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Excerpt from Assyrian Deeds and Documents Recording the Transfer of Property, Vol. 2: Including the So-Called Private Contracts, Legal Decisions and Proclamations Preserved in the Kouyunjik Collections of the British Museum Chiefly of the 7th Century B. C.; Additional Cuneiform Texts, Introduction, Officials, Metrology What was to have appeared as Volume 11. Was finished in manu script, by the end of November, 1899, and some 300 pages are here printed. I purpose to issue the rest as Volume as rapidly as I can get it printed. I must beg the indulgence of my readers, in view of the considerable addition which has been made to my task by the inclusion of further examples of classes which were regarded as complete. I should esteem it a favour also if they would notify to me the occurrence of texts similar to those here published, in other classes which they have examined. Any such notification would be duly and gratefully acknowledged by me. In the additional texts, as here published, 1 have departed from the method Of presentation adopted in Volume I. Some reviews of that volume have appeared which shew that the method was not approved. Consequently I have now indicated a broken Or rubbed surface by shading, and, where this shading extends over the whole or part of a character, that character must be regarded as uncertain. I have also offered alternative readings in the margin, suggested by a knowledge of parallel passages or by a repeated collation of the text. For all such uncertain readings I naturally decline any great responsibility. The text may be as I give it, or as I suggest in the margin, that is as far as I will go. Had I the time to give to the repeated examination of these texts, which I was able to give to those in the first volume, I might feel and indicate more certainty. It is to be hoped others, more skilled, may be tempted to decide what is here left open. A few words may be pardoned me, if I call attention to some points of interest in t