read of the terrible imprecations
which protect this stele and this field, he sends a fool, a deaf or
blind person, a wicked wretch, an idiot, a stranger, or an ignorant one,
and should cause this stele to be taken away,* and should throw it
into the water, cover it with dust, mutilate it by scratching it with a
stone, burn it in the fire and destroy it, or write anything else upon
it, or carry,it away to a place where it will be no longer seen,--this
man, may Anu, Bel, Ea, the exalted lady, the great gods, cast upon him
looks of wrath, may they destroy his strength, may they exterminate his
race." All the immortals are associated in this excommunication, and
each one promises in his turn the aid of his power.

* All the people enumerated in this passage might, in
ignorance of what they were doing, be induced to tear up the
stone, and unconsciously commit a sacrilege from which every
Chaldaean in his senses would have shrunk back. The formula
provides for such cases, and it secures that the curse shall
fall not only on the irresponsible instruments, but reach
the instigator of the crime, even when he had taken no
actual part in the deed.

[Illustration: 322.jpg THE MICHAUX STONE (left)]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin. The original is in the medal cabinet
of the Bibliotheque Nationale.

[Illustration: 323.jpg THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MICHAUX STONE (right)]

Merodach, by whose spells the sick are re stored, will inflict upon the
guilty one a dropsy which no incantation can cure. Shamas, the supreme
judge, will send forth against him one of his inexorable judgments. Sin,
the inhabitant of the brilliant heavens, will cover him with leprosy as
with a garment. Adar, the warrior, will break his weapons; and Zamama,
the king of strifes, will not stand by him on the field of battle.
Eamman will let loose his tempest upon his fields, and will overwhelm
them. The whole band of the invisibles hold themselves ready to defend
the rights of the proprietor against all attacks. In no part of the
ancient world was the sacred character of property so forcibly laid
down, or the possession of the soil more firmly secured by religion.

In instruments of agriculture and modes of cultivation Chaldaea was no
better off than Egypt. The rapidity with which the river rose in the
spring, and its variable subsidence from year to year, furnished little
inducement to the Chaldaeans to entrust to it the wor