gratuitously among the poor of the city a banquet he had prepared for the governor, but of which the governor did not come to partake." The disciple having asked the Rabbi how long this publican was to be thus severely treated, he replied, "Until the death of Simeon the son of Shetach, who is to take the publican's place in Gehenna." "Why so?" "Because, though he knows there are several Jewish witches in Askelon, he idly suffers them to ply their infernal trade and does not take any steps to extirpate them." On the morrow the disciple reported this speech to Simeon the son of Shetach, who at once proceeded to take action against the obnoxious witches. He engaged eighty stalwart young men, and choosing a rainy day, supplied each with an extra garment folded up and stowed away in an earthern vessel. Thus provided, they were each at a given signal to snatch up one of the eighty witches and carry her away, a task they would find of easy execution, as, except in contact with the earth, these creatures were powerless. Then Simeon the son of Shetach, leaving his men in ambush, entered the rendezvous of the witches, who, accosting him, asked, "Who art thou?" He replied, "I am a wizard, and am come to experiment in magic." "What trick have you to show?" they said. He answered, "Even though the day is wet, I can produce eighty young men all in dry clothes." They smiled incredulously and said, "Let us see!" He went to the door, and at the signal the young men took the dry clothes out of the jars and put them on, then starting from their ambush, they rushed into the witches' den, and each seizing one, lifted her up and carried her off as directed. Thus overpowered, they were brought before the court, convicted of malpractices and led forth to execution. _Sanhedrin_, fol. 44, col. 2. (Exod. xxiii. 35), "And I will take away sickness from the midst of thee." It is taught that sickness (Machlah) means the bile. But why is it termed Machlah? Because eighty-three diseases are in it. Machlah by Gematria equals eighty-three; and all may be avoided by an early breakfast of bread and salt and a bottle of water. _Bava Kama_, fol. 92, col. 2. If in a book of the law the writing is obliterated all but eighty-five letters--as, for instance, in Num. x. 35, 36, "And it came to pass when the ark set forward," etc.,--it may be rescued on the Sabbath from a fire, but not otherwise. _Shabbath_, fol. 116, col. 1. Elijah said to Rabbi Judah the brother of Rav Salla the Pious, "The world will not last less than eighty-five jubilees, and in the last jubilee the son of David will come." _Sanhedrin_, fol. 97, col 2. There was not a single individual in Israel who had not ninety Lybian donkeys laden with the gold and silver of Egypt. _Bechoroth_, fol. 5, col. 2.