The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-07-08
LIFE THAT WAS LED
 IN OLD BABYLON Records Tell of the Manner
 and Customs PALACE 4O0O YEARS OLD Belonged to King eudea-Annual Fes- tivaI of Peace and Joy-Prece- dence Given to Women by
 the People.
PALACE 4OOO YEARS OLD

As long ago as 1877, the late M. de Sarzec French consul at Bassorah, while excavating in the mounds of Tel-Lo, on the Shah-el-Hle, in the marsh district of the Afdaz in the extreme south of Babylonia, discovered two remarkable in- seribed records. These were two large clay barrel snapped cylinders closely cov- cred with archaic writing The larger of the pair contains thirty columns of text ] and more than GOO of writing, and the smaller about 100 less. Although these important records have been nearly thirty years among the treasures of the Louvre no complete translation of their contents has been made.
 This delay was due to two circum- l stances. First. the very archaic character of the writing, which was a reduced form of that usually employed on the bricks and stone monuments of the oldest kings of Chaldea and in a second case to their being in the ancient Sumerian language, the speech of the pre-Semitic population of Chaldea, of which scholars had but lit tie knowledge until recent years. Both these difficulties have now been overcome, the text having been copied by Dr. Ira Price, an American Assyriologist, and the difficult task of translation now has heen most successfully completed by Prof. F.. Thureau-Dangin
 Translator's Hard Work.
 The work was very difficult, for the records are very ancient, being memorials of the great Chaldean priest, King Gudea, who ruled in Lagas or Surpuna, the an cient city whose ruins are marked by the mounds at Tel-Lo, and who reigned about B. C. 276O. They have a very much higher literary merit than any of the old Chal- i dean inscriptions previously discovered. They contain prayers and hymns of great beauty, as well as descriptions of cere- monies and customs of great interest to the student of anthropology. Such litera- ture would require an extensive vocabu- lary and much research would be required to ascertain the true meaning of the words.
 Now that the full translation of the two documents Is before us we gain the most wonderful insight into the life, manners, customs and religion of the people of Babylona of 1000 years ago pos sibly. The story of the origin of these 1 cylinders is set clearly before us, and 1t is one of curious interest. A drouth had visited the land and there was no water for irrigation-"the increase grew not up; the rising waters sparkled not, nor rose in their splendor." Naturally, the priest, king or viceroy saw in this visitation the hands of the city god, Min girsu, and turned to him with prayer and sacrifice.
 "All kinds of rich things he offered in sacrifice" He Is troubled chiefly about the dream, which has already been de- scribed, but this is interpreted for him by the goddess Nina, who tells him that 1t Is the god Ming girsu, who has appeared to him in the form of a colosal divinity, crowned with the divine storm bird a deificatlon of the lightning, and riding on a hurricans, and, assisted by other dl- 1 whites, given him the plan of the tenn i pie he Is to build.
 Always Consulted Goddess.
 It is to be noticed that it is always a goddess whom the viceroy consults in his trouble Thus he says: ''To my mother i I bring my dream, that the dlviner of 1 the gods who know what I desire may re- l veal to me the meaning" This clearly 1 indicates belief in the power of wise l women or witches to interpret dreams and visions It appears that the chief oracle of the temple was "the sleeping | chamber of the divinity where as we l are told, was the sacred couch richly decorated, and where the dreamer dreamed his dream and the goddess ap- pears and explains It.
 The inscriptions are interesting for the l light they throw on the manners and GUS toms of this city. Gudea always calls 1 himself the viceroy (patesD of the god while the divinity Is always addressed as l king, and it is evident that the govern ment was a theocracy, and Gudea the earthly representative of the god king 1 In this relationship we have the key to the long account of the construction of 1 this temple, which Is an idealized form of the royal palace in the city. Accordingly we see all the component parts of this building
 Period of Equality.
 As to the life of the people, there is a passage in the second cylinder which is | of immense value. On the day the divine king entered his new temple, an octave 1 of festival was proclaimed: During seven days the female servant was equal with her mistress and the manservant on a par with his master. in his city. The strong and the weak lay side by side. l On the evil tongue the wicked words were changed to good. and all evil was turned from the temple All paid at 1 tention to the laws of Nina-Nin-g -grsu, l the orphan was not oppressed by the rich. and the widow suffered not from the mighty"
 It is curious to notice how closely this happy state in the days of Gudea agrees with that in the golden age of Ham murabi, some five centuries after. One special point to be noticed is the prece- dence given to women the wife and mother precede the husband and father, and the maidservant the manservant, and