l^x in the form d m. Dove.
ed over the altar, and the dove is often placed oo tb covers of fonts. In this position it may still be »r in parish churches in England** (Chanibeis, EMcji- padia, s. v.). See also Martigny, DicL dor Aatiftu ChriOennes (Paris, 1865, p. 164 ; Didron, Ckri^Am Im- ography (Bohn), p. 451 ; Jehan, Did. det Origim k Christianiame (Paris, 1856), art Colombe.
DOyE-COT. Isaiah (Ix, 8) deariy icfers Is mi structures in describing the final reetoiatiott of UaA after their long exile : ** Who are these that flr u i cloud, and as the doves to their -windows ?*" (M*r*2 Qrr'^nsnM-^H, Hte tke dovee to Aeir iottfees). T^ doubtless derived their Heb. name from their lattrai or window-like form. See Wna>ow. Hcaier Hhf- trates this comparison from what he observed ia Pe- sia. ** In the environs of the city, to the wertvxn. near the Zainderood, are many pigoon-hooses, cnctnl at a distance from habitations, fbr the sole poxpoK ^ collecting pigeons' dung for manure. They sre kv round towers, rather broader at the bottom tbaa ^ top, and crowned by conical spiracles, throogh v^ the pigeons descend. Their interior resembles t b:& ey-comb, pierced with a thousand holes, each of vtici forms a snug retreat for a nest. More care appeiR p have been bestowed upon their outside than upoe tk: of the generality of the dwelling-hooses, for tfaev a* pointed and ornamented. The extraordinary i^ of pigeons which I have seen alight npon one ef cb» buUdings afford, perhaps, a good illustratteii of tki passage in Isa. Ix, 8. Their great nnmben, and dr compactness of their mass, literally look like a doe.' at a distance, and obscure the snn in Umxt pasMc? (Second Jottmey through Perna^ p. 140). Not onlj et
DOVES' DUNG
879
DOVES' DUNG
Modern Eerdittu i>uve*out8.
se btrdB profitable as food, but both Porter and rier assure us that their manure is used in Persia, wording to the latter, "the dung of pigeons is the rest manure that the Persians use ; and as they Ay \t almost entirely for the rearing of melons, it is »bably on that account that the melons of Ispahan I so much finer than those of other cities. The renue of a pigeon-house is about a hundred tomauns r annum" (Second Journey^ p. 141). Porter sayt wo hundred tomauns*' {Travels^ i, 451). See below.
BOYES' DUNG occurs in 2 Kings vi, 25, as a lit- il translation of t3'^3i'^"'^1?H {charey'^onim'^y which the margin is written d*'3i^"a'n (dib-ycnvny, both eaning the same thing. By many the expression considered to signify laterally the dung of pigeons food in the last degree of human suffering by fam- e : ^* And there was a great famine in Samaria, and ihold they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold •r threescore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a lb of doves' dung for four pieces of silver." Different pinions, however, have been entertained respecting le meaning of the words which are the subject of this rticle, namely, whether they should be taken literal- ^, or as a figurative name of some vegetable sub- tance. The strongest point in favor of the former iew is that all ancient Jewish writers have under- tood the term literally, and generally as an article )f food. That this interpretation is not forced appears 'rom similar passages in Josephus {War^ v, 13, 7): ' Some persons were driven to such terrible distress 18 to search the common sewers and old dunghills of »ttle, and to eat the dung which they got there, and fvhat they of old could not endure so much as to look ipou they now used for food ;" see also Eusebius (Ec- des. Hist, ill, 6): ** Indeed necessity forced them to apply their teeth to every thing ; and, gathering what was no food even for the filthiest of irrational animals, they devoured it." Celsius, who is strongly in favor of the literal meaning, quotes the following passage from Bruson {Afemarabil. ii, c. 41): **The Cretans, during the siege by Metellus, on account of the scarci- ty of wine and drinks, allayed their thirst with the urine of cattle;" and one much to the point from a Spanish writer, who states that in the year 1316 so great a famine distressed the English that **men ate their own children, dogs, mice, and pigeons* dung" As an additional argument in favor of the literal inter- pretation of the passage in question may be adduced the hinguage of Rabshakeh to the Jews in the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii, 27 ; Isa. xxxvi, 12). Other and more modem instances have been adduced, and among them the famine in England during the reign of king Edward II, A.D.1816, when "pigeons' dung" u mentioned as being eaten by the poor {Edinburgh CfirisHan Inttructor, No. 122). It may be , however, that the sacred writer means only to say that the famine was so severe, and every thing so exorbitantly dear,