moreover, or among the artists of a
+particular local school, the representation of a human
+sacrifice was common. Between the inscription on
+the cylinder, however, and the subjects engraved upon
+it there is seldom, if ever, any connection, except
+<pb n='104'/><anchor id='Pg104'/>
+when a portrait is given of the god or King of whom
+the owner calls himself the servant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A hole was drilled through the length of the cylinder,
+and through this a string was passed. Instead
+of the string a rod of metal or ivory was often employed;
+this was fixed in a frame of gold or bronze,
+and the cylinder was thus able to turn upon it.
+When the seal was used it was rolled over the soft
+clay, leaving an indelible impression behind. Among
+the objects found at Tello are balls of clay, which
+were attached to papyrus documents, like the seals
+of mediæval deeds, and sealed with the cylinders of
+the post-masters of Sargon and Naram-Sin. Above
+the seal comes the address, in one case to Naram-Sin,
+in another to the high-priest of Lagas. It is evident
+that a postal system had already been established
+between Lagas and Agade or Akkad, the capital
+of Sargon's empire. The impressions show that
+the seals must have been very beautiful specimens of
+workmanship. They all belonged to high officials;
+one to Dada, <q>the seer of the palace,</q> another to the
+high-priest of Lagas himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Great attention was paid to the hair of the head
+and beard. But this was more especially the case
+among the Semites, who were a bearded race. The
+older Sumerian population had but little hair upon
+the face, and to the last the typical Babylonian
+was distinguished from the Assyrian by the greater
+absence of beard. The result was that while the
+Semite encouraged his hair to grow, the Sumerian
+shaved it except in the case of old men. Most of
+the Sumerian heads which have been discovered in
+<pb n='105'/><anchor id='Pg105'/>
+the excavations of Tello have smooth faces and
+shorn heads. The figures represented on the so-called
+Stela of the Vultures, one of the earliest examples
+of Chaldean art, are without beards, and on the
+early seal-cylinders the gods alone, as a rule, are
+permitted to wear them. We are reminded of the
+Egyptian custom which forbade the beard except to
+the King and the god. The barber, in fact, occupied
+an important position in ancient Babylonia, and the
+old Sumerian code of laws enjoins that a son who
+denies his father shall be shorn and sold as a slave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the rise of Semitic supremacy, however,
+there is a great change. Naram-Sin, in the bas-relief
+of Diarbekr, wears beard and whiskers and
+mustache like the Assyrians of a later day, and like
+them also his hair is artificially curled, though to a
+lesser extent. The same long beard also distinguishes
+Khammurabi in a piece of sculpture in
+which he is entitled <q>the king of the land of the
+Amorites.</q> The gods, too, now assume a mustache
+as well as a beard and take upon them a Semitic
+character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The use of cosmetics must have become widely
+spread, and many of the small stone vases in which
+they were kept and which have been found on the
+sites of Babylonian cities were doubtless intended
+for the hair-dresser. The oil that was poured upon
+the hair made it bright and shining and it was worn
+long whether it grew on the head or on the face.
+The Babylonians had long been known as <q>the people
+of the black heads,</q> perhaps in contrast to the fairer
+inhabitants of the Kurdish mountains to the north,
+<pb n='106'/><anchor id='Pg106'/>
+and the black hair, frizzled and curled, was now allowed
+to be visible. The working classes bound it
+with a simple fillet; the wealthier members of society
+protected it with caps and tiaras. But all alike were
+proud of it; the days were past when a beardless
+race had held rule in Western Asia.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='107'/><anchor id='Pg107'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter VI. Trades, Houses, And Land; Wages And Prices</head>
+
+<p>
+Babylonia, as we have seen, was essentially an industrial
+country. In spite of its agricultural basis
+and the vast army of slaves with which it was filled,
+it was essentially a land of trades and manufactures.
+Its manufacturing fame was remembered into classical
+days. One of the rooms in the palace of Nero
+was hung with Babylonian tapestries, which had cost
+four millions of sesterces, or more than £32,000, and
+Cato, it is said, sold a Babylonian mantle because it
+was too costly and splendid for a Roman to wear.
+The wool of which the cloths and rugs of Babylonia
+were made was derived from the flocks which fed on
+the banks of the Euphrates, and a large body of artisans
+was employed in weaving it into tapestries and
+curtains, robes and carpets. They were woven in
+bright and vari-colored patterns; the figures of men
+and animals were depicted upon them and the bas-relief
+or fresco could be replaced upon the wall by a
+picture in tapestry. The dyes were mainly vegetable,
+though the kermes or cochineal-insect, out of which
+the precious scarlet dye was extracted, was brought
+from the neighborhood of the Indus. So at least
+Ktesias states in the age of the Persian empire; and
+<pb n='108'/><anchor id='Pg108'/>
+since teak was found by Mr. Taylor among the ruins
+of Ur, it is probable that intercourse with the western
+coast of India went back to an early date. Indeed
+an old bilingual list of clothing gives <hi rend='italic'>sindhu</hi> as the
+name of a material which is explained to be <q>vegetable
+wool;</q> in this we must see the cotton which in
+the classical epoch was imported from the island of
+Tylos, in the Persian Gulf, but which, as its name
+declares, must have originally been <q>the Indian</q>
+plant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The looms and weavers of Babylonia are, as is
+natural, repeatedly referred to in the contracts, many
+of which, moreover, relate to the sale and purchase
+of wool. One of them even shows us Belshazzar, the
+son and heir-apparent of the King Nabonidos, as a
+wool-merchant on a considerable scale. <q>The sum
+of 20 manehs for wool,</q> it says, <q>the property of
+Belshazzar, the son of the king, which has been
+handed over to Iddin-Merodach, the son of Basa, the
+son of Nur-Sin, through the agency of Nebo-zabit,
+the servant of the house of Belshazzar, the son of the
+king, and the secretaries of the son of the king. In
+the month Adar (February) of the eleventh year (of
+Nabonidos) the debtor shall pay the money, 20
+manehs. The house of —— the Persian and all the
+property of Iddin-Merodach in town and country
+shall be the security of Belshazzar, the son of the
+king, until he shall pay in full the money aforesaid.
+The money which shall (meanwhile) accrue upon (the
+wool) he shall pay as interest.</q> Then follow the names
+of five witnesses and a priest, as well as the date and
+the place of registration. This was Babylon, and the
+<pb n='109'/><anchor id='Pg109'/>
+priest, Bel-akhi-iddin, who helped to witness the deed
+was a brother of Nabonidos and consequently the
+uncle of Belshazzar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The weight of the wool that was sold is unfortunately
+not stated. But considering that 20 manehs,
+or £180, was paid for it, there must have been a considerable
+amount of it. In the reign of Cambyses
+the amount of wool needed for the robe of the image
+of the Sun-goddess  was as much as 5 manehs 5
+shekels in weight. Wealthy land-owners kept large
+flocks of sheep, chiefly for the sake of their wool.
+Their prices varied greatly. Thus in the fourth year
+of Nabonidos, 6 shekels, or 18s., were given for a
+sheep, while in the thirteenth year of the same King,
+18 sheep fetched only 35 shekels, or less than 6s., each.
+In the first year of Cyrus, 6 lambs were sold for 8¼
+shekels, and 5 other lambs for 7¼ shekels, while 1
+sheep cost only one shekel and a quarter; in his sixth
+year the price of a single sheep had risen to 4 shekels
+(12s.). Under Cambyses we find sheep selling for 7
+and 7¼ shekels apiece. In the eighth year of Nabonidos,
+100 sheep were sold for 50 shekels after they
+had been slaughtered; it is clear, therefore, that the
+dead animal was considered less valuable than the
+living one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the other hand, sheep cost a good deal to feed
+when the grazing season was over, and they had to be
+fed <q>in the stall.</q> A document dated in the seventh
+year of Cyrus states that 32 sheep required each day
+1 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> 28 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+(or about 95 quarts) of grain, while 160
+full-grown animals consumed daily 4 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi>
+16 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>, or more
+than 240 quarts. In the reign of Cambyses 1 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> 4
+<pb n='110'/><anchor id='Pg110'/>
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of fodder were needed daily for 20 old sheep, 100
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> for 100 younger sheep, and the same amount
+also for 200 lambs. At this time 2 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> of grain cost
+6½ shekels; consequently the cost of keeping the 20
+old sheep alone was about 10s 6d. a day. To this
+had to be added the wages of the shepherds, who were
+free Bedâwin. Hence, it is not wonderful that the
+owner demanded 7 shekels, or 21s., for the sheep he
+had to sell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the <hi rend='italic'>Edin</hi> or <q>field,</q> however, their keep came
+to but little. The pasturage was common property,
+and it was only the wages of the Aramean shepherds
+who looked after the flock which involved an outlay.
+The five shepherds who, in the tenth year of Nabonidos,
+were paid for their services by the overseer of
+the royal flocks in the town of Ruzabu received 30
+shekels of silver and a <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of
+grain. The <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> contained
+180 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>, and since in the first year of Cyrus
+two men received 2 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> 30
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>, or 102 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>, of grain for
+their support during a month of thirty days, we may,
+perhaps, infer that the wages were intended to cover
+the third part of a month. In this case each man
+would have been paid at the rate of 9 shekels, or 37s.,
+a month. It is, however, possible that the wages
+were really intended for the full month. The ancient
+Greeks considered a quart of wheat a sufficient daily
+allowance for a grown man, and 180 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> would mean
+about 1⅗ of a quart a day for each man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We may gather from a contract dated the 5th of
+Sivan in the eighteenth year of Darius that it was
+not customary to pay for any sheep that were sold
+until they had been driven into the city, the cost of
+<pb n='111'/><anchor id='Pg111'/>
+doing so being included in the price. The contract
+is as follows: <q>One hundred sheep of the house of
+Akhabtum, the mother of Sa-Bel-iddin, the servant of
+Bel-sunu, that have been sold to La-Bel, the son of
+Khabdiya, on the 10th day of the month Ab in
+the eighteenth year of Darius the king: The sheep,
+200 in number, must be brought into Babylon and
+delivered to Supêsu, the servant of Sa-Bel-iddin. If
+15 manehs of silver are not paid for the sheep on the
+10th of Ab, they must be paid on 20th of the month. If
+the money, amounting to 15 manehs, is not paid, then
+interest shall be paid according to this agreement at
+the rate of one shekel for each maneh per month.</q>
+Then come the names of eight witnesses and a priest,
+the date, and the place of registration, which was a
+town called Tsikhu.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The contract is interesting from several points
+of view. The sheep, it will be seen, belonged to a
+woman, and not to her son, who was <q>the servant</q> of
+a Babylonian gentleman and had another <q>servant</q>
+who acted as his agent at Babylon. The father of
+the purchaser of the sheep bears the Hebrew name
+of 'Abdî, which is transcribed into Babylonian in the
+usual fashion, and the name of the purchaser himself,
+which may be translated <q>(There is) no Bel,</q> may
+imply that he was a Jew. Akhabtum and her son
+were doubtless Arameans, and it is noticeable that
+the latter is termed a <q>servant</q> and not a <q>slave.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Before entering the city an <hi rend='italic'>octroi</hi> duty had to be
+paid upon the sheep as upon other produce of the
+country. The custom-house was at the gate, and the
+duty is accordingly called <q>gate-money</q> in the contracts.
+<pb n='112'/><anchor id='Pg112'/>
+In front of the gate was an open space, the
+<hi rend='italic'>rébit</hi>, such as may still be seen at the entrance to
+an Oriental town, and which was used as a market-place.
+The <hi rend='italic'>rébit</hi> of Nineveh lay on the north
+side of the city, in the direction where Sargon built
+his palace, the ruins of which are now known as
+Khorsabad. But besides the market-place outside
+the walls there were also open spaces inside them
+where markets could be held and sheep and cattle
+sold. Babylon, it would seem, was full of such public
+<q>squares,</q> and so, too, was Nineveh. The <hi rend='italic'>suqi</hi> or
+<q>streets</q> led into them, long, narrow lanes through
+which a chariot or cart could be driven with difficulty.
+Here and there, however, there were streets
+of a broader and better character, called <hi rend='italic'>suli</hi>, which
+originally denoted the raised and paved ascents
+which led to a temple. It was along these that the
+religious processions were conducted, and the King
+and his generals passed over them in triumph after
+a victory. One of these main streets, called Â-ibur-sabu,
+intersected Babylon; it was constructed of
+brick by Nebuchadnezzar, paved with large slabs of
+stone, and raised to a considerable height. It started
+from the principal gate of the city, and after passing
+Ê-Saggil, the great temple of Bel-Merodach, was carried
+as far as the sanctuary of Istar. When Assur-bani-pal's
+army captured Babylon, after a long siege,
+the <q>mercy-seats</q> of the gods and the paved roads
+were <q>cleansed</q> by order of the Assyrian King and
+the advice of <q>the prophets,</q> while the ordinary
+streets and lanes were left to themselves.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was in these latter streets, however, that the
+<pb n='113'/><anchor id='Pg113'/>
+shops and bazaars were situated. Here the trade of
+the country was carried on in shops which possessed
+no windows, but were sheltered from the sun by
+awnings that were stretched across the street. Behind
+the shops were magazines and store-houses, as
+well as the rooms in which the larger industries, like
+that of weaving, were carried on. The scavengers of
+the streets were probably dogs. As early as the
+time of Khammurabi, however, there were officers
+termed <hi rend='italic'>rabiani</hi>, whose duty it was to look after <q>the
+city, the walls, and the streets.</q> The streets, moreover,
+had separate names.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here and there <q>beer-houses</q> were to be found,
+answering to the public-houses of to-day, as well as
+regular inns. The beer-houses are not infrequently
+alluded to in the texts, and a deed relating to the
+purchase of a house in Sippara, of the age of Khammurabi,
+mentions one that was in a sort of underground
+cellar, like some of the beer-houses of modern
+Germany.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Sippara lay on both sides of the Euphrates, like
+Babylon, and its two halves were probably connected
+by a pontoon-bridge, as we know was the case at
+Babylon. Tolls were levied for passing over the
+latter, and probably also for passing under it in boats.
+At all events a document translated by Mr. Pinches
+shows that the quay-duties were paid into the same
+department of the government as the tolls derived
+from the bridge. The document, which is dated in
+the twenty-sixth year of Darius, is so interesting
+that it may be quoted in full: <q>The revenue derived
+from the bridge and the quays, and the guard-house,
+<pb n='114'/><anchor id='Pg114'/>
+which is under the control of Guzanu, the captain of
+Babylon, of which Sirku, the son of Iddinâ, has
+charge, besides the amount derived from the tolls
+levied at the bridge of Guzanu, the captain of Babylon,
+of which Muranu, the son of Nebo-kin-abli,
+and Nebo-bullidhsu, the son of Guzanu, have charge:
+Kharitsanu and Iqubu (Jacob) and Nergal-ibni are
+the watchmen of the bridge. Sirku, the son of
+Iddinâ, the son of Egibi, and Muranu, the son of
+Nebo-kin-abli, the son of the watchman of the pontoon,
+have paid to Bel-asûa, the son of Nergal-yubal-lidh,
+the son of Mudammiq-Rimmon, and Ubaru, the
+son of Bel-akhi-erba, the son of the watchman of the
+pontoon, as dues for a month, 15 shekels of white
+silver, in one-shekel pieces and coined. Bel-asûa and
+Ubaru shall guard the ships which are moored under
+the bridge. Muranu and his trustees, Bel-asûa and
+Ubaru, shall not pay the money derived from the
+tolls levied at the bridge, which is due each month
+from Sirku in the absence of the latter. All the
+traffic over the bridge shall be reported by Bel-asûa
+and Ubaru to Sirku and the watchmen of the bridge.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+House-property was valuable, especially if it included
+shops. As far back as the reign of Eri-Aku,
+or Arisch, 2¼ shekels were given for one which stood
+on a piece of ground only 1⅚ <hi rend='italic'>sar</hi>
+in area, the <hi rend='italic'>sar</hi>, if
+Dr. Reisner is right, being the eighteen-hundredths
+part of the <hi rend='italic'>feddan</hi> or acre. In the twentieth year of
+Assur-bani-pal, just after a war which had desolated
+Babylonia, a house was sold in the provincial town
+of Erech for 75 shekels (£11 5s.), and in the beginning
+of the reign of Nabonidos a carpenter's shop in Borsippa,
+<pb n='115'/><anchor id='Pg115'/>
+the suburb of Babylon, which was not more than
+7 rods, 5 cubits, and 18 inches in length, was bought
+by the agent of the Syrian Ben-Hadad-nathan and
+his wife for 11½ manehs, or £103 10s. On the other
+hand, in the reign of Cambyses, we hear of smaller
+prices being given for houses in Babylon, 4½ manehs
+for a house with a piece of land attached to it, and 2
+manehs for one that had been the joint property of
+a man and his wife; while in the ninth year of Nergal-sharezer
+a house was sold for only 52½ shekels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Houses, however, were more frequently let than
+sold. Already, in the age of Khammurabi, we have
+the record of the lease of a house for eight years.
+At a later date contracts relating to the renting of
+houses are numerous. Thus in the sixth year of
+Cyrus a house was let at a yearly rent of 10 shekels,
+part of which was to be paid at the beginning of the
+year and the rest in the middle of it. The tenant
+was to renew the fences when necessary and repair
+all dilapidations. He was also expected to send a
+present to his landlord thrice a year in the months of
+Nisan, Tammuz, and Kisleu. Other houses in Babylon
+in the Persian age were let at yearly rents of 5
+shekels, 5½ shekels, 7½ shekels, 9 shekels, 15 shekels,
+20 shekels, 23 shekels, and 35 shekels, the leases
+running for two, three, five, and more years. The
+tenant usually undertook to keep the property in
+repair and to make good all dilapidations. Loss in
+case of fire or other accidents also fell upon him.
+Most of the houses seem to have been inhabited by
+single families; but there were tenements or flats as
+well, the rent of which was naturally lower than that
+<pb n='116'/><anchor id='Pg116'/>
+of a whole house. Thus we find a woman paying
+only 2 shekels, or 6s., a year for a tenement in the
+reign of Cambyses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Any violation of the lease involved a fine, the
+amount of which was stated in the contract. A
+house, for instance, was let at Babylon in the first
+year of Cambyses for 5 shekels a year, the rent to
+be paid in two halves <q>at the beginning and in the
+middle of the year.</q> In this case a breach of the
+contract was to be punished by a fine of 10 shekels,
+or double the amount of the rent. In other cases
+the fine was as much as a maneh of silver.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Occasionally the primitive custom was retained of
+paying the rent in kind instead of in coin. We even
+hear of <q>six overcoats</q> being taken in lieu of rent.
+The rent of a house might also take the place of
+interest upon a loan, and the property be handed
+over to the creditor as security for a debt. Thus in
+the second and last year of the reign of Evil-Merodach
+(560 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>), and on the fourth of the month Ab,
+the following agreement was drawn up at Babylon:
+<q>Four manehs of silver belonging to Nadin-akhi, the
+son of Nur-Ea, the son of Masdukku, received from
+Sapik-zeri, the son of Merodach-nazir, the son of
+Liu-Merodach. The house of Sapik-zeri, which is
+in the street Khuburru, and adjoins the houses of
+Rimut-Bel, the son of Zeriya, the son of the Egyptian,
+and of Zeriya, the son of Bel-edheru, shall be handed
+over as security to Nadin-akhi. No rent shall be
+paid for it, and no interest demanded for the debt.
+Sapik-zeri shall have it for three years. He must
+renew the fences and repair all injuries to the walls.
+<pb n='117'/><anchor id='Pg117'/>
+At the end of the three years Sapik-zeri shall repay
+the money—namely, four manehs—to Nadin-akhi, and
+the latter shall vacate the house. The rent of the
+warehouse of the eunuch is included, of which Sapik-zeri
+enjoys the use. Whatever doors Nadin-akhi may
+have added to the house during his tenancy he shall
+take away.</q> Then come the names of three witnesses,
+one of them being the brother of the creditor, as well
+as of the clerk who drew up the document.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few years later, in the fifth year of Nabonidos
+(551 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>), we find the heir-apparent, Belshazzar, receiving
+house-property on similar terms. <q>The house
+of Nebo-akhi-iddin, the son of Sula, the son of Egibi,</q>
+we read, <q>which adjoins the house of Bel-iddin, the
+son of Birrut, the son of the life-guardsman, is handed
+over for three years as security for a loan of 1½ manehs
+to Nebo-kin-akhi, the agent of Belshazzar, the
+son of the king, on the following conditions: no rent
+shall be paid for the house, and no interest paid
+on the debt. The tenant shall renew the fences and
+make good all dilapidations. At the end of three
+years the 1½ manehs shall be paid by Nebo-akhi-iddin
+to Nebo-kin-akhi, and Nebo-kin-akhi shall vacate
+the house of Nebo-akhi-iddin. Witnessed by Kab-tiya,
+the son of Talnea, the son of Egibi; by Sapik-zeri,
+the son of Nergal-yukin, the son of Sin-karab-seme;
+by Nebo-zer-ibni, the son of Ardia, and the
+clerk, Bel-akhi-iqisa, the son of Nebo-balasu-ikbi, at
+Babylon, the 21st day of Nisam (March) and the fifth
+year of Nabonidos, King of Babylon.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This was not the only transaction of the kind in
+which Belshazzar appears, though it is true that his
+<pb n='118'/><anchor id='Pg118'/>
+business was carried on by means of agents. Six
+years later we have another contract relating to his
+commercial dealings which has already been quoted
+above. It illustrates the intensely commercial spirit
+of the Babylonians, and we may form some idea of
+the high estimation in which trade was held when we
+see the eldest son of the reigning King acting as a
+wool merchant and carrying on business like an ordinary
+merchant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An interesting document, drawn up in Babylonia
+in the eleventh year of Sargon (710 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>), shortly after
+the overthrow of Merodach-Baladan, contains an account
+of a lawsuit which resulted from the purchase
+of two <q>ruined houses</q> in Dur-ilu, a town on the
+frontier of Elam. They had been purchased by a
+certain Nebo-liu for 85 shekels, with the intention of
+pulling them down and erecting new buildings on the
+site. In order to pay the purchase money Nebo-liu
+demanded back from <q>Bel-usatu, the son of Ipunu,</q>
+the sum of 30 shekels which he claimed to have lent
+him. Bel-usatu at first denied the claim, and the
+matter was brought into court. There judgment was
+given in favor of the plaintiff, and the defendant was
+ordered to pay him 45 shekels, 15, or half the amount
+claimed, being for <q>costs.</q> Thereupon Bel-usatu
+proposed:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q><q>Instead of the money, take my houses, which are
+in the town of Der.</q> The title-deeds of these houses,
+the longer side of which was bounded to the east by
+the house of Bea, the son of Sulâ, and to the west by
+the entrance to a field which partly belonged to the
+<pb n='119'/><anchor id='Pg119'/>
+property, while the shorter side was bounded to the
+north by the house of Ittabsi, and to the south by the
+house of Likimmâ, were signed and sealed by Nebo-usatu,
+who pledged himself not to retract the deed or
+make any subsequent claim, and they were then handed
+over to Nebo-liu.</q> The troubles of the latter, however,
+were not yet at an end. <q>Ilu-rabu-bel-sanât,
+Sennacherib, and Labasu, the sons of Rakhaz the
+[priest] of the great god, said to Nebo-liu: <q>Seventy-three
+shekels of your money you have received from
+our father. Give us, therefore, 50 shekels and we
+will deliver to you the house and its garden which
+belonged to our father.</q> The house, which was fit
+only to be pulled down and rebuilt, along with a
+grove of forty date-bearing palms, was situated on the
+bank of the canal of Dûtu in Dur-ilu, its longer side
+adjoining on the north the house of Edheru, the son
+of Baniya, the priest of Â, and on the south the canal
+of Dûtu, while its shorter side was bounded on the
+east by the house of Nergal-epus, and on the west by
+the street Mutaqutu. Nebo-liu agreed, and looked
+out and gave Rakhaz and his sons 50 shekels of silver,
+together with an overcoat and two shekels by way
+of a <hi rend='italic'>bakshish</hi> to bind the bargain, the whole amounting
+to 52 shekels, paid in full.</q> The custom of adding
+a <hi rend='italic'>bakshish</hi> or <q>present</q> to the purchase-money at the
+conclusion of a bargain is still characteristic of the
+East. Other examples of it are met with in the Babylonian
+contracts, and prove how immemorially old it is.
+Thus in the second year of Darius, when the three
+sons of a <q>smith</q> sold a house near the Gate of Zamama,
+at Babylon, to the grandson of another <q>smith,</q>
+<pb n='120'/><anchor id='Pg120'/>
+besides the purchase money for the house, which
+amounted to 67½ shekels, the buyer gave in addition
+a <hi rend='italic'>bakshish</hi> of 2½ shekels (7s. 6d.) as well as <q>a dress
+for the lady of the house.</q> Three shekels were further
+given as <q>a present</q> for sealing the deed. So
+too, the negotiations for the sale of some land in the
+second year of Evil-Merodach were accompanied by
+a <hi rend='italic'>bakshish</hi> of 5 shekels.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lawsuits connected with the sale or lease of houses
+do not seem to have been uncommon. One of the
+documents which have come down to us from the
+ancient records of Babylon is a list of <q>the judges before
+whom Sapik-zeri, the son of Zirutu, and Baladhu,
+the son of Nasikatum, the slave of the secretary for
+the Marshlands,</q> were called upon to appear in a
+suit relating to <q>the house and deed which Zirutu,
+the father of Sapik-zeri, had sealed and given to
+Baladhu,</q> who had afterward handed both of them
+over to Sapik-zeri. Among the judges we find the
+governor of the Marshlands, who acted as president,
+the sub-governor, the mayor of Erech, the priest of
+Ur, and one of the governors of the district <q>beyond</q>
+the Euphrates. The list is dated the 6th of Nisan or
+March, in the seventeenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The value of land was proportionate to that of
+house-property. In the early days of Babylonia its
+value was fixed by the amount of grain that could be
+grown upon it, and it was accordingly in grain that
+the owner was paid by the purchaser or lessee.
+Gradually, however, a metal currency took the place
+of the grain, and in the later age of Babylonian history
+even the rent was but rarely paid in kind. We
+<pb n='121'/><anchor id='Pg121'/>
+learn from a lawsuit decided in the reign of Samsu-iluna,
+the son of Khammurabi, that it was customary
+for an estate to be <q>paced round</q> by the <hi rend='italic'>rabianum</hi>
+or <q>magistrates</q> of the city. The ceremony
+was equivalent to <q>beating the bounds</q> of a parish
+in modern England, and it is probable that it was
+performed every year. Such at least is the custom
+in Egypt, where the limits of a piece of property are
+measured and fixed annually. The Babylonian document
+in which the custom is referred to relates to a
+dispute about a plantation of acacias which grew in
+the neighborhood of the modern Tel Sifr. The magistrates,
+before whom it was brought, are described
+as looking after not only the city but also <q>the walls
+and streets,</q> from which we may gather that municipal
+commissioners already existed in the Babylonian
+towns. The plaintiff made oath before them
+over the copper libation-bowl of the god of Boundaries,
+which thus took the place of the Bible in an
+English court of law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A few years later, in the reign of Ammi-zadok,
+three men rented a field for three years on terms of
+partnership, agreeing to give the owner during the
+first two years 1 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of
+grain upon each <hi rend='italic'>feddan</hi> or
+acre. The whole of the third harvest was to go to
+the lessees, and the partners were to divide the crop
+in equal shares <q>on the day of the harvest.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When we come to the twelfth century <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, however,
+the maneh and shekel have been substituted
+for the crops of the field. Thus we hear of 704 shekels
+and a fraction being paid for a field which was
+calculated to produce 3 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of corn, and of 110 shekels
+<pb n='122'/><anchor id='Pg122'/>
+being given for another estate which contained
+a grove of date-palms and on which 2 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of grain
+were sown. How much grain could be grown on a
+piece of land we can gather from the official reports
+of the cadastral survey. In the sixth year of Cyrus,
+for example, the following report was drawn up of
+the <q>measurement of a corn-field and of the corn in
+the ear</q> belonging to a Babylonian taxpayer:
+</p>
+
+<table rows="3" cols="5">
+<row><cell>Length of the field on its longer side.</cell>
+     <cell>Length of the field on its narrower side.</cell>
+     <cell>Amount of crop.</cell>
+     <cell>Value in grain.</cell>
+     <cell>Tenant.</cell></row>
+<row><cell>1020</cell><cell>395</cell><cell>13 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>,
+    18 <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi>,
+    of which 1 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>, 18 <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi>,
+    are destroyed.</cell>
+    <cell>Each 25 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> is worth 300 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>
+            of grain.</cell>
+    <cell>Nadbanu.</cell></row>
+<row><cell>540</cell><cell>550</cell><cell>10 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>,
+    2 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi>, 29 <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi>,
+    of which 3 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> are destroyed.</cell>
+    <cell>Each 20 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> is worth 130
+    <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>.</cell><cell>Arad-Bel.</cell></row>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+The cadastral survey for purposes of taxation went
+back to an early period of Babylonian history. It
+was already at work in the age of Sargon of Akkad.
+The survey of the district or principality of Lagas
+(now Tello) which was drawn up in that remote
+epoch of history is in our hands, and is interesting on
+account of its reference to a <q>governor</q> of the land
+of the Amorites, or Canaan, who bears the Canaanitish
+name of Urimelech. The survey states that the
+district in question contained 39,694 acres, 1,325 <hi rend='italic'>sar</hi>,
+as well as 17 large towns and 8 subdivisions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another cadastral survey from Lagas, but of the
+period of Khammurabi, which has recently been published
+by Dr. Scheil, tells us that the towns on the
+<pb n='123'/><anchor id='Pg123'/>
+lower banks of <q>the canal of Lagas</q> had to pay the
+treasury each year 35⅚ shekels of silver according to
+the assessment of the tax-collector Sin-mustal. One
+of the towns was that of the Aramean tribe of Pekod.
+Another is called the town of the Brewers,
+and another is described as <q>the Copper-Foundry.</q>
+Most of the towns were assessed at half a shekel,
+though there were some which had to pay a shekel
+and more. Among the latter was the town of Ninâ,
+which gave its name to the more famous Nineveh on
+the Tigris. The surveyor, it should be added, was
+an important personage in Babylonian society, and
+the contract tablets of the second Babylonian empire
+not unfrequently mention him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Assyria, like Babylonia, has yielded us a good
+many deeds relating to the sale and lease of houses
+and landed estate. We can estimate from them the
+average value of house-property in Nineveh in the
+time of the second Assyrian empire, when the wealth
+of the Eastern world was being poured into it and
+the Assyrian kings were striving to divert the trade
+of Phœnicia into their own hands. Thus, in 694 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>,
+a house with two doors was sold for 3 manehs 20
+shekels, and two years subsequently another which
+adjoined it was purchased for 1 maneh <q>according
+to the royal standard.</q> The contract for the sale is
+a good example of what an Assyrian deed of sale in
+such a case was like. <q>The nail-marks of Sar-ludari,
+Akhassuru, and Amat-Suhla, the wife of Bel-suri, the
+official, the son of the priest, and owner of the house
+which is sold. The house, which is in thorough repair,
+with its woodwork, doors, and court, situated in
+<pb n='124'/><anchor id='Pg124'/>
+the city of Nineveh and adjoining the houses of
+Mannu-ki-akhi and Ilu-ittiya and the street <hi rend='italic'>Sipru</hi>,
+has been negotiated for by Zil-Assur, the Egyptian
+secretary. He has bought it for 1 maneh of silver
+according to the royal standard from Sar-ludari, Akhassuru,
+and Amat-Suhla, the wife of Bel-duri. The
+money has been paid in full, and the house received
+as bought. Withdrawal from the contract, lawsuits,
+and claims are hereby excluded. Whoever hereafter
+at any time, whether these men or others, shall bring
+an action and claims against Zil-Assur, shall be fined
+10 manehs of silver. Witnessed by Susanqu-khatna-nis,
+Murmaza the official, Rasuh the sailor, Nebo-dur-uzur
+the champion, Murmaza the naval captain,
+Sin-sar-uzur, and Zidqa (Zedekiah). The sixteenth
+of Sivan during the year of office of Zaza, the governor
+of Arpad (692 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>).</q> It is noticeable that the
+first witness has a Syrian name.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the characteristics of the Assyrian deeds is
+that so few of the parties who appear in them are
+able to write their names. Nail-marks take the place
+of seals even in the case of persons who hold official
+positions and who are shown by the contracts to
+have been men of property. In this respect Assyria
+offers a striking contrast to Babylonia, where <q>the
+nail-mark</q> seldom makes its appearance. Closely
+connected with this inability to write is the absence
+of the seal-cylinder, which was part of the ordinary
+dress of the Babylonian gentleman. In the Assyrian
+contracts, on the other hand, it is conspicuous by its
+absence. The use of it in Assyria was an imitation
+of Babylonian manners, and was confined for the
+<pb n='125'/><anchor id='Pg125'/>
+most part to the scribes and higher official class, who
+had received a literary education.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Land in Assyria was measured by homers rather
+than by <hi rend='italic'>feddans</hi> or acres as in Babylonia. In 674
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi> an estate of 35 homers, in the town of Sairi,
+was sold for 5 manehs, any infringement of the
+contract being punished by a fine of 10 manehs of
+silver or one of gold, to be paid into the treasury of
+the temple of Istar. We learn incidentally from
+this that the value of gold to silver at the time was
+as one to ten. Five years previously 6 homers of
+land in another small Assyrian town had been let at
+an annual rent of 1 maneh of silver <q>according to
+the standard of Carchemish.</q> In the reign of Assur-bani-pal
+a homer of corn-land was rented for six
+years for 10 shekels a year. The land was calculated
+to produce 9 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of grain, and at the end of the first
+three years it was stipulated that there should be a
+rotation of crops. About the same time two fields,
+enclosing an area of 3⅔ homers, were leased by a certain
+Rimu-ana-Bel of Beth-Abimelech, whose father's
+name, Yatanael, shows that he was of Syrian origin.
+The steward of <q>the son of a king</q> took them for
+six years at an annual rent of 12 shekels. One of
+the fields contained a well, and yielded 15 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of
+grain to each homer. It is stated in the contract
+that the fields had no mortgage upon them, and that
+the lessee had a right to the whole of the crop which
+they produced.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not in Assyria only that plots of ground
+could be leased and sold in accordance with the provisions
+of Assyrian law. Conquest had brought
+<pb n='126'/><anchor id='Pg126'/>
+landed property into the hands of Assyrians in other
+parts of the Eastern world, and it could be put up
+to auction at Nineveh, where the proprietors lived.
