(Here follow the names of seven witnesses.)
"Month Iyyar, day 3rd, year of the throne of Zerpanitum" (the 12th year of Hammurabi or Amraphel).
That a father should part with his daughter for money in order that that daughter should become the wife of a man already married, agreeing at the same time that the young woman should become the slave of the first wife, would seem to the ordinary Western mind at the present day most barbarous. That it was not the lowest depth, however, is implied by the condition attached to the contract, and containing a kind of penalty, namely, that if the new wife denied that the first wife was her mistress, she might be sold as a slave. In what her position differed from that of a thrall, however, does not appear.
Naturally the case of Hagar, the slave of Sarah, Abraham's wife, will at once occur to the reader, though the two differ somewhat. Nevertheless, it is not improbable that the well-known Bible-story explains that of the tablet, in giving a reason for the purchase of Samas-nûri--namely, in order to give the purchaser, Bunini-âbi, a chance of having offspring, which, in all probability, his first wife Bêlisunu had not brought him. It is difficult to imagine that she would consent to the introduction of a rival for any other reason. Of course, the new wife may have been well treated, but a transaction of the kind here recorded naturally gave an opening to all possible abuses. Another case of the taking of a second wife, with the proviso that she is to be the servant of the first, is that of Iltani (see pp. 174-175), who, however, was not a slave, and had a regular marriage-deed. Moreover, she is described as the sister (_âhat_), not the slave (_âmat_) of the first wife.
On the same plate of the British Museum publication from which the foregoing is taken, there is a more ordinary document referring to slavery, and in this case it is to all appearance the sale of a real slave-woman and her child--
"1 slave-woman, Bêlti-magirat by name, and her child, handmaid of Sarrum-Addu and Hammurabi-Samsi, Nabium-malik, son of Addu-nasir, has bought from Sarrum-Addu, son of Addu-nasir, and Hammurabi-Samsi, his wife. As the complete price he has paid 18-½ shekels of silver. At no future time shall they make claim against each other. They have invoked the spirit of Marduk and Hammurabi."