(M328) The importance of descent was not a sentimental matter only. The laws of inheritance involved a careful distinction between proper heirs and a variety of claimants. Hence it seems likely that there was a registration of births, deaths, and marriages, at least covering the patrician families. We have such examples as a man claiming to be of same father as another, claiming brotherhood. The other repudiates the claim.(259) The tablet is too fragmentary for us to follow the arguments. The slave Bariki-ilu claimed to be a _mâr bânû_ and his claim was heard before the court of the _mâr bânê_.(260) (M329) Further, as the wife’s marriage-portion, if she died childless, went back to the “house of her father,” and as a man who died without issue had to leave his property to his “father’s house,” and as many had only a life-interest in their property, while the family usually had a right of pre-emption in the case of proposed sales, we see that the family always had a strong hold over property. Not only was it for the man’s interest to be registered as of a certain family, but it was also for the family’s interest to register all its members. (M330) There are suggestions that the family assumed certain responsibilities over the man; for in Assyria it appears that the family might come forward and liberate a man from his debt. A free man, who had been sold as a slave to Ashnunnak, and who escaped to Babylon, after five years, being claimed as a slave by the levy-masters there, chose to serve his father’s house. His brothers swore by Marduk and Ammiditana the king, making an irrevocable declaration that as long as he lived he should take up the duties of his father’s house with his brothers.(261) In the later Babylonian times, the head of the family, though only a distant relation, was called upon to act as judge in a dispute concerning the disposition of property. X. Courtship And Marriage (M331) The suitor came with presents to the parents of the girl. Most writers see in this a survival of the purchase of the bride. The name of this gift, _terḫatu_, is undoubtedly connected with the name of the bride, _marḫitu_. This present, or bride-price, differed greatly with the circumstances of the parties. Both money and slaves were given, but a simple sum of money was more common. In cases where the bride was rich or highly placed the amount seems less. A very usual amount was ten shekels, but we have examples from one shekel up to three minas.(262) The Code assessed it at one mina of silver for a patrician and a third of a mina for a plebeian.(263)