+About 660 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, for instance, a considerable estate was
+thus sold in the oasis of Singara, in the centre of Mesopotamia.
+It lay within the precincts of the temple
+of Istar, and contained a grove of 1,000 young palms.
+It included, moreover, a field of 2 homers planted
+with terebinths, house-property extending over 6
+homers, a house with a corn-field attached to it, and
+another house which stood in the grove of Yarkhu,
+the Moon-god. The whole was sold for 4 shekels
+of silver <q>according to the standard of Carchemish,</q>
+and the penalty for any infringement of the contract
+was again to be the payment of a maneh of gold
+(£90) to the treasury of the goddess Istar. When
+one of the parties to the contract was of Aramean descent,
+it was usual to add an explanatory docket in
+Aramaic to the deed of sale. Indeed, this seems to
+have been sometimes done even where there were no
+Arameans in the case, so thoroughly had Aramaic
+become the common language of trade. Thus in the
+year of Sennacherib's office as eponym (687 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>) we
+hear of the sale of three shops in Nineveh on the
+part of a certain Dain-kurban, whose name is written
+in Aramaic letters on the outer envelope of the deed
+of sale. Thirty shekels were paid for them, and a
+fine of 10 manehs imposed upon anyone who should
+attempt to invalidate the sale. The shops seem to
+have been situated in the Syrian quarter of the city,
+as we are told that they were opposite the tenement
+of Nakharau, <q>the man of Nahor.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='127'/><anchor id='Pg127'/>
+
+<p>
+It will have been noticed how frequently it is stated
+that a <q>plantation</q> or grove of palms is attached to
+the house or field which is rented and sold. In
+Babylonia, in fact, an estate was not considered complete
+without its garden, which almost invariably included
+a clump of palms. The date-palm was the
+staple of the country. It was almost the only tree
+which grew there, and it grew in marvellous abundance.
+Stem, leaves, and fruit were all alike turned
+to use. The columns and roofing-beams of the temples
+and houses were made of its stem, which was
+also employed for bonding the brick walls of the
+cities. Its fibres were twisted into ropes, its leaves
+woven into baskets. The fruit it bore was utilized in
+many ways. Sometimes the dates were eaten fresh,
+at other times they were dried and exported to foreign
+lands; out of some of them wine was made, out
+of others a rich and luscious sugar. It was little
+wonder that the Babylonian regarded the palm as the
+best gift that Nature had bestowed upon him. Palm-land
+necessarily fetched a higher price than corn-land,
+and we may conclude, from a contract of the
+third year of Cyrus, that its valuation was seven and
+one-half times greater.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Trade partnerships were common, and even commercial
+companies were not unknown. The great banking
+and money-lending firm which was known in Babylonia
+under the name of its founder, Egibi, and from
+which so many of the contract-tablets have been derived,
+was an example of the latter. It lasted through
+several generations and seems to have been but little
+affected by the political revolutions and changes
+<pb n='128'/><anchor id='Pg128'/>
+which took place at Babylon. It saw the rise and fall
+of the empire of Nebuchadnezzar, and flourished quite
+as much under the Persian as under the native kings.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As far back as the reign of Samsu-iluna we find
+women entering into partnership with men for business
+purposes on a footing of absolute equality. A
+certain Amat-Samas, for instance, a devotee of the
+Sun-god, did so with two men in order to trade with
+a maneh of silver which had been borrowed from the
+treasury of the god. It was stipulated in the deed
+which was indentured when the partnership was
+made that in case of disagreement the capital and
+interest accruing from it were to be divided in equal
+shares among the three partners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the later Babylonian period the contract was
+drawn up in much the same form, though with a
+little more detail. In the report of a trial dated the
+eighth day of Sebat or January, in the eighteenth year
+of Nebuchadnezzar II., we have the following reference
+to one that had been made twenty-one years
+before: <q>A partnership was entered into between
+Nebo-yukin-abla and his son Nebo-bel-sunu on the
+one side and Musezib-Bel on the other, which lasted
+from the eighteenth year of Nabopolassar, King of
+Babylon, to the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
+The contract was produced before the judge of the
+judges. Fifty shekels of silver were adjudged to Nebo-bel-sunu
+and his father Nebo-yukin-abla. No further
+agreement or partnership exists between the two
+parties.… They have ended their contract with
+one another. All former obligations in their names
+are rescinded.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='129'/><anchor id='Pg129'/>
+
+<p>
+One of the latest Babylonian deeds of partnership
+that have come down to us is dated in the fifth year
+of Xerxes. It begins with the statement that <q>Bel-edheru,
+son of Nergal-edheru and Ribâta, son of Kasmani,
+have entered into partnership with one another,
+contributing severally toward it 2½ manehs of silver
+in stamped shekel-pieces and half a maneh of silver,
+also in stamped shekel-pieces. Whatever profits Ribâta
+shall make on the capital—namely, the 3 manehs
+in stamped shekel-pieces—whether in town or country,
+[he shall divide with] Bel-edheru proportionally
+to the share of the latter in the business. When the
+partnership is dissolved he shall repay to Bel-edheru
+the [2½] manehs contributed by him. Ribâta, son
+of Kasmani, undertakes all responsibility for the
+money.</q> Then come the names of six witnesses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Money, however, was not the only subject of a
+deed of partnership. Houses and other property
+could be bought and sold and traded with in common.
+Thus we hear of Itti-Merodach-baladh, the
+grandson of <q>the Egyptian,</q> and Merodach-sapik-zeri
+starting as partners with a capital of 5 manehs
+of silver and 130 empty barrels, two slaves acting as
+agents, and on another occasion we find it stipulated
+that <q>200 barrels full of good beer, 20 empty barrels,
+10 cups and saucers, 90 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of dates in the storehouse,
+15 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of chickpease (?), and 14 sheep, besides
+the profits from the shop and whatever else Bel-sunu
+has accumulated, shall be shared between him</q> and
+his partner.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The partners usually contributed in equal parts to
+the business, and the profits were divided equally
+<pb n='130'/><anchor id='Pg130'/>
+among them. Where this was not the case, provision
+was made for a proportionate distribution of profit
+and loss. All profits were included, whether made,
+to use the language of Babylonian law, <q>in town or
+country.</q> The partnership was generally entered into
+for a fixed term of years, but could be terminated
+sooner by death or by agreement. One of the partners
+could be represented by an agent, who was often a
+slave; in some instances we hear of the wife taking
+the place of her husband or other relation during his
+absence from home. Thus in a deed dated in the
+second year of Nergal-sharezer (559 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>) we read:
+<q>As long as Pani-Nebo-dhemi, the brother of Ili-qanua,
+does not return from his travels, Burasu, the
+wife of Ili-qanua, shall share in the business of Ili-qanua,
+in the place of Pani-Nebo-dhemi. When Pani-Nebo-dhemi
+returns she shall leave Ili-qanua and hand
+over the share to Pani-Nebo-dhemi.</q> As one of the
+witnesses to the document is a <q>minister of the king</q>
+who bears the Syrian name of Salammanu, or Solomon
+the son of Baal-tammuh, it is possible that Pani-Nebo-dhemi
+was a Syrian merchant whose business
+obliged him to reside in a foreign country.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That partnerships in Babylonia were originally
+made for the sake of foreign trade seems probable
+from the name given to them. This is <hi rend='italic'>kharran</hi>, which
+properly means a <q>road</q> or <q>caravan.</q> The earliest
+partners in trade would have been the members of a
+caravan, who clubbed together to travel and traffic in
+foreign lands and to defend themselves in common
+from the perils of the journey.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The products of the Babylonian looms must have
+<pb n='131'/><anchor id='Pg131'/>
+been among the first objects which were thus sent
+abroad. We have already described the extensive
+industry which brought wealth into Babylonia and
+made it from the earliest ages the centre of the trade
+in rugs and tapestries, cloths and clothing. A large
+part of the industrial population of the country must
+have been employed in the factories and shops where
+the woven and embroidered fabrics were produced
+and made ready for sale. Long lists exist giving the
+names of the various articles of dress which were thus
+manufactured. The goodly <q>Babylonish garment</q>
+carried off by Achan from the sack of Jericho was but
+one of the many which found their way each year
+to the shores of the Mediterranean.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The trades of the dyer and the fuller flourished by
+the side of that of the cloth-maker. So, too, did the
+trade of the tanner, leather being much used and
+finely worked. The shoes of the Babylonian ladies
+were famous; and the saddles of the horses were
+made with elaborate care.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The smith, too, occupied an honorable position.
+In the earlier period of Babylonian history, gold, silver,
+copper, and bronze were the metals which he
+manufactured into arms, utensils, and ornaments.
+At a later date, however, iron also came to be extensively
+used, though probably not before the sixteenth
+century <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi> The use of bronze, moreover, does not
+seem to go back much beyond the age of Sargon of
+Akkad; at all events, the oldest metal tools and
+weapons found at Tello are of copper, without any
+admixture of tin. Most of the copper came from the
+mines of the Sinaitic Peninsula, though the metal
+<pb n='132'/><anchor id='Pg132'/>
+was also found in Cyprus, to which reference appears
+to be made in the annals of Sargon. The tin was
+brought from a much greater distance. Indeed, it
+would seem that the nearest sources for it—at any
+rate in sufficient quantities for the bronze of the Oriental
+world—were India and the Malayan Peninsula
+on the one hand, and the southern extremity of Cornwall
+on the other. It is not surprising, therefore,
+that it should have been rare and expensive, and
+that consequently it was long before copper was
+superseded by the harder bronze. Means, however,
+were found for hardening the copper when it was
+used, and copper tools were employed to cut even the
+hardest of stones.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The metal, after being melted, was run into moulds
+of stone or clay. It was in this way that most of
+the gold and silver ornaments were manufactured
+which we see represented in the sculptures. Stone
+moulds for ear-rings have been found on the site of
+Nineveh, and the inscriptions contain many references
+to jewelry. The gold was also worked by the
+hand into beaded patterns, or incised like the silver
+seals, some of which have come down to us. Most
+of the gold was originally brought from the north;
+in the fifteenth century before our era the gold mines
+in the desert on the eastern side of Egypt provided
+the precious metal for the nations of Western Asia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A document found among the records of the trading
+firm of Murasu at Nippur, in the fifth century <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>,
+shows that the goldsmith was required to warrant the
+excellence of his work before handing it over to the
+customer, and it may be presumed that the same rule
+<pb n='133'/><anchor id='Pg133'/>
+held good for other trades also. The document in
+question is a guarantee that an emerald has been so
+well set in a ring as not to drop out for twenty years,
+and has been translated as follows by Professor Hilprecht:
+<q>Bel-akh-iddina and Bel-sunu, the sons of
+Bel, and Khatin, the son of Bazuzu, have made the
+following declaration to Bel-nadin-sumu, the son of
+Murasu: As to the gold ring set with an emerald, we
+guarantee that for twenty years the emerald will not
+fall out of the ring. If it should fall out before the
+end of twenty years, Bel-akh-iddina [and the two
+others] shall pay Bel-nadin-sumu an indemnity of ten
+manehs of silver.</q> Then come the names of seven
+witnesses and of the clerk who drew up the deed, and
+the artisans add their nail-marks in place of seals.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many of the articles of daily use in the houses of
+the people, such as knives, tools of all kinds, bowls,
+dishes, and the like, were made of copper or bronze.
+They were, however, somewhat expensive, and as late
+as the reign of Cambyses we find that a copper libation-bowl
+and cup cost as much as 4 manehs 9 shekels,
+(£37 7s.), and about the same time 22 shekels
+(£3 3s.) were paid for two copper bowls 7½ manehs
+in weight. If the weight in this case were equivalent
+to that of the silver maneh the cost would have been
+nearly 4d. per ounce. It must be remembered that,
+as in the modern East, the workman expected the
+metal to be furnished by his customer; and accordingly
+we hear of 3 manehs of iron being given to
+a smith to be made into rods for bows. Three manehs
+of iron were also considered sufficient for the
+manufacture of six swords, two oboe-rings, and two
+<pb n='134'/><anchor id='Pg134'/>
+bolts. All this, of course, belongs to the age of
+the second Babylonian empire, when iron had taken
+the place of bronze.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The carpenter's trade is another handicraft to
+which there is frequent allusion in the texts. Already,
+before the days of Sargon of Akkad, beams
+of wood were fetched from distant lands for the temples
+and palaces of Chaldea. Cedar was brought
+from the mountains of Amanus and Lebanon, and
+other trees from Elam. The palm could be used for
+purely architectural purposes, for boarding the crude
+bricks of the walls together, or to serve as the rafters
+of the roof, but it was unsuitable for doors or for the
+wooden panels with which the chambers of the temple
+or palace were often lined. For such purposes
+the cedar was considered best, and burnt panels of
+it have been found in the sanctuary of Ingurisa at
+Tello. Down to the latest days panels of wood were
+valuable in Babylonia, and we find it stipulated in
+the leases of houses that the lessee shall be allowed
+to remove the doors he has put up at his own expense.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the carpenter's trade was not confined to inartistic
+work. From the earliest age of Babylonian
+history he was skilled in making household furniture,
+which was often of a highly artistic description. On
+a seal-cylinder, now in the British Museum, the King
+is represented as seated on a chair which, like those
+of ancient Egypt, rested on the feet of oxen, and
+similarly artistic couches and chests, inlaid with
+ivory or gold, were often to be met with in the houses
+of the rich. The Assyrian sculptures show to what
+perfection the art of the joiner had attained at the
+<pb n='135'/><anchor id='Pg135'/>
+time when Nineveh was the mistress of the civilized
+world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The art of the stone-cutter had attained an even
+higher perfection at a very remote date. Indeed,
+the seal-cylinders of the time of Sargon of Akkad
+display a degree of excellence and finish which was
+never surpassed at any subsequent time. The same
+may be said of the bas-relief of Naram-Sin discovered
+at Diarbekr. The combination of realism and artistic
+finish displayed in it was never equalled even
+by the bas-reliefs of Assyria, admirable as they are
+from many points of view.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The early stone-cutters of Chaldea tried their skill
+upon the hardest materials, and engraved upon them
+the minutest and most delicate designs. Hæmatite
+was a favorite material for the seal-cylinder; the
+statues of Tello are carved out of diorite, which was
+brought from the Sinaitic Peninsula, and stones of
+similar hardness were manufactured into vases. That
+such work should have been attempted in an age
+when iron and steel were as yet unknown seems to
+us astonishing. Even bronze was scarce, and the
+majority of the tools employed by the workmen were
+made of copper, which was artificially hardened when
+in use. Emery powder or sand was also used, and
+the lathe had long been known. When iron was first
+introduced into the workshops of Babylonia is
+doubtful. That the metal had been recognized at
+a very early period is clear from the fact that in
+the primitive picture-writing of the country, out of
+which the cuneiform syllabary developed, it was
+denoted by two characters, representing respectively
+<pb n='136'/><anchor id='Pg136'/>
+<q>heaven</q> and <q>metal.</q> It would seem, therefore,
+that the first iron with which the inhabitants of the
+Babylonian plain were acquainted was of meteoric
+origin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the age of the Egyptian empire in Asia, at the
+beginning of the seventeenth century <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, iron was
+passing into general use. Objects of iron are referred
+to in the inscriptions, and a couple of centuries
+later we hear of iron chariots among the Canaanites,
+and of ironsmiths in Palestine, who repair the
+shattered vehicles of Egyptian travellers in that
+country. It must have been at this time that the
+bronzesmith in Babylonia became transformed into
+an ironsmith.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carving in ivory was another trade followed in
+Babylonia and Assyria. The carved ivories found
+on the site of Nineveh are of great beauty, and from
+a very early epoch ivory was used for the handles of
+sceptres, or for the inlaid work of wooden furniture.
+The <q>ivory couches</q> of Babylonia made their way to
+the West along with the other products of Babylonian
+culture, and Amos (vi. 4) denounces the wealthy
+nobles of Israel who <q>lie upon beds of ivory.</q>
+Thothmes III. of Egypt, in the sixteenth century
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, hunted the elephant on the banks of the Euphrates,
+not far from Carchemish, and, as late as
+about 1100 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, Tiglath-pileser I. of Assyria speaks
+of doing the same. In the older period of Babylonian
+history, therefore, the elephant would have lived
+on the northern frontier of Babylonian domination,
+and its tusks would have been carried down the Euphrates
+along with other articles of northern trade.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='137'/><anchor id='Pg137'/>
+
+<p>
+Quite as old as the trade of the carver in ivory was
+that of the porcelain-maker. The walls of the palaces
+and temples of Babylonia and Assyria were adorned
+with glazed and enamelled tiles on which figures and
+other designs were drawn in brilliant colors; they
+were then covered with a metallic glaze and fired.
+Babylonia, in fact, seems to have been the original
+home of the enamelled tile and therewith of the manufacture
+of porcelain. It was a land of clay and not of
+stone, and while it thus became necessary to ornament
+the plain mud wall of the house, the clay brick
+itself, when painted and protected by a glaze, was
+made into the best and most enduring of ornaments.
+The enamelled bricks of Chaldea and Assyria are
+among the most beautiful relics of Babylonian civilization
+that have survived to us, and those which
+adorned the Persian palace of Susa, and are now in
+the Museum of the Louvre, are unsurpassed by the
+most elaborate productions of modern skill.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our enumeration of Babylonian trades would not
+be complete without mention being made of that of
+the brick-maker. The manufacture of bricks was
+indeed one of the chief industries of the country, and
+the brick-maker took the position which would be
+taken by the mason elsewhere. He erected all the
+buildings of Babylonia. The walls of the temples
+themselves were of brick. Even in Assyria the
+slavish imitation of Babylonian models caused brick
+to remain the chief building material of a kingdom
+where stone was plentiful and clay comparatively
+scarce. The brick-yards stood on the outskirts of
+the cities, where the ground was low and where a
+<pb n='138'/><anchor id='Pg138'/>
+thick bed of reeds grew in a pond or marsh. These
+reeds were an important requisite for the brick-maker's
+art; when dried they formed a bed on which
+the bricks rested while they were being baked by the
+sun; cut into small pieces they were mixed with the
+clay in order to bind it together; and if the bricks
+were burnt in a kiln the reeds were used as fuel.
+They were accordingly artificially cultivated, and
+fetched high prices. Thus, in the fourteenth year of
+Nabonidos, we hear of 2 shekels being given for 200
+bundles of reeds for building a bridge across a
+canal, and a shekel for 100 bundles to be made into
+torches. At the same time 55 shekels were paid for
+8,000 loads of brick. The possession of a bed of
+reeds added to the value of an estate, and it is, therefore,
+always specified in deeds relating to the sale of
+property. One, situated at Sippara, was owned by a
+scribe, Arad-Bel, who has drawn up several contracts,
+as we learn incidentally from a document dated in
+the seventh year of Cyrus, in which Ardi, the
+grandson of <q>the brick-maker,</q> agrees to pay two-thirds
+of the bricks he makes to Arad-Bel, on condition
+of being allowed to manufacture them in the
+reed-bed of the latter. This is described as adjoining
+<q>the reed-bed of Bel-baladan and the plantation
+of the Sun-god.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The brick-maker was also a potter, and the manifold
+products of the potter's skill, for which Babylonia
+was celebrated, were manufactured in the
+corner of the brick-field. Here also were made the
+tablets, which were handed to the professional scribe
+or the ordinary citizen to be written upon, and so take
+<pb n='139'/><anchor id='Pg139'/>
+the place of the papyrus of ancient Egypt or the
+paper of to-day. The brick-maker was thus not
+only a potter, but the provider of literary materials
+as well. He might even be compared with the
+printer of the modern world, since texts were occasionally
+cut in wood and so impressed upon moulds
+of clay, which, after being hardened, were used as
+stamps, by means of which the texts could be multiplied,
+impressions of them being mechanically reproduced
+on other tablets or cylinders of clay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another Babylonian trade which must be noticed
+was that of the vintner. Wine was made from
+dates as well as from grapes, while beer, called
+<hi rend='italic'>sikaru</hi>, was also manufactured, probably from some
+cereal grain. Mention is found of a <q>wine</q> that was
+made from sesame. The vine was not a native of
+Babylonia, but must have been introduced into it
+from the highlands of Armenia at a very early date,
+as it was known there long before the days of Sargon
+of Akkad. Large quantities of wine and beer were
+drunk in both Babylonia and Assyria, and reference
+has already been made to the bas-relief in which the
+Assyrian King, Assur-bani-pal, and his Queen are depicted
+drinking wine in the gardens of his palace,
+while the head of his vanquished foe, the King of
+Elam, hangs from the branch of a neighboring tree.
+A receipt, dated the eleventh day of Iyyar, in the
+first year of Nabonidos, is for the conveyance of <q>75
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of meal and 63
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of beer for the sustenance of
+the artisans;</q> and in the thirty-eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar
+20 shekels were paid for <q>beer,</q> the
+amount of which, however, is unfortunately not
+<pb n='140'/><anchor id='Pg140'/>
+stated. But two <q>large</q> casks of new wine cost 11
+shekels, and five other smaller casks 10 shekels.
+Moreover, the inventory of goods to be handed over
+to the slave Khunnatu, in the sixth year of Cambyses,
+includes fifty casks of <q>good beer,</q> which,
+together with the cup with which it was drawn, was
+valued at 60 shekels (£9).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whether any grape-wine was made in Babylonia
+itself was questionable; at any rate, the greater part
+of that which was drunk there was imported from
+abroad, more especially from Armenia and Syria.
+The wines of the Lebanon were specially prized,
+the wine of Khilbunu, or Helbon, holding a chief
+place among them. The wines, some of which were
+described as <q>white,</q> were distinguished by the
+names of the localities where they were made or in
+which the vines were grown, and Nebuchadnezzar
+gives the following list of them: The wine of Izalla,
+in Armenia; of Tuhimmu, of Zimmini, of Helbon, of
+Amabanu, of the Shuhites, of Bit-Kubati, in Elam;
+of Opis and of Bitati, in Armenia. To these another
+list adds: <q>The wine reserved for the king's drinking,</q>
+and the wines of Nazahzê, of Lahû, and of the
+Khabur.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wine was kept in wine-cellars, and among the
+Assyrian letters that have come down to us are some
+from the cellarers of the King. In one of them it is
+stated that the wine received in the month Tebet had
+been bottled, and that there was no room in the royal
+cellars in which it could be stored. The King is
+therefore asked to allow new cellars to be made.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The various trades formed guilds or corporations,
+<pb n='141'/><anchor id='Pg141'/>
+and those who wished to enter one of these had to
+be apprenticed for a fixed number of years in order
+to learn the craft. As we have seen, slaves could
+be thus apprenticed by their owners and in this
+way become members of a guild. What the exact
+relation was between the slave and the free members
+of a trading guild we do not know, but it is probable
+that the slave was regarded as the representative
+of his master or mistress, who accordingly became,
+instead of himself, the real member of the
+corporation. We perhaps have a parallel in modern
+England, where a person can be elected a member of
+one of the <q>city companies,</q> or trade guilds, without
+being in any way connected with the trade himself.
+Since women in Babylonia were able to carry
+on a business, there would be no obstacle to a slave
+being apprenticed to a trade by his mistress. Hence
+it is that we find a Babylonian lady named Nubtâ, in
+the second year of Cyrus, apprenticing a slave to a
+weaver for five years. Nubtâ engaged to provide
+the apprentice with clothing and 1 <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> (nearly 2
+quarts) of grain each day. As in ancient Greece a
+quart of grain was considered a sufficient daily allowance
+for a man, the slave's allowance would seem to
+have been ample. The teacher was to be heavily
+fined if he failed to teach the trade, or overworked
+the apprentice and so made him unable to learn it,
+the fine being fixed at 6 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+(about 10 quarts) <hi rend='italic'>per
+diem</hi>. Any infringement of the contract on either
+side was further to be visited with a penalty of 30
+shekels of silver.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As 30 shekels of silver were equivalent to £4 10s.,
+<pb n='142'/><anchor id='Pg142'/>
+6 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of wheat at the time when the contract was
+drawn up would have cost about 1s. 3d. Under
+Nebuchadnezzar we find 12 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>, or the third part of
+an ardeb, of sesame sold for half a shekel, which
+would make the cost of a single quart a little more
+than a penny. In the twelfth year of Nabonidos 60
+shekels, or £9, were paid for 6 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of sesame, and
+since the <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> contained 5 ardebs, according to Dr.
+Oppert's calculation, the quart of sesame would have
+been a little less than 1½d. When we come to the
+reign of Cambyses we hear of 6½ shekels being paid
+for 2 ardebs, or about 100 quarts, of wheat; that
+would give 2½d. as the approximate value of a single
+<hi rend='italic'>qa</hi>. It would therefore have cost Nubtâ about 2½d. a
+day to feed a slave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It must, however, be remembered that the price of
+grain varied from year to year. In years of scarcity
+the price rose; when the crops were plentiful it
+necessarily fell. To a certain extent the annual value
+was equalized by the large exportation of grain to
+foreign countries, to which reference is made in many
+of the contract-tablets; the institution of royal or
+public store-houses, moreover, called <hi rend='italic'>sutummê</hi>, tended
+to keep the price of it steady and uniform. Nevertheless,
+bad seasons sometimes occurred, and there
+were consequent fluctuations in prices. This was
+more especially the case as regards the second staple
+of Babylonian food and standard of value—dates.
+These seem to have been mostly consumed in Babylonia
+itself, and, though large quantities of them were
+accumulated in the royal storehouses, it was upon a
+smaller scale than in the case of the grain. Hence
+<pb n='143'/><anchor id='Pg143'/>
+we need not be surprised if we find that while in the
+seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar a shekel was paid
+for 1-1/3 ardebs of dates, or about a halfpenny a quart,
+in the thirtieth year of the same reign the price had
+fallen to one-twenty-fifth of a penny per quart. A
+little later, in the first year of Cambyses, 100 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of
+dates was valued at 2½ shekels (7s. 6d.), the <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> containing
+180 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>, which gives 2d.
+per each <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi>, and in
+the second year of Cyrus a receipt for the payment of
+<q>the workmen of the overseer</q> states that the following
+amount of dates had been given from <q>the royal
+store-house</q> for their <q>food</q> during the month
+Tebet: <q>Fifty <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> for the 50 workmen,
+10 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> for 10 shield-bearers, 2
+<hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> for the overseer, 1 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> for the
+chief overseer; in all, 63 <hi rend='italic'>gurs</hi> of dates.</q>
+It was consequently calculated that a workman would consume
+a <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of dates a month, the month consisting of thirty
+days.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About the same period, in the first year of Cyrus,
+after his conquest of Babylon, we hear of two men
+receiving 2 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> 30 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+(102 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>) of grain for the
+month Tammuz. Each man accordingly received a
+little over a <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> a day, the wage being practically the
+same as that paid by Nubtâ to the slave. On the
+other hand, a receipt dated in the fifteenth year of
+Nabonidos is for 2 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> (72
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>) of grain, and 54 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+of dates were paid to the captain of a boat for the
+conveyance of mortar, to serve as <q>food</q> during the
+month Tebet. As <q>salt and vegetables</q> were also
+added, it is probable that the captain was expected
+to share the food with his crew. A week previously
+8 shekels had been given for 91 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of dates owed by
+<pb n='144'/><anchor id='Pg144'/>
+the city of Pallukkatum, on the Pallacopas canal, to
+the temple of Uru at Sippara, but the money was
+probably paid for porterage only. At all events, five
+years earlier a shekel and a quarter had been paid
+for the hire of a boat which conveyed three oxen and
+twenty-four sheep, the offering made by Belshazzar
+<q>in the month Nisan to Samas and the gods of
+Sippara,</q> while 60 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of dates were assigned to the
+two boatmen for food. This would have been a <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> of
+dates <hi rend='italic'>per diem</hi> for each boatman, supposing the voyage
+was intended to last a month. In the ninth year
+of Nabonidos 2 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of dates were given to a man as
+his nourishment for two months, which would have
+been at the rate of 6 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> a day. In the thirty-second
+year of the same reign 36 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of dates were valued at
+a shekel, or a penny a <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the older period of Babylonian history prices
+were reckoned in grain, and, as might be expected,
+payment was made in kind rather than in coin. In
+the reign of Ammi-zadok, for instance, 3 homers
+24⅔ <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of oil, though valued at 20⅔ shekels of silver,
+were actually bought with <q>white Kurdish slaves,</q>
+it being stipulated that if the slaves were not forthcoming
+the purchaser would have to pay for the oil
+in cash. A thousand years later, under Merodach-nadin-akhi,
+cash had become the necessary medium
+of exchange. A cart and harness were sold for 100
+shekels, six riding-horses for 300 shekels, one <q>ass
+from the West</q> for 130 shekels, one steer for 30
+shekels, 34 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> 56
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of grain for 137 shekels, 2
+homers 40 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of oil for 16 shekels, two long-sleeved
+robes for 12 shekels, and nine shawls for 18 shekels.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='145'/><anchor id='Pg145'/>
+
+<p>
+From this time forward we hear no more of payment
+in kind, except where wages were paid in food, or
+where tithes and other offerings were made to the
+temples. Though the current price of wheat continued
+to fix the market standard of value, business
+was conducted by means of stamped money. The
+shekel and the maneh were the only medium of exchange.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There are numerous materials for ascertaining the
+average prices of commodities in the later days of
+Babylonian history. We have already seen what
+prices were given for sheep and wool, as well as the
+cost of some of the articles of household use. In
+the thirty-eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar 100 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>
+of wheat were valued at only 1 maneh—that is to
+say, the <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> of wheat was worth only the hundredth
+part of a shilling—while at the same time the price of
+dates was exactly one-half that amount. On the
+other hand, in the fourth year of Cambyses 72 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+of sesame were sold at Sippara for 6½ shekels,
+or 19s. 6d. This would make the cereal worth
+approximately 1½d. a quart, the same price as that
+at which it was sold in the twelfth year of Nabonidos.
+In the second year of Nergal-sharezer twenty-one
+strings of onions fetched as much as 10 shekels,
+and a year later 96 shekels were given for onion
+bulbs for planting. Sheep in the reign of Cambyses
+fetched 7 and 7¼ shekels each, while 10 shekels were
+given for an ox, and 22½ shekels for a steer two years
+old. In the twenty-fourth year of Nebuchadnezzar
+13 shekels had been paid for a full-grown ox, and as
+much as 67 shekels in the fourth year of Nabonidos,
+<pb n='146'/><anchor id='Pg146'/>
+while in the first year of Evil-Merodach a cow was
+sold for 15 shekels. The ass was in more request,
+especially if it was of <q>Western</q> breed. In the reign
+of Merodach-nadin-akhi, it will be remembered, as
+much as 130 shekels had been paid for one of these,
+as compared with 30 shekels given for an ox, and
+though at a subsequent period the prices were lower,
+the animal was still valued highly. In the year of
+the death of Cyrus a Babylonian gentleman bought
+<q>a mouse-colored ass, eight years old, without blemish,</q>
+for 50 shekels (£7 10s.), and shortly afterward
+another was purchased for 32 shekels. At the same
+time, however, an ass of inferior quality went for
+only 13 shekels. When we consider that only three
+years later a shekel was considered sufficient wages
+for a butcher for a month's work, we can better estimate
+what these prices signify. Nevertheless, the
+value of the ass seems to have been steadily going
+down in Babylonia; at all events, in the fourth year
+of Nabonidos, 1 maneh, or 60 shekels, was demanded
+for one, and the animal does not seem to have
+been in any way superior to another which was sold
+for 50 shekels a few years afterward.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Clothes and woven stuffs were naturally of all
+prices. In the time of Nebuchadnezzar a cloak or
+overcoat used by the mountaineers cost only 4½
+shekels, though under Cambyses we hear of 58 shekels
+being charged for eight of the same articles of dress,
+which were supplied to the <q>bowmen</q> of the army.
+Three years earlier 7½ shekels had been paid for two
+of these cloaks. About the same time ten sleeved
+gowns cost 35 shekels.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='147'/><anchor id='Pg147'/>
+
+<p>
+Metal was more expensive. As has already been
+noticed, a copper libation-bowl and cup were sold
+for 4 manehs 9 shekels (£37 7s.), and two copper
+dishes, weighing 7½ manehs (19 pounds 8 ounces.
+troy), were valued at 22 shekels. The skilled labor
+expended upon the work was the least part of the
+cost. The workman was supplied with his materials
+by the customer, and received only the value of his
+labor. What this was can be gathered from a receipt
+dated the 11th day of Chisleu, in the fourteenth year
+of Nabonidos, recording the payment of 4 shekels to
+<q>the ironsmith,</q> Suqâ, for making certain objects
+out of 3⅚ manehs of iron which had been handed
+over to him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cost of bricks and reeds has already been described.
+Bitumen was more valuable. In the fourteenth
+year of Nabonidos a contract was made to
+supply five hundred loads of it for 50 shekels, while
+at the same time the wooden handle of an ax was
+estimated at one shekel. Five years previously only
+2 shekels had been given for three hundred wooden
+handles, but they were doubtless intended for knives.
+In the sixth year of Nabonidos the grandson of the
+priest of Sippara undertook to supply <q>bricks, reeds,
+beams, doors, and chopped straw for building the
+house of Rimut</q> for 12 manehs of silver, or £108.
