OLDEST WEDDING PACT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 552, 22 March 1913, Page 2

OLDEST WEDDING PACT.

DHAWN UP TWENTY CENTURIES AGO. Out of the mass of so-called "elephantine" papyrus in the Royal Muse .im at Berlin, on which a number of scholars have been at work several months .have come one of the most curious "finds" the scientific world has been presented with in years. One of these is the most ancient marriage contract in the world, according to Professor Leopold Wengor, an eminent hellenist. Written iu excellent' classical Greelc, from its context evidently composed about 311 8.C., the document begins—"ln the seventh year of the rei = n of Alexander, the son of Alexander, in the fourteenth year of the satrapy of Ptolemaos in the month of Dios."

The contract sets forth that Herakleides has agreed to take as his wife Demetria of Kos, the lawful daughter of her father, Leptines, and of her mother, Philetis. Then }t the receipt of clothing and jewels ; valued at a thousand drachmas which Dementria has laid at his feet, 1 in recognition of the honour he is about to bestow upon her. Even the newly-wedded couple's place of residence is given in the agreement. In case the husband should forget his vows, it is provided that each side shall appoint an arbitrator, n.r.u v-hen the charge is proved the marriage is to be dissolved, the husband giving back the thousand drachmas' worth of clothes and jewels, and raying besides a thousand drachmas in Alexandrine silver currency.

Six witnesses signed the contract, which is still in ,a state of nearly ierfect preservation, after nearly 22 0 years.—"Chicago Record-Her-alJ.'-'