(M559) (M560) Very interesting are the references to earnest money, or the gift presented to close the bargain. As early as the time of Manistusu(583) we find not only a price paid, but also a present given to the seller as a good-will offering. These are of a most varied and valuable nature.(584) As already pointed out by Meissner,(585) in the purchase of a slave for four and a half shekels, a little present of fifteen _ŠE_, or one-twelfth of a shekel, was thus added. Likewise when another slave and her baby were sold we find that in addition to the price of eighty-four shekels, one shekel is thrown in as a present.(586) I do not recall the occurrence of this custom in Assyrian times, but in the later Babylonian documents it is common. There it is often referred to as the _atru_, or “over-plus.” Thus we find that in the sale of a house in the time of Nebuchadrezzar III.,(587) besides the “full agreed price,” _šîmu gamrûtu_, of half a mina of silver, the buyer gave one shekel of silver, _kî atri_, “as an addition,” and “a dress for the lady of the house.” The whole payment thus made of thirty-one shekels was called the _šibirtu_. So in the time of Darius (?) we find that, in addition to the full price of three minas, five shekels of silver, the buyer adds, _kî atri_, six shekels of silver and a dress for the lady of the house, making three minas, eleven shekels of silver as the _šibirtum_,(588) or simply to a price of two minas of bright silver he adds two shekels, _kî pî atar_, making a _šibirtu_ of two minas, two shekels of bright silver.(589) (M561) Equally interesting are the sums charged as fees to the scribe. This was paid to him expressly for obtaining the seller’s seal or nail-mark as a conclusion of the contract.(590) Thus at the end of a deed of sale of a single male slave, executed by three owners by affixing three impressions of the same seal, and drawn up by one scribe, we read “Seven shekels of silver for their seal.” The price was about one hundred and forty shekels. Thus the scribe received a fee of five per cent. on the sale price.(591) The ratio was not constant. It might be as low as two per cent. Thus in the case of a sale of a slave by two owners, who made four nail-marks in lieu of seals, we read “one mina of bronze for their nail-marks.” There was but one scribe, and the price was fifty minas of bronze.(592) Hence we cannot think that this fee was paid for the scribe’s seal, as some have done. The seal, or nail-mark, was not “the authenticating subscription by the notary,” but by the seller.