+The wages of the workmen were not included in the
+contract.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With these prices it is instructive to compare those
+recorded on contract-tablets of the age of the third
+dynasty of Ur, which preceded that under which
+Abraham was born. These tablets, though very numerous,
+<pb n='148'/><anchor id='Pg148'/>
+have as yet been but little examined, and the
+system of weights and measures which they contain
+is still but imperfectly known. We learn from them
+that bitumen could be purchased at the time at the
+rate of half a shekel of silver for each talent of 60
+manehs, and that logs of wood imported from abroad
+were sold at the rate of eight, ten, twelve, and sixty
+logs a shekel, the price varying according to the
+nature of the wood. Prices, however, as might be
+expected, are usually calculated in grain, oil, and the
+like, and the exact relation of these to the shekel and
+maneh has still to be determined.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The average wages of the workmen can be more
+easily fixed. Contracts dated in the reign of Khammurabi,
+the Amraphel of Genesis, and found at Sippara,
+show that it was at the rate of about 4 shekels
+a year, the laborer's food being usually thrown in
+as well. Thus in one of these contracts we read:
+<q>Rimmon-bani has hired Sumi-izzitim for his brother,
+as a laborer, for three months, his wages to be one
+shekel and a half of silver, three measures of flour, and
+1 <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> and a half of oil. There shall be no withdrawal
+from the agreement. Ibni-amurru and Sikni-Anunit
+have endorsed it. Rimmon-bani has hired the laborer
+in the presence of Abum-ilu (Abimael), the son of
+Ibni-samas, of Ili-su-ibni, the son of Igas-Rimmon;
+and Arad-Bel, the son of Akhuwam.</q><note place="foot">See
+above, <ref target="Pg023">p. 23</ref> f.</note> Then follows
+the date. Another contract of the same age is of
+much the same tenor. <q>Nur-Rimmon has taken
+Idiyatum, the son of Ili-kamma, from Naram-bani,
+to work for him for a year at a yearly wage of 4½
+<pb n='149'/><anchor id='Pg149'/>
+shekels of silver. At the beginning of the month
+Sebat, Idiyatum shall enter upon his service, and in
+the month Iyyar it shall come to an end and he shall
+quit it. Witnessed by Beltani, the daughter of Araz-za;
+by Beltani, the daughter of Mudadum; by Amat-Samas,
+the daughter of Asarid-ili; by Arad-izzitim,
+the son of Samas-mutasi; and by Amat-Bau, the
+priestess (?); the year when the Temple of the Abundance
+of Rimmon (was built by Khammurabi).</q> It
+will be noticed that with one exception the witnesses
+to this document are all women.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was but little rise in wages in subsequent
+centuries. A butcher was paid only 1 shekel for a
+month's work in the third year of Cambyses, as has
+been noticed above, and even skilled labor was not
+much better remunerated. In the first year of Cambyses,
+for instance, only half a shekel was paid for
+painting the stucco of a wall, though in the same
+year 67 shekels (£10 1s.) were given to a seal-cutter
+for a month's labor. Slavery prevented wages from
+rising by flooding the labor market, and the free artisan
+had to compete with a vast body of slaves.
+Hence it was that unskilled work was still so commonly
+paid in kind rather than in coin, and that the
+workman was content if his employer provided him
+with food. Thus in the second year of Nabonidos we
+are told that the <q>coppersmith,</q> Libludh, received
+7 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> (about 8½ quarts) of flour for overlaying a
+chariot with copper, and in the seventeenth year of
+the same reign half a shekel of silver and 1 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of
+wheat from the royal storehouse were paid to five
+men who had brought a flock of sheep to the King's
+<pb n='150'/><anchor id='Pg150'/>
+administrator in the city of Ruzabu. The following
+laconic letter also tells the same tale: <q>Letter from
+Tabik-zeri to Gula-ibni, my brother. Give 54 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of
+meal to the men who have dug the canal. The 9th
+of Nisan, fifth year of Cyrus, King of Eridu, King of
+the World.</q> The employer had a right to the workman's
+labor so long as he furnished him with food
+and clothing.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='151'/><anchor id='Pg151'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter VII. The Money-Lender And Banker</head>
+
+<p>
+Among the professions of ancient Babylonia, money-lending
+held a foremost place. It was, in fact, one
+of the most lucrative of professions, and was followed
+by all classes of the population, the highest as well
+the lowest. Members of the royal family did not
+disdain to lend money at high rates of interest, receiving
+as security for it various kinds of property.
+It is true that in such cases the business was managed
+by an agent; but the lender of the money, and not
+the agent, was legally responsible for all the consequences
+of his action, and it was to him that all the
+profits went.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The money-lender was the banker of antiquity. In
+a trading community like that of Babylonia, where
+actual coin was comparatively scarce, and the gigantic
+system of credit which prevails in the modern world
+had not as yet come into existence, it was impossible
+to do without him. The taxes had to be paid in cash,
+which was required by the government for the payment
+of a standing army, and a large body of officials.
+The same causes which have thrown the fellahin of
+modern Egypt into the hands of Greek usurers were
+at work in ancient Babylonia.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='152'/><anchor id='Pg152'/>
+
+<p>
+In some instances the money-lender founded a
+business which lasted for a number of generations
+and brought a large part of the property of the
+country into the possession of the firm. This was
+notably the case with the great firm of Egibi, established
+at Babylon before the time of Sennacherib,
+which in the age of the Babylonian empire and Persian
+conquest became the Rothschilds of the ancient
+world. It lent money to the state as well as to individuals,
+it undertook agencies for private persons,
+and eventually absorbed a good deal of what was
+properly attorney's business. Deeds and other legal
+documents belonging to others as well as to members
+of the firm were lodged for security in its record-chambers,
+stored in the great earthenware jars which served
+as safes. The larger part of the contract-tablets from
+which our knowledge of the social life of later Babylonia
+is derived has come from the offices of the firm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the early days of Babylonia the interest upon a
+loan was paid in kind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But the introduction of a circulating medium goes
+back to an ancient date, and it was not long before
+payment in grain or other crops was replaced by its
+equivalent in cash. Already before the days of
+Amraphel and Abraham, we find contracts stipulating
+for the payment of so many silver shekels per month
+upon each maneh lent to the borrower. Thus we have
+one written in Semitic-Babylonian which reads: <q>Kis-nunu,
+the son of Imur-Sin, has received one maneh
+and a half of silver from Zikilum, on which he will pay
+12 shekels of silver (a month). The capital and interest
+are to be paid on the day of the harvest as guaranteed.
+<pb n='153'/><anchor id='Pg153'/>
+Dated the year when Immerum dug the Asukhi
+canal.</q> Then follow the names of three witnesses.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The obligation to repay the loan on <q>the day of
+the harvest</q> is a survival from the time when all
+payments were in kind, and the creditor had a right
+to the first-fruits of the debtor's property. A contract
+dated in the reign of Khammurabi, or Amraphel,
+similarly stipulates that interest on a loan made to a
+certain Arad-ilisu by one of the female devotees of
+the Sun-god, should be paid into the treasury of the
+temple of Samas <q>on the day of the harvest.</q> The
+interest was reckoned at so much a month, as in the
+East to-day; originally it had to be paid at the end
+of each month, according to the literal terms of the
+agreement, but as time went on it became usual to
+reserve the payment to the end of six months or a
+year. It was only where the debtor was not considered
+trustworthy or the security was insufficient
+that the literal interpretation of the agreement was
+insisted on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The rate of interest, as was natural, tended to be
+lower with the lapse of time and the growth of
+wealth. In the age of the Babylonian empire and
+the Persian conquest the normal rate was, however,
+still as high as 1 shekel a month upon each maneh,
+or twenty per cent. But we have a contract dated in
+the fifth year of Nebuchadnezzar in which a talent of
+silver is lent, and the interest charged upon it is not
+more than half a shekel per month on the maneh, or
+ten per cent. Three years later, in another contract,
+the rate of interest is stated to be five-sixths of a
+shekel, or sixteen and two-thirds per cent, while in
+<pb n='154'/><anchor id='Pg154'/>
+the fifteenth year of Samas-sum-yukin the interest
+upon a loan of 16 shekels is only a quarter of a
+shekel. At this time Babylonia was suffering from
+the results of its revolt from Assyria, which may
+explain the lowness of the rate of interest. At all
+events, six years earlier, Remut, one of the members
+of the Egibi firm, lent a sum of money to a man and
+his wife without charging any interest at all upon it,
+and stipulating only that the money should be repaid
+when the land was again prosperous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At times, however, money was lent upon the understanding
+that interest would be charged upon it only
+if it were not repaid by a specified date. Thus in the
+ninth year of Samas-sum-yukin half a maneh was
+lent by Suma to Tukubenu on the fourth of Marchesvan,
+or October, upon which no interest was to be paid
+up to the end of the following Tisri, or September,
+which corresponded with <q>the day of the harvest</q>
+of the older contracts; but after that, if the money
+were still unpaid, interest at the rate of half a shekel
+a month, or ten per cent., would be charged. At other
+times the interest was paid by the year, as with us,
+and not by the month; in this case it was at a lower
+rate than the normal twenty per cent. In the fourteenth
+year of Nabopolassar, for example, a maneh of
+silver was lent at the rate of 7 shekels on each maneh
+per annum—that is to say, at eleven and two-thirds
+per cent.—and under Nebuchadnezzar money was
+borrowed at annual interest of 8 shekels for each
+maneh, or thirteen and one-third per cent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Full security was taken for a loan, and the contract
+relating to it was attested by a number of witnesses.
+<pb n='155'/><anchor id='Pg155'/>
+Thus the following contract was drawn up in the
+third year of Nabonidos, a loan of a maneh of silver
+having been made by one of the members of the
+Egibi firm to a man and his wife: <q>One maneh of
+silver, the property of Nadin-Merodach, the son of
+Iqisa-bel, the son of Nur-sin, has been received by
+Nebo-baladan, the son of Nadin-sumi, and Bau-ed-herat,
+the daughter of Samas-ebus. In the month
+Tisri (September) they shall repay the money and
+the interest upon it. Their upper field, which adjoins
+that of Sum-yukin, the son of Sa-Nebo-sû, as well
+as the lower field, which forms the boundary of the
+house of the Seer, and is planted with palm-trees and
+grass, is the security of Nadin-Merodach, to which
+(in case of insolvency) he shall have the first claim.
+No other creditor shall take possession of it until
+Nadin-Merodach has received in full the capital and
+interest. In the month Tisri the dates which are
+then ripe upon the palms shall be valued, and according
+to the current price of them at the time in
+the town of Sakhrin, Nadin-Merodach shall accept
+them instead of interest at the rate of thirty-six <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+(fifty quarts) the shekel (3s.). The money is intended
+to pay the tax for providing the soldiers of the king
+of Babylon with arms. Witnessed by Nebo-bel-sunu,
+the son of Bau-akhi, the son of Dahik; Nebo-dîni-ebus,
+the son of Kinenunâ; Nebo-zira-usabsi, the son,
+Samas-ibni Bazuzu, the son of Samas-ibni; Merodach-erba,
+the son of Nadin; and the scribe Bel-iddin,
+the son of Bel-yupakhkhir, the son of Dabibu. Dated
+at Sakhrinni, the 28th day of Iyyar (April), the third
+year of Nabonidos, King of Babylon.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='156'/><anchor id='Pg156'/>
+
+<p>
+In Assyria the rate of interest was a good deal higher
+than it was in Babylonia. It is true that in a contract
+dated 667 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, one of the parties to which was
+the son of the secretary of the municipality of Dur-Sargon,
+the modern Khorsabad, it is twenty per cent.,
+as in Babylonia, but this is almost the only case in
+which it is so. Elsewhere, in deeds dated 684 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>,
+656, and later, the rate is as much as twenty-five per
+cent., while in one instance—a deed dated 711 <hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>—it
+rises to thirty-three and a third per cent. Among
+the witnesses to the last-mentioned deed are two
+<q>smiths,</q> one of whom is described as a <q>coppersmith,</q>
+and the other bears the Armenian name of
+Sihduri or Sarduris. The money is usually reckoned
+according to the standard of Carchemish. That the
+rate of interest should have been higher in Assyria
+than in Babylonia is not surprising. Commerce was
+less developed there, and the attention of the population
+was devoted rather to war and agriculture than
+to trade. It seems to have been the conquest of
+Western Asia, the subjugation of the Phœnician cities,
+and above all the incorporation of Babylonia in the
+empire, which introduced a commercial spirit into
+Nineveh, and made it in the latter days of its existence
+an important centre of trade. Indeed, one of
+the objects of the Assyrian campaigns in Syria was
+to divert the trade of the Mediterranean into Assyrian
+hands; the fall of Carchemish made Assyria
+mistress of the caravan-road which led across the
+Euphrates, and of the commerce which had flowed
+from Asia Minor, while the ruin of Tyre and Sidon
+meant prosperity to the merchants of Nineveh. Nevertheless,
+<pb n='157'/><anchor id='Pg157'/>
+the native population of Assyria was slow
+to avail itself of the commercial advantages which
+had fallen to it, and a large part of its trading classes
+were Arameans or other foreigners who had settled
+in the country. So large, indeed, was the share in
+Assyrian trade which the Arameans absorbed that
+Aramaic became the <hi rend='italic'>lingua panca</hi>, the common medium
+of intercommunication, in the commercial world
+of the second Assyrian empire, and, as has been already
+stated, many of the Assyrian contract-tablets
+are provided with Aramaic dockets, which give a
+brief abstract of their contents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A memorandum signed by <q>Basia, the son of
+Rikhi,</q> furnishes us with the relative value of gold
+and silver in the age of Nebuchadnezzar. <q>Two
+shekels and a quarter of gold for twenty-five shekels
+and three-quarters of silver, one shekel worn and deficient
+in weight for seven shekels of silver, two and a
+quarter shekels, also worn, for twenty-two and three-quarters
+shekels of silver; in all five and a half shekels
+of gold for fifty-five and a half shekels of silver.</q>
+Gold, therefore, at this time would have been worth
+about eleven times more than silver. A few years
+later, however, in the eleventh year of Nabonidos, the
+proportion had risen and was twelve to one. We
+learn this from a statement that the goldsmith Nebo-edhernapisti
+had received in that year, on the 10th
+day of Ab, 1 shekel of gold, in 5-shekel pieces, for 12
+shekels of silver. The coinage, if we may use such
+a term, was the same in both metals, the talent being
+divided into 60 manehs and the maneh into 60
+shekels. There seems also to have been a bronze
+<pb n='158'/><anchor id='Pg158'/>
+coinage, at all events in the later age of Assyria
+and Babylonia, but the references to it are very
+scanty, and silver was the ordinary medium of exchange.
+One of the contract-tablets, however, which
+have come from Assyria and is dated in the year 676
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi>, relates to the loan of 2 talents of bronze from
+the treasury of Istar at Arbela, which were to be repaid
+two months afterward. Failing this, interest
+was to be charged upon them at the rate of thirty-three
+and a third per cent., and it is implied that the
+payment was to be in bronze.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The talent, maneh, and shekel were originally
+weights, and had been adopted by the Semites from
+their Sumerian predecessors. They form part of
+that sexagesimal system of numeration which lay at
+the root of Babylonian mathematics and was as old
+as the invention of writing. So thoroughly was sixty
+regarded as the unit of calculation that it was denoted
+by the same single wedge or upright line as that
+which stood for <q>one.</q> Wherever the sexagesimal
+system of notation prevailed we may see an evidence
+of the influence of Babylonian culture.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the maneh, however, and not the talent,
+which was adopted as the standard. The talent, in
+fact, was too heavy for such a purpose; it implied
+too considerable an amount of precious metal and
+was too seldom employed in the daily business of
+life. The Babylonian, accordingly, counted up from
+the maneh to the talent and down to the shekel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The standard weight of the maneh, which continued
+in use up to the latest days of Babylonian history,
+had been fixed by Dungi, of the dynasty of Ur,
+<pb n='159'/><anchor id='Pg159'/>
+about 2700 <hi rend='sc'>B.C.</hi> An inscription on a large cone of
+dark-green stone, now in the British Museum, tells
+us that the cone represents <q>one maneh standard
+weight, the property of Merodach-sar-ilani, and a
+duplicate of the weight which Nebuchadnezzar, king
+of Babylon, the son of Nabopolassar, king of Babylon,
+had made in exact imitation of the standard
+weight established by the deified Dungi, an earlier
+king.</q> The stone now weighs 978.309 grammes,
+which, making the requisite deductions for the wear
+and tear of time, would give 980 grammes, or rather
+more than 2 pounds 2 ounces avoirdupois. The
+Babylonian maneh, as fixed by Dungi and Nebuchadnezzar,
+thus agrees in weight rather with the Hebrew
+maneh of gold than with the <q>royal</q> maneh, which
+was equivalent to 2 pounds 7½ ounces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not, however, the only maneh in use in
+Babylonia. Besides the <q>heavy</q> or <q>royal</q> maneh
+there was also a <q>light</q> maneh, like the Hebrew
+silver maneh of 1 pound 11 ounces, while the Assyrian
+contract-tablets make mention of <q>the maneh
+of Carchemish,</q> which was introduced into Assyria
+after the conquest of the Hittite capital in 717 <hi rend='sc'>B.C.</hi>
+Mr. Barclay V. Head has pointed out that this latter
+maneh was known in Asia Minor as far as the shores
+of the Ægean, and that the <q>tongues</q> or bars of silver
+found by Dr. Schliemann on the site of Troy
+are shekels made in accordance with it.<note place="foot">Schliemann,
+Ilios, pp. 471, 472. Mr. Head shows that the
+maneh in question is identical with the Babylonian silver maneh of
+8,656 grains troy, or 561 grammes, though the latter is now more
+usually fixed at 546 grammes.</note>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='160'/><anchor id='Pg160'/>
+
+<p>
+A similar <q>tongue</q> of gold <q>of fifty shekels
+weight</q> is referred to in Josh. vii. 21, in connection
+with that <q>goodly Babylonish garment</q> which was
+carried away by Achan from among the spoils of
+Jericho. It is probable that the shekels and manehs
+of Babylonia were originally cast in the same tongue-like
+form. In Egypt they were in the shape of rings
+and spirals, but there is no evidence that the use of
+the latter extended beyond the valley of the Nile.
+In Western Asia it was rather bars of metal that
+were employed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first the value of the bar had to be determined
+by its being weighed each time that it changed
+hands. But it soon came to be stamped with an official
+indication of its weight and value. A Cappadocian
+tablet found near Kaisariyeh, which is at least
+as early as the age of the Exodus and may go back to
+that of Abraham, speaks of <q>three shekels of sealed</q>
+or <q>stamped silver.</q> In that distant colony of
+Babylonian civilization, therefore, an official seal was
+already put upon some of the money in circulation.
+In the time of Nebuchadnezzar the coinage was still
+more advanced. There were <q>single shekel</q> pieces,
+pieces of <q>five shekels</q> and the like, all implying
+that coins were issued representing different fractions
+of the maneh. The maneh itself was divided
+into pieces of five-sixths, two-thirds, one-third, one-half,
+one-quarter, and three-quarters. It is often
+specified whether a sum of money is to be paid in
+single shekel pieces or in 5-shekel pieces, and the
+word <q>stamped</q> is sometimes added. The invention
+of a regular coinage is generally ascribed to the
+<pb n='161'/><anchor id='Pg161'/>
+Lydians; but it was more probably due to the Babylonians,
+from whom both Lydians and Greeks derived
+their system of weights as well as the term <hi rend='italic'>mina</hi> or
+maneh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Egibi firm was not the only great banking or
+trading establishment of which we know in ancient
+Babylonia. The American excavators at Niffer have
+brought to light the records of another firm, that of
+Murasu, which, although established in a provincial
+town and not in the capital, rose to a position of
+great wealth and influence under the Persian kings
+Artaxerxes I. (464-424 <hi rend='sc'>B.C.</hi>) and Darius II. (424-405
+<hi rend='sc'>B.C.</hi>). The tablets found at Tello also indicate the
+existence of similarly important trading firms in the
+Babylonia of 2700 <hi rend='sc'>B.C.</hi>, though at this period trade
+was chiefly confined to home products, cattle and
+sheep, wool and grain, dates and bitumen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The learned professions were well represented.
+The scribes were a large and powerful body, and in
+Assyria, where education was less widely diffused
+than in Babylonia, they formed a considerable part
+of the governing bureaucracy. In Babylonia they
+acted as librarians, authors, and publishers, multiplying
+copies of older books and adding to them
+new works of their own. They served also as
+clerks and secretaries; they drew up documents of
+state as well as legal contracts and deeds. They
+were accordingly responsible for the forms of legal
+procedure, and so to some extent occupied the place
+of the barristers and attorneys of to-day. The Babylonian
+seems usually, if not always, to have pleaded
+his own case; but his statement of it was thrown
+<pb n='162'/><anchor id='Pg162'/>
+into shape by the scribe or clerk like the final decision
+of the judges themselves. Under Nebuchadnezzar
+and his successors such clerks were called <q>the
+scribes of the king,</q> and were probably paid out of
+the public revenues. Thus in the second year of Evil-Merodach
+it is said of the claimants to an inheritance
+that <q>they shall speak to the scribes of the king and
+seal the deed,</q> and the seller of some land has to
+take the deed of quittance <q>to the scribes of the
+king,</q> who <q>shall supervise and seal it in the city.</q>
+Many of the scribes were priests; and it is not uncommon
+to find the clerk who draws up a contract
+and appears as a witness to be described as <q>the
+priest</q> of some deity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The physician is mentioned at a very early date.
+Thus we hear of <q>Ilu-bani, the physician of Gudea,</q>
+the High-priest of Lagas (2700 <hi rend='sc'>B.C.</hi>), and a treatise
+on medicine, of which fragments exist in the British
+Museum, was compiled long before the days of Abraham.
+It continued to be regarded as a standard
+work on the subject even in the time of the second
+Assyrian empire, though its prescriptions are mixed
+up with charms and incantations. But an attempt
+was made in it to classify and describe various diseases,
+and to enumerate the remedies that had been
+proposed for them. The remedies are often a compound
+of the most heterogeneous drugs, some of
+which are of a very unsavory nature. However, the
+patient, or his doctor, is generally given a choice of
+the remedies he might adopt. Thus for an attack of
+spleen he was told either to <q>slice the seed of a reed
+and dates in palm-wine,</q> or to <q>mix calves' milk and
+<pb n='163'/><anchor id='Pg163'/>
+bitters in palm-wine,</q> or to <q>drink garlic and bitters
+in palm-wine.</q> <q>For an aching tooth,</q> it is laid
+down, <q>the plant of human destiny (perhaps the
+mandrake) is the remedy; it must be placed upon
+the tooth. The fruit of the yellow snakewort is another
+remedy for an aching tooth; it must be placed
+upon the tooth.… The roots of a thorn which
+does not see the sun when growing is another remedy
+for an aching tooth; it must be placed upon the
+tooth.</q> Unfortunately it is still impossible to assign
+a precise signification to most of the drugs that are
+named, or to identify the various herbs contained in
+the Babylonian pharmacopœia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As time passed on, the charms and other superstitious
+practices which had at first played so large a
+part in Babylonian medicine fell into the background
+and were abandoned to the more uneducated classes
+of society. The conquest of Western Asia by the
+Egyptian Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty brought
+Babylonia into contact with Egypt, where the art of
+medicine was already far advanced. It is probable
+that from this time forward Babylonian medicine also
+became more strictly scientific. We have indeed evidence
+that the medical system and practice of Egypt
+had been introduced into Asia. When the great
+Egyptian treatise on medicine, known as the Papyrus
+Ebers, was written in the sixteenth century <hi rend='sc'>B.C.</hi>, one
+of the most fashionable oculists of the day was a
+<q>Syrian</q> of Gebal, and as the study of the disease
+of the eye was peculiarly Egyptian, we must assume
+that his science had been derived from the valley of
+the Nile. It must not be supposed, however, that
+<pb n='164'/><anchor id='Pg164'/>
+the superstitious beliefs and practices of the past
+were altogether abandoned, even by the most distinguished
+practitioners, any more than they were by
+the physicians of Europe in the early part of the last
+century. But they were invoked only when the ordinary
+remedies had failed, and when no resource
+seemed left except the aid of spiritual powers.
+Otherwise the doctor depended upon his diagnosis
+of the disease and the prescriptions which had been
+accumulated by the experience of past generations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the head of the profession stood the court-physician,
+the Rab-mugi or Rab-mag as he was
+called in Babylonia. In Assyria there was more
+than one doctor attached to the royal person, but letters
+have come down to us from which we learn that
+the royal physicians were at times permitted to attend
+private individuals when they were sick. Thus
+we have a letter of thanks to the Assyrian King from
+one of his subjects full of gratitude to the King for
+sending his own doctor to the writer, who had accordingly
+been cured of a dangerous disease. <q>May
+Istar of Erech,</q> he says, <q>and Nana (of Bit-Anu)
+grant long life to the king my lord, for he has sent
+Basa, the royal physician, to save my life, and he has
+cured me; may the great gods of heaven and earth
+be therefore gracious to the king my lord, and may
+they establish the throne of the king my lord in
+heaven for ever, since I was dead and the king has
+restored me to life.</q> Another letter contains a petition
+that one of the royal physicians should be allowed
+to visit a lady who was ill. <q>To the king my
+lord,</q> we read, <q>thy servant, Saul-miti-yuballidh,
+<pb n='165'/><anchor id='Pg165'/>
+sends salutation to the king my lord: may Nebo and
+Merodach be gracious to the king my lord for ever
+and ever. Bau-gamilat, the handmaid of the king, is
+constantly ill; she cannot eat a morsel of food. Let
+the king send orders that some physician may go and
+see her.</q> In this case, however, it is possible that
+the lady, who seems to have been suffering from consumption,
+belonged to the harîm of the monarch, and
+it was consequently needful to obtain the royal permission
+for a stranger to visit her, even though he
+came professionally.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We can hardly reckon among Babylonian professions
+that of the poet. It is true that a sort of poet-laureate
+existed at the court, and that we hear of a
+piece of land being given by the King to one of them
+for some verses which he had composed in honor of
+the sovereign. But poetry was not a separate profession,
+and the poet must be included in the class
+of scribes, or among those educated country gentlemen
+who possessed estates of their own. He was,
+however, fully appreciated in Babylonia. The names
+of the chief poets of the country were never forgotten,
+and the poems they had written passed through edition
+after edition down to the later days of Babylonian
+history. Sin-liqi-unnini, the author of the <q>Epic
+of Gilgames,</q> Nis-Sin, the author of the <q>Adventures
+of Etana,</q> and many others, never passed out of literary
+remembrance. There was a large reading public,
+and the literary language of Babylonia changed
+but little from century to century.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was otherwise with the musicians. They formed
+a class to themselves, though whether as a trade or
+<pb n='166'/><anchor id='Pg166'/>
+as a profession it is difficult to say. We must, however,
+distinguish between the composer and the performer.
+The latter was frequently a slave or captive,
+and occupied but an humble place in society. He is
+frequently depicted in the Assyrian bas-reliefs, and in
+one instance is represented as wearing a cap of great
+height and shaped like a fish. Musical instruments
+were numerous and various. We find among them
+drums and tambourines, trumpets and horns, lyres
+and guitars, harps and zithers, pipes and cymbals.
+Even the speaking-trumpet was employed. In a
+sculpture which represents the transport of a colossal
+bull from the quarries of Balad to the palace of
+Sennacherib, an overseer is made to stand on the
+body of the bull and issue orders through a trumpet
+to the workmen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Besides single musicians, there were bands of performers,
+and at times the music was accompanied by
+dancing or by clapping the hands. The bands were
+under the conduct of leaders, who kept time with a
+double rod. In one instance the Assyrian artist has
+represented three captives playing on a lyre, an interesting
+illustration of the complaint of the Jewish
+exiles in Babylonia that their conquerors required
+from them <q>a song.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The artist fared no better than the musical performer.
+The painter of the figures and scenes on the walls
+of the chamber, the sculptor of the bas-reliefs which
+adorned an Assyrian palace, or of the statues which
+stood in the temples of Babylonia, the engraver of the
+gems and seals, some of which show such high artistic
+talent, were all alike skilled artisans and nothing more.
+<pb n='167'/><anchor id='Pg167'/>
+We have already seen what wages they received, and
+what consequently must have been the social admiration
+in which they were held. Behind the workman,
+however, stood the original artist, who conceived and
+drew the first designs, and to whom the artistic inspiration
+was primarily due. Of him we still know
+nothing. Probably he belonged in general to the
+class of priests or scribes, and would have disdained
+to receive remuneration for his art. As yet the texts
+have thrown no light upon him, and it may be that
+they never will do so. The Babylonians were a practical
+and not an artistic people, and the skilled artisan
+gave them all that they demanded in the matter
+of art.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='168'/><anchor id='Pg168'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter VIII. The Government And The Army</head>
+
+<p>
+The conception of the state in Babylonia was intensely
+theocratic. The kings had been preceded by
+high-priests, and up to the last they performed priestly
+functions, and represented the religious as well as the
+civil power. At Babylon the real sovereign was Bel
+Merodach, the true <q>lord</q> of the city, and it was only
+when the King had been adopted by the god as his
+son that he possessed any right to rule. Before he
+had <q>taken the hands</q> of Bel, and thereby become
+the adopted son of the deity, he had no legitimate
+title to the throne. He was, in fact, the vicegerent
+and representative of Bel upon earth; it was Bel who
+gave him his authority and watched over him as a
+father over a son.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Babylonian sovereign was thus quite as much
+a pontiff as he was a king. The fact was acknowledged
+in the titles he bore, as well as in the ceremony
+which legitimized his accession to the throne. Two
+views prevailed, however, as to his relation to the god.
+According to one of these, sonship conferred upon him
+actual divinity; he was not merely the representative
+of a god, but a god himself. This was the view which
+prevailed in the earlier days of Semitic supremacy.
+<pb n='169'/><anchor id='Pg169'/>
+Sargon of Akkad and his son Naram-Sin are entitled
+<q>gods;</q> temples and priests were dedicated to them
+during their lifetime, and festivals were observed in
+their honor. Their successors claimed and received
+the same attributes of divinity. Under the third
+dynasty of Ur even the local prince, Gudea, the high-priest
+of Tello, was similarly deified. It was not
+until Babylonia had been conquered by the foreign
+Kassite dynasty from the mountains of Elam that a
+new conception of the King was introduced. He
+ceased to be a god himself, and became, instead, the
+delegate and representative of the god of whom he
+was the adopted son. His relation to the god was
+that of a son during the lifetime of his father, who
+can act for his father, but cannot actually take the
+father's place so long as the latter is alive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some of the earlier Chaldean monarchs call themselves
+sons of the goddesses who were worshipped in
+the cities over which they held sway. They thus
+claimed to be of divine descent, not by adoption, but
+by actual birth. The divinity that was in them was
+inherited; it was not merely communicated by a later
+and artificial process. The <q>divine right,</q> by grace
+of which they ruled, was the right of divine birth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the outset, therefore, the Babylonian King was
+a pontiff because he was also a god. In him the
+deities of heaven were incarnated on earth. He
+shared their essence and their secrets; he knew how
+their favor could be gained or their enmity averted,
+and so mediated between god and man. This deification
+of the King, however, cannot be traced beyond the
+period when Semitic rule was firmly established in
+<pb n='170'/><anchor id='Pg170'/>
+Chaldea. It is true that Sumerian princes, like
+Gudea of Lagas, were also deified; but this was long
+after the rise of Semitic supremacy, and the age of
+Sargon of Akkad, and when Sumerian culture was
+deeply interpenetrated by Semitic ideas. So far as
+we know at present the apotheosis of the King was
+of Semitic origin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is paralleled by the apotheosis of the King in ancient
+Egypt. There, too, the Pharaoh was regarded
+as an incarnation of divinity, to whom shrines were
+erected, priests ordained, and sacrifices offered. In
+early times he was, moreover, declared to be the son
+of the goddess of the city in which he dwelt; it was
+not till the rise of the fifth historical dynasty that he
+became the <q>Son of the Sun-god</q> of Heliopolis,
+rather than Horus, the Sun-god, himself. This curious
+parallelism is one of many facts which point to
+intercourse between Babylonia and Egypt in the prehistoric
+age; whether the deification of the King
+originated first on the banks of the Euphrates or of
+the Nile must be left to the future to decide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Naram-Sin is addressed as <q>the god of Agadê,</q> or
+Akkad, the capital of his dynasty, and long lists have
+been found of the offerings that were made, month by
+month, to the deified Dungi, King of Ur, and his
+vassal, Gudea of Lagas. Here, for example, are
+Dr. Scheil's translations of some of them: <q>I. Half
+a measure of good beer and 5 <hi rend='italic'>gin</hi> of sesame oil on the
+new moon, the 15th day, for the god Dungi; half a
+measure of good beer and half a measure of herbs for
+Gudea the High-priest, during the month Tammuz.
+II. Half a measure of the king's good beer, half a
+<pb n='171'/><anchor id='Pg171'/>
+measure of herbs, on the new moon, the 15th day,
+for Gudea the High-priest. One measure of good
+wort beer, 5 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of
+ground flour, 3 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of cones (?), for
+the planet Mercury: during the month of the festival
+of the god Dungi. III.… Half a measure of
+good beer, half a measure of herbs, on the new moon,
+the 15th day, for the god Gudea the High-priest:
+during the month Elul, the first year of Gimil-Sin,
+king [of Ur].</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The conception of the King as a visible god upon
+earth was unable to survive the conquest of Babylonia
+by the half-civilized mountaineers of Elam and
+the substitution of foreigners for the Semitic or Semitized
+Sumerian rulers of the country. As the doctrine
+of the divine right of kings passed away in England
+with the rise of the Hanoverian dynasty, so, too, in
+Babylonia the deified King disappeared with the Kassite
+conquest. But he continued to be supreme pontiff
+to the adopted son of the god of Babylon. Babylon
+had become the capital of the kingdom, and
+Merodach, its patron-deity, was, accordingly, supreme
+over the other gods of Chaldea. He alone could confer
+the royal powers that the god of every city which
+was the centre of a principality had once been qualified
+to grant. By <q>taking his hands</q> the King became
+his adopted son, and so received a legitimate
+right to the throne.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was the throne not only of Babylonia, but of the
+Babylonian empire as well. It was never forgotten
+that Babylonia had once been the mistress of Western
+Asia, and it was, accordingly, the sceptre of Western
+Asia that was conferred by Bel Merodach upon his
+<pb n='172'/><anchor id='Pg172'/>
+adopted sons. Like the Holy Roman Empire in the
+Middle Ages, Babylonian sovereignty brought with it
+a legal, though shadowy, right to rule over the civilized
+kingdoms of the world. It was this which made
+the Assyrian conquerors of the second Assyrian empire
+so anxious to secure possession of Babylon and
+there <q>take the hands of Bel.</q> Tiglath-pileser III.,
+Shalmaneser IV., and Sargon were all alike usurpers,
+who governed by right of the sword. It was only
+when they had made themselves masters of Babylon
+and been recognized by Bel and his priesthood that
+their title to govern became legitimate and unchallenged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cyrus and Cambyses continued the tradition of the
+native kings. They, too, claimed to be the successors
+of those who had ruled over Western Asia, and Bel,
+of his own free choice, it was alleged, had rejected the
+unworthy Nabonidos and put Cyrus in his place.
