embroider in the open air.

* Olivier, _Voyage dans l'Empire Othoman,_ vol. ii. pp. 356,
357, 381, 382, 392, 393.

They come down into the interior of the house during the hottest hours
of the day. In most of the wealthy houses, the coolest room is one below
the level of the courtyard, into which but little light can penetrate.
It is paved with plaques of polished gypsum, which resembles our finest
grey-and-white marble, and the walls are covered with a coat of delicate
plastering, smooth to the touch and agreeable to the eye. This is
watered several times during the day in hot weather, and the evaporation
from it cools the air. The few ruined habitations which have as yet been
explored seem to bear witness to a considerable similarity between the
requirements and customs of ancient times and those of to-day. Like the
modern women of Bagdad and Mosul, the Chaldaean women of old preferred
an existence in the open air, in spite of its publicity, to a seclusion
within stuffy rooms or narrow courts. The heat of the sun, cold, rain,
and illness obliged them at times to seek a refuge within four walls,
but as soon as they could conveniently escape from them, they climbed up
on to their roof to pass the greater part of their time there.

Many families of the lower and middle classes owned the houses which
they occupied. They constituted a patrimony which the owners made every
effort to preserve intact through all reverses of fortune.* The head
of the family bequeathed it to his widow or his eldest son, or left it
undivided to his heirs, in the assurance, no doubt, that one of them
would buy up the rights of the others.

* A house could be let for various lengths of time--for
three months, for a year, for five years, for an indefinite
term, but with a minimum of six months, since the rent is
payable at the beginning and in the middle of each year.

The remainder of his goods, farms, gardens, corn-lands, slaves,
furniture, and jewels, were divided among the brothers or natural
descendants, "from the mouth to the gold;" that is to say, from the
moment of announcing the beginning of the business, to that when
each one received his share. In order to invest this act with greater
solemnity, it took place usually in the presence of a priest. Those
interested repaired to the temple, "to the gate of the god;" they placed
the whole of the inheritance in the hands of the chosen arbitrator,
and demanded