Once on a time, as the Rabbis relate, the wicked Government sent two officers to the wise men of Israel, saying, " Teach us your law.w This being put into their hands, three times over they perused it; and when about to leave they returned it, remarking, " We have carefully studied your law, and find it equitable save in one particular. You say: When the ox of an Israelite gores to death the ox of an alien, its owner is not liable to make compensation; but if the ox of an alien gore to death the ox of an Israelite, its owner must make full amends for the loss of the animal; whether it be the first or second time that the ox has so killed another (in which case an Israelite would have to pay to another Israelite only half the value of the loss), or the third time (when he would be fined to the full extent of his neighbor's loss). Either Neighbor" (in Bxod. xxi. 35, for such the word signifies in the original Hebrew,