Abba Benjamin says, " If our eye were permitted to see the malignant sprites that beset us, we could not rest on account of them. n Abaii has said, " They out-number us, they surround us as the earthed-up soil on our gardenbeds. Rav Hunna says, " Every one has a thousand at his left side and ten thousand at his right® (Ps. xci. 7). Rava adds, " The crowding at the schools is caused by their pushing in; they cause the weariness which the Rabbis experience in their knees, and even tear their clothes by hustling against them.
If one would discover traces of their presence, let him sift some ashes upon the floor at his bedside, and next morning he will see, as it were, the footmarks of fowls on the surface. But if one would see the demons themselves, he must burn to ashes the afterbirth of a first-born black kitten, the offspring of a firstborn black cat, and then put a little of the ashes into his eyes, and he will not fail to see them,® etc., etc