+Cyrus ruled, not by right of conquest, but because he
+had been called to the crown by the god of Babylon.
+It was not until the Zoroastrean Darius and Xerxes
+had taken Babylon by storm and destroyed the temple
+of Bel that the old tradition was finally thrust
+aside. The new rulers of Persia had no belief in the
+god of Babylon; his priesthood was hostile to them,
+and Babylon was deposed from the position it had so
+long occupied as the capital of the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Assyria, in contrast to Babylonia, the government
+rested on a military basis. It is true that
+the kings of Assyria had once been the high-priests
+of the city of Assur, and that they carried with
+them some part of their priestly functions when
+<pb n='173'/><anchor id='Pg173'/>
+they were invested with royal power. But it is
+no less true that they were never looked upon as
+incarnations of the deity or even as his representative
+upon earth. The rise of the Assyrian kingdom
+seems to have been due to a military revolt;
+at any rate, its history is that of a succession of
+rebellious generals, some of whom succeeded in
+founding dynasties, while others failed to hand down
+their power to their posterity. There was no religious
+ceremony at their coronation like that of <q>taking
+the hands of Bel.</q> When Esar-haddon was
+made King he was simply acclaimed sovereign by the
+army. It was the army and not the priesthood to
+whom he owed his title to reign.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The conception of the supreme god himself differed
+in Assyria and Babylonia. In Babylonia, Bel-Merodach
+was <q>lord</q> of the city; in Assyria, Assur
+was the deified city itself. In the one case, therefore,
+the King was appointed vicegerent of the god
+over the city which he governed and preserved; in
+the other case the god represented the state, and, in
+so far as the King was a servant of the god, he was a
+servant also of the state.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In both countries there was an aristocracy of birth
+based originally on the possession of land. But in
+Babylonia it tended at an early period to be absorbed
+by the mercantile and priestly classes, and
+in later days it is difficult to find traces even of its
+existence. The nobles of the age of Nebuchadnezzar
+were either wealthy trading families or officers of the
+Crown. The temples, and the priests who lived upon
+their revenues, had swallowed up a considerable part
+<pb n='174'/><anchor id='Pg174'/>
+of the landed and other property of the country,
+which had thus become what in modern Turkey would
+be called <hi rend='italic'>wakf</hi>. In Assyria many of the great princes
+of the realm still belonged to the old feudal aristocracy,
+but here again the tendency was to replace
+them by a bureaucracy which owed its position and
+authority to the direct favor of the King. Under
+Tiglath-pileser III. this tendency became part of
+the policy of the government; the older aristocracy
+disappeared, and instead of it we find military officers
+and civil officials, all of whom were appointed by
+the Crown.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While, accordingly, Babylonia became an industrial
+and priestly state, Assyria developed into a great
+military and bureaucratic organization. It taught
+the world how to organize and administer an empire.
+Tiglath-pileser III. inaugurated a course of policy
+which his successors did their best to carry out. He
+aimed at reviving the ancient empire of Sargon of
+Akkad, of uniting the civilized world of Western
+Asia under one head, but upon new principles and
+in a more permanent way. The campaigns which
+his predecessors had carried on for the sake of booty
+and military fame were now conducted with a set
+purpose and method. The raid was replaced by a
+carefully planned scheme of conquest. The vanquished
+territories were organized into provinces
+under governors appointed by the Assyrian King and
+responsible to him alone. By the side of the civil
+governor was a military commander, who kept watch
+upon the other's actions, while under them was a
+large army of administrators. Assyrian colonies
+<pb n='175'/><anchor id='Pg175'/>
+were planted in the newly acquired districts, where
+they served as a garrison, and the native inhabitants
+were transported to other parts of the Assyrian empire.
+In this way an attempt was made to break the
+old ties of patriotism and local feeling, and to substitute
+for them fidelity to the Assyrian government
+and the god Assur, in whose name its conquests were
+made.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The taxes of the empire were carefully regulated.
+A cadastral survey was an institution which had long
+been in existence; it had been borrowed from Babylonia,
+where, as we have seen, it was already known
+at a very early epoch. The amount to be paid
+into the treasury by each town and province was
+fixed, and the governor was called upon to transmit
+it each year to Nineveh. Thus in the time of Sennacherib
+the annual tribute of Carchemish was 100
+talents, that of Arpad 30, and that of Megiddo 15,
+while, at home, Nineveh was assessed at 30 talents,
+and the district of Assur at 20, which were expended
+on the maintenance of the fleet, the whole amount
+of revenue raised from Assyria being 274 talents.
+Besides this direct taxation, there was also indirect
+taxation, as well as municipal rates. Thus a
+tax was laid upon the brick-fields, which in Babylonia
+were economically of considerable importance,
+and there was an <hi rend='italic'>octroi</hi> duty upon all goods, cattle,
+and country produce which entered a town. Similar
+tolls were exacted from the ships which moored at
+the quays, as well as from those who made use of the
+pontoon-bridges which spanned the Euphrates or
+passed under them in boats.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='176'/><anchor id='Pg176'/>
+
+<p>
+Long lists of officials have been preserved. Certain
+of the governors or satraps were allowed to share
+with the King the privilege of giving a name to the
+year. It was an ingenious system of reckoning time
+which had been in use in Assyria from an early
+period and was introduced into Cappadocia by
+Assyrian colonists. From Asia Minor it probably
+spread to Greece; at all events, the eponymous archons
+at Athens, after whom the several years were
+named, corresponded exactly with the Assyrian
+<hi rend='italic'>limmi</hi> or eponyms. Each year in succession received
+its name from the eponym or officer who held
+office during the course of it, and as lists of these
+officers were carefully handed down it was easy to
+determine the date of an event which had taken place
+in the year of office of a given eponym. The system
+was of Assyrian invention and never prevailed in
+Babylonia. There time was dated by the chief occurrences
+of a king's reign, and at the end of the
+reign a list of them was drawn up beginning with
+his accession to the throne and ending with his death
+and the name of his successor. These lists went back
+to an early period of Babylonian history and provided
+the future historian with an accurate chronology.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Immediately attached to the person of the Assyrian
+monarch was the Rab-saki, <q>the chief of the princes,</q>
+or vizier. He is called the Rab-shakeh in the Old
+Testament, by the side of whom stood the Rab-saris,
+the Assyrian Rab-sa-risi, or <q>chief of the heads</q> of
+departments. They were both civil officers. The
+army was under the command of the Tartannu, or
+<q>Commander-in-Chief,</q> the Biblical Tartan, who, in
+<pb n='177'/><anchor id='Pg177'/>
+the absence of the King, led the troops to battle
+and conducted a campaign. When Shalmaneser II.,
+for example, became too old to take the field himself,
+his armies were led by the Tartan Daian-Assur, and
+under the second Assyrian empire the Tartan appears
+frequently, sometimes in command of a portion
+of the forces, while the King is employing the rest
+elsewhere, sometimes in place of the King, who prefers
+to remain at home. In earlier days there had
+been two Tartans, one of whom stood on the right
+hand side of the King and the other on his left. In
+order of precedence both of them were regarded as
+of higher rank than the Rab-shakeh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The army was divided into companies of a thousand,
+a hundred, fifty, and ten, and we hear of captains of
+fifty and captains of ten. Under Tiglath-pileser III.
+and his successors it became an irresistible engine
+of attack. No pains were spared to make it as effective
+as possible; its discipline was raised to the highest
+pitch of perfection, and its arms and accoutrements
+constantly underwent improvements. As long
+as a supply of men lasted, no enemy could stand
+against it, and the great military empire of Nineveh
+was safe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It contained cavalry as well as foot-soldiers. The
+cavalry had grown out of a corps of chariot-drivers,
+which was retained, though shrunken in size and importance,
+long after the more serviceable horsemen
+had taken its place. The chariot held a driver and a
+warrior. When the latter was the King he was accompanied
+by one or two armed attendants. They
+all rode standing and carried bows and spears. The
+<pb n='178'/><anchor id='Pg178'/>
+chariot itself ran upon two wheels, a pair of horses
+being harnessed to its pole. Another horse was often
+attached to it in case of accidents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chariots were of little good when the fighting
+had to be done in a mountainous country. In the
+level parts of Western Asia, where good roads had
+existed for untold centuries, they were a powerful arm
+of offence, but the Assyrians were constantly called
+upon to attack the tribes of the Kurdish and Armenian
+mountains who harassed their positions, and in such
+trackless districts the chariots were an incumbrance
+and not a help. Trees had to be cut down and rocks
+removed in order to make roads along which they
+might pass. The Assyrian engineers indeed were
+skilled in the construction of roads of the kind, and
+the inscriptions not infrequently boast of their success
+in carrying them through the most inaccessible regions,
+but the necessity for making them suitable for
+the passage of chariots was a serious drawback, and
+we hear at times how the wheels of the cars had to be
+taken off and the chariots conveyed on the backs of
+mules or horses. It was not wonderful, therefore, that
+the Assyrian kings, who were practical military men,
+soon saw the advantage of imitating the custom of the
+northern and eastern mountaineers, who used the horse
+for riding purposes rather than for drawing a chariot.
+The chariot continued to be employed in the Assyrian
+army, but rather as a luxury than as an effective instrument
+of war.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At first the cavalry were little more than mounted
+horsemen. Their only weapons were the bow and
+arrow, and they rode without saddles and with bare
+<pb n='179'/><anchor id='Pg179'/>
+legs. At a later period part of the cavalry was armed
+with spears, saddles were introduced, and the groom
+who had run by the side of the horse disappeared.
+At the same time, under Tiglath-pileser III., the
+rider's legs were protected by leathern drawers over
+which high boots were drawn, laced in front. This
+was an importation from the north, and it is possible
+that many of the horsemen were brought from the
+same quarter. Sennacherib still further improved
+the dress by adding to it a closely fitting coat of
+mail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The infantry outnumbered the cavalry by about ten
+to one, and were divided into heavy-armed and light-armed.
+Their usual dress, at all events, up to the
+foundation of the second Assyrian empire, consisted
+of a peaked helmet and a tunic which descended half-way
+down the thighs, and was fastened round the
+waist by a girdle. From the reign of Sargon onward
+they were divided into two bodies, one of archers, the
+other of spearmen, the archers being partly light-armed
+and partly heavy-armed. The heavy-armed
+were again divided into two classes, one of them wearing
+sandals and a coat-of-mail over the tunic, while
+the other was dressed in a long, fringed robe reaching
+to the feet, over which a cuirass was worn. They
+also carried a short sword, and had sandals of the
+same shape as those used by the other class. Each
+had an attendant waiting upon him with a long, rectangular
+shield of wicker-work, covered with leather.
+The light-armed archers were encumbered with but
+little clothing, consisting only of a kilt and a fillet
+round the head. The spearmen, on the contrary,
+<pb n='180'/><anchor id='Pg180'/>
+were protected by a crested helmet and circular shield,
+though their legs and face were usually bare.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Changes were introduced by Sennacherib, who
+abolished the inconveniently long robe of the second
+class of heavy-armed archers, and gave them leather
+greaves and boots. The first class, on the other hand,
+are now generally represented without sandals, and
+with an embroidered turban with lappets on the head.
+Sennacherib also established a corps of slingers,
+who were clad in helmet and breastplate, leather
+drawers, and short boots, as well as a company of pioneers,
+armed with double-headed axes, and clothed
+with conical helmets, greaves, and boots. These pioneers
+were especially needed for engineering the way
+through the pathless defiles and rugged ground over
+which the extension of the empire more and more required
+the Assyrian army to make its way.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The heads of the spears and arrows were of metal,
+usually of bronze, more rarely of iron. The helmets
+also were of bronze or iron, a leather cap being worn
+underneath them, and the coats-of-mail were formed
+of bronze scales sewn to a leather shirt. Many of
+the shields, moreover, were of metal, though wicker-work
+covered with leather seems to have been preferred.
+Battering-rams and other engines for attacking
+a city were carried on the march.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Baggage wagons were also carried, as well as standards
+and tents. The tents of the officers were divided
+into two partitions, one of which was used as a
+dining-room, while the royal tent was accompanied
+by a kitchen. Tables, chairs, couches, and various
+utensils formed part of its furniture. One of these
+<pb n='181'/><anchor id='Pg181'/>
+chairs was a sort of palanquin in the shape of an
+arm-chair with a footstool, which was borne on the
+shoulders of attendants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Assyrian army was originally recruited from
+the native peasantry, who returned to their fields at
+the end of a campaign with the spoil that had been
+taken from the enemy. Under the second Assyrian
+empire, however, it became a standing army, a part
+of which was composed of mercenaries, while another
+part consisted of troops drafted from the conquered
+populations. Certain of the soldiers were
+selected to serve as the body-guard of the King;
+they had a commander of their own and doubtless
+possessed special privileges. The army was recruited
+by conscription, the obligation to serve in it
+being part of the burdens which had to be borne by
+the peasantry. They could be relieved of it by the
+special favor of the government just as they could be
+relieved of the necessity of paying taxes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Babylonian army of Nebuchadnezzar and his
+successors was modelled on that of the Assyrians.
+We can gather from the receipts for the provisions
+and accoutrements furnished to it how the army of
+Tiglath-pileser or Sennacherib must have been fed
+and paid. Thus in the first year of Nabonidos, 75
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of flour and 63
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> (nearly 100 quarts) of beer
+were provided for the troops in the camp near Sippara,
+and in the second year of the same King 54 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+of beer were sent on the 29th of Nisan for <q>the
+soldiers who had marched from Babylon.</q> Similarly
+in the tenth year of the same reign we have
+a receipt for the despatch of 116 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of food on the
+<pb n='182'/><anchor id='Pg182'/>
+14th of Iyyar for <q>the troops which had marched
+[to Sippara] from Babylon,</q> as well as for 18 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+of <q>provisions</q> provided each day for the same
+purpose from the 15th to the 18th of the same
+month. In the first year of Nabonidos 3 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of
+sesame had been ordered for the archers during
+the first two months of the year, and as in his
+thirteenth year 5 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of wheat were provided for
+fifteen soldiers, we may calculate that rather more
+than two and one-half bushels were allotted to each
+man. It may be added that at the beginning of
+Nebuchadnezzar's reign we find a contractor guaranteeing
+<q>the excellence of the beer</q> that had been
+furnished for the <q>army that had entered Babylon,</q>
+though it is possible that here artisans rather than
+soldiers are meant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A register of the soldiers was kept, but it would
+seem that those who were in charge of it sometimes
+forgot to strike off the names of those who were
+dead or discharged, and pocketed their pay. At any
+rate, the following official document has come down
+to us:—<q>(The names) of the deserters and dead
+soldiers which have been overlooked in the paymaster's
+account, the 8th day of Nisan, the eighth year
+of Cyrus, king of Babylon and of the world: Samas-akhi-iddin,
+son of Samas-ana-bitisu, deserted; Muse-zib-Samas,
+son of the Usian, <hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>; Itti-Samas-eneya
+junior, of the family of Samas-kin-abli, <hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>;
+Itti-Samas-baladhu, son of Samas-erba <hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>; Taddannu,
+son of Rimut, <hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>; Samas-yuballidh, his brother,
+<hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>; Kalbâ, son of Samas-kin-abli, son of the painter(?),
+<hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>; in all seven deserters. Libludh, son of
+<pb n='183'/><anchor id='Pg183'/>
+Samas-edher, dead; Nebo-tuktê-tirri, <hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>; Samas-mupakhkhiranni,
+<hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>; Samas-akhi-erba, son of Samas-ana-bitisu,
+<hi rend='italic'>ditto</hi>; in all four dead. Altogether
+eleven soldiers who have deserted or are dead.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If Babylonia copied Assyria in military arrangements,
+the converse was the case as regards a fleet.
+<q>The cry of the Chaldeans,</q> according to the Old
+Testament, was <q>in their ships,</q> and in the earliest
+age of Babylonian history, Eridu, which then stood
+on the sea-coast, was already a sea-port. But Assyria
+was too far distant from the sea for its inhabitants
+to become sailors, and the rapid current
+of the Tigris made even river navigation difficult.
+In fact, the rafts on which the heavy monuments
+were transported, and which could float only down
+stream, or the small, round boats, resembling the
+<hi rend='italic'>kufas</hi> that are still in use, were almost the only
+means employed for crossing the water. When the
+Assyrian army had to pass a river, either pontoons
+were thrown across it, or the soldiers swam across
+the streams with the help of inflated skins. The
+<hi rend='italic'>kufa</hi> was made of rushes daubed with bitumen, and
+sometimes covered with a skin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So little accustomed were the Assyrians to navigation
+that, when Sennacherib determined to pursue
+the followers of Merodach-baladan across the Persian
+Gulf to the coast of Elam, he was obliged to have
+recourse to the Phœnician boat-builders and sailors.
+Two fleets were built for him by Phœnician and
+Syrian workmen, one at Tel-Barsip, near Carchemish,
+on the Euphrates, the other at Nineveh on the
+Tigris; these he manned with Syrian, Sidonian, and
+<pb n='184'/><anchor id='Pg184'/>
+Ionian sailors, and after pouring out a libation to Ea,
+the god of the sea, set sail from the mouth of the
+Euphrates. It was probably for the support of this
+fleet that the 20 talents (£10,800) annually levied
+on the district of Assur were intended. The Phœnician
+ships employed by the Assyrians were biremes,
+with two tiers of oars.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of the Babylonian fleet we know but little. It
+does not seem to have taken part in the defence of
+the country at the time of the invasion of Cyrus.
+But the sailors who manned it were furnished with
+food, like the soldiers of the army, from the royal
+storehouse or granary. Thus in the sixteenth year
+of Nabonidos we have a memorandum to the effect
+that 210 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of dates were sent from the storehouse
+in the month Tammuz <q>for the maintenance of the
+sailors.</q> The King also kept a state-barge on the
+Euphrates, like the dahabias of Egypt. In the
+twenty-fourth year of Darius, for instance, a new
+barge was made for the monarch, two contractors
+undertaking to work upon it from the beginning of
+Iyyar, or April, to the end of Tisri, or September, and
+to use in its construction a particular kind of wood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While we hear but little about the fleet, cargo and
+ferry-boats are frequently mentioned in letters and
+contracts. Reference has already been made to the
+shekel and a quarter paid by the agent of Belshazzar
+for the hire of a boat which conveyed three oxen and
+twenty-four sheep to the temple of the Sun-god at
+Sippara, in order that they might be sacrificed at the
+festival of the new year. Sixty <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi> of dates were at
+the same time given to the boatmen. In the reign of
+<pb n='185'/><anchor id='Pg185'/>
+Nebuchadnezzar, 3 shekels were paid for the hire of
+a grain-boat, and in the thirty-sixth year of the same
+King 4½ shekels were given for the hire of another
+boat for the transport of wool.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some documents translated by Mr. Pinches throw
+light on the building and cost of the ships. One of
+them is as follows: <q>A ship of six by the cubit beam,
+twenty by the cubit the seat of its waters, which Nebo-baladan,
+the son of Labasi, the son of Nur-Papsukal,
+has sold to Sirikki, the son of Iddinâ, the son of
+Egibi, for four manehs, ten shekels of silver, in one-shekel
+pieces, which are not standard, and are in the
+shape of a bird's tail (?). Nebo-baladan takes the
+responsibility for the management (?) of the ship.
+Nebo-baladan has received the money, four manehs
+ten shekels of white (silver), the price of his ship, from
+the hands of Sirikki.</q> The contract, which was
+signed by six witnesses, one of whom was <q>the King's
+captain,</q> was dated at Babylon in the twenty-sixth
+year of Darius. Another contract relates to one of
+the boats of the pontoon-bridge which ran across the
+Euphrates and connected the two parts of Babylon
+together: <q>[Two] manehs ten shekels of white
+(silver), coined in one-shekel pieces, not standard,
+from Musezib, the son of Pisaram, to Sisku, the son
+of Iddinâ, the son of Egibi. Musezibtum and Narum,
+his female slaves—the wrist of Musezibtum is tattooed
+with the name of Iddinâ, the father of Sisku,
+and the wrist of Narum is tattooed with the name of
+Sisku—are the security of Musezib. There is no hire
+paid for the slaves or interest on the money. Another
+possessor shall not have power over them until
+<pb n='186'/><anchor id='Pg186'/>
+Musezib receives the money, two manehs ten shekels
+of white silver, in one-shekel pieces. Sisku, the son
+of Iddinâ, takes the responsibility for the non-escape
+of Musezibtum and Narum. The day when Musezibtum
+and Narum go elsewhere Sisku shall pay Musezib
+half a measure of grain a day by way of hire.
+The money, which is for a ship for the bridge, has
+been given to Sisku.</q> This contract is also dated in
+the twenty-sixth year of Darius.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A letter written in the time of Khammurabi, or
+Amraphel, throws some light on the profits that were
+made by conveying passengers. There were ships
+which conveyed foreign merchants to Babylon if they
+were furnished with passports allowing them to travel
+and trade in the dominions of the Babylonian King.
+They took their goods and commodities along with
+them; on one occasion, we are told, the boat in which
+some of them travelled had been used for the conveyance
+of 10 talents of lead. It must, therefore, have
+been of considerable size and draught.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That the army and navy should have been recruited
+from abroad was in accordance with that spirit of liberality
+toward the foreigner which had distinguished
+the Babylonians from an early period. It was partly
+due to the mixed character of the race, partly to the
+early foundation of an empire which embraced the
+greater portion of Western Asia, partly, and more especially,
+to the commercial instincts of the people.
+We find among them none of that jealous exclusiveness
+which characterized most of the nations of antiquity.
+They were ready to receive into their midst
+both the foreigner and his gods. Among Assyrian
+<pb n='187'/><anchor id='Pg187'/>
+and Babylonian officials we meet with many who bear
+foreign names, and among the gods whose statues
+found a place in the national temples of Assyria were
+Khaldis of Armenia, and the divinities of the Bedâwin.
+The policy of deporting a conquered nation was dictated
+by the same readiness to admit the stranger to
+the rights and privileges of a home-born native. The
+restrictions placed upon Babylonian and Assyrian
+citizenship seem to have been but slight.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When Abraham was born at Ur of the Chaldees,
+Babylonia was governed by a dynasty of South Arabian
+origin whose names had to be translated into the
+Babylonian language. Throughout the country there
+were colonies of <q>Amorites,</q> from Syria and Canaan,
+doubtless established there for the purposes of trade,
+who enjoyed the same rights as the native Babylonians.
+They could hold and bequeath land and
+other property, could buy and sell freely, could act
+as witnesses in a case where natives alone were concerned,
+and could claim the full protection of Babylonian
+law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of these colonies, known as <q>the district of
+the Amorites,</q> was just outside the walls of Sippara.
+In the reign of Ammi-zadok, the fourth successor of
+Khammurabi, a dispute arose about the title to some
+land included within it, and the matter was tried before
+the four royal judges. The following record of
+the judgment was drawn up by the clerk of the court:
+<q>Twenty acres by thirteen of land in the district of
+the Amorites which was purchased by Ibni-Hadad,
+the merchant. Arad-Sin, the son of Edirum, has
+pleaded as follows before the judges: The building
+<pb n='188'/><anchor id='Pg188'/>
+land, along with the house of my father, he did
+not buy; Ibku-Anunit and Dhab-Istar, the sons of
+Samas-nazir, sold (it) for money to Ibni-Hadad, the
+merchant. Iddatum and Mazitum, the sons of Ibni-Hadad
+the merchant, appeared before the judges;
+they lifted up (their hands) and swore that it had
+been put up for sale; it had been bought by Edirum
+and Sin-nadni-sû who handed it over to Samas-nazir
+and Ibku-Anunit, selling it to them for money. The
+estate, consisting of twenty-two acres of land enclosed
+by thirty other acres, as well as eleven trees [and] a
+house, in the district of the Amorites, bounded at the
+upper end by the estate of ——, and at the lower end
+by the river Bukai (?), is contracted in width, and is
+of the aforesaid nature. Judgment has been given
+for Arad-Sin, the son of Edirum, as follows: At the
+entrance to Sippara the property is situated (?), and
+after being put up for sale was bought by Samas-nazir
+and Ibku-Anunit, to whom it was handed over;
+power of redemption is allowed (?) to Arad-Sin; the
+estate is there, let him take it. Before Uruki-mansum
+the judge, Sin-ismeani the judge, Ibku-Anunit the
+judge, and Ibku-ilisu the judge. The 6th day of the
+month Tammuz, the year when Ammi-zadok the king
+constructed the very great aqueduct (?) for the mountain
+and its fountain (?) for the house of Life.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If we may argue from the names, Arad-Sin, who
+brought the action, was of Babylonian descent; and
+in this case native Babylonians as well as foreigners
+could hold land in the district in which the Amorites
+had settled. At any rate, in the eyes of the law, the
+native and the foreign settler must have been upon
+<pb n='189'/><anchor id='Pg189'/>
+an equal footing; they were tried before the same
+judges, and the law which applied to the one applied
+equally to the other. It is clear, moreover, that the
+foreigner had as much right as the native to buy, sell,
+or bequeath the soil of Babylonia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whether or not this right was restricted to particular
+districts, we do not know. In Syria, in later
+days, <q>streets,</q> or rows of shops in a city, could be
+assigned to the members of another nationality by
+special treaty, as we learn from I Kings xx. 34, and
+at the end of the Egyptian eighteenth dynasty we
+hear of a quarter at Memphis being given to a colony
+of Hittite merchants, but such special assignments of
+land may not have been the custom in ancient Chaldea.
+The Amorites of Canaan may have been allowed
+to settle wherever they liked, and the origin of the
+title <q>district of the Amorites</q> may have simply
+been due to the tendency of foreign settlers to
+establish themselves in the same locality. The fact
+that Arad-Sin seems to have been a Babylonian, and
+that his action was brought before Babylonian
+judges, is in favor of the view that such was the
+case.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Moreover, as Mr. Pinches has pointed out, Amorites
+could rise to the highest offices of state. Not only
+could they serve as witnesses to a deed, to which all
+the other parties were native Babylonians, they could
+also hold civil and military appointments. On the
+one hand we find the son of Abi-ramu, or Abram, who
+is described as <q>the father of the Amorite,</q> acting
+as a witness to a contract dated in the reign of the
+grandfather of Khammurabi, or Amraphel; on the
+<pb n='190'/><anchor id='Pg190'/>
+other hand, <q>an Amorite</q> has the same title of <q>servant</q>
+of the King as the royal judge Ibku-Anunit, and
+among the Assyrians of the second empire, who were
+slavish imitators of Babylonian custom and law, we
+meet with more than one example of a foreigner in
+the service of the Assyrian government. Thus, in the
+reign of Sargon, thirteen years after the fall of Samaria,
+the Israelites, Pekah and Nadabiah, who appear as
+witnesses to the sale of some slaves, are described, the
+one as <q>the governor of the city,</q> the other as a departmental
+secretary. The founder, again, of one of
+the leading commercial families at Babylon under
+Nebuchadnezzar and his successors is entitled <q>the
+Egyptian,</q> and the clerk who draws up a contract in
+the first year of Cambyses is the grandson of a Jew,
+Bel-Yahu, <q>Bel is Yahveh,</q> while his father's name,
+Ae-nahid, <q>Ae is exalted,</q> implies that the Israelitish
+Yahveh had been identified with the Babylonian
+Ae. Hebrew and Canaanite names appear in legal
+and commercial documents of the age of Khammurabi
+and earlier by the side of names of purely native
+stamp; Jacob-el and Joseph-el, for instance, Abdiel
+and Ishmael, come before us with all the rights
+and privileges of Babylonian citizens. The name
+of Ishmael, indeed, is already met with on a marble
+slab from Sippara, which is as early as about 4,000
+<hi rend="sc">B.C.</hi> In the time of Sargon of Akkad the Babylonian
+<q>governor</q> of Syria and Canaan bears the Canaanitish
+name of Uru-Malik, or Urimelech, and under the
+later Assyrian empire, the <q>tartan</q> of Comagene,
+with the Hittite name of Mar-lara, was an eponym,
+who gave his name to the year.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='191'/><anchor id='Pg191'/>
+
+<p>
+Mr. Pinches is probably right in seeing the name
+<q>Israel</q> itself in that of a high-priest who lived in
+the district of the Amorites outside Sippara in the
+reign of Ammi-zadok. His name is written Sar-ilu,
+and it was by his order that nine acres of ground <q>in
+the district of the Amorites</q> were leased for a year
+from two nuns, who were devotees of the Sun-god,
+and their nieces. Six measures of grain on every ten
+acres were to be paid to the Sun-god at the gate of
+Malgia, the women themselves receiving a shekel of
+silver as rent, and the field was to be handed back to
+them at harvest-time, the end of the agricultural year.
+That the women in the Amorite settlements enjoyed
+the same freedom and powers as the women of Babylonia
+is shown by two documents, one dated in the
+reign of the second King of the dynasty to which
+Khammurabi belonged, the other in the reign of
+Khammurabi's great-grandfather. In the first, Kuryatum,
+the daughter of an Amorite, receives a field of
+more than four acres of which she had been wrongfully
+deprived; in the second, the same Kuryatum
+and her brother Sumu-rah are sued by the three children
+of an Amorite, one of whom is a woman, for the
+recovery of a field, house, slaves, and date-palms.
+The case was brought before <q>the judges of Bit-Samas,</q>
+<q>the Temple of the (Babylonian) Sun-god,</q>
+who rejected the claim.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At a very early period of Babylonian history the
+Syrian god Hadad, or Rimmon, had been, as it were,
+domesticated in Babylonia, where he was known as
+Amurru, <q>the Amorite.</q> He had come with the
+Amorite merchants and settlers, and was naturally
+<pb n='192'/><anchor id='Pg192'/>
+their patron-deity. His wife, Asratu, or Asherah,
+was called, by the Sumerians, Nin-Marki, <q>the mistress
+of the Amorite land,</q> and was identified with
+their own Gubarra. Nin-Marki, or Asherah, presided
+over the Syrian settlements, the part of the city
+where the foreigners resided being under her protection
+like the gate which led to <q>the district of
+the Amorites</q> beyond the walls. The following
+lawsuit which came before the courts in the reign of
+Khammurabi shows that there were special judges
+for cases in which Amorites were concerned and
+that they sat at <q>the gate of Nin-Marki.</q> <q>Concerning
+the garden of Sin-magir which Nahid-Amurri
+bought for money. Ilu-bani claimed it for
+the royal stables, and accordingly they went to the
+judges, and the judges sent them to the gate of Nin-Marki
+and the judges of the gate of Nin-Marki. In
+the gate of Nin-Marki Ilu-bani pleaded as follows: I
+am the son of Sin-magir; he adopted me as his son,
+and the seal of the document has never been broken.
+He further pleaded that ever since the reign of the
+deified Rim-Sin (Arioch) the garden and house had
+been adjudged to Ilu-bani. Then came Sin-mubalidh
+and claimed the garden of Ilu-bani, and they went to
+the judges and the judges pronounced that <q>to us
+and the elders they have been sent and in the gate of
+the gods Merodach, Sussa, Nannar, Khusa, and Nin-Marki,
+the daughter of Merodach, in the judgment-hall,
+the disputants (?) have stood, and the elders before
+whom Nahid-Amurri first appeared in the gate
+of Nin-Marki have heard the declaration of Ilu-bani.</q>
+Accordingly they adjudged the garden and house to
+<pb n='193'/><anchor id='Pg193'/>
+Ilu-bani, forbidding Sin-mubalidh to return and claim
+it. Oaths have been taken in the name of the Moon-god,
+the Sun-god, Merodach, and Khammurabi, the
+king. Before Sin-imguranni the president, Edilka-Sin,
+Amil-izzitim, Ubarrum, Zanbil-arad-Sin, Ak-hiya,
+Kabdu-gumi, Samas-bani, the son of Abia-rak-has,
+Zanik-pisu, Izkur-Ea the steward, and Bauila.
+The seals of the parties are attached. The fourth
+day of Tammuz, the year when Khammurabi the
+king offered up prayer to Tasmit.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While a portion of the land was thus owned by
+foreigners, there was a considerable part of it which
+belonged to the temples. Another part consisted of
+royal domains, the revenue of which went to the
+privy purse of the King. The King could make
+grants of this to his favorites, or as a reward for
+services to the state. The Babylonian King Nebo-baladan,
+for example, gave one of his officials a field
+large enough, it was calculated, to be sown with 3
+<hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> of seed, and Assur-bani-pal of Assyria made his
+vizier, Nebo-sar-uzur, the gift of a considerable estate
+on account of his loyalty from the time that the
+King was a boy. All the vizier's lands, including
+the serfs upon them, were declared free from taxation
+and every kind of burden, the men upon them
+were not to be impressed as soldiers, nor the cattle
+and flocks to be carried away. It was also ordered
+that Nebo-sar-uzur, on his decease, should be buried
+where he chose, and not in the common cemetery
+outside the walls of the city. Like the monarch, he
+might have his tomb in the royal palace or in his
+own house, and imprecations were called down on
+<pb n='194'/><anchor id='Pg194'/>
+the head of anyone who wished to disturb his final
+resting-place. The deed of gift and privilege was
+sealed, we are told, with the King's own <q>signet-ring.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A grant of immunity from taxation and other burdens
+could be made to the inhabitants of a whole
+district. A deed exists, signed by a large number
+of witnesses, in which Nebuchadnezzar I. of Babylon
+(about 1200 <hi rend='sc'>B.C.</hi>) makes a grant of the kind to
+the district of Bit-Karziyabku in the mountains of
+Namri to the east of Babylonia. We read in it that,
+throughout the whole district, neither the royal messengers
+nor the governor of Namri shall have any
+jurisdiction, no horses, foals, mares, asses, oxen, or
+sheep shall be carried off by the tax-gatherers, no
+stallions shall be sent to the royal stables, and no
+taxes of grain and fruit shall be paid to the Babylonian
+treasury. Nor shall any of the inhabitants be
+impressed for military service. It speaks volumes
+for the commercial spirit of the Babylonians that
+a royal decree of this character should have been
+thrown into legal form, and that the names of witnesses
+should have been attached to it, just as if it
+had been a contract between two private persons.
