of Nineveh: "Huzzab shall be led away captive; she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts *."

The sacred writers more than once allude to the flight of this bird, which they praise for its swiftness and ease. "Who are these,” said Isaiah," that fly as a cloud, and as doves to their windows+." In this passage, he beheld in vision, the captive Israelites liberated by the decree, and encouraged by the invitation of Cyrus, returning with the greatest alacrity to the land of their fathers; and exulting at the sight, he cries out with surprise and pleasure, "Who are these that fly as doves to their windows?" The prophet apparently supposes, that in his time, buildings for the reception of doves were very common. And this is by no means improbable; for, when Maundrell visited Palestine, dove cotes were numerous in some parts of the country. The dove flies more swiftly when she returns to the windows of these cotes, than when she leaves them; be cause, she hastens to revisit her young which she had left, and to distribute among them the food which she had collected. A similar passage occurs in Hosea: "They shall tremble as a dove out of Egypt; and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord." They shall fly with trepidation; or, like a dove trembling for its young, or alarmed for its own safety, which puts forth its utmost speed. Phrases of this kind, are not uncommon in the sacred writings; thus, when Samuel came to Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled at his coming; that is, they ran out with trepidation to meet him§. A similar phrase occurs in the third chapter of Hosea: "They shall fear to the Lord and his goodness;" that is, they shall run with trepidation to the Lord and his goodness in the latter days. These verbs, (7) harad and (1) pahad, which are nearly synonimous, according to some Jewish writers, mean only to return with haste. Thus, Aben Ezra, on the last quotation from the prophecies

• Nahum ii. 7. † Isa. lx. 8. Hos. xi. 11. §7pb 177777. 1 Sam, xvi. 4.

of Hosea: "They shall return with haste to the Lord and his goodness. Instances of the same mode of speech, are not wanting in classical authors. Thus, in the ninth book of the Æneid:

"Ne trepidate meas, Teucri, defendere naves."

Of which, the meaning, according to Servius and other commentators, is, ne festinate; Do not make haste to defend my ships. And Livy furnishes another example, "Quisque-trepidat ad prima signa;" every one trembles, that is, hastens to the first standards. When the prophet therefore says, "They shall tremble as a dove out of Egypt;" he means, they shall fly with the utmost speed out of Egypt, and out of the land of Assyria.

In allusion to her extraordinary swiftness, the Psalmist prays: "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then I would wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest*." The classical bards of Greece and Rome, make frequent allusions to her surprising rapidity, and adorn their lines with many beautiful figures from the manner in which she flies. Sophocles compares the speed with which she cleaves the ætherial clouds, to the impetuous rapidity of the whirlwind+; and Euripides, the furious impetuosity of the Bacchanals rushing upon Pentheus, to the celerity of her motions. Her wonderful rapidity is celebrated by Virgil, with his usual felicity, in these lines:

"Fertur in arva volans atque aere lapsa quieto

Radit iter liquidum celeris neque commovet alas." Æn. 5. While other birds, says Kimchi, become weary with flying, and alight upon a rock or á tree to recruit their strength, and are taken; the dove, when she is fatigued, alternately rests one wing and flies with the other, and by this means, escapes from the swiftest pursuer.

The orientals knew well how to avail themselves of her im+ Soph. Oed. Col.

Psá. lv. 7.

3

petuous wing on various occasions. It is a curious fact, that she was long employed in those countries as a courier, to carry tidings of importance between distant cities. Ælian asserts, that Taurosthenes communicated to his father at Ægina, by a carrier pigeon, the news of his success in the olympic games, on the very same day in which he obtained the prize. The Ro mans, it appears from Pliny, often employed doves in the same service; for Brutus, during the siege of Mutina, sent letters tied to their feet, into the camp of the consuls. This remarkable custom has descended to modern times; Volney informs us, that the use of carrier pigeons has been laid aside, only for the last thirty or forty years, because the Curd robbers killed the birds, and carried off their dispatches.

