Chapter VII: Manners and Customs of Babylonia-Assyria (4)

44. If anyone has hired an unreclaimed field for three years, to
open (cultivate) it, but has neglected it, has not opened the
field, in the fourth year he shall harrow the field, hoe it, and
plant it and return it to the owner of the field, and 10 GUR of
grain for every 10 GAN he shall measure out.

45. If a man has rented his field to a cultivator for the produce
and he has received his produce, and then a storm has come and
destroyed the harvest, the loss is the cultivator’s.

46. If he has not received the produce from his field, but has
given his field on a half or a third share, the grain which is in
the field shall the owner and cultivator share according to their
contract.

47. If the cultivator, because in the first year he did not obtain
his living (?), had the field cultivated by another, the owner
of the field shall not blame this cultivator, his field has been
cultivated; at the time of harvest he shall receive grain according
to his contract.

48. If a man has a debt and a storm has devastated his field and
carried off the harvest, or if the grain has not grown on account
of a lack of water, in that year he shall give no grain to the
creditor; he shall soak his tablet (in water, _i.e._, alter it),
and shall pay no interest for that year.

49. If anyone has borrowed money from a merchant and given a
ploughed field sown with grain or sesame to the merchant and said
to him: “Cultivate the field, harvest and take the grain or sesame
which is thereon;” when the cultivator has raised grain or sesame
in the field, at the time of harvest the owner of the field shall
take the grain or sesame which is in the field, and shall give to
the merchant grain in return for the money with its interest, which
he took from the merchant, and for the support of the cultivator.

50. If he has given him an (already) cultivated field (of grain) or
a field of sesame, the grain or sesame which is in the field shall
the owner of the field receive; money and interest to the merchant
he shall give.

51. If he has no money with which to pay him, he shall give to the
merchant sesame equal to the value of the money which he received
from the merchant, with interest according to the king’s tariff.

52. If the cultivator has not raised grain or sesame in the field,
his contract is not altered.

_Concerning Canals_

The canals built by Khammurabi are frequently referred to in his
inscriptions so that we expect to find them mentioned in his laws.
Clauses 53-56 are in connection with this subject:

53. If anyone is too lazy to keep his dikes in order and fails to
do so, and if a breach is made in his dike and the fields have been
flooded with water, the man in whose dike the breach was opened
shall replace the grain which he has destroyed.

54. If he is not able to replace the grain, he and his property
shall be sold, and the people whose grain the water carried off
shall share (the proceeds).

55. If anyone opens his irrigation canals to let in water, but is
careless and the water floods the field of his neighbour, he shall
measure out grain to the latter in proportion to the yield of the
neighbouring field.

56. If anyone lets in the water and it floods the growth of his
neighbour’s field, he shall measure out to him 10 GUR of grain for
every 10 GAN (of land).

Each cultivator had an intricate system of small water-ways
covering his land, into which he let water from the main canal
at certain times. When he had watered his field he dammed up the
connection again, but if he neglected to do so the water would keep
on coming in and eventually flood his neighbour’s land.

If a shepherd let his flock pasture in a field without permission,
he was compelled to return a definite amount of grain to the owner.
Anyone cutting down a tree without permission had to pay one-half
of a mina of silver.

About thirty-five clauses, from 65 to 100, have been erased. This
gap has been partly filled in from some old fragments of another
supposed copy of this code in the British Museum. One of these
supplementary fragments speaks of house rent: if a tenant has paid
his rent for a whole year, and the landlord turns him out before
the end of his term, the landlord shall pay back to the tenant a
proportionate amount of the money which the tenant gave him.

_Commerce, Debt_

The reverse of the stele begins with a continuation of the laws
regulating commercial relations, which are extremely important as
showing a highly developed system. If an agent found no opening
where he went, he was to return the capital to the merchant; also
if any mishap befell him in the place to which he went. If he were
robbed by the way, he was to swear before God that the loss was
through no fault of his and could then go free. The agent was to
make out a written statement of the goods received, and received
also a receipt for the money paid to the merchant. Without this
receipt he could lay no claim to his money in case of disagreement.

Curiously enough the wine sellers appear to have been women. We
read in clause 109: If a wine merchant when rebels meet in her
house does not arrest them and take them to the palace, that wine
merchant shall be put to death. 110. If a votary who does not live
in the temple shall open a tavern or enter a tavern to drink, she
shall be burned.