+The contrast is striking with the decree issued by the
+Assyrian King, Assur-bani-pal, to his faithful servant
+Nebo-sar-uzur. All that was needed where the King
+of Assyria was concerned was his signet-seal and
+royal command. But Assur-bani-pal was an autocrat
+at the head of a military state. The Babylonian sovereign
+governed a commercial community and owed
+his authority to the priests of Bel.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='195'/><anchor id='Pg195'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter IX. The Law</head>
+
+<p>
+Babylonian law was of early growth. Among the
+oldest records of the country are legal cases, abstracts
+of which have been transcribed for future use. The
+first law-book, in fact, was ascribed to Ea, the god
+of culture, and it was told how he had enacted that
+the King should deal uprightly and administer justice
+to his people. <q>If he regard not justice,</q> it was
+said, <q>Ea, the god of destiny, shall change his fortune
+and replace him by another.… But if he
+have regard to the injunction of Ea, the great gods
+shall establish him in wisdom and the knowledge of
+righteousness.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Ea of the cuneiform text seems to be the
+Oannes of the Chaldean historian Berossos, who was
+said to have risen out of the waters of the Persian
+Gulf, bringing with him the elements of civilization
+and the code of laws which were henceforth to prevail
+in Babylonia. The code of Oannes has perished,
+but fragments of another and more historical one
+have been preserved to us in a reading-book which
+was intended to teach the Semitic pupil the ancient
+language of the Sumerians. The original Sumerian
+text is given with its Semitic equivalent, as well as a
+<pb n='196'/><anchor id='Pg196'/>
+list of technical legal terms. <q>If a son,</q> it is said,
+<q>denies his father, his hair shall be cut, he shall be
+put into chains and sold for silver. If he denies his
+mother, his hair also shall be cut, city and land shall
+collect together and put him in prison.… If
+the wife hates her husband and denies him, they shall
+throw her into the river. If the husband divorces his
+wife, he must pay her fifty shekels of silver. If a man
+hires a servant, and kills, wounds, beats, or ill-uses
+him or makes him ill, he must with his own hand
+measure out for him each day half a measure of
+grain.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We have already seen that the last regulation
+was in force up to the latest period of Babylonian
+history. It betrays a humane spirit in the early
+legislation and shows that the slave was regarded
+as something more than a mere chattel. It provided
+against his being over-worked; as soon as
+the slave was rendered unfit for labor by his hirer's
+fault, the latter was fined, and the fine was exacted
+as long as the slave continued ill or maimed. The
+law which pronounced sentence of death by drowning
+upon the unfaithful wife was observed as late as
+the age of Khammurabi. Such at least is the evidence
+of some curious documents, from which we
+learn that a certain Arad-Samas married first a
+daughter of Uttatu and subsequently a half-sister of
+his wife. In the contract of marriage it is stipulated
+that unfaithfulness to the husband on the part of both
+the wives would be punished with drowning, on the
+part of the second only with slavery. On the other
+hand he could divorce them on payment of a maneh
+<pb n='197'/><anchor id='Pg197'/>
+of silver—that is to say, of 30 shekels apiece. Under
+Nebuchadnezzar the old power of putting the wife to
+death in case of adultery was still possessed by the
+husband, where the wife was of lower rank than himself
+and little better than a concubine. It was a survival
+of the <hi rend='italic'>patria potestas</hi> which had once belonged
+to him. The wife who came from a wealthy and
+respectable family, however, stood on a footing of
+equality with her husband, and he could not venture
+to put in force against her the provisions of the
+ancient Sumerian law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Babylonian law resembled that of England in being
+founded upon precedents. The code which was
+supposed to have been revealed by Ea, or Oannes,
+belonged to the infancy of Chaldean society and contained
+only a rudimentary system of legislation. The
+actual law of the country was a complicated structure
+which had been slowly built up by the labors of
+generations. An abstract was made of every important
+case that came before the judges and of the
+decision given in regard to it; these abstracts were
+carefully preserved, and formed the basis of future
+judgments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The judges before whom the cases were brought
+were appointed by the King, and acted in his place.
+They sat under a president, and were usually four or
+five in number. They had to sign their names at the
+end of their judgments, after which the date of the
+document was added. It is probable that they went
+on circuit like Samuel in Israel and the <q>royal
+judges</q> of Persia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Where foreigners were involved the case was first
+<pb n='198'/><anchor id='Pg198'/>
+tried before special judges, who probably belonged to
+the same nationality as the parties to the suit; if
+one of the latter, however, was a Babylonian it was
+afterward brought again before a native tribunal.
+Sometimes in such cases the primitive custom was
+retained of allowing <q>the elders</q> of the city to sit
+along with the judges and pronounce upon the question
+in dispute. They thus represented to a certain
+extent an English jury. Whether they appeared in
+cases in which Babylonians alone were engaged is
+doubtful. We hear of them only where one at least
+of the litigants is an Amorite from Canaan, and it is
+therefore possible that their appearance was a concession
+to Syrian custom. In Babylonia they had
+long been superseded by the judges, the royal power
+having been greater there from the outset than in the
+more democratic West, and consequently there would
+have been but little need for their services. If,
+however, the foreign settlers had been accustomed at
+home to have their disputes determined by a council
+of elders, we can understand why they were still
+allowed in Babylonia to plead before a similar tribunal,
+though it could do little more than second the
+decisions of the judges.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Plaintiff and defendant pleaded their own causes,
+which were drawn up in legal form by the clerks of
+the court. Witnesses were called and examined and
+oaths were taken in the names of the gods and of the
+King.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The King, it must be remembered, was in earlier
+times himself a god. In later days the oaths
+were usually dropped, and the evidence alone considered
+<pb n='199'/><anchor id='Pg199'/>
+sufficient. Perhaps experience had taught the
+bench that perjury was not a preventable crime.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Each case was tried by a select number of judges,
+who were especially appointed to inquire into it, as
+we may gather from a document dated at Babylon
+the 6th day of Nisan in the seventeenth year of
+Nebuchadnezzar. <q>[These are] the judges,</q> it runs,
+<q>before whom Sapik-zeri, the son of Zirutu, [and] Baladhu,
+the son of Nasikatum, the servant of the secretary
+of the Marshlands, have appeared in their suit
+regarding a house. The house and deed had been
+duly sealed by Zirutu, the father of Sapik-zeri, and
+given to Baladhu. Baladhu, however, had come to
+terms with Sapik-zeri and handed the house over to
+him and had taken the deed (from the record-office)
+and had given it to Sapik-zeri. Nebo-edher-napisti,
+the prefect of the Marshlands; Nebo-suzzizanni, the
+sub-prefect of the Marshlands; Merodach-erba, the
+mayor of Erech; Imbi-ilu, the priest of Ur, Bel-yuballidh,
+the son of Merodach-sum-ibni, the prefect
+of the western bank; Abtâ, the son of Suzubu, the
+son of Babutu; Musezib-Bel, the son of Nadin-akhi,
+the son of the adopted one; Baniya, the son of
+Abtâ, the priest of the temple of Sadu-rabu; and Sa-mas-ibni,
+the priest of Sadu-rabu.</q> The list of judges
+shows that the civil governors could act as judges
+and that the priests were also eligible for the post.
+Neither the one class nor the other, however, is usually
+named, and we must conclude, therefore, that,
+though the governor of a province or the mayor of a
+town had a right to sit on the judicial bench, he did
+not often avail himself of it.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='200'/><anchor id='Pg200'/>
+
+<p>
+The charge was drawn up in the technical form and
+attested by witnesses before it was presented to the
+court. We have an example of this dated at Sippara,
+the 28th day of Adar in the eighth year of
+Cyrus as King of Babylon: <q>Nebo-akhi-bullidh,
+the son of Su—, the governor of Sakhrin, on the
+28th of Adar, the eighth year of Cyrus, king of Babylon
+and of the world, has brought the following charge
+against Bel-yuballidh, the priest of Sippara: I have
+taken Nanâ-iddin, son of Bau-eres, into my house because
+I am your father's brother and the governor of
+the city. Why, then, have you lifted up your hand
+against me? Rimmon-sar-uzur, the son of Nebo-yusezib;
+Nargiya and Erba, his brothers; Kutkah-ilu,
+the son of Bau-eres; Bel-yuballidh, the son of Barachiel;
+Bel-akhi-uzur, the son of Rimmon-yusallim;
+and Iqisa-abbu, the son of Samas-sar-uzur, have committed
+a crime by breaking through my door, entering
+into my house, and leaving it again after carrying
+away a maneh of silver.</q> Then come the names of
+five witnesses and the clerk.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A suit might be compromised by the litigants before
+it came into court. In the reign of Nebuchadnezzar
+a certain Imliya brought witnesses to the
+door of the house of an official called Bel-iddin, and
+accused Arrali, the superintendent of the works, of
+having stolen an overcoat and a loin-cloth belonging
+to himself. But it was agreed that there would be
+no need on the part of the plaintiff to summon witnesses;
+the stolen goods were returned without recourse
+to the law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The care taken not to convict without sufficient
+<pb n='201'/><anchor id='Pg201'/>
+evidence, and the thoroughness with which each case
+was investigated, is one of the most striking features
+in the records of the Babylonian lawsuits which have
+come down to us. Mention has already been made
+of the case of the runaway slave Barachiel, who pretended
+to be a free citizen and the adopted son of a
+Babylonian gentleman. Every effort seems to have
+been made to get at the truth, and some of the higher
+officials were associated with the judges before whom
+the matter was brought. Eventually cross-examination
+compelled Barachiel to confess the actual facts.
+It is noticeable that no torture was used to compel
+confession, even though the defendant was not a free
+citizen. No allusion, in fact, is ever made to torture,
+whether by the bastinado or otherwise; the evidence
+of witnesses and the results of cross-examination are
+alone depended upon for arriving at the truth. In
+this respect the legal procedure of Babylonia offers
+an honorable contrast to that of ancient Greece or
+Rome, or even of Europe down to the middle of the
+last century.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two cases which were pleaded before the courts
+in the reign of Nabonidos illustrate the carefulness
+with which the evidence was examined. One of them
+was a case of false witness. Beli-litu, the daughter
+of Bel-yusezib, the wine merchant (?), <q>gave the following
+testimony before the judges of Nabonidos,
+king of Babylon: In the month Ab, the first year of
+Nergal-sharezer, king of Babylon, I sold my slave
+Bazuzu for thirty-five shekels of silver to Nebo-akhi-iddin,
+the son of Sula of the family of Egibi, but he
+now asserts that I owed him a debt and so has not
+<pb n='202'/><anchor id='Pg202'/>
+paid me the money. The judges heard the charge,
+and caused Nebo-akhi-iddin to be summoned and to
+appear before them. Nebo-akhi-iddin produced the
+contract which he had made with Beli-litu; he
+proved that she had received the money, and convinced
+the judges. And Ziriya, Nebo-suma-lisir,
+and Edillu gave further testimony before the judges
+that Beli-litu, their mother, had received the silver.</q>
+The judges deliberated and condemned Beli-litu to
+a fine of 55 shekels, the highest fine that could
+be inflicted on her, and then gave it to Nebo-akhi-iddin.
+It is possible that the prejudice which has
+always existed against the money-lender may have
+encouraged Beli-litu to commit her act of dishonesty
+and perjury. That the judges should have
+handed over the fine to the defendant, instead of
+paying it to the court or putting it into their own
+pockets, is somewhat remarkable in the history of
+law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The second case is that of some Syrians who had
+settled in Babylonia and there been naturalized. The
+official abstract of it is as follows: <q rend="pre">Bunanitum, the
+daughter of the Kharisian, brought the following
+complaint before the judges of Nabonidos, king of
+Babylon: Ben-Hadad-nathan, the son of Nikbaduh,
+married me and received three and one-half manehs
+of silver as my dowry, and I bore him a daughter.
+I and Ben-Hadad-nathan, my husband, traded with
+the money of my dowry, and we bought together a
+house standing on eight roods of ground, in the district
+on the west side of the Euphrates in the suburb of
+Borsippa, for nine and one-third manehs of silver, as
+<pb n='203'/><anchor id='Pg203'/>
+well as an additional two and one-half manehs, which
+we received on loan without interest from Iddin-Merodach,
+the son of Iqisa-ablu, the son of Nur-Sin,
+and we invested it all in this house. In the fourth
+year of Nabonidos, king of Babylon, I claimed my
+dowry from my husband Ben-Hadad-nathan, and he
+of his own free will gave me, under deed and seal,
+the house in Borsippa and the eight roods on which
+it stood, and assigned it to me for ever, stating in the
+deed he gave me that the two and one-half manehs
+which Ben-Hadad-nathan and Bunanitum had received
+from Iddin-Merodach and laid out in buying
+this house had been their joint property. This deed
+he sealed and called down in it the curse of the great
+gods (upon whoever should violate it). In the fifth
+year of Nabonidos, king of Babylon, I and my
+husband, Ben-Hadad-nathan, adopted Ben-Hadad-amara
+as our son and subscribed to the deed of
+adoption, and at the same time we assigned two
+manehs ten shekels of silver and the furniture of the
+house as a dowry for my daughter Nubtâ. My
+husband died, and now Aqabi-ilu (Jacob-el), the son
+of my father-in-law, has raised a claim to the house
+and property which was willed and assigned to
+me, as well as (a claim) to Nebo-nur-ilani, whom we
+bought for money through the agency of Nebo-akhi-iddin.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<q>I have brought him before you; pass judgment.
+The judges heard their pleas; they read the deeds
+and contracts which Bunanitum produced in court,
+and disallowed the claim of Aqabi-ilu to the house in
+Borsippa, which had been assigned to Bunanitum in
+<pb n='204'/><anchor id='Pg204'/>
+lieu of her dowry, as well as to Nebo-nur-ilani, whom
+she and her husband had bought, and to the rest of
+the property of Ben-Hadad-nathan; they confirmed
+Bunanitum and Ben-Hadad-amara in their titles.
+(It was further added that) Iddin-Merodach should
+receive in full the sum of two and one-half manehs
+which he had given toward the purchase of the
+house, and that then Bunanitum should take in full
+three and one-half manehs, the amount of her dowry,
+and that part of the property (which had not been
+bequeathed to Nubtâ). Nebo-nur-ilani was to be
+given to Nubtâ in accordance with the will of her
+father. The following judges were present at the
+delivery of this judgment: Nergal-banunu the judge,
+the son of the architect; Nebo-akhi-iddin the judge,
+the son of Egibi; Nebo-sum-ukin the judge, the son
+of Irani; Bel-akhi-iddin the judge, the son of ——;
+Nebo-balasu-iqbi the judge, the son of ——; and the
+clerks Nadin and Nebo-sum-iskun. Babylon, the
+29th day of Elul, the ninth year of Nabonidos, king
+of Babylon.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The term used in reference to the loan made by
+Iddin-Merodach implies that the lender accepted a
+share in the property that was bought instead of demanding
+interest for his money. Hence it was that,
+when the estate came to be settled after the death of
+Ben-Hadad-nathan, it was necessary to pay him off.
+What the grounds were upon which Aqabi-ilu laid
+claim to the property we are not told, and the <hi rend='italic'>dossier</hi>
+in which it was set forth has not been found. His
+name, however, is interesting, as it proves that the
+old Western Semitic name of Jacob-el, of which the
+<pb n='205'/><anchor id='Pg205'/>
+Biblical Jacob is a shortened form, still survived in
+a slightly changed shape among the Syrian settlers
+in Babylonia. Indeed, Iqubu, or Jacob itself, is found
+in a contract of the tenth year of Nabonidos as the
+name of a coppersmith at Babylon. Two thousand
+years before there had been other Semitic settlers in
+Babylonia from Western Asia who had also taken
+part in the legal transactions of the country, and
+among whom the name of Ya'qub-ilu was known.
+The name had even spread to the Assyrian colonists
+near Kaisarîyeh, in Cappadocia, who have left us
+inscriptions in uniform characters, and among them
+it appears as Iqib-ilu. Iqib-ilu and Aqabi-ilu are
+alike kindred forms of Ya'qub-ilu (or Yaqub-ilu), the
+Jacob-el of Canaan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Death, more especially with <q>an iron sword,</q> was
+the punishment of the more serious offences; imprisonment
+and scourging of lighter ones. Imprisonment
+might be accompanied by chains or the stock, but the
+prisoner might also be left unfettered and be allowed
+to range freely through the court or cell of the prison.
+Whether the penalty of imprisonment with hard labor
+was ever inflicted is questionable; in a country where
+slavery existed and the <hi rend='italic'>corvée</hi> was in force there would
+have been but little need for it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The prisoner could be released on bail, his surety
+being responsible for his appearance when it was required.
+Thus in the seventh year of Cyrus one of
+the officials of the temple of the Sun-god at Sippara
+was put into <q>iron fetters</q> by the chief priest of the
+god, but was afterward released, bail being given for
+him by another official of the temple. The latter
+<pb n='206'/><anchor id='Pg206'/>
+undertook to do the work of the prisoner if he absconded.
+The bail was offered and accepted before
+<q>the priests and elders of the city,</q> and the registration
+of the fact was duly dated and attested by witnesses.
+At a later date a citizen of Nippur was allowed
+to become surety for the release of his nephew
+from prison on condition that the latter did not leave
+the city without permission. The prison is called
+<hi rend='italic'>bit-karê</hi>, or <q>House of Walls.</q><note place="foot">In
+the Assyrian texts the term for <q>prison</q> is <hi rend='italic'>bit kili</hi>, of
+which <hi rend='italic'>kisukku</hi> is also given as a synonym.</note>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was another <hi rend='italic'>bit-karê</hi>, which had a very different
+meaning and was used for a very different purpose.
+This was <q>the House of Cereals,</q> the storehouse
+or barn in which were stored such tithes of the
+temples as were paid in grain. The name is also
+sometimes applied to the <hi rend='italic'>sutumme</hi>, or royal storehouses,
+where the grain and dates collected by the
+tax-gatherers were deposited, and from which the
+army and the civil servants were provided with food.
+The superintendent of these storehouses was an
+important personage; he was the paymaster of the
+state officials, in so far as they received their salaries
+in kind, and the loyalty of the standing army could
+be trusted only so long as it could be fed. Similar
+storehouses existed in Egypt, from the age of the
+eighteenth dynasty downward, and it is probable that
+the adoption of them was due to Babylonian influence.
+They gave the King a powerful hold upon his
+subjects, by enabling him to supply them with grain
+in the years of scarcity, or to withhold it except
+upon such terms as he chose to make with them.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='207'/><anchor id='Pg207'/>
+
+<p>
+The exportation of the grain, moreover, was a yearly
+source of wealth and revenue which flowed into the
+royal exchequer. In Babylonia, as in Egypt, the
+controller of the granaries was master of the destinies
+of the people.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='208'/><anchor id='Pg208'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter X. Letter-Writing</head>
+
+<p>
+We are apt to look upon letter-writing as a modern
+invention, some of us, perhaps, as a modern plague.
+But as a matter of fact it is an invention almost as
+old as civilization itself. As soon as man began to
+invent characters by means of which he could communicate
+his thoughts to others, he began to use them
+for holding intercourse with his absent friends.
+They took the place of the oral message, which was
+neither so confidential nor so safe. Classical scholars
+have long been familiar with the fact that letter-writing
+was one of the accomplishments of an educated
+Greek and Roman. The letters of Cicero and
+Pliny are famous, and the letters of Plato and Aristotle
+have been studied by a select few. Even
+Homer, who seems to avoid all reference to the art of
+writing as if it were an unclean thing, tells us of <q>the
+baleful characters</q> written on folded tablets, and
+sent by Prœtos to the King of Lycia. Criticism, it is
+true, not so long ago doubted the facts of the story
+and tried to resolve the characters and the tablets
+into a child's drawings on the slate. But archæology
+has come to the rescue of Prœtos, and while we now
+know that letters passed freely backward and forward
+<pb n='209'/><anchor id='Pg209'/>
+in the world in which he is supposed to have moved,
+Mr. Arthur Evans has discovered the very symbols
+which he is likely to have used. Even the Lycians,
+to whom the letter was sent, have been found, not
+only on the Egyptian monuments, but also in the tablets
+of Tel-el-Amarna.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Letter-writing in the East goes back to a remote
+antiquity. In the book of Chronicles it is stated that
+the messages that passed between Hiram and Solomon
+were in writing, but the age of Solomon was
+modern when compared with that to which some of
+the letters we now possess actually belong. Centuries
+earlier the words <q>message</q> and <q>letter</q> had
+become synonymous terms, and in Hebrew the word
+which had originally signified a <q>message</q> had come
+to mean a <q>book.</q> Not only is a message conceived
+of as always written, but even the idea of a book is
+taken from that of a letter. Nothing can show more
+plainly the important place occupied by literary correspondence
+in the ancient Oriental world or the antiquity
+to which the art of the letter-writer reaches
+back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While in Egypt the letter was usually written upon
+papyrus, in Western Asia the ordinary writing material
+was clay. Babylonia had been the nurse and
+mother of its culture, and the writing material of
+Babylonia was clay. Originally pictorial hieroglyphics
+had been drawn upon the clay, but just as in
+Egypt the hieratic or running-hand of the scribe
+developed out of the primitive pictographs, so too in
+Babylonia the pictures degenerated into cuneiform
+characters which corresponded with the hieratic
+<pb n='210'/><anchor id='Pg210'/>
+characters of the Egyptian script. What we call
+cuneiform is essentially a cursive hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As for books, so also for letters the clay tablet was
+employed. It may seem to us indeed a somewhat
+cumbrous mode of sending a letter; but it had the advantage
+of being solid and less likely to be injured
+or destroyed than other writing materials. The characters
+upon it could not be obliterated by a shower
+of rain, and there was no danger of its being torn.
+Moreover, it must be remembered that the tablet was
+usually of small size. The cuneiform system of
+writing allows a large number of words to be compressed
+into a small space, and the writing is generally
+so minute as to try the eyes of the modern
+decipherer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some of the letters which have been discovered
+during the last few years go back to the early days of
+the Babylonian monarchy. Many of them are dated
+in the reign of Khammurabi, or Amraphel, among
+them being several that were written by the King himself.
+That we should possess the autograph letters
+of a contemporary of Abraham is one of the romances
+of historical science, for it must be remembered that
+the letters are not copies, but the original documents
+themselves. What would not classical scholars give
+for the autograph originals of the letters of Cicero, or
+theologians for the actual manuscripts that were written
+by the Evangelists? And yet here we have the
+private correspondence of a prince who took part in
+the campaign against Sodom and Gomorrah!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the letters which has found a resting-place in
+the Museum of Constantinople refers to another of the
+<pb n='211'/><anchor id='Pg211'/>
+actors in the campaign against the cities of the cunei-plain.
+This was the King of Elam, Chedor-laomer,
+whose name is written Kudur-Loghghamar in the
+form. The Elamites had invaded Babylonia and
+made it subject and tributary. Sin-idinnam, the King
+of Larsa, called Ellasar in the book of Genesis, had
+been compelled to fly from his ancestral kingdom in
+the south of Chaldea, and take refuge in Babylon at
+the court of Khammurabi. Eri-Aku, or Arioch, the
+son of an Elamite prince, was placed on the throne
+of Larsa, while Khammurabi also had to acknowledge
+himself a vassal of the Elamite King. But a time
+came when Khammurabi believed himself strong
+enough to shake off the Elamite yoke, and though the
+war at first seemed to go against him, he ultimately
+succeeded in making himself independent. Arioch
+and his Elamite allies were driven from Larsa, and
+Babylon became the capital of a united monarchy.
+It was after the overthrow of the Elamites that the
+letter was written in which mention is made of Chedor-laomer.
+Its discoverer, Père Scheil, gives the following
+translation of it: <q>To Sin-idinnam, Khammurabi
+says: I send you as a present (the images of) the
+goddesses of the land of Emutalum as a reward for
+your valor on the day of (the defeat of) Chedor-laomer.
+If (the enemy) annoy you, destroy their forces with
+the troops at your disposal, and let the images be restored
+in safety to their old habitations.</q><note place="foot">Our
+learned author has been misled in this paragraph by the
+utterly erroneous copy and translation of Father Scheil. The letter
+reads <q>To Sin-iddinnam from Hammurabi. The goddesses of
+Emutbalim which are assigned to thee, the troops under the command
+of Tnuhsamar will bring to thee in safety. When they reach
+thee, with the troops which thou hast destroy the people, and the
+goddesses to their dwellings let them bring in safety.</q>—<hi rend='sc'>Cr.</hi></note>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='212'/><anchor id='Pg212'/>
+
+<p>
+The letter was found at Senkereh, the ancient Larsa,
+where, doubtless, it had been treasured in the archive-chamber
+of the palace. Two other letters of Khammurabi,
+which are now at Constantinople, have also
+been translated by Dr. Scheil. One of them is as
+follows: <q>To Sin-idinnam, Khammurabi says: When
+you have seen this letter you will understand in regard
+to Amil-Samas and Nur-Nintu, the sons of Gis-dubba,
+that if they are in Larsa, or in the territory of
+Larsa, you will order them to be sent away, and that
+one of your servants, on whom you can depend, shall
+take them and bring them to Babylon.</q> The second
+letter relates to some officials about whom, it would
+seem, the King of Larsa had complained to his suzerain
+lord: <q>To Sin-idinnam, Khammurabi says: As
+to the officials who have resisted you in the accomplishment
+of their work, do not impose upon them
+any additional task, but oblige them to do what they
+ought to have performed, and then remove them from
+the influence of him who has brought them.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Long before the age of Khammurabi a royal post
+had been established in Babylon for the conveyance
+of letters. Fragments of clay had been found at
+Tello, bearing the impressions of seals belonging to
+the officials of Sargon of Akkad and his successor,
+and addressed to the viceroy of Lagas, to King Naram-Sin
+and other personages. They were, in fact, the envelopes
+of letters and despatches which passed between
+Lagas and Agadê, or Akkad, the capital of the dynasty.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='213'/><anchor id='Pg213'/>
+
+<p>
+Sometimes, however, the clay fragment has the form
+of a ball, and must then have been attached by a
+string to the missive like the seals of mediæval deeds.
+In either case the seal of the functionary from whom
+the missive came was imprinted upon it as well as
+the address of the person for whom it was intended.
+Thousands of letters seem to have passed to and fro
+in this manner, making it clear that the postal service
+of Babylonia was already well organized in the time
+of Sargon and Naram-Sin. The Tel-el-Amarna letters
+show that in the fifteenth century before our era a
+similar postal service was established throughout the
+Eastern world, from the banks of the Euphrates to
+those of the Nile. To what an antiquity it reached
+back it is at present impossible to say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At all events, when Khammurabi was King, letters
+were frequent and common among the educated classes
+of the population. Most of those which have been
+preserved are from private individuals to one another,
+and consequently, though they tell us nothing about
+the political events of the time, they illustrate the social
+life of the period and prove how like it was to our
+own. One of them, for instance, describes the writer's
+journey to Elam and Arrapakhitis, while another relates
+to a ferry-boat and the boat-house in which it was
+kept. The boat-house, we are told, had fallen into decay
+in the reign of Khammurabi, and was sadly in want
+of repair, while the chief duty of the writer, who seems
+to have been the captain of the boat, was to convey
+the merchants who brought various commodities to
+Babylon. If the merchant, the letter states, was furnished
+with a royal passport, <q>we carried him across</q>
+<pb n='214'/><anchor id='Pg214'/>
+the river; if he had no passport, he was not allowed
+to go to Babylon. Among other purposes for which
+the vessel had been used was the conveyance of lead,
+and it was capable of taking as much as 10 talents of
+the metal. We further gather from the letter that it
+was the custom to employ Bedâwin as messengers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Among the early Babylonian documents found at
+Sippara, and now in the Museum at Constantinople,
+which have been published by Dr. Scheil, are two
+private letters of the same age and similar character.
+The first is as follows: <q>To my father, thus says
+Zimri-eram: May the Sun-god and Merodach grant
+thee everlasting life! May your health be good! I
+write to ask you how you are; send me back news of
+your health. I am at present at Dur-Sin on the canal
+of Bit-Sikir. In the place where I am living there is
+nothing to be had for food. So I am sealing up and
+sending you three-quarters of a silver shekel. In return
+for the money, send some good fish and other
+provisions for me to eat.</q> The second letter was despatched
+from Babylon, and runs thus: <q>To the lady
+Kasbeya thus says Gimil-Merodach: May the Sun-god
+and Merodach for my sake grant thee everlasting
+life! I am writing to enquire after your health;
+please send me news of it. I am living at Babylon,
+but have not seen you, which troubles me greatly.
+Send me news of your coming to me, so that I may
+be happy. Come in the month of Marchesvan (October).
+May you live for ever for my sake!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is plain that the writer was in love with his correspondent,
+and had grown impatient to see her again.
+Both belonged to what we should call the professional
+<pb n='215'/><anchor id='Pg215'/>
+classes, and nothing can better illustrate how like in
+the matter of correspondence the age of Abraham was
+to our own. The old Babylonian's letter might easily
+have been written to-day, apart from the references
+to Merodach and the Sun-god. It must be noticed,
+moreover, that the lady to whom the letter is addressed
+is expected to reply to it. It is taken for
+granted that the ladies of Babylon could read and
+write as well as the men. This, however, is only
+what might have been concluded from the other facts
+of Babylonian social life, and the footing of equality
+with the man upon which the woman was placed in all
+matters of business. The fact that she could hold
+and bequeath property, and trade with it independently,
+implies that she was expected to know how to
+read and write. Even among the Tel-el-Amarna we
+find one or two from a lady who seems to have taken
+an active part in the politics of the day. <q>To the
+king my lord,</q> she writes in one of them, <q>my gods,
+my Sun-god, thus says Nin, thy handmaid, the dust of
+thy feet. At the feet of the king my lord, my gods,
+my Sun-god, seven times seven I prostrate myself.
+Let the king my lord wrest his country from the hand
+of the Bedâwin, in order that they may not rob it.
+The city of Zaphon has been captured. This is for
+the information of the king my lord.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The letters of Tel-el-Amarna bridge over the gulf
+that separates the early Babylonia of Khammurabi
+from the later Assyria of Tiglath-pileser III. and his
+successors. The inner life of the intervening period
+is still known to us but imperfectly. No library or
+large collection of tablets belonging to it has as yet
+<pb n='216'/><anchor id='Pg216'/>
+been discovered, and until this is the case we must
+remain less intimately acquainted with it than we
+are with the age of Khammurabi on the one hand, or
+that of the second Assyrian empire on the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is true that the library of Nineveh, of which
+Assur-bani-pal was such a munificent patron, has
+preserved copies of some of the earlier epistolary literature
+of the country. Thus we have from it a fragment
+of a letter written by a King of Babylonia to
+two kings of Assyria, at a time when Assyria still
+acknowledged the supremacy of Babylon. But such
+documents are very rare, and apart from the Tel-el-Amarna
+tablets we have to descend to the days of the
+second Assyrian empire before we find again a collection
+of letters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These are the letters addressed to the Assyrian
+government, or more generally to the King, in the
+reigns of Tiglath-pileser III., Shalmaneser IV., Sargon,
+Sennacherib, Esar-haddon, and Assur-bani-pal.
+They were preserved in the royal library of Nineveh,
+principally on account of their political and diplomatic
+importance, and are now in the British Museum.
+As might have been expected from their character,
+they throw more light on the politics of the day than
+on the social condition of the people. A few of them,
+however, are private communications to the King on
+other than political matters, and we also find among
+them reports in the form of letters from the royal
+astronomers, as well as upon such subjects as the importation
+of horses from Asia Minor for the royal
+stud. The letters have been copied by Professor R.
+F. Harper, who is now publishing them in a series of
+<pb n='217'/><anchor id='Pg217'/>
+volumes. How numerous the letters are may be
+gathered from the fact that no less than 1,575 of them
+(including fragments) have come from that part of
+the library alone which was excavated by Sir A. H.
+Layard, and was the first to be brought to England.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many of them are despatches from generals in the
+field or from the governors of frontier towns who
+write to inform the Assyrian government of the
+movements of the enemy or of the political events in
+their own neighborhood. It is from these letters,
+for example, that we learn the name of the King of
+Ararat who was the antagonist of Sennacherib and
+the predecessor of the King Erimenas, to whom his
+murderers fled for protection. The details, again,
+of the long Elamite war, which eventually laid Susa
+at the feet of Assyria, have been given us by them.
+It is needless, therefore, to insist upon the value they
+possess for the historian.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Among them, however, as has been already said,
+are some of a more private character. Here, for instance,
+is one which reminds us that human nature
+is much the same in all ages of the world: <q>To
+the king my lord, thy servant, Saul-miti-yuballidh:
+Salutation to the king my lord; may Nebo and Merodach
+for ever and ever be gracious to the king my
+lord. Bau-gamilat, the handmaid of the king, is constantly
+ill; she cannot eat a morsel of food; let the
+king send orders that some physician may go and see
+her.</q> In another letter the writer expresses his gratitude
+to the King for his kindness in sending him his
+own doctor, who had cured him of a serious disease.
+<q>May Istar of Erech,</q> he says, <q>and Nana (of Bit-Ana)
+<pb n='218'/><anchor id='Pg218'/>
+grant long life to the king my lord, for he sent
+Basa the physician of the king my lord to save my life
+and he has cured me; therefore may the great gods of
+heaven and earth be gracious to the king my lord, and
+may they establish the throne of the king my lord in
+heaven for ever; since I was dead, and the king has
+restored me to life.</q> In fact there are a good many
+letters which relate to medical matters. Thus Dr.
+Johnston gives the following translation of a letter
+from a certain Arad-Nana, who seems to have been a
+consulting physician, to Esar-haddon about a friend
+of the prince who had suffered from violent bleeding
+of the nose: <q>As regards the patient who has a bleeding
+from the nose, the Rab-Mag (or chief physician)
+reports: <q>Yesterday, toward evening, there was a
+good deal of hæmorrhage.</q> The dressings have not
+been properly applied. They have been placed outside
+the nostrils, oppressing the breathing and coming
+off when there is hæmorrhage. Let them be put
+inside the nostrils and then the air will be excluded
+and the hæmorrhage stopped. If it is agreeable to my
+lord the king I will go to-morrow and give instructions;
+(meanwhile) let me know how the patient is.</q>
+Another letter from Arad-Nana translated by the
+same Assyriologist is as follows: <q>To the king my
+lord, thy servant Arad-Nana: May there be peace for
+ever and ever to the king my lord. May Ninip and
+Gula grant health of soul and body to the king my
+lord. All is going on well with the poor fellow
+whose eyes are diseased. I had applied a dressing
+covering the face. Yesterday, toward evening, undoing
+the bandage which held it (in place), I removed
+<pb n='219'/><anchor id='Pg219'/>
+the dressing. There was pus upon the dressing, the
+size of the tip of the little finger. If any of your
+gods set his hand thereto, let him say so. Salutation
+for ever! Let the heart of the king my lord be rejoiced.
