(M418) By far the greatest number of references to the slave condition occur in documents relating to the sale of slaves. These may be summarized here. One peculiarity always marked the sale of a slave, it was not so irrevocable as that of a house or field. For a slave might not be all he seemed. He might be diseased, or subject to fits, he might have vices of disposition, especially a tendency to run away. A female slave might be defective in what constituted her chief attraction. Hence there was usually a stipulation that if the buyer had a legitimate cause of complaint he could return his purchase and have his money back. In fact, an undisclosed defect would invalidate the sale. These defects might be physical, inherent, contingent, or legal. (M419) There seems to have been a dreaded disease called the _bennu_. Professor Jensen(427) has shown how largely it bulks in the literature, and what dire effects are ascribed to it. But it was not the only severe disease from which men suffered then. It is associated with several others as bad. Hence in legal documents we may take it as a typical example of a serious disease, which would so detract from the value of a slave that the purchaser would not keep him. It is evident that it was something that the purchaser could not detect at sight. Perhaps it was a disease which took some time to show itself. It is mentioned in the Code and in the sales of slaves of the First Dynasty of Babylon. It also occurs in Assyrian deeds of sale, down to the end of the seventh century B.C. The Code and the contemporary contracts allow one month within which a plea could be raised that the slave had the _bennu_. The purchaser could then return him and have his money back. In the Assyrian deeds one hundred days is allowed. In the Assyrian deeds _ṣibtu_ is also allowed a hundred days. This is often associated with _bennu_ in the mythological texts as equally dreaded. It affected the hands or the mouth. We may render it “seizure,” and think of some form of “paralysis.” (M420) The objections which come under the head of legal defects are summed up in the Code as a _bagru_, or “complaint.” In the contracts and Code this could be pleaded at any time. So in Assyrian times a _sartu_, “a vice,” could be the ground for repudiation at any time. This might arise from the disposition of the slave. The sale might also be invalidated by a claim on him for service to the state; by a lien held by a creditor; by a claim to free citizenship. But we are not yet in a position to state definitely what was the exact nature of these claims. Doubtless the recovery of further codes will fix them finally. In later Babylonian times Law B specially provides for the return of the slave at any time, if a claim be made on him.