(Which were formed into sockets for the
gates of hell to turn in.) But because once on a time I listened
to contemptuous talk about the Rabbis and did not check it, I
have suffered an ignoble burial, while the publican enjoyed the
honor that was intended for me because he once distributed
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.
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