Bava Batra

on two bridges of the Rognag;  and he jumped from one to the other, backward and forward,  holding in his hands two cups of wine, pouring alternately  from one to the other, and not a drop fell to the ground. [Furthermore]. it was [a stormy] day [such as that on which] they [that go down to the sea in ships] mounted up to the heaven; they went down to the deeps.  When the government heard [of this] they put him to death. Rabbah  said: I saw an antelope. one day old, that was as big as Mount Tabor. (How big is Mount Tabor? — Four parasangs.)  The length of its neck  was three parasangs.and the resting place of its head  was one parasang and a half. It cast a ball of excrement and blocked up the Jordan. Rabbah b. Bar Hana further stated: I saw a frog the size  of the Fort of Hagronia. (What is the size of the Fort of Hagronia? — Sixty houses.) There came a snake and swallowed the frog. Then came a raven and swallowed the snake, and perched  on a tree. Imagine  how strong was the tree. R. Papa b. Samuel said: Had I not been there I would not have believed it. Rabbah b. Bar Hana further stated: Once we were travelling on board a ship and saw a fish in whose nostrils a parasite  had entered.  Thereupon, the water cast up the fish and threw it upon the shore. Sixty towns were destroyed thereby, sixty towns ate therefrom, and sixty towns salted [the remnants] thereof, and from one of its eyeballs three hundred kegs of oil were filled. On returning after twelve calendar months  we saw that they were cutting rafters from its skeleton and proceeding to rebuild those towns. Rabbah b. Bar Hana further stated: Once we were travelling on board a ship and saw a fish whose back was covered with sand out of which grew grass. Thinking it was dry land  we went up and baked, and cooked, upon its back. When, however, its back was heated it turned, and had not the ship been nearby we should have been drowned. Rabbah b. Bar Hana further stated: We travelled once on board a ship. and the ship sailed between one fin of the fish and the other for three days and three nights; it [swimming] upwards  and we [floating] downwards.  And if you think the ship did not sail fast enough, R. Dimi, when he came, stated that it covered sixty parasangs in the time it takes to warm a kettle of water. When a horseman shot an arrow [the ship] outstripped it. And R. Ashi said: That was one of the small sea monsters  which have [only] two fins. Rabbah b. Bar Hana further related: Once we travelled on board a ship and we saw a bird standing up to its ankles in the water while its head reached the sky. We thought the water was not deep  and wished to go down to cool ourselves, but a Bath Kol  called out: 'Do not go down here for a carpenter's axe was dropped [into this water] seven years ago and it has not [yet] reached the bottom. And this, not [only] because the water is deep but [also] because it is rapid. R. Ashi said: That [bird] was Ziz-Sadai  for it is written: And Ziz-Sadai is with me. Rabbah b. Bar Hana further related: We were once travelling in the desert and saw geese whose feathers fell out on account of their fatness, and streams of fat flowed under them. I said to them: 'Shall we have a share of your flesh  in the world to come?'  One lifted up [its] wing,  the other lifted up [its] leg.  When I came before R. Eleazar he said unto me: Israel will be called to account for [the sufferings  of] these [geese]. (Mnemonic: Like the sand of the purple blue scorpion stirred his basket.) Rabbah b. Bar Hana related: We were once travelling in a desert and there joined us an Arab merchant who, [by] taking up sand and smelling it [could] tell which was the way to one place and which was the way to another. We said unto him: 'How far are we from water?' He replied: 'Give me [some] sand.' We gave him, and he said unto us: 'Eight parasangs.' When we gave him again [later], he told us that we were three parasangs off. I changed it;  but was unable [to nonplus] him. He said unto me: 'Come and I will show you the Dead of the Wilderness.'  I went [with him] and saw them; and they looked as if in a state of exhilaration.