Four hundred boys and as many girls were once kidnapped and torn from their relations. When they learned the purpose of their capture, they all exclaimed, "Better drown ourselves in the sea; then shall we have an inheritance in the world to come." The eldest then explained to them the text (Ps. lxviii. 22), "The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan; I will bring again from the depths of the sea." "From Bashan," i.e., from the teeth of the lion; "from the depths of the sea," i.e., those that drown themselves in the sea. When the girls heard this explanation they at once jumped all together into the sea, and the boys with alacrity followed their example. It is with reference to these that Scripture says (Ps. xliv. 22), "For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." _Gittin_, fol. 57, col. 2. There were four hundred synagogues in the city of Byther, in each there were four hundred elementary teachers, and each had four hundred pupils. When the enemy entered the city they pierced him with their pointers; but when at last the enemy overpowered them, he wrapped them in their books and then set fire to them; and this is what is written (Lam. iii. 51), "Mine eye affecteth my heart because of all the daughters of my city." Ibid., fol. 58, col 1. The total population of Byther must have been something enormous when the children in it amounted to 64,000,000! The elementary teachers alone came to 160,000. Once when the Hasmonean kings were engaged in civil war it happened that Hyrcanus was outside Jerusalem and Aristobulus within. Every day the besieged let down a box containing gold denarii, and received in return lambs for the daily sacrifices. There chanced to be an old man in the city who was familiar with the wisdom of the Greeks, and he hinted to the besiegers in the Greek language that so long as the Temple services were kept up the city could not be taken. The next day accordingly, when the money had been let down, they sent back a pig in return. When about half-way up the animal pushed with its feet against the stones of the wall, and thereupon an earthquake was felt throughout the land of Israel to the extent of four hundred miles. At that time it was the saying arose, "Cursed be he that rears swine, and he who shall teach his son the wisdom of the Greeks." (See Matt. viii. 30.) _Soteh_, fol. 49, col. 2. If one strikes his neighbor with his fist, he must pay him one sela; if he slaps his face, he is to pay two hundred zouzim; but for a back-handed slap the assailant is to pay four hundred zouzim. If he pulls the ear of another, or plucks his hair, or spits upon him, or pulls off his mantle, or tears a woman's head-dress off in the street, in each of these cases he is fined four hundred zouzim. _Bava Kama_, fol. 90, col. 1.