Page images
PDF
EPUB

"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 cots were numerous in some parts of the country. In the neighbourhood of Ispahan are many pigeon-houses built for the sole purpose of collecting pigeons dung for manure. The extraordinary flights of pigeons which alight upon one of those buildings, furnish a good illustration of the prophet's vision. Their great numbers and the compactness of their mass, literally look like a cloud at a distance, and obscure the sun in their passage. In some parts of Egypt are numerous whitened dove cotes on the tops of the houses. The dove flies more swiftly when she returns to the windows of these cotes, than when she leaves them; because, 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.”g 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

66

• Isa. lx, 8.
d Trav. p. 3.
Richardson's Trav. vol. ii, p. 129.

2

Morier's Trav. vol. i, p. 141.
Hos. xi, llig

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 (77) 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 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:

1. 114.

"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 j Psa. lv, 7.

.4 ,Sam. xvi 1 ויחרדו לקראתו *

i Lib. xxiii.

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 celeres neque commovet alas." En. lib. v, 1. 217. And Kimchi gives it as the reason why the Psalmist prefers the dove to other birds, that while they become weary with flying, and alight upon a rock or a 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, escape from the swiftest pursuers.1

The orientals knew well how to avail themselves of her impetuous 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. Elian 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 Romans, it appears from Pliny, often employed doves in the same service; for Brutus, during the seige 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 in Turkey 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.

[ocr errors]

The manner of sending advice by them, was this:

* Quoted by Bochart, lib. i, c. 2, p. 14. ! Ibid.

m Variis, lib. ix, c. 2.

n

Lib. x, cap. 53,

These pi

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. geons have been known to travel from Alexandretta to Aleppo, a distance of seventy miles, in six hours, and in two days from Bagdad; and when taught, they never fail unless it be very dark, in which case they usually send two for fear of mistake. 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, ξε.

"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 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

a

m Harris's Collec. of Trav.

n See an amusing account of

Tavernier, p. 308.

these aerial posts among the Turks in Volney's Travels, vol. i, p. 89, 363; and in Russel's Hist. of Aleppo, vol. ii,

[blocks in formation]

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 gene ration 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 eye on the carrier pigeon,P

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

P The swallow had sometimes the honour to be employed in the same service. At one time she was sent home to her nest bedaubed with the colour of victory, to announce the success of a warrior to his distant friends; at another, she returned to the besieged city from whence she had been carried, with a line bound to her foot, on which were as many knots as days were to intervene before he should come to the assistance of the garrison. Pliny's Natur. Hist. book x, chap. 34. The crow was also sent on the same errand. Elian de Nat. Animal. lib. ix, cap. 2. 1 Jer. xlviii, 28.

« PreviousContinue »