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Kerubs Before the Tree of Life, a Ba» Relief Found on the Site of the Marriage Market.
American magazine Section of Rear$f$ Sunday American, Atlanta, may 4, i<m=
fln the
Copyright. 1913, by the
Star Company.
«rtat Britain Rights Reserved.
“The Marriage Market at Babylon,” the Great Painting by Edwin Long.
R. A.. Which Shows the Babylonian Fathers Selling Their Daughters.
HE VERY SPOT WHERE THE BEAUTIFUL DAUGHTERS
UT UP 00 THEAUCTtOn BLOCK UNCOVERED BY THE GERUIAD *«•
EXPEDITIOfl (WHICH IS DTGGfPG UP THE GREATEST CITY OF THE PAST
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 by Underwood & Underwood. New York, 191?.
HK site of ancient Babj ’on's mar
riage market, the peculiar auc
tion at which the /■'d Assyrians
put up their 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
discovered 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, but 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. All 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 he 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 his
daughter to the man of his choice,* nor
might any one carry away the damsel he
had purchased without finding bail 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
■very 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.