Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/766

 740 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

several groups or series of laws put together in a somewhat loose way. Thus a certain topic, such as slavery, is treated in several different and widely separated sections. Nevertheless, the work is far from being a mere haphazard collection of decisions and rules.

The first section of the code deals with false accusations, the second with sorcery, while the next three relate to witnesses and judges. Then follows a group which is concerned with theft, including kidnaping, the aiding or harboring of fugitive slaves, burglary, and robbery. In another series (26-41) the duties and privileges of officers and constables are defined. The next division deals with land laws, and includes the responsibilities of farmers, herdsmen, and gardeners. Here intervenes an erasure, as to the cause and meaning of which there are several conjec- tures. Sections 66-99 are missing. Evidently the subject of agency began somewhere in this gap, for when the stone again becomes legible at 100, that topic is being treated. This com- mercial division ends with several sections on wine-sellers and the price of wine, and a rather full treatment of debt and deposit. Now follows an elaborate code on the family and marriage (127-93). The chief topics of this division are: slander, marriage contracts, adultery, rape, divorce and separation, status of concubines, types of immorality, the property of women, the betrothal present and the marriage settlement, the laws of inherit- ance, and the adoption of children. The next group of laws relates to penalties for homicide and assault, and wanders on into the responsibilities and fees of surgeons and veterinaries, the branders of slaves, house-builders, and shipwrights. Another series of laws deals with economic matters, such as the renting of oxen, responsibility for loss, together with tariffs of wages and charges for draft animals and carts. These scales are sup- plemented by similar regulations concerning boat-hire. The whole concludes with a group of five sections on the sale of slaves, and the mutilation of a slave who denies his master. The epilogue enumerates still other services of Hammurabi, reiterates many of the assertions of the prologue, pronounces a blessing upon him who does not efface or alter the statutes of the code,