beautiful words of
the Egyptian _Song of the Harper_ came to my memory, and now I
understood them--

"Make (thy) day glad! Let there be perfumes and sweet odours for
thy nostrils, and let there be flowers and lilies for thy
beloved sister (_i.e._ wife) who shall be seated by thy side.
Let there be songs and music of the harp before thee, and
setting behind thy back unpleasant things of every kind,
remember only gladness, until the day cometh wherein thou must
travel to the land which loveth silence."

II.--_In Babylon_

"The modern view of marriage recognises a relation that love has
known from the outset. But this is a relation only possible
between free self-governing persons."--HOBHOUSE.

If we turn now to the very ancient civilisation of Babylon we shall
find women in a position of honour similar in many ways to what we
have seen already in Egypt: there are ever indications that the
earliest customs may have gone beyond those of the Egyptians in
exalting women. The most archaic texts in the primitive language are
remarkable for the precedence given to the female sex in all formulas
of address: "Goddess" and gods, women and men, are mentioned always in
that order, which is in itself a decisive indication of the high
status of women in this early period.[241]

There are other traces all pointing to the conclusion that in the
civilisation of primitive Babylon mother-right was still very much
alive. It is significant that the first rulers of Sumer and
Akkad--the oldest Babylonian cities--frequently made boast of their
unknown parentage, which can only be explained by the assumption that
descent through the father was not recognised. Thus Sargon,[242] one
of the earlier rulers, says: "My mother was a princess, my father I
know not ... my mother, the princess, conceived me, in a secret place
she brought me forth." A little monument in the Hague museum has an
inscription which has been translated thus: "Gudea patesi of Sirgulla
dedicates thus to Gin-dung-nadda-addu, his wife." The wife's name is
interpreted "maid of the god Nebo." It is thought that Gudea reigned
in her right. The inscription goes on to say: "Mother I had not, my
mother was the water deep. A father I had not, my father was the water
deep." The passage is obscure, but it is explained if we regard this
as one of the legends of miraculous birth so frequent in primitive
societies under mother-descent.[243] Anot