Laws concerning debt are treated of in clauses 113-119. A man might
be imprisoned for debt, or, as in the Mosaic code, he might sell
his wife and children into bondage for debt, but only for three
years. We have a peculiarly doleful picture of a prison of this
period, in a letter dating from the reign of Khammurabi. It
is written by an imprisoned man to his master. He describes his
place of confinement as a “house of want,” and begs for food and
clothing, to keep him from death and being devoured by dogs. If the
debtor died a natural death in his confinement, the case was at an
end, but:

116. If the confined man has died in the house of his confinement
as a result of blows or ill-treatment, the owner of the prisoner
shall call his merchant to account. If the man was free-born, his
son (of the merchant) one shall kill; if he was a slave, he shall
pay one-third of a mina of silver, and shall lose possession of
everything which he gave him.

117. If anyone has an indebtedness, sells wife, son, or daughter
for gold or gives them into bondage, three years in the house of
their buyer or their taskmaster shall they labour; in the fourth
year shall he let them go free.

118. If he gives away a man or woman slave into servitude, and if
the merchant passes them on, sells them for money, there is no
protest.

119. If anyone has contracted a debt and sells a slave who has
borne him children, the money which the merchant paid, the owner of
the slave shall pay back to him and buy back his slave.

Clauses 120-126 are in regard to depositing grain and other
property in another’s keeping. A written document was necessary and
the person who received the deposit made responsible for what had
been intrusted to him.

120. If anyone has stored his grain in the house of another for
keeping, and a disaster has happened in the granary, or the owner
of the house has opened the granary and taken out grain, or if he
disputes as to the whole amount which was deposited with him, the
owner of the grain shall pursue (claim) his grain before God, and
the master of the house shall return undiminished to its owner the
grain which he took.

_Domestic Legislation, Divorce, Inheritance_

The laws referring to domestic legislation are especially
interesting as showing the position of women. We know from other
documents of the period that they could hold property in their own
name and carry on business, and we see here that their position was
respected.

127. If anyone has caused a finger to be pointed at a votary or the
wife of a man and has not proved (his accusation against) that man,
one shall bring him before the judge and brand his forehead.

A contract was necessary for legal marriage:

128. If anyone has married a wife but has not drawn up a contract
with her, that woman is not a wife.

If a man was taken captive and if, during his absence, his wife
married some one else while there was means of subsistence in the
house, she was drowned. But if she had no means of support, her
action was considered justifiable. If, in the latter case, the
husband returned, his wife was to return to him; but the children
of her second marriage remained with their father. If the man was
a fugitive and had abandoned his native city, but returned after a
time and wanted his wife again, she was not to return to him.

The laws concerning divorce were much like those existing in
Mohammedan countries to-day. If a woman were childless and her
husband wished to divorce her, she received her dowry and marriage
portion and returned to her father’s house. If she had borne
children and her husband still wanted to divorce her, she received
besides her marriage portion sufficient means to bring up her
children; and after they were grown, of whatever they received
they were to give her a son’s share. She was also free to marry
again. If the woman were divorced through a fault of her own, she
received nothing.

141. If a man’s wife, who lives in his house, sets her face to go
out, causes discord, wastes her house, neglects her husband, to
justice one shall bring her. If her husband says, “I repudiate
her,” he shall let her go her way, he shall give her nothing for
her divorce. If her husband says, “I do not repudiate her,” her
husband may take another wife; that (first) wife shall stay in the
house of her husband as a slave.

A woman who wanted a divorce, if she could show fault in her
husband for it, might take her marriage portion and go home; but if
the fault were hers she was thrown into the water.

A peculiarly humane provision is the following:

148. If anyone has taken a wife and a sickness has seized her, and
if his face is set towards taking another wife, he may take (her),
but his wife whom the sickness has seized he may not repudiate her,
she shall live in the house he has built, and as long as she lives
he shall support her.

149. If that woman does not desire to live in the house of her
husband, he shall give her the marriage portion she brought from
her father’s house, and she shall go.

150. If anyone has given his wife, field, garden, house, or
property, and has left her a sealed tablet; after (the death of)
her husband, her children shall contest nothing with her. The
mother shall leave her inheritance to the child whom she loves; to
a brother she shall not give it.

Laws of inheritance are more particularly dealt with in clauses
162-184:

162. If anyone has married a wife, and she has borne him children;
if that woman has gone to her fate, of her marriage portion her
father shall claim nothing; her marriage portion belongs to her
children.

