(M519) The right to serve in certain offices was hereditary in some families. As these multiplied, the office was held in turn by members of the family for a short time, so that it may well be that an individual priest only exercised his functions for a very limited part of the year. (M520) Great families took their clan name from their office; for example, the Gula priests in later Babylonian times, or as the _mandidu_, “measurer,” or “surveyor,” attached to a temple, became a clan name. (M521) Hence arose property in temple incomes. That these were considerable we know from the lists of temple accounts. These form the bulk of the earliest documents. From them we learn that each day certain officials received certain allowances, mostly food and drink. From later documents we learn that men apparently not connected with the temple had become lay impropriators of the temple allowances originally intended only for temple officers. (M522) The right to receive these was a valuable and negotiable asset. Thus we read of a right to five days per year in the temple of Nannar, sixteen days per year in the temple of Bêlit, and eight days in the shrine of Gula as being the _namḫar_ of Sin-imgurâni and Sin-uzili.(550) This was confirmed to them by a legal decision in the time of Rîm-Sin. We read also of a right to act as _šatammu_, for six days per month, in the temple of Shamash.(551) In later times the _mandidûtu_, or surveyorship, to the temple of Anu, Ib, and Bêlit-êkalli, exercised in the temple, storehouse, and field, was sold, shared, and pledged.(552) Another such right was given on condition that it was not sold for money, granted to another, pledged, nor diminished in any way, and should pass to the possessor’s daughter on his death.(553) The porter’s post at Bâb Salimu was given as a pledge. Shares in these incomes were regularly traded in, sold, and pledged. (M523) The position of a priest, or other official, carried with it an endowment. On this point the Code is very explicit for the cases of the _ridû ṣâbê_ and the _bâ’iru_, officials charged with the collection of local quotas for the army and public works. They were recruiting sergeants, press-gang officers, and post-office officials. The office was endowed by royal grant. They were liable to be called on in the discharge of their duties to make lengthy journeys and be absent from home for a length of time, even years. In their absence, their duties could be delegated to a son, if old enough, otherwise a substitute was put in. They could claim reinstatement within a certain time. But their endowment was inalienable from the office and could not be treated as private property. (M524) Quite similarly the great state officials in Assyria had endowments which were not personal, but went with the office. Thus we learn from the Ḥarran census that certain lands paid rent or crops to certain offices.