+Within seven or eight days the patient will
+recover.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The doctors were not alone in writing to the Assyrian
+King. Besides the reports which they were
+bound to make, the astronomers also sent letters to
+him on the results of their observations. Among
+the letters published by Professor Harper is an interesting
+one—unfortunately defaced and imperfect—which
+was sent to Nineveh from one of the observatories
+in Babylonia. After the ordinary compliments
+the writer, Abil-Istar, says: <q>As for the
+eclipse of the moon about which the king my lord
+has written to me, a watch was kept for it in the
+cities of Akkad, Borsippa, and Nippur. We observed
+it ourselves in the city of Akkad.</q> Abil-Istar then
+goes on to describe the progress of the eclipse, but
+the lines are so broken as to be untranslatable, and
+when the text becomes perfect again we find him
+saying that he had written an exact report of the
+whole occurrence and sent it in a letter to the King.
+<q>And whereas the king my lord ordered me to observe
+also the eclipse of the sun, I watched to see
+whether it took place or not, and what passed before
+my eyes I now report to the king my lord. It was
+an eclipse of the moon that took place.… It was
+total over Syria and the shadow fell on the land of
+the Amorites, the land of the Hittites, and in part on
+the land of the Chaldees.</q> We gather from this letter
+<pb n='220'/><anchor id='Pg220'/>
+that there were no less than three observatories
+in Northern Babylonia: one at Akkad, near Sippara;
+one at Nippur, now Niffer; and one at Borsippa,
+within sight of Babylon. As Borsippa possessed a
+university, it was natural that one of the three observatories
+should be established there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As nothing is said about the eclipse of the sun
+which the astronomers at the Assyrian court had led
+the King to expect, it is probable that it did not take
+place, or at all events that it did not occur so soon as
+was anticipated. The expression <q>the land of the
+Amorites (and) the land of the Hittites</q> is noteworthy
+on account of its biblical ring; in the mind of the
+Assyrian, however, it merely denoted Palestine and
+Northern Syria. The Babylonians at an early age
+called Palestine <q>the land of the Amorites,</q> the
+Assyrians termed it <q>the land of the Hittites,</q> and
+it would appear that in the days of the second Assyrian
+empire, when Babylonia had become a province
+of its Assyrian rival, the two names were combined
+together in order to denote what we should
+entitle <q>Syria.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Letters, however, were written to the King by all
+sorts of people, and upon all sorts of business. Thus
+we find Assur-bani, the captain of a river-barge, writing
+about the conveyance of some of those figures of
+colossal bulls which adorned the entrance to the palace
+of Sennacherib. The letter is short and to the
+point: <q>To the king my lord, thy servant Assur-bani:
+Salutation to the king my lord. Assur-mukin has
+ordered me to transport in boats the colossal bulls
+and cherubim of stone. The boats are not strong
+<pb n='221'/><anchor id='Pg221'/>
+enough, and are not ready. But if a present be
+kindly made to us, we will see that they <emph>are</emph> got
+ready and ascend the river.</q> The unblushing way
+in which <hi rend='italic'>bakshish</hi> is here demanded shows that in
+this respect, at all events, the East has changed but
+little.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of quite a different character is a letter about some
+wine that was sent to the royal cellars. The writer
+says in it: <q>As for the wine about which the king
+my lord has written to me, there are two homers of it
+for keeping, as well as plenty of the best oil.</q> Later
+on, in the same letter, reference is made to a <hi rend='italic'>targu-manu,</hi>
+or <q>dragoman,</q> who was sent along with the
+wine, which probably came from the Armenian highlands.
+It may be noted that in another letter mention
+is made of a <q>master of languages,</q> who was
+employed in deciphering the despatches from Ararat.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A letter from the cellarers of the palace has been
+translated as follows by Dr. Johnston: <q>To the king
+our lord, thy servants … Bel-iqisa and Babi-lû:
+Salutation to the king our lord! May Assur, …
+Bel, and Nebo grant long life and everlasting
+years to the king our lord! Let the king our lord
+know that the wine received during the month Tebet
+has been bottled, but that there is no room for it, so
+we must make (new) cellars for the king our lord.
+Let the king our lord give orders that a (place for)
+the cellars be shown to us, and we shall be relieved
+from our embarrassment (?). The wine that has come
+for the king our lord is very considerable. Where
+shall we put it?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A good deal of the correspondence relates to the
+<pb n='222'/><anchor id='Pg222'/>
+importation of horses from Eastern Asia Minor for
+the stables of the Assyrian King. The following is a
+specimen of what they are like: <q>To the king my
+lord, thy servant Nebo-sum-iddin: Salutation to the
+king my lord; for ever and ever may Nebo and Merodach
+be gracious to the king my lord. Thirteen
+horses from the land of Kusa, 3 foals from the land
+of Kusa—in all 16 draught-horses; 14 stallions; altogether
+30 horses and 9 mules—in all 39 from the city
+of Qornê: 6 horses from the land of Kusa; 3 foals
+from Kusa—in all 9 draught-horses; 14 stallions;
+altogether 23 horses and 9 mules—in all 28 from the
+city of Dâna (Tyana): 19 horses of Kusa and 39 stallions—altogether
+57 from the city of Kullania (Calneh);
+25 stallions and 6 mules—in all 31 from the
+city of Arpad. All are gelded. Thirteen stallions
+and 10 mules—altogether 23 from the city of Isana.
+In all 54 horses from Kusa and 104 stallions, making
+148 horses and 30 mules—altogether 177 have been
+imported. (Dated) the second day of Sivan.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The land of Kusa is elsewhere associated with the
+land of Mesa, which must also have lain to the north-west
+of Syria among the valleys of the Taurus. Kullania,
+which is mentioned as a city of Kusa, is the
+Calneh of the Old Testament, which Isaiah couples
+with Carchemish, and of which Amos says that it lay
+on the road to Hamath. The whole of this country,
+including the plains of Cilicia, has always been famous
+for horse-breeding, and one of the letters to the
+Assyrian King specially mentions Melid, the modern
+Malatiyeh, as exporting them to Nineveh.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Here the writer, after stating that he had <q>inscribed
+<pb n='223'/><anchor id='Pg223'/>
+in a register the number of horses</q> that had just arrived
+from Arrapakhitis, goes on to say: <q>What are
+the orders of the king about the horses which have
+arrived this very day before the king? Shall they
+be stabled in the garden-palace, or shall they be put
+out to grass? Let the king my lord send word
+whether they shall be put out to grass or whether
+they are to be stabled?</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As is natural, several of the letters are upon religious
+matters. Among those which have been translated
+by Dr. Johnston there is one which throws light
+on the religious processions which were held in honor
+of the gods. <q>To the son of the king my lord, thy
+servant Nebo-sum-iddina: salutation to the son of
+the king my lord for ever and ever! May Nebo and
+Merodach be gracious unto the son of the king my
+lord! On the third day of the month Iyyar the city
+of Calah will consecrate the couch of Nebo, and the
+god will enter the bed-chamber. On the fourth day
+Nebo will return. The son of the king my lord has
+(now) received the news. I am the governor of the
+temple of Nebo thy god, and will (therefore) go. At
+Calah the God will come forth from the interior of
+the palace, (and) from the interior of the palace will
+go to the grove. A sacrifice will be offered. The
+charioteer of the gods will go from the stable of the
+gods, will take the god out of it, will carry him in
+procession and bring him back. This is the course
+of the procession. Of the vase-bearers, whoever has
+a sacrifice to make will offer it. Whoever offers up
+one <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> of his food may enter the temple of Nebo.
+May the offerers fully accomplish the ordinances of
+<pb n='224'/><anchor id='Pg224'/>
+the gods, to the life and health of the son of the king
+my lord. What (commands) has the son of the king
+my lord to send me? May Bel and Nebo, who granted
+help in the month Sebat, protect the life of the son of
+the king my lord, and cause thy sovereignty to continue
+to the end of time!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is another letter in which, if Dr. Johnston's
+rendering is correct, reference is made to the inscriptions
+that were written on the walls of the temples like
+the texts which the book of Deuteronomy orders to
+be inscribed on the door-posts and gates (Deut. vi. 9,
+and xi. 20). <q>To the king my lord, thy servant Istar-Turi:
+salutation to the king my lord! I am sending
+Nebo-sum-iddina and Nebo-erba, the physicians of
+whom I spoke to the king, [with] my messenger to
+the presence of the king my lord. Let them be admitted
+to the presence of the king my lord; let the
+king my lord converse with them. I have not disclosed
+to them the real facts, and tell them nothing.
+As the king my lord commands, so is it done. Samas-bel-utsur
+sends word from the city of Der that <q>there
+are no inscriptions which we can place on the walls
+of the Beth-el.</q> I send accordingly to the king my
+lord in order that an inscription may be written and
+despatched, (and) that the rest may be soon written
+and placed on the walls of the Beth-el. There has
+been a great deal of rain, (but) the harvest is gathered.
+May the heart of the king my lord rejoice!</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While the letters which have been found on the
+site of Nineveh come from the royal archives and are
+therefore with few exceptions addressed to the King,
+those which have been discovered in Babylonia have
+<pb n='225'/><anchor id='Pg225'/>
+more usually been sent by one private individual to
+another. They represent for the most part the private
+correspondence of the country, and prove how
+widely education must have been diffused there.
+Most of them, moreover, belong to the age of Khammurabi
+or that of the kings of Ur who preceded the
+dynasty to which he belonged, and thus cast an unexpected
+light on the life of the Babylonian community
+in the times of Abraham. Here, for example,
+is one that was written by a tenant to his landlord:
+<q>To my lord says Ibgatum, your servant. As, my
+lord, you have heard, an enemy has carried away my
+oxen. Though I never before wrote to you, my lord,
+now I send this letter (<emph>literally</emph> tablet). O my lord,
+send me a cow! I will lie up five shekels of silver and
+send them to my lord, even to you. O my lord, by
+the command of Merodach you determine whatever
+place you prefer (to be in); no one can hinder you,
+my lord. O my lord, as I will send you by night the
+five shekels of silver which I am tying up, so do you
+put them away at night. O my lord, grant my request
+and do glorify my head, and in the sight of my
+brethren my head shall not be humbled. As to what
+I send you, O my lord, my lord will not be angry (?).
+I am your servant; your wishes, O my lord, I have
+performed superabundantly; therefore entrust me
+with the cow which you, my lord, shall send, and in
+the town of Uru-Batsu your name, O my lord, shall
+be celebrated for ever. If you, my lord, will grant
+me this favor, send [the cow] with Ili-ikisam my
+brother, and let it come, and I will work diligently at
+the business of my lord, if he will send the cow. I
+<pb n='226'/><anchor id='Pg226'/>
+am tying up the five shekels of silver and am
+sending them in all haste to you, my lord.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ibgatum was evidently the lessee of a farm, and
+he does his best to get a cow out of his landlord in
+order to make up for the loss of his oxen. The 5
+shekels probably represented the rent due to the
+landlord, and his promptitude in sending them was
+one of the arguments he used to get the cow. The
+word rendered <q>tie up</q> means literally <q>to yoke,</q>
+so that the shekels would appear to have been in the
+form of rings rather than bars of metal.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A letter in the collection of Sir Henry Peck, which
+has been translated by Mr. Pinches, is addressed to
+the landlord by his agent or factor, whose duty it was
+to look after his country estates. It runs as follows:
+<q>Letter from Daian-bel-ussur to Sirku my lord. I
+pray to-day to Bel and Nebo for the preservation of
+the life of my lord. As regards the oxen which my
+lord has sent, Bel and Nebo know that there is an
+ox [among them] for them from thee. I have made
+the irrigation-channel and wall. I have seen thy
+servant with the sheep, and thy servant with the
+oxen; order also that an ox may be brought up thence
+[as an offering?] unto Nebo, for I have not purchased
+a single ox for money. I saw fifty-six of them
+on the 20th day, when I offered sacrifice to Samas.
+I have caused twenty head to be sent from his hands
+to my lord. As for the garlic, which my lord bought
+from the governor, the owner of the field took possession
+of it when [the sellers] had gone away, and
+the governor of the district sold it for silver; so the
+plantations also I am guarding there [?], and my
+<pb n='227'/><anchor id='Pg227'/>
+lord has asked: Why hast thou not sent my messenger
+and [why] hast thou measured the ground?
+about this also I send thee word. Let a messenger
+take and deliver [?] thy message.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Another letter of the same age is interesting as
+showing that the name of the national God of Israel,
+Yahum or Yahveh, was known in Babylonia at a
+much earlier date than has hitherto been suspected:
+<q>To Igas-Nin-sagh thus says Yahum-ilu: As thou
+knowest, Adâ-ilu has obtained for me the money …
+for the maid-servant Khisam-ezib. Mida [?]
+the merchant has settled the price with me [?]. Now
+let the notary of Babylon send Arad-Istar in …,
+the three shekels of silver which you have in hand
+and the two shekels which you have put out at interest,
+and I will straightway bring the money [and]
+Arad-Istar. Do not hinder Arad-Istar and I will
+straightway bring him to the government.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yahum-ilu is the Joel of the Old Testament, with
+the final <hi rend='italic'>m</hi> which distinguished the languages of early
+Babylonia and Southern Arabia, and the name probably
+belonged to one of those <q>Amorites</q> or natives
+of Syria and Palestine who were settled in Babylonia.
+Yahum-ilu, however, might also have been a native
+of Southern Arabia. The important fact is the occurrence
+of the name at so early a date.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That the clay tablet should ever have been used
+for epistolary purposes seems strange to us who are
+accustomed to paper and envelopes. But it occupied
+no more space than many modern official letters, and
+was lighter to carry than most of the packages that
+pass through the parcel-post. Now and then it was
+<pb n='228'/><anchor id='Pg228'/>
+enveloped in an outer covering of clay, on which the
+address and the chief contents of it were noted; but
+the public were usually prevented from knowing what
+it contained in another way. Before it was handed
+over to the messenger or postman it was <q>sealed,</q>
+which generally appears to mean that it was deposited
+in some receptacle, perhaps of leather or
+linen, which was then tied up and sealed. In fact,
+Babylonian and Assyrian letters were treated much as
+ours are when they are put into a post-bag to which
+the seals of the post-office are attached. There were
+excellent roads all over Western Asia, with post-stations
+at intervals where relays of horses could be
+procured. Along these all letters to or from the King
+and the government were carried by royal messengers.
+It is probable that the letters of private individuals
+were also carried by the same hands.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The letters of Tel-el-Amarna give us some idea of
+the wide extension of the postal system and the ease
+with which letters were constantly being conveyed
+from one part of the East to another. The foreign
+correspondence of the Pharaoh was carried on with
+Babylonia and Assyria in the east, Mesopotamia and
+Cappadocia in the north, and Palestine and Syria in
+the west. The civilized and Oriental world was thus
+bound together by a network of postal routes over
+which literary intercourse was perpetually passing.
+They extended from the Euphrates to the Nile and
+from the plateau of Asia Minor to the confines of
+Arabia. These routes followed the old lines of war
+and trade along which armies had marched and merchants
+had travelled for unnumbered generations.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='229'/><anchor id='Pg229'/>
+
+<p>
+The Tel-el-Amarna tablets show us that letter-writing
+was not confined to Assyria and Babylonia on the
+one hand, or to Egypt on the other. Wherever the
+ancient culture of Babylonia had spread, there had
+gone with it not only the cuneiform characters and
+the use of clay as a writing material, but the art of
+letter-writing as well. The Canaanite corresponded
+with his friends and neighbors quite as much as the
+Babylonian, and his correspondence was conducted
+in the same language and script. Hiram of Tyre, in
+sending letters to Solomon, did but carry on the traditions
+of a distant past. Long before the Israelites
+entered Palestine both a foreign and an inland postal
+service had been established there while it was still
+under Babylonian rule. The art of reading and
+writing must have been widely spread, and, when it is
+remembered that for the larger number of the Tel-el-Amarna
+writers the language and system of writing
+which they used were of foreign origin, it may be
+concluded that the education given at the time was
+of no despicable character.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The same conclusion may be drawn from another
+fact. The spelling of the Babylonian and Assyrian
+letters is in general extraordinarily correct. We meet,
+of course, with numerous colloquialisms which do not
+occur in the literary texts, and now and then with
+provincial expressions, but it is seldom that a word
+is incorrectly written. Even in the Tel-el-Amarna
+tablets, where all kinds of local pronunciation are
+reproduced, the orthography is usually faultless, in
+spite of the phonetic spelling. All this shows how
+carefully the writers must have been instructed at
+<pb n='230'/><anchor id='Pg230'/>
+school. The correctness of the spelling in the Assyrian
+letters is really marvellous, especially when
+we consider all the difficulties of the cuneiform
+script, and what a tax it must have been to the memory
+to remember the multitudinous characters of the
+syllabary with their still more multitudinous phonetic
+and ideographic values. It gives us a high idea of
+the perfection to which the teachers' art had already
+been brought.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Assyria, however, the writers usually belonged
+to the special class of scribes who employed the same
+conventional hand and devoted their lives to the acquisition
+of learning. It is probable that they acted
+as private secretaries as well as public clerks, and
+that consequently many of the letters which purport
+to come from other members of the community were
+really written by the professional scribes. But in
+Babylonia it is difficult to find any traces of the public
+or private letter-writer who is still so conspicuous
+a figure in the East. It is seldom if ever that the
+Babylonian, whoever he may be, betrays any ignorance
+of the art of reading and writing, and the endless
+variety of handwritings and the execrable character
+of many of them indicate pretty plainly that
+the aid of the professional letter-writer was rarely
+invoked. In a commercial community like that of
+Babylonia an ability to write was of necessity a matter
+of primary importance.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='231'/><anchor id='Pg231'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Chapter XI. Religion</head>
+
+<p>
+As in other countries, so too in Babylonia, the official
+and the popular religion were not in all respects
+the same. In the popular faith older superstitions
+and beliefs still lingered which had disappeared from
+the religion of the state or appeared in it in another
+form. The place of the priest was in large measure
+taken by the sorcerer and the magician, the ceremonies
+of the public cult were superseded by charms
+and incantations, and the deities of the official creed
+were overshadowed by a crowd of subordinate spirits
+whose very existence was hardly recognized among
+the more cultured classes. The Babylonian was inordinately
+superstitious, and superstition naturally
+flourished most where education was least.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The official creed itself was an artificial amalgamation
+of two different currents of belief. The
+Babylonian race was mixed; Sumerian and Semite
+had gone to form it in days before history began.
+Its religion, therefore, was equally mixed; the religious
+conceptions of the Sumerian and the Semite
+differed widely, and it was the absorption of the
+Sumerian element by the Semitic which created the
+religion of later days. It is Semitic in its general
+<pb n='232'/><anchor id='Pg232'/>
+character, but in its general character alone. In details
+it resembles the religions of the other Semitic
+nations of Western Asia only in so far as they have
+been influenced by it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Sumerian had no conception of what we mean
+by a god. The supernatural powers he worshipped
+or feared were spirits of a material nature. Every
+object had its <hi rend='italic'>zi</hi>, or <q>spirit,</q> which accompanied it
+like a shadow, but unlike a shadow could act independently
+of the object to which it belonged. The
+forces and phenomena of nature were themselves
+<q>spirits;</q> the lightning which struck the temple, or
+the heat which parched up the vegetation of spring,
+were as much <q>spirits</q> as the <hi rend='italic'>zi</hi>, or <q>spirit,</q> which
+enabled the arrow to reach its mark and to slay its
+victim. When contact with the Semites had introduced
+the idea of a god among the Sumerians, it was
+still under the form of a spirit that their powers and
+attributes were conceived. The Sumerian who had
+been unaffected by Semitic teaching spoke of the
+<q>spirit of heaven</q> rather than of the god or goddess
+of the sky, of the <q>spirit of Ea</q> rather than of Ea
+himself, the god of the deep. Man, too, had a <hi rend='italic'>zi</hi>, or
+<q>spirit,</q> attached to him; it was the life which gave
+him movement and feeling, the principle of vitality
+which constituted his individual existence. In fact,
+it was the display of vital energy in man and the
+lower animals from which the whole conception of the
+<hi rend='italic'>zi</hi> was derived. The force which enables the animate
+being to breathe and act, to move and feel, was
+extended to inanimate objects as well; if the sun
+and stars moved through the heavens, or the arrow
+<pb n='233'/><anchor id='Pg233'/>
+flew through the air, it was from the same cause as
+that which enabled the man to walk or the bird to fly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <hi rend='italic'>zi</hi> of the Sumerians was thus a counterpart of
+the <hi rend='italic'>ka</hi>, or <q>double,</q> of Egyptian belief. The description
+given by Egyptian students of the <hi rend='italic'>ka</hi> would
+apply equally to the <hi rend='italic'>zi</hi> of Sumerian belief. They
+both belong to the same level of religious thought;
+indeed, so closely do they resemble one another that
+the question arises whether the Egyptian belief was
+not derived from that of ancient Sumer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wholly different was the idea which underlay the
+Semitic conception of a spiritual world. He believed
+in a god in whose image man had been made. It
+was a god whose attributes were human, but intensified
+in power and action. The human family on
+earth had its counterpart in the divine family in
+heaven. By the side of the god stood the goddess,
+a colorless reflection of the god, like the woman by
+the side of the man. The divine pair were accompanied
+by a son, the heir to his father's power and his
+representative and interpreter. As man stood at the
+head of created things in this world, so, too, the god
+stood at the head of all creation. He had called all
+things into existence, and could destroy them if he
+chose.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The Semite addressed his god as Baal or Bel, <q>the
+lord.</q> It was the same title as that which was given
+to the head of the family, by the wife to the husband,
+by the servant to his master. There were as many
+Baalim or Baals as there were groups of worshippers.
+Each family, each clan, and each tribe had its own
+Baal, and when families and clans developed into
+<pb n='234'/><anchor id='Pg234'/>
+cities and states the Baalim developed along with
+them. The visible form of Baal was the Sun; the
+Sun was lord of heaven and therewith of the earth
+also and all that was upon it. But the Sun presented
+itself under two aspects. On the one side it was the
+source of light and life, ripening the grain and bringing
+the herb into blossom; on the other hand it
+parched all living things with the fierce heats of summer
+and destroyed what it had brought into being.
+Baal, the Sun-god, was thus at once beneficent and
+malevolent; at times he looked favorably upon his
+adorers, at other times he was full of anger and sent
+plague and misfortune upon them. But under both
+aspects he was essentially a god of nature, and the
+rites with which he was worshipped accordingly were
+sensuous and even sensual.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Such were the two utterly dissimilar conceptions of
+the divine out of the union of which the official religion
+of Babylonia was formed. The popular religion
+of the country also grew out of them though in a more
+unconscious way. The Semite gave the Sumerian
+his gods with their priests and temples and ceremonies.
+The Sumerian gave in return his belief in a
+multitude of spirits, his charms and necromancy, his
+sorcerers and their sacred books.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unlike the gods of the Semites, the <q>spirits</q> of the
+Sumerian were not moved by human passions. They
+had, in fact, no moral nature. Like the objects and
+forces they represented, they surrounded mankind,
+upon whom they would inflict injury or confer benefits.
+But the injuries were more frequent than the benefits;
+the sum of suffering and evil exceeds that of happiness
+<pb n='235'/><anchor id='Pg235'/>
+in this world, more especially in a primitive condition
+of society. Hence the <q>spirits</q> were feared
+as demons rather than worshipped as powers of
+good, and instead of a priest a sorcerer was needed
+who knew the charms and incantations which could
+avert their malevolence or compel them to be serviceable
+to men. Sumerian religion, in fact, was Shamanistic,
+like that of some Siberian tribes to-day, and its
+ministers were Shamans or medicine-men skilled in
+witchcraft and sorcery whose spells were potent to
+parry the attacks of the demon and drive him from
+the body of his victim, or to call him down in vengeance
+on the person of their enemy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shamanism, however, pure and simple, is incompatible
+with an advanced state of culture, and as time
+went on the Shamanistic faith of the Sumerians tended
+toward a rudimentary form of polytheism. Out of
+the multitude of spirits there were two or three who
+assumed a more commanding position than the rest.
+The spirit of the sky, the spirit of the water, and
+more especially the spirit of the underground world,
+where the ghosts of the dead and the demons of
+night congregated together, took precedence of the
+rest. Already, before contact with the Semites, they
+began to assume the attributes of gods. Temples
+were raised in their honor, and where there were temples
+there were also priests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This transition of certain spirits into gods seems
+to have been aided by that study of the heavens and
+of the heavenly bodies for which the Babylonians
+were immemorially famous. At all events, the ideograph
+which denotes <q>a god</q> is an eight-rayed star,
+<pb n='236'/><anchor id='Pg236'/>
+from which we may perhaps infer that, at the time of
+the invention of the picture-writing out of which the
+cuneiform characters grew, the gods and the stars
+were identical.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of the oldest of the Sumerian temples was that
+of Nippur, the modern Niffer, built in honor of
+Mul-lil or El-lil, <q>the lord of the ghost-world.</q> He
+had originally been the spirit of the earth and the
+underground world; when he became a god his old
+attributes still clung to him. To the last he was the
+ruler of the <hi rend='italic'>lil-mes</hi>, <q>the ghosts</q> and <q>demons</q> who
+dwelt in the air and the waste places of the earth, as
+well as in the abode of death and darkness that lay
+beneath it. His priests preserved their old Shamanistic
+character; the ritual they celebrated was one of
+spells and incantations, of magical rites and ceremonies.
+Nippur was the source and centre of one of
+the two great streams of religious thought and culture
+which influenced Sumerian Babylonia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The other source and centre was Eridu on the Persian
+Gulf. Here the spirit of the water was worshipped,
+who in process of time passed into Ea, the
+god of the deep. But the deep was a channel for
+foreign culture and foreign ideas. Maritime trade
+brought the natives of Eridu into contact with the
+populations of other lands, and introduced new religious
+conceptions which intermingled with those of
+the Sumerians. Ea, the patron deity of Eridu, became
+the god of culture and light, who delighted in doing
+good to mankind and in bestowing upon them the
+gifts of civilization. In this he was aided by his son
+Asari, who was at once the interpreter of his will and
+<pb n='237'/><anchor id='Pg237'/>
+the healer of men. His office was declared in the
+title that was given to him of the god <q>who benefits
+mankind.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Two strongly contrasted streams of religious influence
+thus flowed from Nippur in the north of Babylonia
+and from Eridu in the south. The one brought
+with it a belief in the powers of darkness and evil,
+in sorcery and magic, and a religion of fear; the other
+spoke of light and culture, of gods who poured blessings
+upon men and healed the diseases that afflicted
+them. Asari was addressed as <q>he who raises the
+dead to life,</q> and Ea was held to be the first legislator
+and creator of civilized society.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+How far the foreign influence which moulded the
+creed of Eridu was of Semitic origin it is impossible
+to say. Semitic influences, however, began to work
+upon Sumerian religion at a very early date. The
+Semite and the Sumerian intermingled with one
+another; at first the Semite received the elements of
+culture from his more civilized neighbor, but a time
+came when he began to give something in return.
+The result of this introduction of Semitic and Sumerian
+beliefs and ideas was the official religion of
+later Babylonia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The <q>spirits</q> who had ranked above the rest now
+became gods in the Semitic sense of the term. Mul-lil
+of Nippur became the Semitic Baal or Bel, the
+supreme lord of the world, who governs the world
+below as well as the world above. He it was who
+conferred empire over mankind upon his worshippers
+and whose ministers and angels were the spirits of
+popular belief. Ea wanted but little to become a
+<pb n='238'/><anchor id='Pg238'/>
+true god; his name remained unchanged and his
+dominion extended to all waters whatever, wherever
+they might be. His son Asari passed into Merodach,
+the patron-deity of Babylon, who, when his city became
+the capital of Babylonia, took the place of Bel
+of Nippur as the supreme Bel. As in Greek mythology
+the younger Zeus dethroned his father, so in
+Babylonia the younger Bel of Babylonia dethroned
+the older Bel of Nippur.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Similarly, Anu, the spirit of the sky, became the
+Semitic Sky-god Anu, whose temple stood at Erech.
+Ur, on the western bank of the Euphrates, was
+dedicated to the Moon-god under the name of Sin,
+like Harran in Mesopotamia; Larsa was dedicated
+to the Sun-god. When Borsippa became a suburb
+of Babylon its presiding deity became at the same
+time the minister and interpreter of Merodach under
+the title of Nabium or Nebo <q>the prophet.</q> The
+Semitic god everywhere took the place of the Sumerian
+<q>spirit,</q> while those among the <q>spirits</q> themselves
+who had not undergone the transforming process
+merged in the three hundred spirits of heaven
+and the six hundred spirits of earth. They formed
+the <q>hosts of heaven,</q> of whom Bel was the lord.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Semitic belief necessitated the existence of a
+goddess by the side of the god. It was, indeed, a
+grammatical necessity rather than a theological one;
+the noun in the Semitic languages has a feminine as
+well as a masculine gender, and the masculine Bilu or
+Bel, accordingly, implied a female Belit or Beltis. But
+the goddess was little more than a grammatical shadow
+of the god, and her position was still further weakened
+<pb n='239'/><anchor id='Pg239'/>
+by the analogy of the human family where the
+wife was regarded as the lesser man, the slave and
+helpmeet of her husband.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One goddess only escaped the general law which
+would have made her merely the pale reflection of
+the god. This was Istar. Istar was an independent
+deity, owing no allegiance to a husband, and standing
+on a footing of equality with the gods. But this
+was because she had once been one of the chief objects
+of Sumerian worship, the spirit of the evening
+star. In the Sumerian language there was no gender,
+nothing that could distinguish the goddess or the
+woman from the god or man, and the <q>spirits,</q> therefore,
+were indifferently of both sexes. Moreover, the
+woman occupied an important place in the Sumerian
+family; where the Semitic translation speaks of
+<q>man and woman</q> the Sumerian original makes it
+<q>woman and man.</q> To the Sumerian mind, accordingly,
+the female <q>spirit</q> was as powerful as the
+male, acting independently and possessing the same
+attributes. Hence it was that in taking Istar over
+from their Sumerian predecessors the Semitic inhabitants
+of Babylonia took over at the same time a
+goddess who was the equal of a god.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Among the mixed population of Babylonia, with
+its mixed culture and language and religion, the
+character and position of Istar underwent but little
+change. But when the conquerors of Sargon of
+Akkad and his predecessors carried the civilization
+of Babylonia to the West, Istar assumed a new form.
+Among the Canaanites she became Ashtoreth with the
+feminine termination, and was identified with the
+<pb n='240'/><anchor id='Pg240'/>
+Moon, the consort and reflection, as it were, of Baal
+the Sun-god. But even so, the existence, of an independent
+goddess by the side of Baal seemed
+strange to the Semitic imagination, and among the
+Semites of Southern Arabia she was transformed into
+a male god, while the Moabites made her one with
+the god Chemosh. Even among the learned classes
+of Semitic Babylonia it was whispered that she was
+of both sexes, a goddess when imaged in the evening
+star, a god when visible in the star of the morning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Closely connected with the worship of Istar was
+that of Tammuz. Tammuz among the Sumerians
+appears to have been the <q>spirit</q> of the rivulets and
+waters of spring, and his name signified literally
+<q>the son of life</q> or <q>of the spirit.</q> But among
+the Semites he became the young and beautiful
+shepherd, the beloved of Istar, slain by the boar's
+tusk of winter, or, as others held, of the parching
+heats of the summer. He symbolized the fresh vegetation
+of the spring and the Sun-god who called it
+forth. Once each year, in the sultry heats of June,
+the women wept and tore their hair in memory of
+his untimely death, and Istar, it was said, had descended
+into Hades in the vain hope of bringing him
+back to life. One of the most famous of Babylonian
+poems was that which told of the descent of Istar
+through the seven gates of the underground world,
+and which was chanted at the annual commemoration
+of his death. At each gate, it is said, the goddess
+left behind her some one of her adornments, until at
+last she arrived stripped and naked before the throne
+of the goddess of the infernal world. The poem was
+<pb n='241'/><anchor id='Pg241'/>
+composed at a time when astronomical conceptions
+had laid hold of the old mythology, and the poet has
+interwoven the story of the waning and waxing of the
+moon into the ancient tale.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The world was generally believed to have originated
+out of a watery chaos, and to float, as it were,
+upon the deep. This belief was derived from Eridu,
+where it was also taught that the deep surrounded
+the earth like the coils of a serpent.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But other ideas about the origin of things prevailed
+elsewhere. Inland it was supposed that the
+firmament of heaven rested on the peak of a mountain—<q>the
+mountain of the East,</q> or <q>of the World,</q>
+as it was commonly called—where the gods lived in
+an Olympus of their own and the stars were suspended
+from it like lamps. The firmament was regarded
+as a kind of extinguisher or as the upturned
+hull of one of the round coracles that plied on the
+Euphrates. Other ideas again were prevalent in
+other parts of the country. Thus at Eridu the place
+of <q>the mountain of the World</q> was taken by a magical
+tree which grew in the midst of the garden of
+Eden, or <q>plain</q> of Babylonia, and on either side
+of which were the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates.
