The Oldest Code of Laws in the World, King of Babylonia Hammurabi [best books to read for women .txt] 📗

time of harvest the owner of the field forsooth shall take the corn or sesame which is in the field and shall give corn for the money which he took from the merchant, and for its interests and for the dwelling of the cultivator, to the merchant.

§ 50.  If the field was cultivated or the field of sesame was cultivated when he gave it, the owner of the field shall take the corn or sesame which is in the field and shall return the money and its interests to the merchant.

§ 51.  If he has not money to return, the sesame, according to its market price for the money and its interest which he took from the merchant, according to the standard fixed by the king, he shall give to the merchant.

§ 52.  If the cultivator has not caused corn or sesame to grow in the field, he shall not alter his bonds.

§ 53.  If a man has neglected to strengthen his bank of the canal, has not strengthened his bank, a breach has opened out itself in his bank, and the waters have carried away the meadow, the man in whose bank the breach has been opened shall render back the corn which he has caused to be lost.

§ 54.  If he is not able to render back the corn, one shall give him and his goods for money, and the people of the meadow whose corn the water has carried away shall share it.

§ 55.  If a man has opened his runnel to water and has neglected it, and the field of his neighbour the waters have carried away, he shall pay corn like his neighbour.

§ 56.  If a man has opened the waters, and the plants of the field of his neighbour the waters have carried away, he shall pay ten gur of corn per gan.

§ 57.  If a shepherd has caused the sheep to feed on the green corn, has not come to an agreement with the owner of the field, without the consent of the owner of the field has made the sheep feed off the field, the owner shall reap his fields, the shepherd who without consent of the owner of the field has fed off the field with sheep shall give over and above twenty gur of corn per gan to the owner of the field.

§ 58.  If from the time that the sheep have gone up from the meadow, and the whole flock has passed through the gate, the shepherd has laid his sheep on the field and has caused the sheep to feed off the field, the shepherd who has made them feed off the field one shall watch, and at harvest time he shall measure out sixty gur of corn per gan to the owner of the field.

§ 59.  If a man without the consent of the owner of the orchard has cut down a tree in a man’s orchard, he shall pay half a mina of silver.

§ 60.  If a man has given a field to a gardener to plant a garden and the gardener has planted the garden, four years he shall rear the garden, in the fifth year the owner of the garden and the gardener shall share equally, the owner of the garden shall cut off his share and take it.

§ 61.  If the gardener has not included all the field in the planting, has left a waste place, he shall set the waste place in the share which he takes.

§ 62.  If the field which has been given him to plant he has not planted as a garden, if it was corn land, the gardener shall measure out corn to the owner of the field, like its neighbour, as produce of the field for the years that are neglected, and he shall do the ordered work on the field and return to the owner of the field.

§ 63.  If the field was unreclaimed land, he shall do the ordered work on the field and return it to the owner of the field and measure out ten gur of corn per gan for each year.

§ 64.  If a man has given his garden to a gardener to farm, the gardener as long as he holds the garden shall give to the owner of the garden two-thirds from the produce of the garden, and he himself shall take one-third.

§ 65.  If the gardener does not farm the garden and has diminished the yield, he shall measure out the yield of the garden like its neighbour.

note.—Here five columns of the monument have been erased, only the commencing characters of column xvii. being visible.  The subjects of this last part included the further enactments concerning the rights and duties of gardeners, the whole of the regulations concerning houses let to tenants, and the relationships of the merchant to his agents, which continue on the obverse of the monument. [See page 58.]  Scheil estimates the lost portion at 35 sections, and following him we recommence with

§ 100. . . . the interests of the money, as much as he took, he shall write down, and when he has numbered his days he shall answer his merchant.

§ 101.  If where he has gone he has not seen prosperity, he shall make up and return the money he took, and the agent shall give to the merchant.

§ 102.  If a merchant has given to the agent money as a favour, and where he has gone he has seen loss, the full amount of money he shall return to the merchant.

