IVoman and the Law in Babylonia and Assyria. the men. One of the early sovereigns was a queen, Ellat-Gula; and even in Assyria the bas-reliefs of Assur-bani-pal represent the queen as sitting and feasting with her hus band. All Biblical readers know well the stories of the banquets of Yashti an 3 Esther and King Ahasuerus; but of course these were of much later date. In the Tell-elAmarna tablets one can read the polite greetings sent by Tushratta of Nutani, a king of Mesopotamia, from his wife to the widow of the Egyptian king, fourteen 01 fifteen hundred years before Christ. Up to the last the Babylonian women could hold property in her own name, could enter into partnership in business with others, could buy and sell, lend and borrow, was the equal with man in regards to the pos session and management of property; could appear either as a plaintiff or a defendant in a court of law; could bequeath and devise her property as she wished, and inherited equally with her brothers subject to her father's will. There still exists a document (written in the days of Abraham), recording the gift of a female slave by a husband to a wife, and this slave and her progeny the wife was to keep though she became a widow, or was divorced. A will still remains, made in the eleventh century B. C., while Xebokinabla reigned, bequeathing property to a daughter and then to a sister; in a deed of the second year of Nabonklas (555 B. C.), a father transfers all his property to his daugh ter, reserving to himself only the use of it fo: the term of his natural l;f< and sh: agrees to supply him with all necessaries, food, drink, oil and clothing. A few years later, in the reign of Cyrus, a woman named Xubta, or the Bee (who evidently owned looms and traded in woven fabrics on her own account), hired out a slave for five years that he might be taught weaving, and (by another contract) she agreed to supplv Iv'm with food and clothing while he was learn ing his trade. The record exists of an ^cti -
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brought by the widow of Ben-Hadad-Nathan to recover her husband's property; the hus band and wife had traded together, and a house had been bought with part of their money; a half-brother of the defunct hus band claimed the house and everything; the case was tried in Babylon before five judges in the ninth year of Nabonidas, and the widow won. The following were the judges present at the delivery of the judgment: Xergal-banunu, Nebo-akhi-iddin, Nebo-sumukin, P.el-akhi-iddin and Nebo-balasu-igbi, and the clerks of the court were Nadin anc! Nebo-snm-iskum. Other writings remain relating to borrow ing money by a husband and his wife in part nership; to a woman selling a slave; to n woman suing in the court for the price of a slave. It must be confessed that clear evi dence exists to show that ladies in those primitive days were quite capable of sharp practice in their commercial transactions— sometimes even trying to win their lawsuits to perjury. One woman, we know, was heavily fined by the judges for trying this short road to success. These Babylonian laws prevailed also H Assyria, and contracts that have come down to the present time show that the Assyrian women enjoyed almost as many privileges as their sisters in Babylon. In fact, it seems that they could hold civic offices and even act as governors of a city in that country. Indeed, wherever Babylonian laws ancl culture extended woman seemed to have been able to hold separate property. Canaan was long a Babylonish province, and Sirah— who was of Babylonish origin—owned a slave; and Caleb gave a well-watered field to his daughter Achsah. When the Jews were settled in Canaan, Babylonian customs ancl laws became effete among them. In Babylonia slaves were deemed human beings; even female slaves were allowed to carry on business; we can read of one named Khimnatu who did so; after a time she de