163. If anyone has married a wife and she has borne him no
children; if that woman has gone to her fate, if the dowry which
that man took from the house of his father-in-law his father-in-law
has returned; on the marriage portion of that woman the husband
shall make no claim, it belongs to the house of her father.

164. If his father-in-law has not returned him the dowry, from her
marriage portion he shall deduct all her dowry; and her marriage
portion he shall return to the house of her father.

165. If any man to his son, the first in his eyes, has given a
field, garden, and house, and has written a tablet for him; if
afterwards the father has gone to his fate, when the brothers make
a division, the present which the father gave him he shall keep;
in addition, the goods of their father’s house in equal parts they
shall share (with him).

166. If a man has taken wives for his sons, for his little son
a wife has not taken, if afterwards the father has gone to his
fate, when the brothers divide the goods of their father’s house,
to their little brother, who has not taken a wife, besides his
portion, money for a dowry they shall give him, and a wife they
shall cause him to take.

167. If a man has married a woman, if she has borne him children,
if that woman has gone to her fate; if afterwards he has taken
another wife, who has borne him children, and if afterwards the
father has gone to his fate: the children shall not divide the
property according to their mothers; they shall take the marriage
portion of their mother; their father’s property they shall share
in equal parts.

168. If anyone has set his face to cut off his son and says to the
judge, “I cut off my son,” the judge shall inquire into the matter;
and if the son has no grievous offence, which would lead to being
cut off from sonship, the father shall not cut off his son from
sonship.

169. If he has a grievous crime against his father to the extent of
cutting him off from sonship, for the first time he (the father)
shall turn away his face; but if he commit a grievous crime a
second time, the father shall cut off his son from sonship.

170. If to a man his wife has borne children, and if his servant
has borne him children; if the father during his life has said:
“You are my children,” to the children which his servant bore him,
and has counted them with his wife’s children: afterwards if that
father has gone to his fate, the goods of the father’s house shall
the children of the wife and the children of the servant share on
equal terms. In the division the children of the wife shall choose
(first) and take.

171. And if the father, during his life to the children which his
slave bore him has not said, “You are my children,” afterwards
when the father has gone to his fate, the property of the father’s
house the children of the servant shall not share with the children
of the wife. The freedom of the servant and her children shall be
assured. The children of the wife cannot claim the children of the
servant for servitude. The wife shall take her marriage portion and
the gift which her husband gave her and wrote on a tablet for her,
and shall remain in the house of her husband. As long as she lives
she shall keep them, and for money shall not give them; after her
they belong to her children.

172. If her husband has not given her a gift, her marriage portion
she shall receive entire; and of the property of her husband’s
house, a portion like a son she shall take. If her children force
her to go out of the house, the judge shall inquire into the
matter, and if a fault is imputed to the children, that woman shall
not go out of the house of her husband. If that woman has set her
face to go, the gift which her husband gave her she shall leave to
her children. The marriage portion which came from her father’s
house she shall keep, and the husband of her choice she shall take.

173. If that woman, there where she has entered, to her second
husband has borne children, and if afterward that woman dies, her
marriage portion shall her earlier and her later children divide
between them.

174. If to her second husband she has borne no children, her
marriage portion shall the children of her first husband take.

175. If a free-born woman has married a palace slave or the slave
of a noble, and has borne children; the owner of the slave on the
children of the free-born woman shall make no claim for servitude.

176. And if a free-born woman marries a slave of the palace or
the slave of a noble, and if when he married her she entered
the house of the palace slave or of the nobleman’s slave with a
marriage portion from the house of her father, and from the time
that they set up their house together have acquired property;
if afterward either the slave of the palace or the slave of the
nobleman has gone to his fate, the free-born woman shall take her
marriage portion, and whatever her husband and she since they began
housekeeping have made, into two parts they shall divide; one-half
the owner of the slave shall take, one-half the free-born woman
shall take for her children.

176 a. If the free-born woman had no marriage portion, everything
which her husband and she had acquired since they kept house
together, into two parts they shall divide. The owner of the slave
one-half shall take: one-half shall the free-born woman take for
her children.

177. If a widow, whose children are still young, has set her face
to enter the house of another without consulting the judge, she
shall not enter. When she enters another house the judge shall
inquire into that which was left from the house of her former
husband; and the goods of her former husband’s house to her later
husband and to that woman (herself) one shall confide, and a tablet
one shall make them deliver. They shall keep the house and bring up
the little ones; no utensil shall they give for money. The buyer
who shall buy a utensil belonging to the children of the widow,
shall lose his money; the property shall return to its owner.

