45 _seq._ Line 154. _assat simâtim_ is the "legitimate wife," and the line inculcates monogamy as against promiscuous sexual intercourse. We know that monogamy was the rule in Babylonia, though a man could in addition to the wife recognized as the legalized spouse take a concubine, or his wife could give her husband a slave as a concubine. Even in that case, according to the Hammurabi Code, §§145-146, the wife retained her status. The Code throughout assumes that a man has only _one_ wife--the _assat simâtim_ of our text. The phrase "so" (or "that") before "as afterwards" is to be taken as an idiomatic expression--"so it was and so it should be for all times"--somewhat like the phrase _mahriam ù arkiam_, "for all times," in legal documents (_CT_ VIII, 38c, 22-23). For the use of _mûk_ see Behrens, _Assyrisch-Babylonische Briefe_, p. 3. Line 158. _i-na bi-ti-ik a-bu-un-na-ti-sú_. Another puzzling line, for which Langdon proposes "in the work of his presence," which is as obscure as the original. In a note he says that _apunnâti_ means "nostrils," which is certainly wrong. There has been considerable discussion about this term (see Holma, _Namen der Körperteile_, pages 150 and 157), the meaning of which has been advanced by Christian's discussion in _OLZ_ 1914, p. 397. From this it appears that it must designate a part of the body which could acquire a wider significance so as to be used as a synonym for "totality," since it appears in a list of equivalent for Dur = _nap-ha-ru_, "totality," _ka-lu-ma_, "all," _a-bu-un-na-tum e-si-im-tum_, "bony structure," and _kul-la-tum_, "totality" (_CT_ XII, 10, 7-10). Christian shows that it may be the "navel," which could well acquire a wider significance for the body in general; but we may go a step further and specify the "umbilical cord" (tentatively suggested also by Christian) as the primary meaning, then the "navel," and from this the "body" in general. The structure of the umbilical cord as a series of strands would account for designating it by a plural form _abunnâti_, as also for the fact that one could speak of a right and left side of the _appunnâti_. To distinguish between the "umbilical cord" and the "navel," the ideograph Dur (the common meaning of which is _riksu_, "bond" [Delitzsch, _Sumer. Glossar._, p. 150]), was used for the former, while for the latter Li Dur was employed, though the reading in Akkadian in both cases was the same. The expression "with (or at) the cutting of his umbilical cord" would mean, therefore, "from his birth"--since the cutting of the cord which united the child with the mother marks the beginning of the separate life. Lines 158-159, therefore, in concluding the address to Enkidu, emphasize in a picturesque way that what has been set forth is man's fate for which he has been destined from birth. [See now Albright's remarks on _abunnatu_ in the Revue d'Assyriologie 16, pp. 173-175, with whose conclusion, however, that it means primarily "backbone" and then