Page:Laws of Hammurabi, King of Babylonia.djvu/22

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80
RECORDS OF THE PAST

services] the widow shall be permitted to bestow upon the son of her choice the estate given her by her husband and is not bound by law to give to her other sons any part thereof.

151. In event a widow marries a second time and her second husband, prior to the marriage, had an estate, this estate shall be exempt from attachment by the creditors of the wife. The wife's estate shall likewise be exempt from attachment by creditors of the husband [provided it was acquired prior to her second marriage].

152. In event the [second] husband and wife jointly contract an indebtedness subsequent to the marriage they shall be jointly liable therefor.

153. If the wife of a man occasions her husband's death, because of her love for another man, she shall be deemed guilty of murder and put to death.

154. If anyone has carnal knowledge of his daughter, he is to be driven from the town.

155. If anyone betroths his son to a girl and the son associates with her [accepts her in marriage] and the father of the son is afterward convicted of having committed adultery with his son's wife, the father is to be bound and thrown into the water.

156. If anyone betroths his son to a girl and his son does not recognize her [accept her in marriage] and thereupon that one [the son's father] sleeps with her, he, the son's father, shall pay her ½ a "mine" of money and shall give back to her everything that she has brought along from her father's house. She may then marry the man of her choice.

157. If anyone sleeps with his mother after his father [has slept with her], then both the wife and son are to be burnt up.

158. If the son of any man is caught with the chief [first or legal wife] of his father, after his father has cohabited with her, if she has born children, he is to be driven out of his father's house.

159. If anyone brings personal property into the house of a proposed father-in-law [in payment to the father for his daughter] and thereafter refuses to marry the daughter, he shall forfeit such property as he has brought in payment for his wife to the father.

160. If anyone brings personal property into the house of his proposed father-in-law and the father-in-law receives the same and then refuses to permit that person to take his daughter from the house, the father of the daughter shall return the property he has received and upon the return thereof shall be discharged from his obligation to the suitor for his daughter.

161. Should anyone bring into the house of his proposed father-in-law and pay to him the grain demanded for his daughter and thereupon is slandered by a third person, whose desire it is to marry the daughter, and the father thereupon refuses to permit the one paying the grain to take his daughter, he, the slandered person, shall be entitled to receive back the grain he has paid to the father of the daughter and the party slandering him shall not be permitted to marry the daughter.

162. Anyone marrying a wife, who shall bear him sons and then die, will not be compelled to return to his wife's father her dowry. The dowry upon her death shall belong to her sons.

163. In event anyone marries a wife and she shall die without issue, the father of the wife shall return to the husband the grain treasure which has been paid him by the husband. The dowry shall revert to the wife's father.

164. In event the father fails to return the grain treasure paid for his