Thank you very much. One last question based on what you're writing....... a sugya earlier in the mesechta, regarding Shlomo Hamelech, the gemara says that the demon who impersonated Shlomo hid his feet while having relations with the king's wives because they were like that of a chicken. If demons have chicken feet, then pulling out the corpse from a shallow pit should reveal that.
Max Weiman
Menachem, this question is asked by the Sefer Geresh Yerachim (by Rav Aryeh Leib Tzuntz, the Maharal Tzuntz) on the Gemara (Gitin 68b) that states that the feet of the demons are like those of a chicken. He does not give an answer.
1) I was actually careful, in my last reply, to anticipate this question when I wrote that the corpse may have been mutilated by its death. Therefore, it might no longer be possible to check the feet. I may now be able to support this idea on the basis of what Rebbi Akiva Eiger writes on the Mishnayos, about the words of our Mishnah (66a), "Somebody who had been thrown into a pit." Rebbi Akiva Eiger writes that the simple understanding is that we saw that her husband had been thrown into the pit and made his voice heard from there that they should write a Get for his wife. Either we knew who was thrown into the pit or at least we saw that someone was thrown in. Since it was a violent death, we can suggest that the body was mutilated and it was no longer possible to examine the feet.
2) Another possible answer may be found in the words of the Beis Shmuel on Shulchan Aruch, Even ha'Ezer 17:26. He writes that even if we examine the corpse and satisfy ourselves that it is a human, nevertheless it is possible that it was a demon that cried out to write a Get. The demon might have afterwards left while the corpse that we found is that of a man who had no intent to divorce his wife.
Again, according to this it will not help to check the feet because the voice might have come from another source.
Kol Tuv,
Dovid Bloom