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7 Kerubs Before the Tree of Life. • Bas Relief Found on the Site of the Marnage Market American magazine Section of Rearsfs Sunday American. Atlanta, may 4. m arriageftrketofmicient Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company, M Britain Rights Reserved. “The Marnage Market at Babylon,” the Great Painting by Edwin Long R. A.. Which Shows the Babylonian Fathers Selling Their Daughters The Cut, Forty Feet Deep and Several Hundred Feet Long, Which Began the Excavation of the Palace of King Nebuchadnezzar, Who Ate Grass. Close Beside This Were Found the Ruins of the Old Marriage Market. Copyright hy Underwood & Underwood, New York, 1913. n JHE VERY 5P0T WHERE THE BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS 0FBABYL0P WERE {TPUT UP on THEAUCTIOD BLOCK UDCOVERED BY THE GEROAD EXPEDITIOH WHICH ISDIGGinG UP THE GREATEST CITY OF THE BAST m HE site of ancient Baby'on's mar riage market, the peculiar auc- EdSlijI tion at w ^ ich the °ld Assyrians pcigg) pu( up thelr daughters for the highest bidder has just been uncovered by the German Oriental Society, which is digging the ruins of the city out of its en shrouding sands. The marriage market is one of the traditions of the splendid and sinful metropolis which has stuck in the memory of mankind for ages. Herodotus, that interesting and gadding old Greek, who has been called the "Father of His tory,” speaks of it, and the phrase is hard worked in the newspapers and fictionist vocabularies of the present day The Oriental Society, cutting down forty feet to the pavement of ancient Babylon, ran a ' shaft along the Royal Quarters, where the palaces of Nebuchad nezzar and Belshazzar stood. In doing so they stumbled across the ruins of the mar riage market. They found still intact the carved rostrum on which the auctioneer stood and knocked down the beauties of Babylon. The market itself occupied a rectangle of 150 by 100 feet. It was open to the air on all four sides, but most prob ably shielded from the sun by rich silken awnings devised to shelter the women and to bring out their charms. The block upon which the daughters of Babylon stood while being bid for was in the centre of the spectators, and is richly carved with Kerubs, who worship and protect the Babylonian Tree of Life. Inscriptions liscovered leave no doubt that this was the actual marriage market of Babylon. While the marriage market has been called a wicked custom, and has' served for countless sermons as a warning, it had some very excellent points. The daugh ters were not sold into slavery, but into honorable wifehood. Of course, they had no choice, and the element of bidding is probably repugnant to many women of to-day. hut the customs of the time were different, and it is extremely likely that the Babylonian girls looked forward with much delight to the day when they would be auctioned off to some one who cared enough for them to pay large sums for them. Besides that the sale of the beautiful daughters enabled the ugly ones to get married, and this in a very odd way The money that was paid for the beauties was given as dowries for the ugly ones. Herodotus says once a year the maidens of age to marry in Babylon were collected at the marriage market “while the men stood around them, in a circle " Then a herald called up the damsels one by one and offered them for sale. "He began," continues Herodotus, "with the most beautiful. When she was sold for no small sum of money he offered for sale the one who came next to her in beauty. Ail of them were to be sold as wives. The richest of the Babylonians who wished to wed bid against each other for the loveliest maidens, while the hum bler wife seekers, who were indifferent about beauty, took the more homely dam sels with marriage portions. "For the custom was that when the her ald had gone through the whole number of the beautiful damsels lie should then call up the ugliest—a cripple if there chanced to be one—and offer her to the men, asking who would agree to take her with the smallest marriage portion. And the man who offered to take the smallest sum had her assigned to him. The mar riage portions were furnished by the money paid for the beautiful damsels, and thus the fairer maidens portioned out the uglier No one was allowed to give, bis daughter to the man of his choice,* nor might any one carry away the damsel he had purchased without finding hail really and truly to make her his wife. If, how ever, it was found that they did not agree the money might be paid back. All who liked might- come even from distant vil lages and bid for the women.” Herodotus also says that this was a general custom throughout ancient Baby lonia. The Babylonians had another unique philanthropic habit If a man were taken ill in the street ivery passerby had to stop and ask him what was the matter with him. Being told, it was incumbent upon the passerby, if he had ever had this same ailment, or if he had known any one who had the ail ment, to tell the sufferer what had cured him or what had cured another. The tradition does not tell us what was the result of this wholesale prescription, but if a sufferer could prove that a man or woman had passed him without giving him the benefit of their knowledge, he could collect heavy damages.