to pay. In many instances the
peasant preferred to take the proprietor into partnership, the latter
in such case providing all the expenses of cultivation, on the
understanding that he should receive two-thirds of the gross product.
The tenant was obliged to administer the estate as a careful householder
during the term of his lease: he was to maintain the buildings and
implements in good repair, to see that the hedges were kept up, to keep
the shadufs in working order, and to secure the good condition of the
watercourses. He had rarely enough slaves to manage the business with
profit: those he had purchased were sufficient, with the aid of his
wives and children, to carry on ordinary operations, but when any
pressure arose, especially at harvest-time, he had to seek elsewhere the
additional labourers he required. The temples were the chief sources for
the supply of these. The majority of the supplementary labourers were
free men, who were hired out by their family, or engaged themselves for
a fixed term, during which they were subject to a sort of slavery, the
conditions of which were determined by law. The workman renounced his
liberty for fifteen days, or a month, or for a whole year; he disposed,
so to speak, of a portion of his life to the provisional master of his
choice, and if he did not enter upon his work at the day agreed upon,
or if he showed himself inactive in the duties assigned to him, he was
liable to severe punishment. He received in exchange for his labour
his food, lodging, and clothing; and if an accident should occur to
him during the term of his service, the law granted him an indemnity in
proportion to the injury he had sustained.

[Illustration: 327.jpg THE FARM OXEN]

Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a green marble cylinder in the
Louvre.

His average wage was from four to six shekels of silver per annum. He
was also entitled by custom to another shekel in the form of a retaining
fee, and he could claim his pay, which was given to him mostly in corn,
in monthly instalments, if his agreement were for a considerable time,
and daily if it were for a short period.

The mercenary never fell into the condition of the ordinary serf: he
retained his rights as a man, and possessed in the person of the patron
for whom he laboured, or whom he himself had selected, a defender of his
interests. When he came to the end of his engagement, he returned to
his family, and resumed his ordinary occupati