own.

(M41) Aramaic dockets very early attracted the attention of
Assyriologists. The presence of short inscriptions in Aramaic on a few
contract-tablets naturally raised hopes, in the early days of
decipherment, of finding some check upon the reading of cuneiform. So far
as these went they were by no means inconsistent with the readings of the
cuneiform. But they were too few, too disconnected, and in themselves too
uncertain, to be of great value. Indeed, for many of them, it is the
cuneiform that now gives the key to their possible sense. The whole of
these Aramaic inscriptions have now been published by Dr. J. H. Stevenson
in his _Assyrian and Babylonian Contracts with Aramaic Reference Notes_,
where references to the literature will be found.

(M42) In connection with these Aramaic legends a number of the texts of
Assyrian contracts were published in the _Corpus Inscriptionum
Semiticarum_, _Pars Secunda_, _Tomus I_. A number more were published in
Vol. III. of the _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, by Sir H. C.
Rawlinson. A few others were published in various journals; and by Oppert
in his epoch-making treatise on the juristic literature, _Documents
Juridiques_; by Peiser, in Vol. IV. of Schrader's _Keilinschriftliche
Bibliothek_; and by Strassmaier in his _Alphabetisches Verzeichnis_. The
whole of the texts of the Assyrian contracts from the Kouyunjik
Collections in the British Museum are now published in _Assyrian Deeds and
Documents recording the Transfer of Property, etc._ (three volumes
published).(55) A bibliography will be found there, on page ix of the
preface to Vol. I.

(M43) The very remarkable style which most of these tablets show is so
unlike the contemporary documents in Babylonia that we may expect that
transactions between private citizens in Assyria at this time were quite
different. A few such documents exist. Professor V. Scheil, in the
_Receuil de Travaux_,(56) published the text of four which are quite
unlike any of the Kouyunjik examples.

(M44) In _Assyrian Deeds and Documents_ the same plan of arrangement was
followed, to some extent, as in this work. Being all of one epoch and
showing no signs of any development the tablets were grouped,
provisionally, according to subjects. The arrangement in each group was to
place first the best specimens of the group and then the injured and
fragmentary specimens, which thus received illustration, and in some
cases, could be restored. It wo