WITNESSES.

An ignoramus is ineligible for a witness.

The following are ineligible as witnesses of the appearance of the new moon:--Dice-players, usurers, pigeon fliers, sellers of the produce of the year of release, and slaves. This is the general rule; in any case in which women are inadmissible as witnesses, they also are inadmissible here.

Rosh Hashanah, fol. 22, col. 1.

Two disciples of the wise happened to be shipwrecked with Rabbi Yossi ben Simaii, and the Rabbi allowed their widows to re-marry on the testimony of women. Even the testimony of a hundred women is only equal to the evidence of one man (and that only in a case like the foregoing; it is inadmissible in any other matter).

Yevamoth, fol. 115, col. 1.

"Whosoever is not instructed in Scripture, in the Mishna, and in good manners," says Rabbi Yochanan, "is not qualified to act as a witness." "He who cats in the street," say the Rabbis, "is like a dog;" and some add that such a one is ineligible as a witness, and Rav Iddi bar Avin says the Halachah is as "some say."

Kiddushin, fol. 40, col. 2.

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Even when a witness is paid, his testimony is not thereby invalidated.

Kiddushin, fol. 58, col. 2.

Testimony that is invalidated in part is invalidated entirely.

Bava Kama, fol. 73, col. 1.

Let witnesses know with whom and before whom they bear testimony, and who will one day call them to account; for it is said (Deut. xix. 17), "Both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord."

Sanhedrin, fol. 6, col. 2.

Those that eat another thing (i. e., not pork, but those who receive charity from a Gentile.--Rashi and Tosefoth) are disqualified from being witnesses. When is this the case? When done publicly; but if in secret, not so.

Ibid., fol. 26, col. 2.

He who swears falsely in a capital case is unreliable as a witness in any other suit at law; but if he has perjured himself in a civil case only, his evidence may be relied upon in cases where life and death are concerned.

Ibid., fol. 27, col. 1.

He who disavows a loan is fit to be a witness; but he who disowns a deposit in trust is unfit.

Shevuoth, fol. 40, col. 2.

Shimon ben Shetach says, "Fully examine the witnesses; be careful with thy words, lest from them they learn to lie." Avoth, chap. I.