the waters of his ditch for irrigation shall they
make no levy; from the ditch of his reservoir shall they not draw water,
neither shall they divert (his water for) irrigation, and other land
shall they not irrigate nor water therewith. The grass of his lands
shall they not mow; the beasts belonging to the king or to a governor,
which may be assigned to the district of Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu, shall they
not drive within his boundary, nor shall they pasture them on his grass.
He shall not be forced to build a road or a bridge, whether for the
king, or for the governor who may be appointed in the district of
Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu, neither shall he be liable for any new form of
forced labour, which in the days that are to come a king, or a governor
appointed in the district of Bit-Pir-Shadu-rabu, shall institute and
exact, nor for forced labour long fallen into disuse which may be
revived anew. To prevent encroachment on his land the king hath fixed
the privileges of his domain, and that which appertaineth unto it, and
all that he hath granted unto him; and in the presence of Shamash, and
Marduk, and Anunitu, and the great gods of heaven and earth, he hath
inscribed them upon a stone, and he hath left it as an everlasting
memorial with regard to his estate."

The whole of the text is too long to quote, and it will suffice to note
here that Melishikhu proceeds to appeal to future kings to respect the
land and privileges which he has granted to his son, Marduk-aplu-iddina,
even as he himself has respected similar grants made by his predecessors
on the throne; and the text ends with some very vivid curses against
any one, whatever his station, who should make any encroachments on the
privileges granted to Marduk-aplu-iddina, or should alter or do any harm
to the memorial-stone itself. The emblems of the gods whom Melishikhu
invokes to avenge any infringement of his grant are sculptured upon one
side of the stone, for, as has already been remarked, it was believed
that by carving them upon the memorial-stone their help in guarding the
stone itself and its enactments was assured.

From the portion of the text inscribed upon the stone which has just
been translated it is seen that the owner of land in Babylonia in the
period of the Kassite kings, unless he was granted special exemption,
was liable to furnish forced labour for public works to the state or to
his district, to furnish grazing and pasture for the flocks and herds of
the k