°If on the road on his business, the enemy have caused him to lose the property he bore, the agent by the name of God shall swear and he shall be quit. If a merchant gives goods to an agent to trade with, the agent shall write down the money he shall take, and the mer chant he shall render the agent a sealed (re ceipt) for the money he gave to the merchant.* Monetary Money for which no receipt was taken not to be included in the accounts. In case of dispute all witnesses and documents must be produced. Among the commercial laws are some of much interest at the present time relating to licensed premises. It is curious to note that all wine merchants were females.
°If riotous persons assemble in the house of a wine merchant and those riotous persons she seizes not and drives to the palace that wine merchant shall be put to death.* Curious, too, is the following, which seems to reflect the Hebrew Nazarite law: No votary or women residing in the cloister may open a wine shop or enter one for drink on pain of being burned.* In the code's domestic legislation, the most striking feature is the high position and legal protection extended to women. If a man causes a votary or the wife of a man have the finger (of scorn) pointed at her and has not justified himself* he is to be branded on the forehead.
To justify herself from scandal a woman could claim the ordeal of plunging in the sacred river. The mere formula of marriage °taking to wife* was not sufficient, for ,'if a man mar ried a woman and executed not her deeds that woman is no wife.* Divorce law is most fully given —a childless woman could be divorced.
If divorced without cause the husband must allow alimony and custody of her children, and a portion of the estate equal to a son, and the woman was free to marry. The woman could get a divorce, but must justify her right to do so. Thus•we read: "If the wife of a man who dwells in the house of that man has set her face to go forth, and has acted the fool, and wasted his house, and impoverished his house, they shall call her to account. If the husband shall say, I put her
away, he shall put her away. She shall go her way; for her divorce he shall give her noth ing." If the husband insisted, such a wife could be drowned. There is, however, a kindlier tone in the law as to a sick wife. "If a man has mar ried a wife and sickness has seized her, he may take a second wife, but the sick wife he shall not put away; in the home she shall dwell; as long as she lives he shall sustain her." Laws of Property.— The laws of property are most full and based on a most equitable system, one clause relates to the remarriage of a widow with young children and might be present-day law: "If a widow whose children are young has set her face to enter into the house of another, without the consent of the judge she shall not enter. When she enters into the house of an other, the judge shall inquire regarding the house of her former husband to that woman and her future husband he shall entrust and cause them to deposit a deed. They shall keep the house and rear the little ones, but furniture for money they shall not sell. A purchaser that has bought any furniture from the children of the widow shalt forfeit his money and return the property to its owner.° Here we have all the essential features of the modern ward in chancery. In the conclusion of this code Hammurabi repeatedly calls him self "King of Righteousness," as did his con temporary Melchisedek of Jerusalem, and en joins upon all of his successors upon the throne to observe this code and its laws. Consult Cook, S. A., 'The Laws of Moses and the Code of Hammurabi' (London 1903) ; Davies, 'The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses) (Cincinnati 1905) ; Harper, R. F., 'The Code of Ham murabi' (Chicago 1904) ; Johns,' Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters' (Edin burgh 1904); Lyon, 'The Structure of the Ham murabi Code in Journal of the American Oriental Society (Vol. XXV, Boston 1904); Rogers, 'Cuneiform Parallels to the Old Testa ment) (New York 1912).