The manner of sending advice by them, was this: They took doves which had a very young and unfledged brood, and carried them on horseback, to the place from whence they wished them to return, taking care to let them have a full view. When any advices were received, the correspondent tied a billet to the pigeon's foot, or under the wing, and let her loose. The bird, impatient to see her young, flew off with the utmost impetuosity, and soon arrived at the place of her destination. These pigeons have been known to travel from Alexandretta to Aleppo, a distance of seventy miles, in six hours, and in two days from Bagdad. The poets of Greece and Rome, often allude to these winged couriers, and their surprising industry. Anacreon's dove, which he celebrates in his ninth ode, was employed to carry her master's letters; and her fidelity and dispatch, are eulogized in these lines :

Εγω δε Ανακρέοντι, &c.

"In such things, I minister to Anacreon; and now see what letters I bring him*."

It is more than probable, that to this singular custom, Solomon alludes in the following passage: "Curse not the king, no not in

* See an amusing account of these aerial posts among the Turks, in Volney's Travels.

thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bed-chamber; for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and they which have wings, shall tell the matter*." The remote antiquity of the age in which the wise man flourished, is no valid objection; for the customs and usages of orientals, are almost as permanent as the soil on which they tread. Averse to change, and content for the most part with what their fathers have taught them, they transmit the lessons they have received, and the customs they have learned, with little alteration, from one generation to another. The pigeon was employed in carrying messages, and bearing intelligence, long before the coming of Christ, as we know from the odes of Anacreon and other classics; and the custom seems to have been very general, and quite familiar. When, therefore, the character of those nations, and the stability of their customs, are duly considered, it will not be reckoned extravagant to say, that Solomon in this text, must have had his

carrier pigeon.

66

eye on the

Her native and original dwelling, is in the cave or holes of the rock. A beautiful allusion to this fact, occurs in the prophecies of Jeremiah, where he describes the flight of the Moabites to the rocky mountains from the sword of their enemies: "O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth+." Our Lord addresses the church in the Song of Solomon, in similar terms: "O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely ‡." The phrase which we render the secret places of the stairs, may, with more propriety be translated, the secret crevices of the precipitous rocks; for the original term signifies a place so high and steep, that it cannot be approached but by ladders. So closely pursued were the people of Israel, and so unable to resist the assault of their enemies, that, like the timid dove, they fled to the fastnesses of + Song ii. 14.

* Eccl. x. 20.

Jer. xlviii. 28.

he mountains, and the holes of the rocks. Homer has availed himself of the same circumstance,

Δακρυεσσα δε έπειτα θεα φύγεν ώςε πελεια

Ηρα υπ' ιρηκος κοιλην εισέπτατο πέτραν.

П. b. 21. 7. 493. "But then the goddess fled weeping, like a dove which flies in terror from the hawk into a hollow rock." The miserable remains of the Jews, that survived the destruction of their country by the arms of Nebuchadnezzar, are represented by the prophet as tame doves, violently driven from the valleys which they had been accustomed to haunt, to wander, lonely and mournful, upon the mountains, the proper abode of the wild pigeon: "But they that escape, shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity *." The truth and propriety of these allusions, are confirmed by the writings of several modern travellers. In Asia Minor, according to Chandler, the dove lodges in the holes of the rock; and Dr Shaw mentions a city in Africa, which derives its name from the great number of wild pigeons which breed in the adjoining cliffs. It is not uncommon for shepherds and fishermen, to seek for shelter in the spacious caverns of that country, from the severity of the weather, and to kindle fires in them, to warm their shivering limbs, and dress their victuals; in consequence of which, the doves which happen to build their nests on their shelves, must be frequently smutted, and their plumage soiled. Some have conjectured, that the royal Psalmist may allude to this scene, in which he had perhaps acted a part, while he tended his father's flocks, in that singular promise, "Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold +." The people of Israel, who had long bent their necks to the galling yoke of Egypt, and groaned under the most cruel oppression, may not unfitly be compared to a dove in the fissure of a rock, which had been terrified by the intrusion of strangers, and polluted +Psa. lxviii. 13. I

* Ezek. vii, 16.

VOL. II.

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