In ancient exorcism traditions, demons typically made a public scene when they departed, melodramatically indicating their protest and the exorcist's power (as in Jos. Ant. 8.48-49; Philostr. V.A. 4.20); but rarely did they make this much of a scene! Pigs can normally swim for some distance if necessary (Alexander 1980:214); given the mortality of demons in some Jewish traditions, this account may suggest that the demons were at least disabled or bound in hell. It would have made sense to the earliest Jewish hearers of this story that demons wished to enter pigs and that Jesus let the herd perish, but to the owners of the swine (in preinsurance days) the destruction of their herd meant financial loss, not just "deviled ham." The deliverance of the demoniacs mattered more to Jesus than the fate of the swine (see also Hooker 1983:39).