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.

_Berachoth_, fol. 8, col. 1.

The Sanhedrin consisted of seventy-one members. It is recorded that
Rabbi Yossi said, "Seldom was there contention in Israel, but the
judicial court of seventy-one sat in the Lishkath-hagazith, i.e., Paved
Hall, and two (ordinary) courts of justice consisting of twenty-three,
one of which sat at the entrance of the Temple-Mount, and the other at
the entrance of the ante-court; and also (provincial) courts of justice,
also comprising twenty-three members, which held their sessions in all
the cities of Israel. When an Israelite had a question to propose, he
asked it first of the court in his own city. If they understood the
case, they settled the matter; but if not, they applied to the court of
the next city. If the neighboring justices could not decide, they went
together and laid the case in debate before the court which held its
session at the entrance of the Temple-Mount. If these courts, in turn,
failed to solve the problem, they appealed to the court that sat in the
entrance of the ante-court, where a discussion was entered into upon the
moot points of the case; if no decision could be arrived at, they all
referred to the (supreme) court of seventy-one, where the matter was
finally decided by the majority of votes."

As the disciples of Shammai and Hillel multiplied who had not studied
the law thoroughly, contentions increased in Israel to such an extent
that the law lost its unity and became as two.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 88, col. 2.

The Sanhedrin sat in a semicircle, in order that they might see one
another; and two notaries stood before them, the one on the right and
the other on the left, to record the pros and cons in the various
processes. Rabbi Yehudah says there were three such notaries, one for
the pros, one for the cons, and one to record both the pros and the
cons.

_Sanhedrin_, fol. 36, col. 2.

The witnesses (in capital cases) were questioned on seven points, as
follows:--In what Shemitah (or septennial cycle) did it occur? In which
year