_CHALDAEAN CIVILIZATION--ROYALTY--THE CONSTITUTION OF THE FAMILY AND ITS
PROPERTY--CHALMAN COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY._
_The kings not gods, but the vicegerents of the gods: their sacerdotal
character--The queens and the women of the royal family: the sons and
the order of succession to the throne--The royal palaces: description
of the palace of Gudea at Lagash, the facades, the zigurat, the private
apartments, the furniture, the external decoration--Costume of the
men and women: the employees of the palace and the method of royal
administration; the military and the great lords._
_The scribe and the clay books.--Cuneiform writing: its hieroglyphic
origin; the Protean character of the sounds which may be assigned to the
ideograms, grammatical tablets, and dictionaries--Their contracts, and
their numerous copies of them: the finger-nail mark, the seal._
_The constitution of the family: the position held by the
wife--Marriage, the contract, the religious ceremonies--Divorce:
the rights of wealthy women; woman and marriage among the lower
classes--Adopted children, their position in the family; ordinary
motives for adoption--Slaves, their condition, their enfranchisement._
_The Chaldaean towns: the aspect and distribution of the houses, domestic
life--The family patrimony: division of the inheritance--Lending
on usury, the rate of interest, commercial intercourse by land and
sea--Trade corporations: brick-making, industrial implements in stone
and metal, goldsmiths, engravers of cylinders, weavers; the state of the
working classes._
_Farming and cultivation of the ground: landmarks, slaves,
and agricultural labourers--Scenes of pastoral life: fishing,
hunting--Archaic literature; positive sciences: arithmetic and geometry,
astronomy and astrology, the science of foretelling the future--The
physician; magic and its influence on neighbouring countries._
[Illustration: 239.jpg CHAPTER III.]
Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch by Loftus. The initial
vignette, which is by Faucher-Gudin, represents a royal
figure kneeling and holding a large nail in both hands. The
nail serves to keep the figure fixed firmly in the earth. It
is a reproduction of the bronze figurine in the Louvre,
already published by Heuzey-Sakzeo, _Decouvertes en
Chaldee_, pl. 28, No. 4.