." On the following morning, a thanksgiving
sacrifice celebrated the completion of the marriage, and by purifying
the new household drove from it the host of evil spirits.**

* This part of the ceremony is described on a Sumero-
Assyrian tablet, of which two copies exist, discovered and
translated by Pinches. The interpretation appears to me to
result from the fact that mention is made, at the
commencement of the column, of impious beings without gods,
who might approach the man; in other places magical
exorcisms indicate how much those spirits were dreaded "who
deprived the bride of the embraces of the man." As Pinches
remarks, the formula is also found in the part of the poem
of Gilgames, where Ishtar wishes to marry the hero, which
shows that the rite and its accompanying words belong to a
remote past.

** The text that describes these ceremonies was discovered
and published by Pinches. As far as I can judge, it
contained an exorcism against the "knotting of the tag," and
the mention of this subject called up that of the marriage
rites. The ceremony commanded on the day following the
marriage was probably a purification: as late as the time of
Herodotus, the union of man and woman rendered both impure,
and they had to perform an ablution before recommencing
their occupations.

The woman, once bound, could only escape from the sovereign power of her
husband by death or divorce; but divorce for her was rather a trial to
which she submitted than a right of which she could freely make use. Her
husband could repudiate her at will without any complicated ceremonies.
It was enough for him to say: "Thou art not my wife!" and to restore
to her a sum of money equalling in value the dowry he had received with
her;* he then sent her back to her father, with a letter informing
him of the dissolution of the conjugal tie.** But if in a moment of
weariness or anger she hurled the fatal formula at him: "Thou are not
my husband!" her fate was sealed: she was thrown into the river and
drowned.***

* The sum is fixed at half a mina by the text of the
Sumerian laws; but it was sometimes less, e.g. ten shekels,
and sometimes more, e.g. a whole mina.

** Repudiation of a wife, and the ceremonial connected with
it, are summarized, as far as ancient times are concerned,
by a passage in the Sumero-Assy