178. If a votary or a vowed woman to whom her father has given
a marriage portion, a tablet has written, and on the tablet he
wrote for her did not write, “After her she may give to whom
she pleases,” has not permitted her all the wish of her heart;
afterwards when the father has gone to his fate, her field and
garden shall her brothers take, and according to the value of her
portion they shall give her grain, oil, and wool, and her heart
they shall content. If her brothers have not given her grain,
oil, and wool according to the value of her portion, and have not
contented her heart, she shall give her field and garden to a
cultivator who is pleasing to her, and her cultivator shall sustain
her. The field, garden, and whatever her father gave her she shall
keep as long as she lives, but for money she shall not give it,
to another she shall not part with it; her sonship (inheritance)
belongs to her brother.

179. If a votary or a vowed woman to whom her father has given a
marriage portion, and has written her a tablet, and on the tablet
which he wrote her has written, “property where (to whom) it seems
good to her to give (let her give),” has allowed her the fulness
of her heart’s desire: afterwards when the father has gone to his
fate, her property after her death to whomever it pleases her she
shall give; her brothers shall not strive with her.

180. If a father to his daughter, a bride or vowed woman, a
marriage portion has not given; after the father has gone to his
fate, she shall receive of the possession of the father’s house a
share like one son. As long as she lives she shall keep it; her
property after her death shall belong to her brothers.

181. If a father has vowed to God a hierodule or a temple virgin,
and has gone to his fate, she shall have a share in the possession
of the father’s house equal to one-third her portion as one of his
children. As long as she lives she shall keep it. Her property
after her death shall belong to her brothers.

182. If a father to his daughter, a votary of Marduk of Babylon,
has not given a marriage portion, a tablet has not written; after
the father has gone to his fate she shall share with her brothers
in the possession of her father’s house; a third of her share as
his child (she shall receive). Control over it shall not go from
her. The votary of Marduk shall give her property after her death
to whomever it pleases her.

183. If a father to his daughter by a concubine has given a
marriage portion, and has given her to a husband and has written
her a tablet; after the father has gone to his fate, in the goods
of the father’s house, she shall not share.

184. If a man to his daughter by a concubine a marriage portion has
not provided, to a husband has not given her; after the father has
gone to his fate her brothers shall provide her a marriage portion
according to the value of the father’s house, and to a husband they
shall give her.

_Laws concerning Adoption_

185. If a man has taken a small child as a son in his own name and
has brought him up, that foster child shall not be reclaimed.

186. If a man has taken a small child for his son, and if when he
took him his father and his mother he offended, that foster child
shall return to the house of his father.

187. The son of a familiar slave in the palace service, or the son
of a vowed woman, cannot be reclaimed.

188. If an artisan has taken a child to bring up, and has taught
him his handicraft, no one can make a complaint.

189. If he has not taught him his handicraft, that foster child
shall return to the house of his father.

190. If a man, a small child whom he took for his son and brought
him up, with his own sons has not counted, that foster son shall
return to his father’s house.

191. If a man who has taken a small child for his son and has
brought him up, has afterwards made a home for himself and acquired
children, if he sets his face to cut off the foster child; that
child shall not go his way. His adoptive father shall give him of
his goods one-third a son’s share, and then he shall go. Of the
field, garden, and house he shall not give him.

192. If the son of a favourite slave or the son of a vowed woman to
the father who brought him up and to the mother who brought him up
say, “Thou art not my father, thou art not my mother,” one shall
cut out his tongue.

193. If the son of a palace favourite or the son of a vowed woman
has known the house of his father and has hated the father who
brought him up and the mother who brought him up, and has gone to
the house of his father, one shall tear out his eyes.

194. If a man has given his son to a nurse and if his son has died
in the hand of the nurse, and if the nurse, without the consent of
his father or mother, another child has nourished, she shall be
brought to account and because she nourished another child, without
the consent of the father and mother, one shall cut off her breasts.

_Laws of Recompense_

195. If a son has struck his father, one shall cut off his hands.

196. If one destroys the eye of a free-born man, his eye one shall
destroy.

197. If anyone breaks the limb of a free-born man, his limb one
shall break.

198. If the eye of a nobleman he has destroyed, or the limb of a
nobleman he has broken, one mina of silver he shall pay.

