R. Akiba owed his wealth to six sources, which I will relate in order.

The first source of his wealth was his father-in-law Kalba Sabbu'a, who gave him half of his property.

The second was a wooden image of a roe (hart) which had been put at the prow of a ship like an ensign, for in olden times it was the custom to put the image of a carved roebuck or hart at the prow of the ship. The purpose of the symbol was that the ship should run as fast as a hart. It was made hollow within and all the money of the ship was put therein. One day the sailors put a large amount of money in the hollow of the buck and left it on the shore, where R. Akiba found it.

The third was a large piece of wood. One day he gave four shillings to the sailors to bring him something rare. They were not able to get anything valuable, but finding on their way an attractive piece of wood lying on the seashore, they brought it to him on their return, saying to him: "Be satisfied with this, for we could not get anything else."

R. Akiba took the wood and was about to cut it up for fire wood when he found that it was full of gold. A ship had gone down, in whose mast the passengers had put all their money, and the sea had cast the mast upon the shore.

The fourth source of his wealth was a Roman lady. At one time the Jews were in need of' money and they sent R. Akiba to borrow it from the Roman lady. Accordingly R. Akiba went to see her and asked her to lend him the money. She fixed a time for the payment, and said to R. Akiba: "Who will be your surety?"

R. Akiba replied: "Whoever you wish."

Then she said to R. Akiba: "You are the borrower, but God and the sea shall stand surety for you."

R. Akiba consented. He took the money and went away.

When the time came for the payment of the money as agreed upon, R. Akiba was ill and could not repay it. Thereupon the lady went to the seashore and said: "Lord of the universe, it is known to Thy holy name that R. Akiba is ill and cannot repay the money, but Thou and the sea have become sureties, therefore I appeal now to my sureties."

Whereupon the Lord caused the daughter of the Emperor to become insane, and she filled a chest with precious stones and gold, and threw it into the sea. The wind carried it towards the lady's house, which was built on the shore of the sea. She took it and carried it into her house and found herself well repaid.

When R. Akiba recovered, he took the money which he owed to the lady and came to her and said: "Be not angry with me for not paying at the agreed time, for I was ill, or I should have paid promptly."

The lady replied: "My dear R. Akiba, I will tell you what happened. Seeing that you did not come at the appointed time, I appealed to the sureties, and they paid the debt,

nay they gave me more than you owed me. You may therefore have the rest."

Accordingly R. Akiba added the surplus to what he already had.

The fifth source of R. Akiba's wealth was the wife of Turnus Rufus. Turnus Rufus was a mighty ruler and viceroy to the king. He was always disputing with R. Akiba before the Emperor, and R. Akiba was always victorious. This caused him vexation, and he felt disgraced before the Emperor.

One day Turnus Rufus came home looking very sad, and his wife asked him: "Why are you so sad today, sadder than usual?"

He told her how R. Akiba had put him to shame before the Emperor several times when he argued with him. "He always gets the better of me," he said.

Then his wife said to him: "I know that the God of the Jews hates immorality. Give me permission and I will bring him to his fall." And he gave her permission.

Being a most beautiful woman, she dressed herself up in fine clothes, came before R. Akiba and exposed her leg. When R. Akiba saw her, he laughed and wept and spat on the ground.

"What do all these three things which you have done mean?" she said. "You laughed and you cried and you spat."

R. Akiba replied: "I will explain two of them, but the third I will not tell you. I spat

because your origin is a drop of putrid seed; I wept when I thought of such beauty rotting some day under the ground."

But the reason why he laughed was that he knew through the holy spirit of prophecy that she would in the future embrace Judaism and marry him. This he would not tell her.

Then she said to him: "Dear Rabbi, tell me, can I repent?"

And he said: "Yes."

So she went and embraced Judaism and married R. Akiba and brought him a great deal of money as dowry, so that he became very rich.

The sixth source of his wealth was Keti'a, son of Shalom, who left all his property to R. Akiba and his pupils, as you have read