BABYLONIANS. 
6^ 
his ^brothers, and the remaiiider divided auiong his sisters; but the 
lands, lakers, and rivers, are held in coparceny by all the children of 
both sexes, according to the division made by Charles IX. of Sweden, 
when he assigned a certain tract of land to each family. 
Peculiar Customs of the Babylonians. 
We shall first notice the peculiar and surprising construction of 
their boats of skins, in which they sailed along the river to Babylon, 
These boats were invented by the Armenians, whose country lay north 
from ,Babylonia, They made them with poles of willow, which they 
bent, and covered with skins ; the bare side of the skins they put 
outward, and they made them so tight, that they resembled boards. 
The boats had neither prow nor stern, but were of a round form like 
a buckler. They put straw on the bottom. Two men, each with an 
oar, rowed them down the river, laden with different wares, but chiefly 
palm wines. Of these boats, some were very large, and some very 
snaall. The largest carried the weight of five hundred talents. There 
was room for an ass in their small boats; they put many into a 
.large one. When they had unloaded after their arrival at Babylon, 
they sold the poles of their boats and the straw ; and loading their 
asses with the skins, returned to Armenia, for they could not sail up 
the river, its current was so rapid. For this reason, they made their 
boats of skins instead of wood, and on their return to Arhienia with 
tjieir asses, they applied their skins to their former use, 
^ As to their dress, they wore a linen shirt, which came down to 
.their feet; over it they wore a woollen robe; their outer garment 
was a white vest. Their shoes resembled those of the Thebans. They 
jet their hair grow. On their he^ds they wore a turban. They rub- 
bed their bodies all over with fragrant liquors. Each man had a ring 
on his. finger and an elegant cane in his hand, with an apple at the 
top, or a rose, a lily, or an eagle, or some other figure ; for they were 
not suffered to use canes withoqt devices. 
When the Babylonians had become poor by the ruin of their me- 
tropolis, fathei’s used to prostitute their daughters for gain. There 
was one custom among the Babylonians w'orthy to be related. They 
bronght their sick into the forum, to consult those who passed, on 
their diseases, fpr they had no physicians: they asked those who 
approached the sick, if they ever had the same distemper ? if they 
knew any one who had it? and how it was cured ? Hence, inthiscoun- 
.try, every one who saw a sick person was obliged to go to him and in- 
quire into his distemper. They embalmed their dead with honey ; apd 
their mourning was like that of the Egyptians. There were, three Baby* 
lopian . tribes who lived only upon fish, which they prepared by drying 
them in the sun, and then beating them in a sort of mortar to a kind 
of flour, ^hich, after they had sifted through a linen sieve, they baked 
in y oils. 
Marriage Laws. 
jWhen the girls were niarriageable, they were ordered to meet in a 
C^rtaia pjace,, where fhe yh wen likewise assembled. Tbejjvere 
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