+It is probably to be identified with the tree
+of life which figures so frequently in the sculptures
+of Assyria and on the seal-cylinders of Chaldea, but
+it may be the tree of knowledge of which we hear in
+the old Sumerian texts, and upon which <q>the name
+of Ea was written.</q> At all events it is <q>the holy
+tree of Eridu,</q> of whose <q>oracle</q> Arioch calls himself
+<q>the executor.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='242'/><anchor id='Pg242'/>
+
+<p>
+The sun, it was believed, rose and set from between
+the twin mountains whose gates were guarded
+by men with the bodies of scorpions, while their
+heads touched the skies and their feet reached to
+Hades. The scorpion was the inhabitant of the desert
+of Northern Arabia, the land of Mas, where the
+mountains of the sunset were imagined to be. Beyond
+them were the encircling ocean and the waters
+of Death, and beyond these again the island of the
+Blest, where the favorites of the gods were permitted
+to dwell. It was hither that Xisuthros, the Chaldean
+Noah, was translated for his piety after the Deluge,
+and it was here, too, that the flower of immortality
+blossomed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For the ordinary mortal a very different fate was
+reserved. He had to descend after death into the
+underground world of Hades, where the spirits of the
+dead flitted about like bats in the darkness, with
+dust only for their food. It was a land of gloom and
+forgetfulness, defended by seven gates and seven
+warders, who prevented the dead from breaking forth
+from their prison-house and devouring the living under
+the form of vampires. The goddess Allat presided
+over it, keeping watch over the waters of life
+that bubbled up under her golden throne. Before
+her sat the shades of the heroes of old, each crowned
+with a shadowy crown and seated on a shadowy
+throne, rising up only that they might salute the
+ghost of some human potentate who came to join
+them from the upper world. In later days, it is true,
+brighter and higher conceptions of the after life came
+to prevail, and an Assyrian poet prays that his King,
+<pb n='243'/><anchor id='Pg243'/>
+when he dies, may pass away to <q>the land of the silver
+sky.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The various cosmological speculations and beliefs
+of ancient Chaldea were collected together in later
+times and an attempt made to combine them into a
+philosophical system. What this was like we learn
+from the opening lines of the epic which recounted
+the story of the Creation. In the beginning, we are
+told, was the chaos of the deep, which was the mother
+of all things. Out of it came first the primeval gods,
+Lakhum and Lakhamu, whose names had been
+handed down from the Sumerian age. Then came
+An-sar and Ki-sar, the Upper and Lower Firmaments,
+and, lastly, the great gods of the Semitic
+faith, Anu, Bel of Nippur, and Ea. All was ready
+at last for the creation of the present heavens and
+earth. But a struggle had first to be carried on between
+the new gods of light and order and Tiamat,
+the dragon of the <q>Deep,</q> the impersonation of chaos.
+Merodach volunteered the task; Tiamat and her demoniac
+allies were overthrown and the sky formed
+out of her skin, while her blood became the rivers
+and springs. The deep was placed under fetters, that
+it might never again break forth and reduce the world
+to primeval chaos; laws were laid down for the heavenly
+bodies, which they were to keep forever and so
+provide a measure of time, and the plants and animals
+of the earth were created, with man at the
+head to rule over them. Though man was made of
+the dust, he was, nevertheless, the <q>son</q> of the gods,
+whose outward forms were the same as his.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not to be supposed that this philosophizing
+<pb n='244'/><anchor id='Pg244'/>
+of the old myths and legends made its way beyond
+the circle of the learned classes, but the myths and
+legends themselves were known to the people and
+served instead of a cosmology. The struggle between
+Tiamat and Merodach was depicted on the
+walls of the temple of Bel at Babylon, and the belief
+that this world has arisen out of a victory of order
+over chaos and anarchy was deeply implanted
+in the mind of the Babylonian. Perhaps it goes
+back to the time when the soil of Babylonia was won
+by the cultivator and the engineer from wild and unrestrained
+nature.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Babylonian religion had its sacred books, and, like
+the official cosmology, a real knowledge of them was
+probably confined to the priests and educated classes.
+But a considerable part of their contents must have
+been more widely known.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some of the hymns embodied in them, as well as
+the incantations and magical ceremonies, were doubtless
+familiar to the people or derived from current
+superstitions. The work in which the hymns were
+collected and procured, and which has been compared
+with the Veda of India, was at once the Bible and
+the Prayer-book of Chaldea. The hymns were in
+Sumerian, which thus became a sacred language, and
+any mistake in the recitation of them was held to be
+fatal to the validity of a religious rite. Not only,
+therefore, were the hymns provided with a Semitic
+translation, but from time to time directions were
+added regarding the pronunciation of certain words.
+The bulk of the hymns was of Sumerian origin, but
+many new hymns, chiefly in honor of the Sun-god,
+<pb n='245'/><anchor id='Pg245'/>
+had been added to them in Semitic times. They
+were, however, written in the old language of Sumer;
+like Latin in the Roman Catholic Church, that alone
+was considered worthy of being used in the service
+of the gods. It was only the rubric which was allowed
+to be written in Semitic; the hymns and most
+of the prayers were in what had come to be termed
+<q>the pure</q> or <q>sacred language</q> of the Sumerians.
+Each hymn is introduced by the words <q>to be recited,</q>
+and ends with <hi rend='italic'>amanû</hi>, or <q>Amen.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The religious services were incessant. Every day
+the sacrifice was offered, accompanied by a special
+ritual, and the festivals and fasts filled up each
+month of the year. There were services even for the
+night as well as for the day. The new moons were
+strictly observed, and the seventh day was one of
+solemn rest. The very name Sabattu or <q>Sabbath</q>
+was derived by the native etymologists from the
+Sumerian words <hi rend='italic'>sa</hi>, <q>heart,</q>
+and <hi rend='italic'>bat</hi>, <q>to end,</q> because
+it was <q>a day of rest for the heart.</q> Not only
+were there Sabbaths on the seventh, fourteenth,
+twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days of the month,
+there was also a Sabbath on the nineteenth, that being
+the end of the seventh week from the first day of the
+previous month. On these Sabbaths no work was
+permitted to be done. The King, it was laid down,
+<q>must not eat flesh cooked at the fire or in the smoke;
+must not change his clothes; must not put on white
+garments; must not offer sacrifices; must not drive
+in his chariot; or issue royal decrees.</q> Even the
+prophet was forbidden to practise augury or give
+medicine to the sick.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='246'/><anchor id='Pg246'/>
+
+<p>
+From time to time extraordinary days of public
+humiliation or thanksgiving were ordered to be
+observed. These were prescribed by the government
+and were generally the result of some political crisis
+or danger. When the Assyrian empire, for instance,
+was attacked by the nations of the north in the early
+part of Esar-haddon's reign, public prayers and fasts
+<q>for one hundred days and one hundred nights</q> were
+ordained by the <q>prophets</q> in the hope that the Sun-god
+might <q>remove the sin</q> of the people and stave
+off the threatened attack. So, again, when Assur-bani-pal
+had suppressed the Babylonian revolt and taken
+Babylon after a long siege, he tells us that <q>at the
+instance of the prophets he purified the mercy-seats
+and cleansed the processional roads that had been
+polluted; the wrathful gods and angry goddesses he
+appeased with special prayers and penitential psalms.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The temple was erected on ground that had been
+consecrated by libations of wine, oil, and honey, and
+was a square or rectangular building enclosing an
+open court, on one side of which was a <hi rend='italic'>ziggurat</hi>, or
+<q>tower.</q> The tower was built in successive stages,
+and in the topmost stage was the shrine of the god.
+Each <q>tower</q> had a name of its own, and was used
+for astronomical purposes. It corresponded with
+<q>the high-place</q> of Canaan; in the flat plain of
+Babylonia it was only by means of a tower that the
+worshipper could <q>mount up to heaven</q> and so approach
+the gods. Herodotus states that the topmost
+story of the tower attached to the temple of Bel
+Merodach at Babylon contained nothing but a couch
+and a table.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='247'/><anchor id='Pg247'/>
+
+<p>
+The image of the god stood in the innermost shrine
+or Holy of Holies of the temple itself. In front of it
+was the golden table on which the shew-bread was
+laid, and below was the <hi rend='italic'>parakku</hi>, or <q>mercy-seat,</q>
+whereon, according to Nebuchadnezzar, at the festival
+of the new year, <q>on the eighth and eleventh
+days, the king of the gods of heaven and earth, Bel,
+the god, seats himself, while the gods of heaven and
+earth reverently regard him, standing before him
+with bowed heads.</q> It was <q>the seat of the oracles</q>
+which were delivered from it by the god to his ministering
+priests.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In front of the shrine was an altar cased in gold,
+and another altar stood in the outer court. Here
+also was the great bason of bronze for purificatory
+purposes, which was called <q>the deep,</q> and corresponded
+with the <q>sea</q> of Solomon's temple. Like
+the latter, it sometimes stood on the heads of twelve
+bronze oxen, as we learn from a hymn in which the
+construction of one of these basons is described. They
+were supposed to represent the primeval <q>deep</q> out
+of which the world has arisen and on which it still
+floats.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The chapel found by Mr. Hormund Rassam at
+Balawât, near Nineveh, gives us some idea of what
+the inner shrine of a temple was like. At its north-west
+end was an altar approached by steps, while in
+front of the latter, and near the entrance, was a coffer
+or ark in which two small slabs of marble were deposited,
+twelve and one-half inches long by eight
+wide, on which the Assyrian King Assur-nazir-pal in
+a duplicate text records his erection of the sanctuary.
+<pb n='248'/><anchor id='Pg248'/>
+It is not surprising that when the Nestorian workmen
+found the tablets, they believed that they had discovered
+the two tables of the Mosaic Law.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The temple sometimes enclosed a Bit-ili or Beth-el.
+This was originally an upright stone, consecrated by
+oil and believed to be animated by the divine spirit.
+The <q>Black Stone</q> in the kaaba of the temple of
+Mecca is a still surviving example of the veneration
+paid by the Semitic nations to sacred stones.
+Whether, however, the Beth-els of later Babylonian
+days were like the <q>Black Stone</q> of Mecca, really
+the consecrated stones which had once served as
+temples, we do not know; in any case they were
+anchored within the walls of the temples which
+had taken their place as the seats of the worship
+of the gods. Offerings were still made to them
+in the age of Nebuchadnezzar and his successors;
+thus we hear of 765 <q>measures</q> of grain which
+were paid as <q>dues to the Beth-el</q> by the serfs of
+one of the Babylonian temples. The <q>measure,</q> it
+may be stated, was an old measure of capacity, retained
+among the peasantry, and only approximately
+exact. It was calculated to contain from 41 to 43
+<hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The offerings to the gods were divided into sacrifices
+and meal-offerings. The ox, sheep, lamb, kid,
+and dove were offered in sacrifice—fruit, vegetables,
+bread, wine, oil, and spices where no blood was
+required to be shed. There were also sin-offerings
+and heave-offerings, when the offering was first
+<q>lifted up</q> before the gods. A contract dated in
+the thirty-second year of Nebuchadnezzar tells something
+<pb n='249'/><anchor id='Pg249'/>
+about the parts of the animals which were
+sacrificed, though unfortunately the meaning of many
+of the technical words used in it is still unknown:
+<q>Izkur-Merodach, the son of Imbriya, the son of Ilei-Merodach,
+of his own free will has given for the
+future to Nebo-balasu-iqbi, the son of Kuddinu, the
+son of Ilei-Merodach, the slaughterers of the oxen
+and sheep for the sacrifices of the king, the prescribed
+offerings, the peace-offerings (?) of the whole
+year—viz., the caul round the heart, the chine, the
+covering of the ribs, the …, the mouth of the
+stomach, and the …, as well as during the year
+7,000 sin-offerings and 100 sheep before Iskhara,
+who dwells in the temple of Sa-turra in Babylon (not
+excepting the soft parts of the flesh, the trotters (?),
+the juicy meat, and the salted (?) flesh), and also the
+slaughterers of the oxen, sheep, birds, and lambs due
+on the 8th day of Nisan, (and) the heave-offering of
+an ox and a sheep before Pap-sukal of Bit-Kiduz-Kani,
+the temple of Nin-ip and the temple of Anu
+on the further bank of the New Town in Babylon.</q>
+The 8th of Nisan, or March, was the first day of the
+festival of the New Year.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The hierarchy of priests was large. At its head
+was the <hi rend='italic'>patesi</hi>, or high-priest, who in the early days
+of Babylonian history was a civil as well as an
+ecclesiastical ruler. He lost his temporal power with
+the rise of the kings. But at first the King was also
+a <hi rend='italic'>patesi</hi>, and it is probable that in many cases at
+least it was the high-priest who made himself a king
+by subjecting to his authority the <hi rend='italic'>patesis</hi> or priestly
+rulers of other states. In Assyria the change of the
+<pb n='250'/><anchor id='Pg250'/>
+high-priest into a king was accompanied by revolt
+from the supremacy of Babylonia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With the establishment of a monarchy the high-priest
+lost more and more his old power and attributes,
+and tended to disappear altogether, or to become
+merely the vicegerent or representative of the
+King. The King himself, mindful of his sacerdotal
+origin, still claimed semi-priestly powers. But he
+now called himself a <hi rend='italic'>sangu</hi> or <q>chief priest</q> rather
+than a <hi rend='italic'>patesi</hi>; in fact, the latter name was retained
+only from antiquarian motives. The individual high-priest
+passed away, and was succeeded by the class
+of <q>chief priests.</q> Under them were several subordinate
+classes of temple servants. There were, for
+instance, the <hi rend='italic'>enû</hi>, or <q>elders,</q>
+and the <hi rend='italic'>pasisû</hi>, or
+<q>anointers,</q> whose duty it was to anoint the images
+of the gods and the sacred vessels of the temple with
+oil, and who are sometimes included among the
+<hi rend='italic'>ramkû</hi>, or <q>offerers of libations,</q> as well. By the
+side of them stood <hi rend='italic'>asipu</hi>, or <q>prophet,</q> who interpreted
+the will of heaven, and even accompanied the
+army on its march, deciding when it might attack
+the enemy with success, or when the gods refused to
+grant it victory. Next to the prophet came the
+<hi rend='italic'>makhkhû</hi> or interpreter of dreams, as well as the
+<hi rend='italic'>barû</hi>, or <q>seer.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A very important class of temple-servants were the
+<hi rend='italic'>kalî</hi>, or <q>eunuch-priests,</q>
+the <hi rend='italic'>galli</hi> of the religions of
+Asia Minor. They were under a <q>chief <hi rend='italic'>kalû</hi>,</q> and
+were sometimes entitled <q>the servants of Istar.</q> It
+was indeed to her worship that they were specially
+consecrated, like the <hi rend='italic'>ukhâtu</hi>
+and <hi rend='italic'>kharimâtu</hi>, or female
+<pb n='251'/><anchor id='Pg251'/>
+hierodules. Erech, with its sanctuary of Anu and
+Istar, was the place where these latter were chiefly
+to be found; here they performed their dances in
+honor of the goddess and mourned over the death of
+Tammuz.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Closely connected with the <hi rend='italic'>kalî</hi> was a sort of
+monastic institution, which seems to have been attached
+to some of the Babylonian temples. The
+<hi rend='italic'>Zikari</hi>, who belonged to it, were forbidden to marry,
+and it is possible that they were eunuchs like the
+<hi rend='italic'>kalî</hi>. They, too, were under a chief or president,
+and their main duty was to attend to the daily sacrifice
+and to minister to the higher order of priests.
+In this respect they resembled the Levites at Jerusalem;
+indeed they are frequently termed <q>servants</q>
+in the inscriptions, though they were neither serfs
+nor slaves. They could be dedicated to the service
+of the Sun-god from childhood. A parallel to the
+dedication of Samuel is to be found in a deed dated
+at Sippara on the 21st of Nisan, in the fifth year of
+Cambyses, in which <q>Ummu-dhabat, the daughter
+of Nebo-bel-uzur,</q> whose father-in-law was the priest
+of the Sun-god, is stated to have brought her three
+sons to him, and to have made the following declaration
+before another priest of the same deity: <q>My
+sons have not yet entered the House of the Males
+(<hi rend='italic'>Zikari</hi>); I have hitherto lived with them; I have
+grown old with them since they were little, until
+they have been counted among men.</q> Then she took
+them into the <q>House of the Males</q> and <q>gave</q>
+them to the service of the god. We learn from this
+and other documents that the <hi rend='italic'>Zikari</hi> lived together
+<pb n='252'/><anchor id='Pg252'/>
+in a monastery or college within the walls of the
+temple, and that monthly rations of food were allotted
+to them from the temple revenues.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The ordinary priests were married, though the wife
+of a priest was not herself a priestess. There were
+priestesses, however, as well as female recluses, who,
+like the <hi rend='italic'>Zikari</hi>, were not allowed to marry and were
+devoted to the service of the Sun-god. They lived in
+the temple, but were able to hold property of their
+own, and even to carry on business with it. A portion
+of the profits, nevertheless, went to the treasury
+of the temple, out of whose revenues they were themselves
+supplied with food. From contracts of the
+time of Khammurabi we gather that many of them
+not only belonged to the leading families of Babylonia,
+but that they might be relations of the King.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Wholly distinct from these devotees of the Sun-god
+were the female hierodules or prostitutes of Istar, to
+whom reference has already been made. Distinct
+from them, again, were the prophetesses of Istar, who
+prophesied the future and interpreted the oracles of
+the goddess. One of their chief seats was the temple
+of Istar at Arbela, and a collection of the oracles
+delivered by them and their brother prophets to Esar-haddon
+has been preserved. It is thus that he is
+addressed in one of them: <q>Fear not, O Esar-haddon;
+the breath of inspiration which speaks to thee
+is spoken by me, and I conceal it not. Thine enemies
+shall melt away from before thy feet like the floods
+in Sivan. I am the mighty mistress, Istar of Arbela,
+who have put thine enemies to flight before thy feet.
+Where are the words which I speak unto thee, that
+<pb n='253'/><anchor id='Pg253'/>
+thou hast not believed them? I am Istar of Arbela;
+thine enemies, the Ukkians, do I give unto thee. I
+am Istar of Arbela; in front of thee and at thy side
+do I march. Fear not, thou art in the midst of those
+that can heal thee; I am in the midst of thy host.
+I advance and I stand still!</q> It is probable that
+these prophetesses were not ordained to their office,
+but that it depended on their possession of the
+<q>spirit of inspiration.</q> At all events, we find men as
+well as women acting as the mouth-pieces of Istar,
+and in one instance the woman describes herself as a
+native of a neighboring village <q>in the mountains.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The revenues of the temples and priesthood were
+derived partly from endowments, partly from compulsory
+or voluntary offerings. Among the compulsory
+offerings were the esrâ, or <q>tithes.</q> These
+had to be paid by all classes of the population from
+the King downward, either in grain or in its equivalent
+in money. The <q>tithe</q> of Nabonidos, immediately
+after his accession, to the temple of the Sun-god
+at Sippara was as much as 5 manehs of gold, or
+£840. We may infer from this that it was paid on
+the amount of cash which he had found in the treasury
+of the palace and which was regarded as the
+private property of the King. Nine years later
+Belshazzar, the heir-apparent, offered two oxen and
+thirty-two sheep as a voluntary gift to the same
+temple, and at the beginning of the following year we
+find him paying a shekel and a quarter for a boat to
+convey three oxen and twenty-four sheep to the same
+sanctuary. Even at the moment when Cyrus was
+successfully invading the dominions of his father and
+<pb n='254'/><anchor id='Pg254'/>
+Babylon had already been occupied for three weeks
+by the Persian army, Belshazzar was careful to pay
+the tithe due from his sister, and amounting to 47
+shekels of silver, into the treasury of the Sun-god.
+As Sippara was in the hands of the enemy, and
+the Babylonian forces which Belshazzar commanded
+had been defeated and dispersed, the fact is very
+significant, and proves how thoroughly both invaders
+and invaded must have recognized the rights of the
+priesthood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tithe was also indirectly paid by the temple-serfs.
+Thus in the first year of Nergal-sharezer, out of 3,100
+measures of grain, delivered by <q>the serfs of the
+Sun-god</q> to his temple at Sippara, 250 were exacted
+as <q>tithe.</q> These serfs must be distinguished from
+the temple-slaves. They were attached to the soil,
+and could not be separated from it. When, therefore,
+a piece of land came into the possession of a
+temple by gift and endowment, they went along
+with it, but their actual persons could not be sold.
+The slave, on the other hand, was as much a chattel
+as the furniture of the temple, which could be bought
+and sold; he was usually a captive taken in war,
+more rarely a native who had been sold for debt.
+All the menial work of the temple was performed by
+him; the cultivation of the temple-lands, on the contrary,
+was left to the serfs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is doubtful whether the <q>butchers,</q> or slaughterers
+of the animals required for sacrifice, or the
+<q>bakers</q> of the sacred cakes, were slaves or freemen.
+The expression used in regard to them in the contract
+of Izkur-Merodach quoted above is open to two
+<pb n='255'/><anchor id='Pg255'/>
+interpretations, but it would naturally signify that
+they were regarded as slaves. We know, at all events,
+that many of the artisans employed in weaving curtains
+for the temples and clothing for the images of
+the gods belonged to the servile class, and the gorgeousness
+of the clothing and the frequency with
+which it was changed must have necessitated a large
+number of workmen. Many of the documents which
+have been bequeathed to us by the archives of the
+temple of the Sun-god at Sippara relate to the robes
+and head-dresses and other portions of the clothing
+of the images which stood there.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A considerable part of the property of a temple was
+in land. Sometimes this was managed by the priests
+themselves; sometimes its revenues were farmed,
+usually by a member of the priestly corporation; at
+other times it was let to wealthy <q>tenants.</q> One of
+these, Nebo-sum-yukin by name, who was an official
+in the temple of Nebo at Borsippa, married his
+daughter Gigîtum to Nergal-sharezer in the first year
+of the latter's reign.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The state religion of Assyria was a copy of that of
+Babylonia, with one important exception. The
+supreme god was the deified state. Assur was not a
+Baal any more than Yahveh was in Israel or Chemosh
+in Moab.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was, consequently, no father of a family, with a
+wife and a son; he stood alone in jealous isolation, wifeless
+and childless. It is true that some learned scribe,
+steeped in Babylonian learning, now and then tried
+to find a Babylonian goddess with whom to mate him;
+but the attempt was merely a piece of theological
+<pb n='256'/><anchor id='Pg256'/>
+pedantry which made no impression on the rulers and
+people of Nineveh. Assur was supreme over all
+other gods, as his representative, the Assyrian King,
+was supreme over the other kings of the earth, and he
+would brook no rival at his side. The tolerance of
+Babylonian religion was unknown in Assyria. It was
+<q>through trust in Assur</q> that the Assyrian armies
+went forth to conquer, and through his help that they
+gained their victories. The enemies of Assyria were
+his enemies, and it was to combat and overcome them
+that the Assyrian monarchs declare that they marched
+to war. Cyrus tells us that Bel-Merodach was wrathful
+because the images of other deities had been removed
+by Nabonidos from their ancient shrines in
+order to be gathered together in his temple of Ê-Saggil
+at Babylon, but Assur bade his servants go forth
+to subdue the gods of other lands, and to compel
+their worshippers to transfer their allegiance to the
+god of Assyria. Those who believed not in him
+were his enemies, to be extirpated or punished.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is true that the leading Babylonian divinities
+were acknowledged in Assyria by the side of Assur.
+But they were subordinate to him, and it is difficult
+to resist the impression that their recognition was
+mainly confined to the literary classes. Apart from
+the worship of Istar and the use of the names of certain
+gods in time-honored formulæ, it is doubtful
+whether even a knowledge of the Babylonian deities
+went much beyond the educated members of the
+Assyrian community. Nebo and Merodach and Anu
+were the gods of literature rather than of the popular
+cult.
+</p>
+
+<pb n='257'/><anchor id='Pg257'/>
+
+<p>
+But even in Babylonia the majority of the gods of
+the state religion was probably but little remembered
+by the mass of the people. Doubtless the local divinity
+was well known to the inhabitants of the place
+over which he presided and where his temple had
+stood from immemorial times. Every native of Ur
+was doubtless a devoted adorer of Sin, the Moon-god,
+and for the inhabitants of Babylon Bel-Merodach was
+the highest object of worship. But the real religion
+of the bulk of the population consisted in charms and
+magic. The Babylonian was intensely superstitious,
+the cultivated classes as much so as the lowest. Sorcery
+and divination were not only tolerated by the
+priests, they formed part of the religious system of the
+state. Prophets and diviners and interpreters of
+dreams served in the temples, and one of the sacred
+books of the priesthood was a collection of incantations
+and magical rites. Among the people generally
+the old Shamanistic faith had never been eradicated;
+it was but partially overlaid with the religious conceptions
+of the Semite, and sorcery and witchcraft flourished
+down to the latest days of Babylonian history.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The gods and goddesses were believed to utter
+oracles and predictions through the lips of inspired
+men and women. Figures of winged bulls and serpents
+were placed at the entrance of a building to
+prevent the demons of evil from passing through it.
+Before the gates of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar <q>set up
+mighty bulls of bronze and serpents which stood
+erect,</q> and when Nabonidos restored the temple of
+the Moon-god at Harran two images of the primeval
+god, Lakhum, were similarly erected on either side of
+<pb n='258'/><anchor id='Pg258'/>
+its eastern gate to <q>drive back</q> his <q>foes.</q> These
+protecting genii were known as <hi rend='italic'>sêdi</hi>
+and <hi rend='italic'>kurubi</hi>, the
+<hi rend='italic'>shédim</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>cherubim</hi>
+of the Old Testament. <hi rend='italic'>Sédi</hi>,
+however, was a generic term, including evil as well as
+beneficent genii, and the latter was more properly
+classed as the <hi rend='italic'>lamassi</hi>, or <q>colossal forms.</q> The
+whole world was imagined to be filled with malevolent
+spirits ever on the watch to attack and torment
+mankind. The water that was drunk, the food that
+was eaten, might contain a demon, whom it would be
+necessary to exorcise. The diseases that afflict our
+bodies, the maladies that prey upon our spirits, were
+all due to the spirits of evil, and could be removed
+only by the proper incantations and charms. Madness
+and epilepsy were more especially the direct
+effect of demoniac possession. The magician alone
+knew how to cure them; and the priest taught that
+his knowledge had first been communicated to him
+by the god Ea through his interpreter, Merodach.
+Books were written containing the needful formulæ
+and ritual for counteracting the malevolence of the
+evil spirits and for healing the sick. Pure or <q>holy</q>
+water and the number seven were regarded as endowed
+with mysterious power in the performance of
+these magical rites; thus magical threads were ordered
+to be bound seven times round the limbs of the sick
+man, with phylacteries attached to them on which
+were inscribed <q>sentences from a holy book.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was at night-time that the spirits of evil were
+more especially active. It was then that vampires
+escaped from the bodies of the dead or from the realm
+of Hades to suck the blood of the living, and that the
+<pb n='259'/><anchor id='Pg259'/>
+nightmare lay upon the breast of its victim and sought
+to strangle him. At the head of these demons of the
+night was Lilat, the wife of Lil, <q>the ghost;</q> from
+the Babylonians she was borrowed by the Jews,
+and appears in the book of Isaiah under the name of
+Lilith.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The demons were served by a priesthood of their
+own. These were the wizards and witches, and the
+sorcerers and sorceresses, with whom were associated
+the public prostitutes, who plied their calling under
+the shadow of night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was then that they lay in ambush for the unwary
+passenger, for whom they mixed deadly philters
+which poisoned the blood. They were devotees of
+Istar, but the Istar they worshipped was a wholly
+different goddess from the Istar of the official cult.
+She was a goddess of witchcraft and darkness, of whom
+it was said that she <q>seized</q> on her victim <q>at
+night,</q> and was <q>the slayer of youths.</q> She it was
+who was dreaded by the people like the witches and
+<q>street-walkers,</q> who ministered before her, and
+against whom exorcisms of all kinds were employed.
+To guard against her and her agents, small images of
+Lugal-gira and Allamu, the teraphim of the Babylonians,
+were made and placed to the right and the left
+of the door that they might <q>tear out the hearts of
+the wicked</q> and <q>slay the witch.</q> The Fire-god,
+moreover, was invoked that he might destroy the
+ministers of wickedness, and figures of the witch or
+wizard were moulded in wax and melted in the fire.
+As the wax dissolved, so, it was prayed, might <q>the
+wizard and witch run, melt, and dissolve.</q>
+</p>
+
+<pb n='260'/><anchor id='Pg260'/>
+
+<p>
+The exorcisms had to be repeated by the victims
+of witchcraft. This is clear from the words which
+come at the end of each of them: <q>I, So-and-so, the
+son of So-and-so, whose god is So-and-so and goddess
+So-and-so, I turn to thee, I seek for thee, I kiss
+thy hands, I bow myself under thee. Consume the
+wizard and the witch; annihilate the lives of the
+sorcerer and the sorceress who have bewitched me.
+Then shall I live and gladden thy heart.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In strange contrast to these utterances of popular
+superstition are the hymns and prayers that were
+addressed by the cultivated Babylonian to the gods of
+the official creed. They were gods of light and healing,
+who punished, indeed, the sins of the wicked,
+but were ready to listen to the petitions of the penitent
+and to forgive them their transgressions. Bel-Merodach
+was <q>the merciful one who raises the dead
+to life,</q> and Ea was ever on the watch to send aid
+to suffering humanity and foil the demons who
+warred against man. Here, for example, are some
+extracts from one of those penitential psalms whose
+authors seem to have sprung from Eridu and which
+formed part of the Babylonian Bible long before the
+age of Abraham:
+</p>
+
+<lg>
+<l>The heart of my lord is wroth; may it be appeased!</l>
+<l>May the god whom I know not be appeased!</l>
+<l>May the goddess whom I know not be appeased!</l>
+<l>May both the god I know and the god I know not be appeased!…</l>
+<l>O lord, my sins are many, my transgressions are great!…</l>
+<l>The sin that I sinned I knew not,</l>
+<l>The transgression I committed I knew not.…</l>
+<pb n='261'/><anchor id='Pg261'/>
+<l>The lord in the wrath of his heart has regarded me,</l>
+<l>God in the fierceness of his heart has revealed himself to me.…</l>
+<l>I sought for help, and none took my hand;</l>
+<l>I wept, and none stood at my side;</l>
+<l>I cried aloud, and there was none that heard me.</l>
+<l>I am in trouble and hiding; I dare not look up.</l>
+<l>To my god, the merciful one, I turn myself, I utter my prayer;</l>
+<l>The feet of my goddess I kiss and water with tears.…</l>
+<l>The sins I have sinned turn into a blessing;</l>
+<l>The transgressions I have committed let the wind carry away!</l>
+<l>Strip off my manifold wickednesses as a garment!</l>
+<l>O my god, seven times seven are my transgressions; forgive my sins!</l>
+<l>O my goddess, seven times seven are my transgressions; forgive my sins!</l>
+</lg>
+
+<p>
+To the same early period belongs a hymn to the
+Moon-god, originally composed for the services in
+the temple of Ur, the birthplace of Abraham, and
+afterward incorporated in the sacred books of the
+state religion. It is thus that the poet speaks of his
+god:
+</p>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Father, long-suffering and full of forgiveness, whose hand upholdeth the life of all mankind!…</l>
+<l>First-born, omnipotent, whose heart is immensity, and there is none who may fathom it!…</l>
+<l>In heaven who is supreme? Thou alone, thou art supreme!</l>
+<l>On earth, who is supreme? Thou alone, thou art supreme!</l>
+<l>As for thee, thy will is made known in heaven, and the angels bow their faces.</l>
+<l>As for thee, thy will is made known upon earth, and the spirits below kiss the ground.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<pb n='262'/><anchor id='Pg262'/>
+
+<p>
+At times the language of the hymn rises to that of
+monotheism of a pure and exalted character. That
+a monotheistic school actually existed in one of the
+literary circles of Babylonia was long ago pointed
+out by Sir Henry Rawlinson. It arose at Erech, an
+early seat of Semitic influence, and endeavored to
+resolve the manifold deities of Chaldea into forms or
+manifestations of the <q>one god,</q> Anu. It never
+made many converts, it is true; but the tendency
+toward monotheism continued among the educated
+part of the population, and when Babylon became
+the capital of the country its god, Merodach, became
+not only a Bel or <q>Lord,</q> but the one supreme lord
+over all the other gods. Though the existence of the
+other gods was admitted, they fell, as it were, into a
+background of shadow, and the worshipper of Merodach,
+in his devotion to the god, almost forgot that
+they existed at all. The prayers of Nebuchadnezzar
+are a proof how narrow was the line which divided
+his faith from that of the monotheist. <q>To Merodach
+my lord,</q> he says, <q>I prayed; I began to him
+my petition; the word of my heart sought him, and
+I said: O prince, thou that art from everlasting, lord
+of all that exists, for the king whom thou lovest,
+whom thou callest by name, as it seems good unto
+thee, thou guidest his name aright, thou watchest
+over him in the path of righteousness! I, the prince
+who obeys thee, am the work of thy hands; thou
+hast created me and hast entrusted to me the sovereignty
+over multitudes of men, according to thy
+goodness, O lord, which thou hast made to pass over
+them all. Let me love thy supreme lordship, let the
+<pb n='263'/><anchor id='Pg263'/>
+fear of thy divinity exist in my heart, and give what
+seemeth good unto thee, since thou maintainest my
+life.</q>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man who could thus pray was not far from
+the kingdom of God.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='265'/><anchor id='Pg265'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<anchor id="Appendix"/>
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Appendix: Weights And Measures</head>
+
+<p>
+In the preceding pages the equivalence of the <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> in modern
+English measures has been given in accordance with the
+calculations of Dr. Oppert. Other scholars, however, would
+assign to it a different value, identifying it with the Hebrew
+<hi rend='italic'>qab</hi> and making it equal to about two litres. This, indeed,
+seems to have been its value in the age of Abraham, but in the
+later days of Babylonian history a different system certainly
+prevailed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<hi rend='sc'>Weights.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<table rows="3" cols="2">
+<row><cell>360 se ("grains")</cell><cell>1 shekel</cell></row>
+<row><cell>60 shekels</cell><cell>1 maneh (<hi rend='italic'>mana</hi>)</cell></row>
+<row><cell>60 manehs</cell><cell>1 talent</cell></row>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+The silver maneh was equivalent to £9, the shekel being
+3s., while the gold maneh was ten times its value. The maneh
+was originally a weight more than one kind of which was in
+use: (1) The heavy maneh of 990 grammes; (2) the light
+maneh of 495 grammes; (3) the gold maneh (for weighing
+gold) of 410 grammes; and (4) the silver maneh of 546
+grammes. At Sippara, however, the heavy maneh weighed
+787 grammes; the light maneh, 482 grammes; and the gold
+maneh, 392 grammes; while the standard maneh fixed by
+Dungi weighed 980 grammes. The maneh of Carchemis contained
+561 grammes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<hi rend='sc'>Measures of Capacity.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<table rows="5" cols="2">
+<row><cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>qa</hi> (Heb. <hi rend='italic'>qab</hi>)</cell>
+     <cell>1.66 litres</cell></row>
+<row><cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>pi</hi> or ardeb (Heb. homer)</cell>
+     <cell>36 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi></cell></row>
+<row><cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>bar</hi> (Heb. se'ah)</cell>
+     <cell>60 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi></cell></row>
+<row><cell>1 homer in Assyria </cell><cell>60 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi></cell></row>
+<row><cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi> (Heb. kor)</cell>
+     <cell>180 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi></cell></row>
+</table>
+
+<pb n='266'/><anchor id='Pg266'/>
+
+<p>
+In the Abrahamic age other systems were in use in Babylonia
+according to which the <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>
+sometimes contained 360 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>
+and sometimes 300 <hi rend='italic'>qas</hi>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tonnage of ships was reckoned by the <hi rend='italic'>gur</hi>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<hi rend='sc'>Measures of Length.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<table rows="8" cols="2">
+<row><cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>uban</hi> or finger-breadth (divided into 180 parts)</cell>
+      <cell>16.6 millimetres</cell></row>
+<row><cell>30 finger-breadths</cell>
+     <cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>ammat</hi> or cubit (498 mm.)</cell></row>
+<row><cell>2 cubits</cell><cell>1 great cubit (996 mm.)</cell></row>
+<row><cell>6 great cubits</cell><cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>qanu</hi> or reed</cell></row>
+<row><cell>2 reeds</cell><cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>gar</hi></cell></row>
+<row><cell>60 <hi rend='italic'>gars</hi></cell>
+     <cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>soss</hi> or stade</cell></row>
+<row><cell>30 <hi rend='italic'>sosses</hi></cell>
+     <cell>1 <hi rend='italic'>kasbu</hi> or parasang (21 kilometres)</cell></row>
+<row><cell>2 <hi rend='italic'>kasbus</hi></cell>
+     <cell>1 great <hi rend='italic'>kasbu</hi></cell></row>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+<hi rend='sc'>Superficial Measures.</hi>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the Abrahamic age 180 <hi rend='italic'>se</hi> were probably equivalent to 1
+<hi rend='italic'>gin</hi>, 60 <hi rend='italic'>gin</hi>
+to one <hi rend='italic'>sar</hi> or <q>garden,</q>
+1,800 <hi rend='italic'>sar</hi> to 1 feddân
+(<hi rend='italic'>padânu</hi>) or <q>acre.</q>
+The latter was called <hi rend='italic'>bur-gan</hi> in Sumerian,
+or <q>10 acres,</q> to distinguish it from a smaller acre,
+which contained only 180 <hi rend='italic'>sar</hi>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Time was reckoned by the <hi rend='italic'>kasbu</hi> or <q>double hour,</q> and in
+early times the weight was divided into three watches of 2
+<hi rend='italic'>kasbus</hi> or 4 hours each. The months were originally lunar,
+and consisted of 30 days, an intercalary month being inserted
+in the calendar every six years. The zodiac was divided into
+360 degrees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mathematics were based upon a sexagesimal system, sixty,
+called the <hi rend='italic'>soss</hi>, being the unit.
