A decision. A husband says to his wife: ‘Thou art not my wife.’ Haifa ma’neh (thirty ounces) of silver he weighs out in payment.
A decision. A master kills his slaves, cuts them to pieces, injures their offspring, drives them from the land. His hand every day a half measure of corn measures out.”
Babylonian literature was rich in the departments of law, mathematics, astrology, grammar, and history. Nor was fiction wanting; fables, in which the lower animals carried on spirited dialogues, were favorites with the people. At a very early date, the inscribed tablets and cylinders were collected, and the chief cities were made the seats of libraries.
From a volume of Chaldean hymns, somewhat similar to the Rig-Veda, are taken the following verses to the Babylonian Venus:—
PRAYER OF THE HEART TO ISTAR.
“Light of heaven, who like the fire dawnest on the world, art thou!
Goddess in the earth, who dawnest like the earth, art thou!
To the house of men in thy descending thou goest: prosperity approaches thee.
Day is thy servant, heaven thy canopy.
Princess of the four cities, head of the sea, heaven is thy canopy.