in advance, might demand a guarantee to fulfil the engagement.
Cattle were hired for ploughing, working the watering-machines, carting,
threshing, etc. The Code fixed a statutory wage for sowers, ox-drivers,
field-labourers, and hire for oxen, asses, &c.

There were many herds and flocks. The flocks were committed to a shepherd
who gave receipt for them and took them out to pasture. The Code fixed him
a wage. He was responsible for all care, must restore ox for ox, sheep for
sheep, must breed them satisfactorily. Any dishonest use of the flock had
to be repaid ten-fold, but loss by disease or wild beasts fell on the
owner. The shepherd made good all loss due to his neglect. If he let the
flock feed on a field of corn he had to pay damages four-fold; if he turned
them into standing corn when they ought to have been folded he paid
twelve-fold.

In commercial matters, payment in kind was still common, though the
contracts usually stipulate for cash, naming the standard expected, that of
Babylon, Larsa, Assyria, Carchemish, &c. The Code enacted, however, that a
debtor must be allowed to pay in produce according to statutory scale. If a
debtor had neither money nor crop, the creditor must not refuse goods.

Debt was secured on the person of the debtor. Distraint on a debtor's corn
was forbidden by the Code; not only must the creditor give it back, but his
illegal action forfeited his claim altogether. An unwarranted seizure for
debt was fined, as was the distraint of a working ox. The debtor being
seized for debt could nominate as mancipium or hostage to work off the
debt, his wife, a child, or slave. The creditor could only hold a wife or
child three years as mancipium. If the mancipium died a natural death while
in the creditor's possession no claim could lie against the latter; but if
he was the cause of death by cruelty, he had to give son for son, or pay
for a slave. He could sell a slave-hostage, unless she were a slave-girl
who had borne her master children. She had to be redeemed by her owner.

The debtor could also pledge his property, and in contracts often pledged a
field, house or crop. The Code enacted, however, that the debtor should
always take the crop himself and pay the creditor from it. If the crop
failed, payment was deferred and no interest could be charged for that
year. If the debtor did not cultivate the field himself he had to pay for
the cultivation, but if the cultivation was already finished he