+The <hi rend='italic'>ner</hi> was equivalent to 10
+<hi rend='italic'>sosses</hi> and the <hi rend='italic'>sar</hi>
+to 6 <hi rend='italic'>ners</hi>.
+</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<pb n='267'/><anchor id='Pg267'/>
+
+<div rend="page-break-before: always">
+<index index="toc"/>
+<index index="pdf"/>
+<head>Index</head>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Adoption, by the Sun-god, <ref target="Pg036">36</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">its prevalence in Babylon, <ref target="Pg037">37</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">concerning slaves, <ref target="Pg038">38</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a way to citizenship, <ref target="Pg041">41</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ainsworth, on coast-line formation, <ref target="Pg002">2</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Allat, goddess of under-world, <ref target="Pg242">242</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">in temples, <ref target="Pg247">247</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Amen, used in hymns, <ref target="Pg245">245</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Amorites, the, women, <ref target="Pg018">18</ref>, <ref target="Pg191">191</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">colonies, <ref target="Pg187">187</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">position of, <ref target="Pg189">189</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">freedom of worship, <ref target="Pg191">191-193</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">country, <ref target="Pg220">220</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Apprentices, case of slaves, <ref target="Pg071">71</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Arad-Samas, position of his two wives, <ref target="Pg027">27</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Aramaic, taught in schools, <ref target="Pg056">56</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Architecture, features of Babylonian, <ref target="Pg009">9</ref>, <ref target="Pg010">10</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">use of bricks, <ref target="Pg090">90</ref>, <ref target="Pg137">137</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">character of, <ref target="Pg091">91</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">plans of houses, <ref target="Pg092">92</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">foundations, <ref target="Pg092">92</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">decorations, <ref target="Pg093">93</ref>, <ref target="Pg094">94</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dwellings of poor, <ref target="Pg095">95</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">stair-cases, <ref target="Pg095">95</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Army. <hi rend='italic'>See under</hi> <ref target="Index-State"><q>State</q></ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Artists, position of, <ref target="Pg166">166</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ashtoreth. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> <ref target="Index-Istar">Istar</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Assur, worship of, <ref target="Pg256">256</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Assyrians, compared with Babylonians, <ref target="Pg008">8</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">in regard to women, <ref target="Pg018">18</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">slave law among, <ref target="Pg078">78</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">slave contract, <ref target="Pg079">79</ref>, <ref target="Pg080">80</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">features of architecture, <ref target="Pg093">93</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">gardens of, <ref target="Pg095">95</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">land, <ref target="Pg123">123</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">contracts, <ref target="Pg124">124</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">land measurements, <ref target="Pg125">125</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">money interest, <ref target="Pg156">156</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">coinage, <ref target="Pg157">157</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">medicine, <ref target="Pg164">164</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">military character of government, <ref target="Pg172">172</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">taxes, <ref target="Pg175">175</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">army, <ref target="Pg181">181</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">navy, <ref target="Pg183">183</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">letters, <ref target="Pg217">217</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">religion, <ref target="Pg255">255</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Astrology, <ref target="Pg060">60</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">letters relating to, <ref target="Pg219">219</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Baal worship, <ref target="Pg233">233</ref>-234</l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Babylonia, its importance and situation, <ref target="Pg001">1</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the increase of land, <ref target="Pg002">2</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">and its culture, <ref target="Pg006">6</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">various nationalities, <ref target="Pg007">7</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Chaldean associations, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Kassite influence, <ref target="Pg007">7</ref>, <ref target="Pg008">8</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the inhabitants, <ref target="Pg009">9</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">trade, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>, <ref target="Pg107">107</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">architecture, <ref target="Pg009">9</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">writing, <ref target="Pg010">10</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">mode of burial, <ref target="Pg010">10</ref>, <ref target="Pg011">11</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">cosmogony, <ref target="Pg011">11</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">fertility, <ref target="Pg011">11</ref>, <ref target="Pg012">12</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">features of family life, <ref target="Pg013">13</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dowry and divorce, <ref target="Pg020">20</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">polygamy, <ref target="Pg027">27</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">matrimony, <ref target="Pg029">29</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">inheritance, <ref target="Pg031">31</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">adoption, <ref target="Pg036">36</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">citizenship, <ref target="Pg041">41</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">names, <ref target="Pg045">45</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">literature, <ref target="Pg052">52-54</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">burial, <ref target="Pg062">62-66</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">slavery, <ref target="Pg067">67</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">labourers, <ref target="Pg082">82</ref> ff., <ref target="Pg148">148</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">manners and customs, <ref target="Pg090">90</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">manufactures, <ref target="Pg107">107</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">house property, <ref target="Pg118">118-120</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">land, <ref target="Pg120">120</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">money-lending, <ref target="Pg157">157</ref> ff.;</l>
+<pb n='268'/><anchor id='Pg268'/>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">bankers, <ref target="Pg151">151</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">barristers, <ref target="Pg161">161</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">government, <ref target="Pg168">168</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">army, <ref target="Pg177">177</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">law, <ref target="Pg095">95</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">letter-writing, <ref target="Pg208">208</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">religion, <ref target="Pg231">231</ref> ff.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Balawât, description of shrine at, <ref target="Pg247">247</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Bankers, firms of, <ref target="Pg127">127</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">and money-lending, <ref target="Pg151">151</ref> ff.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Barbers, position of, <ref target="Pg105">105</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Beating the bounds, custom of, <ref target="Pg121">121</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Bedâwin, as shepherds, <ref target="Pg082">82</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">wages of, <ref target="Pg086">86</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Beer-houses, <ref target="Pg113">113</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Bel, <q>The Illumination of Bel,</q> <ref target="Pg060">60</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Bel-Katsir, a plea set aside, <ref target="Pg028">28</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">his adoption, <ref target="Pg037">37</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Bel-Merodach and sonship, <ref target="Pg036">36</ref>, <ref target="Pg168">168</ref>, <ref target="Pg169">169</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">hymns and prayers, <ref target="Pg260">260</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Berachiel, his action for adoption, <ref target="Pg038">38</ref>, <ref target="Pg039">39</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Berossus, origin of Babylon, <ref target="Pg001">1</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Bethels in shrines, <ref target="Pg248">248</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Bitumen, use of, <ref target="Pg090">90</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">prices of, <ref target="Pg147">147</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l><q>Black Stone</q> of Mecca, <ref target="Pg248">248</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Borsippa, University at, <ref target="Pg054">54</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2"><q>The Epic of the Creation,</q> <ref target="Pg055">55</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Branding in the sole, <ref target="Pg044">44</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Brick-makers, importance of, <ref target="Pg137">137</ref>, <ref target="Pg138">138</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<anchor id="Index-Burial"/>
+<l>Burial, method of Babylonian, <ref target="Pg010">10</ref>, <ref target="Pg062">62</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">place of, <ref target="Pg062">62</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">cemeteries, <ref target="Pg062">62</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">rites of, <ref target="Pg063">63</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">tombs, <ref target="Pg064">64</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Canaanitish Women, legal status, <ref target="Pg019">19</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Cape of Good Hope, <ref target="Pg045">45</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Carchemish, importance of, <ref target="Pg156">156</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">maneh of, <ref target="Pg159">159</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Carpenters, <ref target="Pg134">134</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Cemeteries, <ref target="Pg062">62</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Chaldea, the origin of, <ref target="Pg007">7</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Chariots for army, <ref target="Pg178">178</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Circumcision, <ref target="Pg047">47</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Clay-tablets, use of, <ref target="Pg051">51</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Colonies of Amorites, <ref target="Pg187">187</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Concubines, allowed, <ref target="Pg025">25</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">purchaseable, <ref target="Pg026">26</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Cosmetics, wide use of, <ref target="Pg105">105</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Cosmological beliefs, <ref target="Pg243">243</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Cremation, practised, <ref target="Pg062">62</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Cuneiform writing, <ref target="Pg049">49</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">use of clay, <ref target="Pg050">50</ref>, <ref target="Pg209">209</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">chapters, <ref target="Pg052">52</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">origin, <ref target="Pg209">209</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Custom-house, place of, <ref target="Pg111">111</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Customs:</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">manner of building, <ref target="Pg090">90</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">furniture, <ref target="Pg096">96</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dress, <ref target="Pg099">99</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the cylinder, <ref target="Pg102">102</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">beards, <ref target="Pg104">104</ref>, <ref target="Pg105">105</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">cosmetics, <ref target="Pg105">105</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Cylinder, worn on arm, <ref target="Pg102">102</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">designs on, <ref target="Pg103">103</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">patterns of, <ref target="Pg103">103</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Death, belief about, <ref target="Pg242">242</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Divorce, among Babylonians, <ref target="Pg020">20</ref>-25;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">position of divorced wives, <ref target="Pg028">28</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">instances, <ref target="Pg196">196</ref>, <ref target="Pg197">197</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Doctors. <hi rend='italic'>See under</hi> <ref target="Index-Medicine"><q>Medicine</q></ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Dowry and divorce, <ref target="Pg019">19</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">penalties, <ref target="Pg026">26</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">reasons of divorce, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Dress, many varieties of, <ref target="Pg099">99</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">priest's, <ref target="Pg101">101</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">poor person's, <ref target="Pg101">101</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">women's, <ref target="Pg102">102</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">seal cylinder, <ref target="Pg102">102</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Duty, on sheep, <ref target="Pg111">111</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">levy of, <ref target="Pg113">113</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<anchor id="Index-Ea"/>
+<l>Ea, the god of Eridu, <ref target="Pg003">3</ref>, <ref target="Pg260">260</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">founder of law, <ref target="Pg195">195</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the spirit, <ref target="Pg232">232</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the temple of, <ref target="Pg236">236</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Semitic influence, <ref target="Pg237">237</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<pb n='269'/><anchor id='Pg269'/>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ebers Papyrus on medicine, <ref target="Pg163">163</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Eclipses mentioned, <ref target="Pg219">219</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Education:</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a curious procedure, <ref target="Pg044">44</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">naming, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">schooling, <ref target="Pg047">47</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">bodily exercises, <ref target="Pg048">48</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">cuneiform writing, <ref target="Pg047">47</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">writing materials, <ref target="Pg050">50</ref>, <ref target="Pg051">51</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">books, <ref target="Pg052">52</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">kinds of literature, <ref target="Pg052">52</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">school buildings, <ref target="Pg054">54</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">class education, <ref target="Pg055">55</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dead languages taught, <ref target="Pg056">56</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">philology, <ref target="Pg057">57</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">history, <ref target="Pg058">58</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">other studies, <ref target="Pg059">59</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Egibi, the banker, <ref target="Pg127">127</ref>, <ref target="Pg152">152</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Egyptian influence on religion, <ref target="Pg233">233</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>El-lil, the god of Nippur, <ref target="Pg003">3</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Eridu, a seaport of primitive Chaldea, <ref target="Pg002">2</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a great centre, <ref target="Pg003">3</ref>, <ref target="Pg004">4</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">its god, <ref target="Pg003">3</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">its origin, <ref target="Pg004">4</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">its temple, <ref target="Pg236">236</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Exorcisms, form of, <ref target="Pg260">260</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Family life among Semites, <ref target="Pg013">13</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">equality of sexes, <ref target="Pg014">14</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Farmers, tenure, <ref target="Pg084">84</ref>, <ref target="Pg085">85</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Fasts and feasts prescribed, <ref target="Pg246">246</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Footstool, <ref target="Pg096">96</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Furniture, scanty but artistic, <ref target="Pg096">96</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Gardens, largely used, <ref target="Pg094">94</ref>, <ref target="Pg127">127</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Gem-cutting, art of, <ref target="Pg103">103</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Gods and goddesses, relation of king to, <ref target="Pg169">169</ref> ff.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Grain, varying prices of, <ref target="Pg142">142</ref>, <ref target="Pg145">145</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">as exchange, <ref target="Pg144">144</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">store-house, <ref target="Pg206">206</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Gudea, priest-king of Lagas, <ref target="Pg090">90</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">works of, <ref target="Pg093">93</ref>, <ref target="Pg094">94</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a vase of, <ref target="Pg097">97</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dress, <ref target="Pg102">102</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">deification of, <ref target="Pg169">169</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Guilds for traders, <ref target="Pg141">141</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Hades, belief about, <ref target="Pg242">242</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Herodotus, quoted on Babylonian fertility, <ref target="Pg011">11</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">on prostitution, <ref target="Pg030">30</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>History, the favourite study, <ref target="Pg058">58</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Hit, bitumen procured from, <ref target="Pg090">90</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l><q>House of Cereals,</q> the, <ref target="Pg206">206</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>House-property, value of, <ref target="Pg114">114</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">lease of, <ref target="Pg115">115</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">payment for, <ref target="Pg116">116</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a lawsuit, <ref target="Pg118">118</ref>-120</l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Hymns, Sumerian origin, <ref target="Pg244">244</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Amen, <ref target="Pg245">245</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">hymns and prayers to Bel, <ref target="Pg260">260</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ideograph, or picture-writing, <ref target="Pg236">236</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Inheritance, laws of, <ref target="Pg031">31</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">private ownership, <ref target="Pg032">32</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">testaments, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the will of Sennacherib, <ref target="Pg035">35</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the theory of adoption, <ref target="Pg036">36</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">disputes, <ref target="Pg042">42</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Iron, general use of, <ref target="Pg136">136</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Irrigation, necessity of, <ref target="Pg088">88</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<anchor id="Index-Istar"/>
+<l>Istar, the goddess, significant changes, <ref target="Pg013">13</ref>, <ref target="Pg014">14</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the priestesses of, <ref target="Pg016">16</ref>, <ref target="Pg017">17</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">land of temple of, <ref target="Pg126">126</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">independence of, <ref target="Pg239">239</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">as Ashtoreth, <ref target="Pg240">240</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">story of, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">prophetesses of, <ref target="Pg252">252</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the Istar of witchcraft, <ref target="Pg259">259</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ivory, large trade in, <ref target="Pg136">136</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Jews, position of, in Babylonia, <ref target="Pg068">68</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">colonists, <ref target="Pg190">190</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Judges, appointment of, <ref target="Pg197">197</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">trials before, <ref target="Pg199">199</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Juries, existence of, <ref target="Pg198">198</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Kassites, their dynasty, <ref target="Pg007">7</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">effect of conquest in Babylonia, <ref target="Pg171">171</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<pb n='270'/><anchor id='Pg270'/>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Khalutê, battle of, <ref target="Pg053">53</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Khunnatu, <ref target="Pg072">72</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Khammurabi, letters of, <ref target="Pg210">210</ref> ff.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ki-makh, or cemetery, <ref target="Pg062">62</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>King. <hi rend='italic'>See under</hi> <ref target="Index-State"><q>State</q></ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Labourers, classes of, <ref target="Pg082">82</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">farmers, <ref target="Pg084">84</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">wages, <ref target="Pg085">85</ref>, <ref target="Pg086">86</ref>, <ref target="Pg148">148</ref>-150;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">songs of, <ref target="Pg087">87</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Land, value of, <ref target="Pg120">120</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">rent of, <ref target="Pg121">121</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">in Assyria, <ref target="Pg123">123</ref> ff.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<anchor id="Index-Law"/>
+<l>Law, the study of, <ref target="Pg059">59</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">early origin, <ref target="Pg195">195</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">judges, <ref target="Pg197">197</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">case of foreigners, <ref target="Pg198">198</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">trials, <ref target="Pg199">199</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">careful procedure, <ref target="Pg201">201</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">punishments, <ref target="Pg205">205</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">bail, <ref target="Pg206">206</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">prisons, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Layard, his discovery of a lens, <ref target="Pg051">51</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<anchor id="Index-Letter-Writing"/>
+<l>Letter-writing no modern invention, <ref target="Pg208">208</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">material used, <ref target="Pg209">209</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">cuneiform writing and its advantages, <ref target="Pg210">210</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">early examples, <ref target="Pg211">211</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assyrian, <ref target="Pg216">216</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">private letters, <ref target="Pg225">225</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">sealing, <ref target="Pg228">228</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">noticeable features, <ref target="Pg229">229</ref>, <ref target="Pg230">230</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Literature, place of, <ref target="Pg052">52</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">poetry, <ref target="Pg165">165</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Maneh. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> <ref target="Index-Money-Lending"><q>money-lending</q></ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Marriage ceremonies among Babylonians, <ref target="Pg029">29</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">among Israelites, <ref target="Pg030">30</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">permitted degrees, <ref target="Pg031">31</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<anchor id="Index-Medicine"/>
+<l>Medicine, early use, <ref target="Pg162">162</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Egyptian influence, <ref target="Pg163">163</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">court physicians, <ref target="Pg164">164</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">in Assyria, <ref target="Pg164">164</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">doctors' letters, <ref target="Pg218">218</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Metals, use of, <ref target="Pg131">131</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">where found, <ref target="Pg132">132</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">method of working, <ref target="Pg132">132</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">copper, <ref target="Pg133">133</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">prices for, <ref target="Pg147">147</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<anchor id="Index-Money-Lending"/>
+<l>Money-lending, a lucrative profession, <ref target="Pg151">151</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a coin currency, <ref target="Pg152">152</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">repayments, <ref target="Pg153">153</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">rate of interest, <ref target="Pg153">153</ref>, <ref target="Pg154">154</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">securities, <ref target="Pg155">155</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assyrian interest, <ref target="Pg156">156</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">standard of coins, <ref target="Pg158">158</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">fixed values, <ref target="Pg160">160</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Monotheism in hymns, <ref target="Pg262">262</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Moon-god, temple of, <ref target="Pg002">2</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">cult of, <ref target="Pg257">257</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">hymn to, <ref target="Pg261">261</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Murasu, the firm of, <ref target="Pg161">161</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Music and its cultivation, <ref target="Pg166">166</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Naming a child, <ref target="Pg044">44</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">and a god, <ref target="Pg045">45</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">reasons for changes, <ref target="Pg046">46</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Nebo-akhi-iddin, contract of, <ref target="Pg075">75</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Nebuchadnezzar's army, <ref target="Pg181">181</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Nergal, the Lord of the Dead, <ref target="Pg065">65</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Nidinti, case of the slave in, <ref target="Pg070">70</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Nineveh, letters in library at, <ref target="Pg216">216</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Nippur, excavations at, <ref target="Pg003">3</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">its god, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">its origin, <ref target="Pg004">4</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the temple, <ref target="Pg236">236</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Nublâ, a law case, <ref target="Pg015">15</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">her slave, <ref target="Pg071">71</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">apprenticing a slave, <ref target="Pg141">141</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Oannes. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> <ref target="Index-Ea"><q>Ea</q></ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Oracles, in writing, <ref target="Pg048">48</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Palms, high prices, <ref target="Pg127">127</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Paradise, origin of, <ref target="Pg095">95</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Partnerships, frequent, <ref target="Pg127">127</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">with women, <ref target="Pg128">128</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">form of deeds of, <ref target="Pg128">128</ref>, <ref target="Pg129">129</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">terms of, <ref target="Pg129">129</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Peters, Dr., quoted, <ref target="Pg066">66</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Philology cultivated, <ref target="Pg057">57</ref>, <ref target="Pg058">58</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Phœnicians, <ref target="Pg183">183</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Physical exercises, <ref target="Pg048">48</ref>, <ref target="Pg052">52</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Pilasters, use of, <ref target="Pg091">91</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Poets, position of, <ref target="Pg165">165</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<pb n='271'/><anchor id='Pg271'/>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Polygamy, among Babylonians, restricted, <ref target="Pg027">27</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">but possible, <ref target="Pg027">27</ref>, <ref target="Pg028">28</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Porcelain, trade in, <ref target="Pg137">137</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Portents, the study of, <ref target="Pg059">59</ref>, <ref target="Pg060">60</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Postal system established, <ref target="Pg104">104</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">extensive use, <ref target="Pg228">228</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Priest, dress of, <ref target="Pg101">101</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">classes of, <ref target="Pg249">249</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">eunuch-priests, <ref target="Pg250">250</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">marriage, <ref target="Pg252">252</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Prisons, <ref target="Pg206">206</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Professions:</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">bankers, <ref target="Pg151">151</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">barristers, <ref target="Pg161">161</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">doctors, <ref target="Pg162">162</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">poets, <ref target="Pg165">165</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">musicians, <ref target="Pg165">165</ref>, <ref target="Pg166">166</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">artists, <ref target="Pg166">166</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Property, a legal point relating to, <ref target="Pg023">23</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a woman's power, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">disputes, <ref target="Pg042">42</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">temple prop, <ref target="Pg255">255</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Prostitution in Babylonia, <ref target="Pg030">30</ref>, <ref target="Pg252">252</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Punishments, legal. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> <ref target="Index-Law"><q>Law</q></ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Qubtâ, and her slave, <ref target="Pg070">70</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Quddâ, and his slave, <ref target="Pg070">70</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Rab-mugi, or court-physician, <ref target="Pg164">164</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Rab-saris, office of, <ref target="Pg176">176</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Rab-shakeh, or vizier, knowledge of language, <ref target="Pg057">57</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">office of, <ref target="Pg176">176</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Religion, letters relating to, <ref target="Pg223">223</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">popular superstition, <ref target="Pg231">231</ref>, <ref target="Pg257">257</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">twofold influence in official creed, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sumerian and Semitic conceptions compared, <ref target="Pg232">232</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shamanism, <ref target="Pg235">235</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">ideograph, <ref target="Pg236">236</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the centres and their influence, <ref target="Pg236">236</ref>, <ref target="Pg237">237</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Semitic influence, <ref target="Pg237">237</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Istar, <ref target="Pg239">239</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tammuz, <ref target="Pg240">240</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the origin of things, <ref target="Pg241">241</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">various beliefs, <ref target="Pg242">242</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Hades, <ref target="Pg242">242</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">cosmological, <ref target="Pg243">243</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">sacred books, <ref target="Pg244">244</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">hymns, <ref target="Pg244">244</ref>, <ref target="Pg260">260</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">numerous services, <ref target="Pg245">245</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">temples, <ref target="Pg246">246</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">sacrifices, <ref target="Pg248">248</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">hierarchy, <ref target="Pg249">249</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">temple revenues, <ref target="Pg253">253</ref>, <ref target="Pg255">255</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">witchcraft, <ref target="Pg259">259</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">exorcisms, <ref target="Pg260">260</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">monotheism, <ref target="Pg263">263</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Rimanni-Bel, a slave's adoption cancelled, <ref target="Pg040">40</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sabbath, origin of word, <ref target="Pg245">245</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">customs, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sacred books, <ref target="Pg244">244</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sacrifices, various kinds, <ref target="Pg248">248</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sandals used, <ref target="Pg100">100</ref>, <ref target="Pg101">101</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sargon, his empire, <ref target="Pg005">5</ref>, <ref target="Pg006">6</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a tradition of, <ref target="Pg083">83</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">houses in time of, <ref target="Pg092">92</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dress, <ref target="Pg101">101</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">survey of land, <ref target="Pg122">122</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">carpenters' trade under, <ref target="Pg134">134</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Satraps, or governors, <ref target="Pg176">176</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Schools, <ref target="Pg047">47</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">buildings, <ref target="Pg054">54</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dead languages taught, <ref target="Pg056">56</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">subjects of study, <ref target="Pg056">56</ref> ff.</l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Scribes, the position of, <ref target="Pg161">161</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Semites, connection with Sumerians, <ref target="Pg004">4</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">influence on religion, <ref target="Pg231">231</ref>, <ref target="Pg237">237</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Semitic conception of deity, <ref target="Pg233">233</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the goddess, <ref target="Pg238">238</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sennacherib's will, <ref target="Pg035">35</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">garden, <ref target="Pg094">94</ref>, <ref target="Pg095">95</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Shamanism of the Sumerians, <ref target="Pg235">235</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sheep, largely kept, <ref target="Pg109">109</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a contract, <ref target="Pg111">111</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">duty, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">market, <ref target="Pg112">112</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Shekel, <ref target="Pg158">158</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ships, character of, <ref target="Pg185">185</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sippara, situation of, <ref target="Pg113">113</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">letters found at, <ref target="Pg214">214</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<pb n='272'/><anchor id='Pg272'/>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Slaves, position of, <ref target="Pg067">67</ref>, <ref target="Pg068">68</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">classes of, <ref target="Pg068">68</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">price of, <ref target="Pg069">69</ref>, <ref target="Pg070">70</ref>, <ref target="Pg075">75</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">law regarding, <ref target="Pg069">69</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">apprentices, <ref target="Pg071">71</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">privileges, <ref target="Pg071">71</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">restrictions, <ref target="Pg074">74</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">emancipation of, <ref target="Pg077">77</ref>, <ref target="Pg078">78</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">in Assyria, <ref target="Pg078">78</ref>, <ref target="Pg079">79</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Songs of peasants, <ref target="Pg087">87</ref>, <ref target="Pg088">88</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Spelling, correctness of, <ref target="Pg230">230</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<anchor id="Index-State"/>
+<l>State:</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">theocratic character, <ref target="Pg168">168</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">relation of sovereign to God, <ref target="Pg169">169-171</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the Western Empire, <ref target="Pg171">171</ref>, <ref target="Pg172">172</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">contrasts in Assyria, <ref target="Pg172">172</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">aristocracy, <ref target="Pg173">173</ref>, <ref target="Pg174">174</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">taxes, <ref target="Pg175">175</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">officials, <ref target="Pg176">176-177</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">divisions of army, <ref target="Pg177">177-182</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">chariots, <ref target="Pg178">178</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">developments, <ref target="Pg180">180</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Assyrian army, <hi rend='italic'>q.v.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">under Nebuchadnezzar, <ref target="Pg181">181</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">navy, <ref target="Pg183">183</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">merchant boats, <ref target="Pg184">184</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">character of ships, <ref target="Pg185">185</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Amorite colonies, <ref target="Pg187">187</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">immunities, <ref target="Pg194">194</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Stables, letters relating to, <ref target="Pg222">222</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Stars, worship of, <ref target="Pg062">62</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Stela of the Vultures, <ref target="Pg105">105</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Stone used for decoration, <ref target="Pg093">93</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Stone-cutters, perfect work of, <ref target="Pg135">135</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Streets, character of, <ref target="Pg112">112</ref>, <ref target="Pg113">113</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Stucco, largely used, <ref target="Pg092">92</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sumerians, race influence, <ref target="Pg004">4</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">influence on Semites, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">marriage law, <ref target="Pg025">25</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">marriage ceremony, <ref target="Pg029">29</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dictionaries, <ref target="Pg050">50</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">language taught, <ref target="Pg056">56</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">law for slaves, <ref target="Pg069">69</ref>, <ref target="Pg081">81</ref>, <ref target="Pg082">82</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">text-book on farming, <ref target="Pg084">84</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">beardless, <ref target="Pg104">104</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">law as to barbers, <ref target="Pg105">105</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">weights, <ref target="Pg158">158</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">deification of Sumerian kings, <ref target="Pg170">170</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">code of law, <ref target="Pg195">195</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">influence on religion, <ref target="Pg231">231</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Sumerian conception of a god, <ref target="Pg232">232</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">no moral nature, <ref target="Pg234">234</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Shamanism, <ref target="Pg235">235</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">Tammuz, <ref target="Pg240">240</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">hymns, <ref target="Pg244">244</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Sun, belief about, <ref target="Pg242">242</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Superstition, popular, <ref target="Pg231">231</ref>, <ref target="Pg257">257</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Surveyors, importance of, <ref target="Pg123">123</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tables, fashion of, <ref target="Pg097">97</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tablets of Tel-el-Amarna, <ref target="Pg007">7</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the use of clay, <ref target="Pg010">10</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Talent, <ref target="Pg158">158</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tammuz, worship of, <ref target="Pg240">240</ref>, <ref target="Pg251">251</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tapestries, <ref target="Pg107">107</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Taxes, nature of, <ref target="Pg175">175</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">immunity from, <ref target="Pg194">194</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tel-el-Amarna tablets, quoted, <ref target="Pg007">7</ref>, <ref target="Pg019">19</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">ladies' letters, <ref target="Pg048">48</ref>, <ref target="Pg215">215</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">other letters, <ref target="Pg209">209</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">points of letter-writing, <ref target="Pg229">229</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Temples, construction of, <ref target="Pg246">246</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">temple ministers, <ref target="Pg251">251</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">revenues of, <ref target="Pg253">253</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tiglath-pileser, his gardens, <ref target="Pg094">94</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tithes paid, <ref target="Pg253">253</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tombs. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> <ref target="Index-Burial"><q>Burial</q></ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Trades, <ref target="Pg107">107</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">woollen, <ref target="Pg108">108</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">partnerships, <ref target="Pg127">127</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">carpenters, <ref target="Pg135">135</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">stonecutters, <ref target="Pg135">135</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">iron-smith, <ref target="Pg136">136</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">ivory carvers, <ref target="Pg136">136</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">porcelain-makers, <ref target="Pg137">137</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">brick-makers, <ref target="Pg137">137</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">vintners, <ref target="Pg139">139</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tsarpî, an Assyrian prefectess, <ref target="Pg018">18</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Tylos, island of, <ref target="Pg108">108</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ubaru, contract of, <ref target="Pg085">85</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Under-world, belief in an, <ref target="Pg064">64</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ur of the Chaldees, foundation of the town, <ref target="Pg002">2</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">its moon-god, <ref target="Pg002">2</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">its connection with Nippur, <ref target="Pg003">3</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a custom with daughters, <ref target="Pg014">14</ref>;</l>
+<pb n='273'/><anchor id='Pg273'/>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">comparative prices, <ref target="Pg147">147</ref>, <ref target="Pg148">148</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">hymn used at, <ref target="Pg261">261</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Ustanni, an interesting contract, <ref target="Pg073">73</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Vases, plentiful and various, <ref target="Pg097">97</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Weights. <hi rend='italic'>See</hi> <ref target="Appendix">Appendix</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Will, an example of a, <ref target="Pg032">32</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">an heiress, <ref target="Pg034">34</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">the document of Sennacherib, <ref target="Pg035">35</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">disputes, <ref target="Pg042">42</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Wine, manufacture of, <ref target="Pg139">139</ref>, <ref target="Pg140">140</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">letters relating to, <ref target="Pg221">221</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Women:</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">family, legal and religious status in Babylonia, <ref target="Pg014">14</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">in Assyria, <ref target="Pg018">18</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">in Canaan, <ref target="Pg019">19</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">divorce, <ref target="Pg020">20</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dowries, <ref target="Pg020">20</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">traders, <ref target="Pg024">24</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">a superior slave, <hi rend='italic'>ibid.</hi>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">concubines, <ref target="Pg026">26</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">testatory rights, <ref target="Pg029">29</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">legal forms of matrimony, <ref target="Pg029">29</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">prostitutes, <ref target="Pg030">30</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">adoption, <ref target="Pg037">37</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">dress, <ref target="Pg102">102</ref>;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">as trade partners, <ref target="Pg128">128</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Wool, manufacture of, <ref target="Pg107">107</ref> ff.;</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2">looms, <ref target="Pg108">108</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Writing materials, <ref target="Pg050">50</ref>, <ref target="Pg051">51</ref>.</l>
+<l rend="margin-left: 2"><hi rend='italic'>See also</hi> <ref target="Index-Letter-Writing"><q>Letter-writing</q></ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+<lg>
+<l>Yahveh, name known in Babylonia, <ref target="Pg227">227</ref></l>
+</lg>
+
+</div>
+
+</body>
+<back rend="page-break-before: right">
+  <div id="footnotes">
+    <index index="toc" />
+    <index index="pdf" />
+    <head>Footnotes</head>
+    <divGen type="footnotes"/>
+  </div>
+  <div rend="page-break-before: right">
+    <divGen type="pgfooter" />
+  </div>
+</back>
+</text>
+<!-- Local Variables: -->
+<!-- coding:utf-8-unix -->
+<!-- End: -->
+</TEI.2>