book ii. sec. 18.

20 Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged them to chew everything, while they gathered such things as the most sordid animals would not touch, and endured to eat them; nor did they at length abstain from girdles and shoes; and the very leather which belonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed: the very wisps of old hay became food to some; and some gathered up fibres, and sold a very small weight of them for four Attic (drachmæ).—Josephus, _Wars of the Jews_, book vi. sec. 3.

21 This frightful supper is said to have been eaten in the dwelling of one Mary of Bethezub, which signifies the House of Hyssop.—Josephus, _Wars of the Jews_, book vi. sec. 3.

22 For a description of these portentous appearances, both previous to and during the siege of Jerusalem, see Josephus, _Wars of the Jews_,