The claims that were involved by marriage
were not lightly undertaken. Any marriage, to be legally binding, had to
be accompanied by a duly executed and attested marriage-contract. If a
man had taken a woman to wife without having carried out this necessary
preliminary, the woman was not regarded as his wife in the legal sense.
On the other hand, when once such a marriage-contract had been drawn up,
its inviolability was stringently secured. A case of proved adultery
on the part of a man's wife was punished by the drowning of the guilty
parties, though the husband of the woman, if he wished to save his wife,
could do so by an appeal to the king. Similarly, death was the penalty
for a man who ravished another man's betrothed wife while she was still
living in her father's house, but in this case the girl's innocence
and inexperience were taken into account, and no penalty was enforced
against her and she was allowed to go free. Where the adultery of a wife
was not proved, and only depended on the accusation of the husband, the
woman could clear herself by swearing her own innocence; if, however,
the accusation was not brought by the husband himself, but by others,
the woman could clear herself by submitting to the ordeal by water; that
is to say, she would plunge into the Euphrates; if the river carried her
away and she were drowned, it was regarded as proof that the accusation
was well founded; if, on the contrary, she survived and got safely
to the bank, she was considered innocent and was forthwith allowed to
return to her household completely vindicated.
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