Note 64 — Chapter I · Marriage Laws and Customs.

In the first known code of laws ever written, so far as our history goes, in the old code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon, who reigned from 2285 to 2242, B. C., we find that doweries and marriage portions were spoken of, just as in modern statutes, and it was provided that if a childless woman should be returned to her father, he should return the dowry, and if he did not the husband could deduct all the dowry from the marriage portion and then return the marriage portion, the house of her father.

Code Hammurabi, Secs. 163, 164; Johns’ “Oldest Code of Laws,” pp. 32, 33; Johns’ “Babylonian and Assyrian Laws,” etc.