CHAPTER III--CHALDAEAN CIVILIZATION

_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._

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.