BABYLON AND PERSIA

BABYLON THE GREAT. 255illness, that man " weighs " half a measure of cornto the master of the slave, for every day, as a com¬pensation.*23. It is rather startling to find that these un¬doubtedly very ancient texts or " precedents "averitable " custom-law " {loi couttiiniere) secure towomen a position not only honorable and infl.uential,but almost entirely independent. The laws ofproperty and inheritance are always a fair test of theposition which the women occupy in a common¬wealth. Now we have seen above (see p. 253) thata woman's dowry by no means became her husband'sproperty.That law was completed by the followingstill more liberal clause : if a widow wished to marryagain, (" set her face to go down to another house ")she took with her not only her own dowry, but allthe property which her first husband had left her.At her death, her dowry was to be divided betweenthe children of both marriages. Here the tablet isbroken off, and we lose the conclusion of the regu¬lation though it is supposed that, to be logicallyconsistent, it enacted that the first husband's prop¬erty should go to his children alone. One of themost interesting documents is a will in due and legalform, witnessed and attested, by which aman pro-" It should be noted here on high As.syriological .authority that thetranslations from the document nientioned in § 22 must be taken veryguardedly, especially in the peculiar details, and as by no meansfinal. "The text is defective and the tr.anslation necessarily so.The interpretation of this tablet is still so obscure that one could notwell say too little about it in a history of Babylonia."' (Dr. D. G.Lyon, in a private letter.) This applies particulariy to the specialprovisions, the general sense being tolerably well established.