§ 103.  If while he goes on his journey the enemy has made him quit whatever he was carrying, the agent shall swear by the name of God and shall go free.

§ 104.  If the merchant has given to the agent corn, wool, oil, or any sort of goods, to traffic with, the agent shall write down the price and hand over to the merchant; the agent shall take a sealed memorandum of the price which he shall give to the merchant.

§ 105.  If an agent has forgotten and has not taken a sealed memorandum of the money he has given to the merchant, money that is not sealed for, he shall not put in his accounts.

§ 106.  If an agent has taken money from a merchant and his merchant has disputed with him, that merchant shall put the agent to account before God and witnesses concerning the money taken, and the agent shall give to the merchant the money as much as he has taken threefold.

§ 107.  If a merchant has wronged an agent and the agent has returned to his merchant whatever the merchant gave him, the merchant has disputed with the agent as to what the agent gave him, that agent shall put the merchant to account before God and witnesses, and the merchant because he disputed the agent shall give to the agent whatever he has taken sixfold.

§ 108.  If a wine merchant has not received corn as the price of drink, has received silver by the great stone, and has made the price of drink less than the price of corn, that wine merchant one shall put her to account and throw her into the water.

§ 109.  If a wine merchant has collected a riotous assembly in her house and has not seized those rioters and driven them to the palace, that wine merchant shall be put to death.

§ 110.  If a votary, a lady, who is not living in the convent, has opened a wine shop or has entered a wine shop for drink, that woman one shall burn her.

§ 111.  If a wine merchant has given sixty ka of best beer at harvest time for thirst, she shall take fifty ka of corn.

§ 112.  If a man stays away on a journey and has given silver, gold, precious stones, or treasures of his hand to a man, has caused him to take them for transport, and that man whatever was for transport, where he has transported has not given and has taken to himself, the owner of the transported object, that man, concerning whatever he had to transport and gave not, shall put him to account, and that man shall give to the owner of the transported object fivefold whatever was given him.

§ 113.  If a man has corn or money upon a man, and without consent of the owner of the corn has taken corn from the heap or from the store, that man for taking of the corn without consent of the owner of the corn from the heap or from the store, one shall put him to account, and he shall return the corn as much as he has taken, and shall lose all that he gave whatever it be.

§ 114.  If a man has not corn or money upon a man and levies a distraint, for every single distraint he shall pay one-third of a mina.

§ 115.  If a man has corn or money upon a man and has levied a distraint, and the distress in the house of his distrainer dies a natural death, that case has no penalty.

§ 116.  If the distress has died in the house of his distrainer, of blows or of want, the owner of the distress shall put his merchant to account, and if he be the son of a freeman (that has died), his son one shall kill; if the slave of a free-man, he shall pay one-third of a mina of silver, and he shall lose all that he gave whatever it be.

§ 117.  If a man a debt has seized him, and he has given his wife, his son, his daughter for the money, or has handed over to work off the debt, for three years they shall work in the house of their buyer or exploiter, in the fourth year he shall fix their liberty.

§ 118.  If he has handed over a manservant or a maidservant to work off a debt, and the merchant shall remove and sell them for money, no one can object.

§ 119.  If a debt has seized a man, and he has handed over for the money a maidservant who has borne him children, the money the merchant paid him the owner of the maid shall pay, and he shall ransom his maid.

§ 120.  If a man has heaped up his corn in a heap in the house of a man, and in the granary a disaster has taken place, or the owner of the house has opened the granary and taken the corn, or has disputed as to the total amount of the corn that was heaped up in his house, the owner of the corn shall recount his corn before God, the owner of the house shall make up and return the corn which he took and shall give to the owner of the corn.

§ 121.  If a man has heaped up corn in the house of a man, he shall give as the price of storage five ka of corn per gur of corn per annum.

§ 122.  If a man shall give silver, gold, or anything whatever, to a man on deposit, all whatever he shall give he shall shew