end of time, to compensate them for the privations which
abstaining from the unclean fowls imposed upon them.[139]


THE SIXTH DAY

As the fish were formed out of water, and the birds out of boggy
earth well mixed with water, so the mammals were formed out of
solid earth,[140] and as leviathan is the most notable
representative of the fish kind, and ziz of the bird kind, so
behemot is the most notable representative of the mammal kind.
Behemot matches leviathan in strength, and he had to be
prevented, like leviathan, from multiplying and increasing, else
the world could not have continued to exist; after God had
created him male and female, He at once deprived him of the
desire to propagate his kind.[141] He is so monstrous that he
requires the produce of a thousand mountains for his daily food.
All the water that flows through the bed of the Jordan in a year
suffices him exactly for one gulp. It therefore was necessary to
give him one stream entirely for his own use, a stream flowing
forth from Paradise, called Yubal.[142] Behemot, too, is destined
to be served to the pious as an appetizing dainty, but before
they enjoy his flesh, they will be permitted to view the mortal
combat between leviathan and behemot, as a reward for having
denied themselves the pleasures of the circus and its
gladiatorial contests.[143]

Leviathan, ziz, and behemot are not the only monsters; there are
many others, and marvellous ones, like the reem, a giant animal,
of which only one couple, male and female, is in existence. Had