148 THEO. G. PITCHES, ESQ., NOTES UPON SOME OF THE 



Here is a man who, at a time when everything was in 

 confusion, lends money, without interest, to two other people, 

 only stipulating that it should be repaid "when the land 

 sprouts again." This may not have taken place — that is to 

 say, in a profitable way for the people to whom the silver 

 was lent — for a long time, and the lender stood the chance 

 of losing his money altogether if the borrowers should die in 

 the meanwhile. A man who lends money at interest is 

 always obliged to take the risk, when not covered as he 

 usually is, by some substantial security ; but Eemut, in this 

 document, evidently takes the risk out of pure kindness. 

 Naturally inscriptions of this kind are rare, but this one 

 shows that fellow-feeling was not by any means absent from 

 the hearts of the Semites of the Euphrates valley. 



In the present paper I have tried to reproduce some of 

 the more noteworthy traits of the private life of one of the 

 most interesting nations of antiquity. I am aware that my 

 attempt is not by any means as it should be — it is simply a 

 series of rough sketches hastily strung together. Such as 

 they are, I trust that they may be found not altogether 

 valueless. To add to and perfect them will be one of the 

 ends which, in my studies, I shall keep in view. In the 

 printing of the present paper, I hope to add to its permanent 

 value by giving the cuneiform text of most of the inscrip- 

 tions here published for the first time, and this, with the 

 notes I shall give, will help to add interest to, and to round 

 off, some of the pictures of Babylonian life here presented. 

 My apology for such an imperfect paper must be. that the 

 subject is a difficult one, especially from the all-important 

 point of view of philology. This, however, is a part of the 

 study which is better understood every day, and which, in 

 the end, will bring us to that certainty in the matter of 

 translation which is absolutely needful not only to this, but 

 to every other branch of the science of Assyriology. 