199. If he has destroyed the eye of the slave of a free-born man or
has broken the limb of the slave of a free-born man, he shall pay
the half of its price.

200. If he knocks out the teeth of a man who is his equal, his
teeth one shall knock out.

201. If the teeth of a freedman he has made to fall out, he shall
pay one-third of a mina of silver.

202. If anyone has injured the strength of a man who is high above
him, he shall publicly be struck with sixty strokes of a cowhide
whip.

203. If he has injured the strength of a man who is his equal, he
shall pay one mina of silver.

204. If he has injured the strength of a freedman, one shall cut
off his ear.

205. If the slave of a man has injured the strength of a free-born
man, one shall cut off his ear.

206. If a man has struck another in a quarrel and has wounded him,
and that man shall swear, “I did not strike him wittingly,” he
shall pay the doctor.

207. If he dies of the blows, he shall swear again, and if it was a
free-born man, he shall pay one-half a mina of silver.

208. If it was a freedman, he shall pay one-third a mina of silver.

209. If anyone has struck a free-born woman and caused her to let
fall what was in her womb, he shall pay ten shekels of silver for
what was in her womb.

210. If that woman dies, one shall put his daughter to death.

211. If it was a freedwoman whom he caused to let fall that which
was in her womb, through his blows, he shall pay five shekels of
silver.

212. If that woman dies, he shall pay one-half a mina of silver.

213. If he has struck a man’s maid-servant and caused her to drop
what was in her womb, he shall pay two shekels of silver.

214. If that maid-servant dies he shall pay one-third a mina of
silver.

_Regulations concerning Physicians and Veterinary Surgeons_

215. If a doctor has treated a man for a severe wound with a lancet
of bronze and has cured the man, or has opened a tumour with a
bronze lancet and has cured the man’s eye; he shall receive ten
shekels of silver.

216. If it was a freedman, he shall receive five shekels of silver.

217. If it was a man’s slave, the owner of the slave shall give the
doctor two shekels of silver.

218. If a physician has treated a free-born man for a severe
wound with a lancet of bronze and has caused the man to die, or
has opened a tumour of the man with a lancet of bronze and has
destroyed his eye, his hands one shall cut off.

219. If a doctor has treated the slave of a freedman for a severe
wound with a bronze lancet and has caused him to die, he shall give
back slave for slave.

220. If he has opened his tumour with a bronze lancet and has
ruined his eye, he shall pay the half of his price in money.

221. If a doctor has cured the broken limb of a man, or has healed
his sick body, the patient shall pay the doctor five shekels of
silver.

222. If it was a freedman, he shall give three shekels of silver.

223. If it was a man’s slave, the owner of the slave shall give two
shekels of silver to the doctor.

224. If the doctor of oxen and asses has treated an ox or an ass
for a grave wound and has cured it, the owner of the ox or the ass
shall give to the doctor as his pay one-sixth of a shekel of silver.

225. If he has treated an ox or an ass for a severe wound and has
caused its death, he shall pay one-fourth of its price to the owner
of the ox or the ass.

_Illegal Branding of Slaves_

226. If a barber-surgeon, without consent of the owner of a slave,
has branded the slave with an indelible mark, one shall cut off the
hands of that barber.

227. If anyone deceives the barber-surgeon and makes him brand a
slave with an indelible mark, one shall kill that man and bury
him in his house. The barber shall swear, “I did not mark him
wittingly,” and he shall be guiltless.

_Regulations concerning Builders_

228. If a builder has built a house for some one and has finished
it, for every SAR of house he shall give him two shekels of silver
as his fee.

229. If a builder has built a house for some one and has not made
his work firm, and if the house he built has fallen and has killed
the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death.

230. If it has killed the son of the house-owner, one shall kill
the son of that builder.

231. If it has killed the slave of the house-owner, he (the
builder) shall give to the owner of the house slave for slave.

232. If it has destroyed property, he shall restore everything he
destroyed; and because the house he built was not firm and fell in,
out of his own funds he shall rebuild the house that fell.

233. If a builder has built a house for some one and has not made
its foundations solid, and a wall falls, that builder out of his
own money shall make firm that wall.

_Regulations concerning Shipping_

234. If a boatman has caulked (?) a boat of 60 GUR for a man, he
shall give him two shekels of silver as his fee.

235. If a boatman has caulked a boat for a man, and has not made
firm his work; if in that year that ship is put into use and it
suffers an injury, the boatman shall alter that boat and shall make
it firm out of his own funds; and he shall give the strengthened
boat to the owner of the boat.

