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own. (M41) Aramaic dockets very early attracted the attention of Assyriologists. The presence of short inscriptions in Aramaic on a few contract-tablets naturally raised hopes, in the early days of decipherment, of finding some check upon the reading of cuneiform. So far as these went they were by no means inconsistent with the readings of the cuneiform. But they were too few, too disconnected, and in themselves too uncertain, to be of great value. Indeed, for many of them, it is the cuneiform that now gives the key to their possible sense. The whole of these Aramaic inscriptions have now been published by Dr. J. H. Stevenson in his _Assyrian and Babylonian Contracts with Aramaic Reference Notes_, where references to the literature will be found. (M42) In connection with these Aramaic legends a number of the texts of Assyrian contracts were published in the _Corpus Inscriptionum Semiticarum_, _Pars Secunda_, _Tomus I_. A number more were published in Vol. III. of the _Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia_, by Sir H. C. Rawlinson. A few others were published in various journals; and by Oppert in his epoch-making treatise on the juristic literature, _Documents Juridiques_; by Peiser, in Vol. IV. of Schrader's _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek_; and by Strassmaier in his _Alphabetisches Verzeichnis_. The whole of the texts of the Assyrian contracts from the Kouyunjik Collections in the British Museum are now published in _Assyrian Deeds and Documents recording the Transfer of Property, etc._ (three volumes published).(55) A bibliography will be found there, on page ix of the preface to Vol. I. (M43) The very remarkable style which most of these tablets show is so unlike the contemporary documents in Babylonia that we may expect that transactions between private citizens in Assyria at this time were quite different. A few such documents exist. Professor V. Scheil, in the _Receuil de Travaux_,(56) published the text of four which are quite unlike any of the Kouyunjik examples. (M44) In _Assyrian Deeds and Documents_ the same plan of arrangement was followed, to some extent, as in this work. Being all of one epoch and showing no signs of any development the tablets were grouped, provisionally, according to subjects. The arrangement in each group was to place first the best specimens of the group and then the injured and fragmentary specimens, which thus received illustration, and in some cases, could be restored. It wo
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