B. B. WarfieM).
DOVE C^,''" y'lnith, irepiGTcpi, columhn). — There are several species of wild doves in Bible lands, which all go by the name of /lamam in Arabic. (1) The ring dove or wood pigeon (Co/h»i/<(i I'nhimhufi, L.), which appears twice a year, at the spring and autumn migration, in all the wooded districts of
620
DOVE
DRAGON
Palestine. It is taken by means of a decoy bird, tied to a perch, with its eyelids sewn up. A consider- able number remain through the winter. (2) The stock dove (Columba mnas, L.), which is common in Gilead and Bashan, and in the Jordan Valley. (3) The rock dove (Columba livia, Bonnat), which is found along the coast, and in the highlands W. of the Jordan and in Lebanon. (4) The ash-rumped rock dove [Columba Schimperi, Bp.), which is found in the interior of VaX., and makes its nests in the caves and fissures of the chalk precipices. The name ham,&m is associated with a number of wadis and other natural features of the country.
Tame doves are found in every city and village, often in immense numbers. They have been kept from most ancient times. The writer discovered in Wady Sir, in Gilead, a rock-hewn dove-cot of large size. It is described and figured in PEFSt, Oct. 1886. It is a favourite amusement of boys and young men, especially in the interior cities, as Damascus, IJems, Ijamath, etc., to spend the later afternoon hours in superintending the flight of pigeons. They train them to wheel about over the houses, making their own home a centre, and to come back and alight on their owner's hand, and, with a shrill whistle, to be tossed off into the air again for a short whirl. It is one of the earliest mentioned birds in the Bible (Gn 8^"'^). It is a bird capable of distant flight (Ps 55*). A domesticated variety has yellow plumage (Ps 68''). The wild doves make their nests in the cliB's over- hanging the wadis (Ca 2'*, Jer 48-«, Ezk 7'^). The mournful cooing of the dove is well known, and often alluded to in Scripture (Is 38" 59", Nah 2'). Its harmlessness is proverbial ( JIt 10'*). Its foolish- ness is used to illustrate the stupidity of Ephraim (Hos 7"). Its lovable qualities are also proverbial (Ca 1" etc.). Young pigeons were used in sacrifice (Gn 15').
Dove's Dnng accumulates in immense quantities around the dove-cots, and is an invaluable manure, especially for cantelopes. It is owing to the use of this fertilizer that the melons of Persia are so renowned for their excellence. The talus in front of the cliffs where wild doves nest in large numbers is covered with thick deposits of their excrement, which is almost as powerful a fertilizer as guano. *
G. E. Post.
• There seems to be no doubt of the etymologrical sigrnificance of the word D*;v*nD A***^ yOnlm, (2 K 6^). Udri means liter- ally dung. The Arab, preserves the word exactly, heri, with the same signification. It is, however, now regarded as obscene, and constantly so used by low-Uved people in the East. What was the substance which was sold at the rate of five pieces of silver the quarter cab, that is, 6a. 4d. the pint? Many efTorts have been made to find some plant which miffht have been called by this name. Avicenna says (ii. 141) that the bestquality of ushndn, a name for several species of SaUotacecB, is called hfri el-'aifOJir, that is, fparroufi dung. There are numerous instances of a similar nomenclature. Nevertheless, no one h.as as yet found a plant that bears the name of dove's dutiq, or which can be identified with the material which was sold so dear ; and nothing is gained for science by mere conjecture. It is better to accept the literal interpretation, and conclude that, in the last resort, the dove-cots were dravm upon to satisfy the cravings of starving men. The ordure and urine of almost all kinds uf animals and birds, domestic and wild, were adminis- tered by the ancients as medicine — among them dove's dung. There are long unsavoury articles in the ancient medical treatises of Avicenna and others on their virtues. They were and are still used as collyria in the treatment of ophthalmia. llou^'hton cites a statement from a Spanish author, who sa.^'s that in the year 1316 so great a famine distressed the English that 'men ate their own children, dogs, mice, and pi'jcons' dung.* With this statement compare Habshakeh's threat (2 K 18^\ Is SC'"^). It is well known that pigeons and other birds often pass seeds unchanged through their alimentary canal. When the Dutch tried to enlianee the price of nutmegs in their E. Indian possessions by liuuting the growth of the trees, the large wild pigeons of those regions thwarted their purpose by carrying the nutmegs in their crops, and depositing them in their excrement at points far removed from the Dutch posses- aions. The seeds took root, and produced nutmeg trees. Birds are a recognized factor in the propagation of plants in this manner. The flora of the coral islands is largely indebted to them for species thus introduced. The existence of such un-
DOYE'S DUNG.— See Dove and Food. DOWRY.— See Marriaqe.
DOXOLOGY, which is not a biblical word. Is tb« name which has been applied to any formal ascrip- tion of praise or glory to God [So^oXoyla, glorificatio). Such are the closing sentences of several apostolic prayers, e.g. Ko 16-'', Jude'', Eph 3-". In par- ticular, the name is given to the last sentence ol the Lord's Prayer as it stands in TR and our AV of Matthew (cf. 1 Ch 29"). This verse, however, is omitted in the parallel passage of St. Luke, neither is it found in the earlier Uncials or tlie Vulg., but first in the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles and Chrysostom. Hence it has been omitted from the text of WH and RV (text, not margin). See Chase, Lord's Prayer, 168 ff.