Many of the contracts refer to the sales of houses or to the rent due for them from the tenant to the owner. For instance :

"4 manehs of silver, the property of Shum-usur, son of Nur-ea, son of Mastukku, are due from Tabik-ziru, son of Marduk-usur, son of Da-Marduk. For his house which adjoins

and also adjoins the house of Rimut-Bel, son of Zirya, son of Misirai, and the house of Zirya, son of Bel-eteru, the rent is wanting; the weight of silver is wanting; the house has been in the possession of Iddinakhu as a pledge for 3 years. The bare places on the walls shall be renewed, the cracks shall be filled up. After 3 years, silver to the amount of 4 manehs shall be paid by Tabik-ziru to Iddin-akhu, and the latter shall quit the house; the rent of the chamber of the servant shall also be brought by Tabik-Ziru: every door that Iddinakhu has brought into the house of Tabik-ziru shall be taken out.

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'Witnesses: Marduk-kin-aplu, son of Kiribtu, son of Da-Marduk, Lâbâshi, son of Nabu-nasir, son of Abi-ul-idi; Nabu-etir, son of Nurea, son of Mastukku, the priest of Nabu-sabik-ilani, son of Nabukin-aplu, son of Da-Marduk.

"Babylon, month of Ab, 4th day, 2nd year of Evil-Merodach, King of Babylon."

Or again:

"The house of Nabu-shum-ukin, son of Shamash-shakin-shum, which he has built upon the land of Nabu-bel-shanâti. On the east is a house; in front of it is a house; on the side is a house. It, with its courtyard, is let to Sikkuti, daughter of Bel-ushallim, for a habitation, according to the tablet, at the yearly rent of 21 shekels of silver.

"She shall repair the breaches and renew the bare places.

"At the beginning of the year she shall pay half the rent; at the end of the year she shall pay the rest.

"Witnesses: Bel-usallim, son of Nabu-irassi, son of Rammansamme; Rimut, son of Nirgal-uballit, son of the Potter.

"Scribe: Apla, son of Nabu-shum-iskun.

"Sippara, month of Tebet, 20th day, 1st year of Neriglissar, King of Babylon."

In this last document we have an example of a house let to a tenant who is bound to keep it in repair; she makes the agreement to restore the dilapidated brickwork and to renew the fallen plaster on the walls. At the present day a heavy fall of rain will often do much damage to an Oriental house, built after the manner of the native architects.

The system of mortgages was general among the Babylonians :

"12 manehs of silver, the property of the king's son, lent, through Nabu-sabit-kata, the majordomo of the king's son, to Shum-ukin, son of Mushallim-ilu. In the month of Nisan he shall pay back the principal of the silver to the amount of 12 manehs. His whole property in town and country is mortgaged to the King's son. Νο other creditor shall make claims upon this until the debtor has delivered the silver to Nabu-sabit-kata. Nabu-akhi-iddin, son of Sula, son of Egibi, guarantees the payment of the silver.

"Witnesses: Shamash-uballit, son of Ikisa; Kalba, son of Bel

eresh.

"Scribe: Bel-Akhi-ikisa, son of Bel-etir.

"Babylon, month of Elul, 10th day, 2nd year of Neriglissar, King of Babylon."

Many of the Babylonian contracts refer to money lent at interest. For instance :

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"2 manehs, 6 shekels of silver, the property of Nabu-shum-usur, son of Marduk, son of Epesh-ilu, are lent to Nabu-akhi-iddin, son of Sula, son of Egibi.

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Every month he shall pay as interest upon [this money] one shekel per maneh.

"Witnesses: Marduk

son of Baniya, son of Marduk

; Mushezib-Marduk, son of Kudur, son of. "Scribe: Nabu-akhi-iddin, son of Sula, son of Egibi.

"Babylon, month of Marchesvan, 30th day, 1st year of Neri

glissar, King of Babylon."

But perhaps the largest number of the Babylonian contracts are simply bills, containing receipts or not. The articles which have most frequently been found recorded up to the present time as bought and sold by the merchants of Babylon are corn, vegetables, sesame, dates occasionally palm-wine or oil. Many lists of objects have been found which formed part of the property of a temple, or were given to it as tribute. Sometimes these are animals for sacrifice, or food for the maintenance of priests and workmen, or woven stuffs. Many lists of amounts of wool and metal are found which were handed over to workmen for the purpose of manufacture.

· CHAPTER XII.

THE LAST DAYS OF THE BABYLONIAN MONARCHY.

UNDOUBTEDLY, one of the important results already obtained from the study of the native chronicles of Babylon is the establishment, on grounds apart from the question of the authenticity of the Book of Daniel, of the historical character of Belshazzar. The name of this prince had always been a puzzle to commentators and historians. The only native authority on Babylonian history-Berosus-did not appear to have mentioned such a person, so far as could be gathered from the second or third-hand quotations of Greek writers, such as the Jew Josephus and the Christian Eusebius: both anxious to confirm the accuracy of the Book of Daniel.

According to the extracts from the work of Berosus preserved for us in the writings of these authors, the following is the history of the last King of Babylon. His name was Nabonidus, or Nabonnedus, and he first appears as the leader of a band of conspirators who determined to bring about a change in the government. The throne was then occupied by the youthful Laborosoarchod (for this is the corrupt Greek form of the Babylonian Lâbâshi-Marduk), who was the son of Neriglissar,

and therefore, through his mother, the grandson of the great Nebuchadnezzar; but, in spite of his tender age, the new sovereign, who had only succeeded his father two months before, had already given proof of a bad disposition. We are not told, in these very probably imperfect extracts from Berosus, whether Nabonidus was connected, by marriage or otherwise, with the reigning house, as the Book of Daniel and Herodotus would have us believe; we are simply informed that he took the lead in the plot laid against the life of Laborosoarchod, and that when the designs of the conspirators had been carried out, they appointed Nabonidus king in the room of the youthful son of Neriglissar. The love of building shown by the new sovereign-of which we possess so many proofs in the cuneiform inscriptions describing his restoration of ancient temples-is reflected in the statement of Berosus that in this reign the embankment along the River Euphrates was constructed of bricks and bitumen. We next hear that in the seventeenth year of Nabonidus, Cyrus, who had already conquered the rest of Asia, marched upon Babylon. The native forces met the Persians in battle, but were put to flight, with their king at their head, and took refuge behind the ramparts of Borsippa. Cyrus thereupon entered Babylon, we are told, and threw down her walls. The last statement, however, we cannot believe, since there is no allusion to such a proceeding in the cuneiform inscriptions; and in the time of Darius we find the walls still standing, until the latter king destroyed them in part, as a punishment for the rebellion of which the inhabitants of the