238 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES, ESQ., LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON 



which, as Professor Scheil suggests, an Elaniite king, Sutruk- 

 nahhunte, who ruled a thousand years later, intended to carve 

 his own name, as he had done on several other monuments 

 found at the same place. The inscription itself consists of a 

 rather long introduction, the code of laws itself in about 280 

 sections, and a recital of Hammurabi's perfections and noble 

 •deeds. Naturally a text like this, with 3638 lines of writing 

 in all, notwithstanding that these lines are short, must be of 

 considerable value, not only for the laws of the Babylonians, 

 but also for their legal terminology, their manners and customs, 

 and, indirectly, for the history of their civilization. The 

 publication issued by the French Government, and the transla- 

 tion accompanying it, contributed by Professor Scheil, are 

 worthy of the highest praise. 



It would be difficult here to give a complete list of the laws, 

 which, to say the truth, are not very well classified, but among 

 them are to be found enactments dealing with attempts to 

 thwart the ends of justice, theft, kidnapping, fugitive slaves, 

 housebreaking, brigandage, the hiring and letting of fields, 

 orchards, etc., the borrowing of money, commercial travellers, 

 female drink-sellers, deposit and distraint, marriage, adultery, 

 inheritance, the position of female-slaves (illustrating the story 

 of Hagar and Sarah), apprenticeage, adoption, violence (illus- 

 trating the dictum " an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth "), 

 medical treatment, housebuilding, navigation and freighting, 

 the hire of animals and men, pasturing, and the hire of boats, 

 and other things. These and many other matters are treated 

 of, and not only is the law laid down, but the pay, for instance, 

 of a workman, or a physician, or the amount of hire for objects 

 required for temporary use, etc., are indicated. 



Noteworthy is the fact that the first two sections deal with 

 the casting of spells, which, if not justified, was evidently 

 considered a serious offence. The following are the laws 

 referring to this : — * 



" If a man ban a man, and cast a spell upon him, (if) he 

 cannot justify it, he who has banned him shall be killed." 



" If a man has cast a spell upon a man, and has not justified 

 it, he upon whom the spell has been thrown shall go to the 

 river-god, (and) shall plunge into the river. If the river-god 

 take him, he who banned him may seize his house. If the 

 river-god show him to be innocent, and he be saved, he 

 who banned him shall be killed, (and) he who plunged into the 

 river shall seize the house of him who banned him." 



There is a certain amount of difticulty about these two laws, 



