Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/594

 547 Just let her at a window, gun in hand, But draw a bead on tramp in quest of pie, And he'd indubitably understand By one means or the other he must die.

The parties therefore were discharged from court; The widow with her husband's gun went off; The gun in 92 New York makes its report, And leaves the next of kin to legal scoff.

As 't was a serious matter of o-pinion, 'T was wisely left to Finch, judicial fowl, As sound in subjects of the law's dominion As if he were Minerva's big-eyed owl.

OLDEST OF KNOWN WILLS. ' I "HE discovery of the earliest known will ■*. is an event which possesses an interest for others besides lawyers, and there seems no reason to question either the authenticity or antiquity of the unique document which Mr. Flinders Petrie has unearthed at Kahun, or, as the town was known forty-five hun dred years ago, Illahun. The document is so curiously modern in form that it might almost be granted probate to-day. But, in any case, it may be assumed that it marks one of the earliest epochs of legal history, and curiously illustrates the continuity of legal methods. It is, however, needless to labor the value, socially, legally, and histori cally, of a will that dates back to patriarchal times. It consists of a settlement made by one Sekhenren in the year 44, second month of Pert, day 19, — that is, it is estimated, the 44th of Amenemhat III., or 2550 b. c, in favor of his brother, a priest of Osiris, of all his property and goods; and of another docu ment, which bears date from the time of 1

Amenemhat IV., or 2548 b. c. This latter instrument is, in form, nothing more nor less than a will, by which, in phraseology that might well be used to-day, the testator set tles upon his wife, Teta, all the property given him by his brother for life, but forbids in categorical terms to pull down the houses "which my brother built for me," although it empowers her to give them to any of her children that she pleases. A " lieutenant," Siou, is to act as guardian of the infant children. This remarkable instrument is witnessed by two scribes, with an attestation clause that might almost have been drafted yester day. The papyrus is a valuable contribution to the study of ancient law, and shows, with a graphic realism, what a pitch of civilization the ancient Egyptians had reached, at least from a lawyer's point of view. It has hith erto been helieved that in the infancy of the human race wills were practically unknown. There probably never was a time when testaments, in some form or other, did not ex-