A Curious Nullity Suit. of the death guard, and was strictly enjoined not to tell the prisoner of the action of the court. Daggett, however, determined that Dr. Matthews should know that his life was saved, and told him so in this way. He talked for over two hours on the subject of death, the immortality of the soul, of repentance, faith, predestination, and es pecially on the absolute necessity of baptism by immersion as a condition precedent to salvation, etc. This was an unheard of thing for Daggett to do, and his distressed friend wondered what he meant. Of course, Matthews' nerves were strung and he was intensely on the qui vive, knowing that something ulterior was meant by Daggett. Now the guard, from the long, dry talk on the Bible, became listless and inattentive,
383
when Daggett asked Matthews what verse in the Bible afforded him the greatest com fort at this time, and in turn Matthews asked Daggett the same question, to which Daggett replied : 'i Fret not thy gizzard, and frizzle not thy whirligig, thou, soul, art saved." Matthews asked him to give chap ter and verse of the quotation, which, of course, he could not do. After some other conversation the Doctor asked him to re peat the verse, the Doctor significantly bow ing his head, knowing that his life was saved but that his friend was forbidden to tell him so. He slept soundly that night. Daggett remained in Gainesville three days, and re stored Matthews to his family on Deer Creek. The above incident I had from the lips of both parties.
A CURIOUS NULLITY SUIT OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. By Beulah Brylawsk1 Amram. THE principal parties in this case were Samuel Ibn Tibbon, plaintiff, and Biongude Cohen, defendant. It was tried be fore a special court at Marseilles, in Novem ber or December, 1255, and the records are preserved in a manuscript collection of Rab binical decisions now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It was made the subject of a learned and somewhat prolix essay by Isidore Loeb published in the third volume of the "Archives Israelites" of Paris, to which I am indebted for the facts. Moses Ibn Tibbon, the father of the plaintiff, was a celebrated scholar and a member of a distinguished family. His sister Bella was the mother of the defend ant, Biongude (Good Jewess) and lived at Naples. Biongude's father died during her infancy and upon the death of her only brother in 1255 without children, she be
came his heir, and his fortune together with that of her mother made her very rich. Her wealth excited the cupidity of Samuel Ibn Tibbon, her cousin, and led him to in stitute a singular suit, the result of which was exceedingly discreditable to him. In 1255, when this suit was brought, Biongude was the wife of Isaac bar Simson whom she had married in the previous year, shortly before the death of her brother. Samuel and his father, Moses Ibn Tibbon, were present at the wedding, and Moses him self wrote the marriage contract. Shortly after the death of her brother and her ac quisition of the inheritance in the year 1255, Samuel proclaimed himself her lawful hus band and instituted a suit to annul the marriage with Isaac bar Simson; and, in order to make quite sure of her, he alleged that he had married her three times. The
