Four hundred boys and as many girls were once kidnapped and torn from their relations. When they learned the purpose of their capture, they all exclaimed, " Better drown ourselves in the sea; then shall we have an inheritance in the world to come.* The eldest then explained to them the text (Ps. lxviii. 22), " The Lord said, I will bring again from Bashan; I will bring again from the depths of of the sea.* " From Bashan,* i. e., from the teeth of the lion; " from the depths of the sea, i. e., those that drown themselves in the sea.
When the girls heard this explanation they at once jumped all together into the sea, and the boys with alacrity followed their example. It is with reference to these that Scripture says (Ps. xliv. 22), " For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.*