236. If a man has given his boat to a boatman on hire, if the
boatman has been careless, has grounded the boat or destroyed
it, the boatman shall give a boat to the owner of the boat in
compensation.

237. If a man has hired a boatman and a boat, and has loaded it
with grain, wool, oil, dates, or whatever the cargo was; if that
boatman has been careless, has grounded the ship and destroyed
all that was in it, the boatman shall make good the ship which he
grounded and whatever he destroyed of what was in it.

238. If a man has grounded a boat and has refloated it, he shall
pay the half of its price in silver.

239. If a man has hired a boatman, he shall give 6 GUR of grain a
year.

240. If a freight boat has struck a ferry-boat, and grounded it,
the owner of the grounded boat shall make a statement before God of
everything that was destroyed in the boat and (the owner of) the
freight boat which grounded the ferry-boat shall make good the boat
and whatever was destroyed.

_Regulations concerning the Hiring of Animals, Farming, Wages, etc._

241. If a man has forced an ox to too hard labour, he shall pay
one-third a mina of silver.

242. If a man hires (the ox) for one year, he shall pay 4 GUR of
grain as the hire of a working ox.

243. For the hire of an ox to carry burdens (?) he shall give 3 GUR
of grain to its owner.

244. If anyone has hired an ox or an ass, and if in the field a
lion has killed it, the loss is its master’s.

245. If anyone has hired an ox and has caused it to die through
ill-treatment or blows, he shall return ox for ox to the owner of
the ox.

246. If a man has hired an ox and has broken his leg or has cut its
nape, he shall return ox for ox to the owner of the ox.

247. If a man has hired an ox and has knocked out its eye, he shall
give one-half its value in silver to the owner of the ox.

248. If anyone has hired an ox and has broken its horn, cut off its
tail, or has injured its nostrils, he shall pay one-fourth of its
price in silver.

249. If anyone has hired an ox and God (an accident) has struck him
and he has died, he who hired the ox shall swear by the name of God
and be guiltless.

250. If a furious ox in his charge gores a man and kills him, that
case cannot be brought to judgment.

251. If an ox has pushed a man (with his horns) and in pushing
showed him his vice, and if he has not blunted his horns, has not
shut up his ox: if that ox gores a free-born man and kills him, he
shall pay one-half a mina of silver.

252. If it is the slave of a man he shall give one-third of a mina
of silver.

253. If a man has hired a man to live in his field and has
furnished him seed grain (?) and oxen, and has bound him to
cultivate the field; if that man has stolen grain or plants and
they are seized in his possession, one shall cut off his hands.

254. If he has taken the seed grain (?), for himself exhausted the
oxen; he shall make restitution according to the amount of the
grain which he took.

255. If he has given out the man’s oxen on hire or has stolen the
grain, has not caused it to grow in the field; one shall bring that
man to judgment, for 100 GAN of land he shall measure out 60 GUR of
grain.

256. If his community (clan) will not take up his cause, one shall
leave him in the field among the oxen. (?)

257. If a man has hired a harvester, he shall give him 8 GUR of
grain for one year.

258. If a man has hired an ox driver (?), he shall give him 6 GUR
of grain for one year.

259. If a man has stolen a watering wheel (Gis-Apin) from the
field, he shall pay 5 shekels of silver to the owner of the wheel.

260. If he has stolen a watering bucket[32] or a plough, he shall
pay three shekels of silver.

261. If a man has hired a herdsman to pasture cattle and sheep, he
shall pay him 8 GUR of grain a year.

262. If a man, oxen or sheep … [the stone is here defaced.]

263. If he has destroyed the oxen or sheep which were given him, ox
for ox and sheep for sheep he shall restore to their owner.

264. If a herdsman, to whom oxen and sheep have been given for
pasturing, has received his wages, whatever was agreed upon, and
his heart is contented; if he has diminished the oxen or the sheep,
has lessened the offspring, he shall give offspring and produce
according to the words of his agreement.

265. If a herdsman, to whom oxen and sheep have been given for
pasturing, has deceived, has changed the price, or has given them
for money; he shall be brought to judgment and he shall return to
their owner oxen and sheep ten times that which he stole.

