h suffocate his first-born.

May Nabu, the holy minister of the gods, continually pour over his
destinies laments and curses; and blast his wishes.

May all the great gods whose name is invoked on this table, devote him to
vengeance and scorn, and may his name, his race, his fruits, his
offspring, before the face of men perish wretchedly.

By this table, the author of the everlasting limits has forever
perpetuated his name.

[Footnote 1: See at the end.]

[Footnote 2: These 25 hins represent 75 litres, 16 gallons and a half, for
seeding a surface of 207 acres.]

[Footnote 3: The great U, or arura.]

[Footnote 4: Again in this deed no statement is given in account of the
measurings. The space is determined merely by the indication of the
boundaries.

This document is also the charter of a royal donation: it is not clear
whether the below-mentioned objects are the price, or if, what is much
more verisimilar, they are only the accessoria of the field.]

[Footnote 5: Measurer is expressed by "masi-han."]

[Footnote 6: Cf. I Kings x. 29: "A chariot ... of Egypt for 600 shekels of
silver; and a horse for 150."]

[Footnote 7: It is a question here of the utensils used for measuring,
viz., thirty of one kind, and sixty of another.]

[Footnote 8: The quality of the dogs is somewhat uncertain.]

[Footnote 9: There is evidently a fault in the total number, 616 instead
of 716.

A weight of silver may be an obolus, the 360th part of a mina.]

[Footnote 10: The "akli," who were at the royal court, may have been
legists.]

[Footnote 11: All these are formulae solennes, as in the Roman law.]

[Footnote 12: Obscure.]

TRANSLATION OF AN UNEDITED FRAGMENT

Five-sixths of an _artaba_[1] of corn sows an _arura_, a field
situated on the Euphrates.

....adjoining ... wide ... adjoining
... a field in great measure ... Zirbet-u-Alzu
... and for the days to come he has given ... this
table ... sin-idin ... son of Tuklat-habal-Marduk,
Governor of the town of Nisin. Bani-Marduk, son of
Tuklat ... Malik-kilim, son of Tuklat ... Chief
of ... An-sali ... son of Zab-zib-malik ...
Malik-habal-idin, of the town of Balaki ... Chief of
Sin-idin-habal ... May he cause him to perish ...
and his offering.[2]

[Footnote 1: The artaba was 3 epha, 18 hins; the mentioned quantity of 15
hins necessary to seed this very fertile field is only 79 pints.]

[Footnote 2: Dr. Oppert copied this text twenty years ago; he does not
kn