slaves or free apprentices. Every workman
taught his own trade to his children, and these in their turn would
instruct theirs; families which had an hereditary profession, or from
generation to generation had gathered bands of workmen about them,
formed themselves into various guilds, or, to use the customary term,
into tribes, governed by chiefs and following specified customs. A
workman belonged to the tribe of the weavers, or of the blacksmiths, or
of the corn-merchants, and the description of an individual would not
have been considered as sufficiently exact, if the designation of his
tribe were not inserted after his name in addition to his paternal
affiliation. The organization was like that of Egypt, but more fully
developed. The various trades, moreover, were almost the same among the
two peoples, the exceptions being such as are readily accounted for by
the differences in the nature of the soil and physical constitution of
the respective countries. We do not meet on the banks of the Euphrates
with those corporations of stone-cutters and marble workers which were
so numerous in the valley of the Nile. The vast Chaldaean plain, in the
absence of mountains or accessible quarries, would have furnished no
occupation for them: the Chaldaeans had to go a long way in quest of
the small quantities of limestone, alabaster, or diorite which they
required, and which they reserved only for details of architectural
decoration for which a small number of artisans and sculptors were amply
sufficient. The manufacture of bricks, on the other hand, made great
progress; the crude bricks were larger than those of Egypt, and they
were more enduring, composed of finer clay and better executed; the
manufacture of burnt brick too was carried to a degree of perfection to
which Memphis or Thebes never attained. An ancient legend ascribes
the invention of the bricks, and consequently the construction of the
earliest cities, jointly to Sin, the eldest son of Bel, and Ninib his
brother: this event was said to have taken place in May-June, and from
that time forward the third month of the year, over which the twins
presided, was called, Murga in Sumerian, Simanu in the Semitic speech,
the month of brick. This was the season which was especially devoted to
the processes of their manufacture: the flood in the rivers, which was
very great in the preceding months, then began to subside, and the clay
which was deposited by the waters during the we