venison at the request of his dying parent, in his hurry he forgot the embroidered robe of Adam, and had bad luck in consequence.  Then Jacob borrowed the left-off garment, and kept it for himself.  The mask alluded to is accounted for thus:—­The daughter of a Roman emperor took a fancy to have the skin of Rabbi Ishmael’s face, and it accordingly, when he was dead, was taken off, and so embalmed as to retain its features, expression, and complexion, and the Jews say that it is still preserved among the relics at Rome.  The able-bodied man in this prophetic mystery-play represents Esau, and the limping man is intended for Jacob.  Rome (or Esau) is uppermost in that ceremonial, but the time is coming when Jacob will rise and invest himself in the blessings he so craftily obtained the reversion of.

Rabbi Yochanan said:—­None were elected to sit in the High Council of the Sanhedrin except men of stature, of wisdom, of imposing appearance, and of mature age; men who knew witchcraft and seventy languages, in order that the High Council of the Sanhedrin should have no need of an interpreter.

Sanhedrin, fol. 17, col. 1.

Yehudah and Chiskiyah, the sons of Rabbi Cheyah, once sat down to a meal before Rabbi (the Holy) without speaking a word.  “Give the boys some wine,” said Rabbi, “that they may have boldness to speak.”  When they had partaken of the wine, they said, “The son of David will not come until the two patriarchal houses of Israel are no more,” that is, the head of the Captivity in Babylon and the Prince in the land of Israel; for it is written (Isa. viii. 14), “And he shall be for a sanctuary, and for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel.”  “Why, children,” said Rabbi (who was patriarch of Tiberias), “you are thrusting thorns into my eyes.”  Rabbi Cheyah said, “Do not be offended at them.  Wine is given with seventy, and so is a secret (the numerical value of each of these words is seventy); when wine enters the secret oozes out.”

Ibid., fol. 38, col. 1.

A certain star appears once in seventy years and deceives the sailors (who guide their vessels by the position of the heavenly bodies; and this star appears sometimes in the north and sometimes in the south.—­Rashi.)

Horayoth, fol. 10, col. 1.

As eating olive berries causes one to forget things that he has known for seventy years, so olive oil brings back to the memory things which happened seventy years before.

Ibid., fol. 13, col. 2,

The outside of the shell of the purple mollusk resembles the sea in color; its bodily conformation is like that of a fish; it rises once in seventy years; its blood is used to dye wool purple, and therefore this color is dear.

Menachoth, fol. 44, col. 1.

The bearing-time of the flat-headed otter lasts seventy years; a parallel may be found in the carob-tree, from the planting to the ripening of the pods of which is seventy years.