266. If in the fold a disaster is brought about from God, or if a
lion has killed, the herdsman shall purge himself before God, and
the owner of the fold shall bear the disaster to the fold.

267. If the herdsman has been careless and in the fold has caused
loss, the shepherd shall make good in oxen and sheep the loss he
caused in the fold, and shall give them to their owner in good
condition.

268. If a man has hired an ox for threshing, 20 KA of grain is its
hire.

269. If he has hired an ass for threshing, 10 KA of grain is its
hire.

270. If he has hired a young animal for threshing, 1 KA of grain is
its hire.

271. If anyone has hired oxen, a cart, and driver, he shall pay 180
KA of grain for one day.

272. If anyone has hired a cart alone, he shall give 40 KA of grain
for one day.

273. If anyone has hired a day labourer, from the first of the year
to the fifth month, he shall give him 6 SHE of silver a day; from
the sixth month to the end of the year he shall give him 5 =SHE= of
silver a day.

274. If anyone hires an artisan,--The wages of a … are 5 SHE of
silver; the wages of a brick maker (?), 5 SHE of silver; the wages
of a tailor, 5 SHE of silver; the wages of a stone cutter (?) … SHE
of silver; the wages of a … SHE of silver; the wages of a … SHE of
silver; the wages of a carpenter, 4 SHE of silver; the wages of a …
4 SHE of silver; the wages of … SHE of silver; the wages of a mason
… SHE of silver,--a day he shall give.

275. If anyone has hired a (ferry-boat?) its hire is 3 SHE of
silver a day.

276. If he has hired a freight boat, he shall give 2½ SHE of silver
a day as its hire.

277. If anyone has hired a boat of 60 GUR he shall give one-sixth
of a shekel of silver as its hire.

_Regulations concerning the Buying of Slaves_

278. If anyone has bought a man or woman slave and before the end
of the month the bennu-sickness has fallen upon him, he shall
return him to the seller, and the buyer shall take back the money
which he paid.

279. If anyone has bought a man or woman slave and a complaint is
made, the seller shall answer for the complaint.

280. If anyone has bought another man’s man or woman slave in a
strange land; when he has come into the country and the owner of
the man or woman slave recognises his property; if that man or
woman slave are natives: without money he shall grant them their
freedom.

281. If they are from another country, the buyer shall declare
before God the money which he paid; the owner of the man or woman
slave shall give to the merchant the money which he paid, and shall
recover his man or woman slave.

282. If a slave has said to his master, “Thou art not my master,”
one shall bring him to judgment as his slave, and his master shall
cut off his ear.

Having presented this remarkable code in its entirety, it is hardly necessary to comment upon it at length. It will repay the closest examination on the part of anyone who is interested in the manners and customs of this remote period. Prior to the excavations in Mesopotamia, no historian could have dared hope that we should ever have presented to us so varied and so authoritative an exposition of the laws that governed society in any part of the world in the third millennium before our era. Thanks to the imperishable nature of the materials on which the Babylonians wrote, this seeming miracle has now come to pass, and we are in a fair way to have a much more precise and accurate knowledge of the culture of this ancient people than we are likely ever to possess regarding European nations of two thousand years later. The laws that governed the Greeks and Romans of the earlier period, and the details as to the practicalities of their civilisation, are for the most part preserved to us only through traditions that utterly lack the authenticity of such an original document as this code of Khammurabi. The sands of Egypt have recently given up to us a papyrus roll on which is inscribed the famous treatise on the constitution of Athens by Aristotle; and the eagerness with which this document has been scanned by students of Greek history is in itself an evidence of the paucity of authoritative documents regarding the classical world during this relatively recent period. It is peculiarly gratifying then to be able to go back to so much more remote a period and learn as it were at first hand such interesting details of the laws that governed the social intercourse of these forerunners of the Greeks. The fact that the earliest European civilisation undoubtedly deferred in many ways to this remoter civilisation of the Orient lends additional importance to these wonderful documents from old Babylonia.[a]

FOOTNOTES

[30] Small boats similarly constructed are, however, introduced into a bas-relief, which appears to represent a scene on an Assyrian river or lake.

[31] [The translation is based on those mentioned in the introduction together with a comparison of the Babylonian text as given in transcription by V. Scheil.[g]]

[32] [The Egyptians call this _shaduf_. It is an arrangement to draw water from the canal for irrigation, and is worked by hand, whereas the wheel for the same purpose (_sakieh_) is turned by an animal.]