FABLE AND FOLKLORE 135 



mention of another is contained in an inventory of Salisbury. 

 In Italy at an early date, the dove was set upon a tower for 

 reservation. . . . We also find in early works of devotional art 

 the dove represented as flooding a cross with streams of living 

 water. There is a famous example in the Lateran, symbolical 

 of Holy Baptism. A holy lamb and dove are placed on the 

 canopy of the baptistery at Saragossa. 



It seems unlikely that Mohammed could have heard of 

 these pontifical sources or methods of divine inspiration, 

 yet, according to Brewer, 34 Prideaux, in his Life of 

 Mahomet, relates that he taught a dove to pick seed 

 placed in his ear as it perched on his shoulder; but the 

 wily prophet "gave it out it was the Holy Ghost, in the 

 form of a dove, come to impart to him the counsels of 

 God." This accounts probably (for Shakespeare may 

 well have heard the tradition) for the doubting query in 

 Henry V: "Was Mohammed inspired with a dove?" 



Whether this legend is credible or not, it is certain 

 that Islam has preserved the ancient Oriental reverence 

 for this bird, which now flocks in great numbers around 

 all the mosques; and the Moslems have a half-super- 

 stitious feeling that any bird that seeks its rest and 

 makes its nest about temples and holy buildings must not 

 be disturbed — a kindly regard in which swallows share, 

 at least in the Near East, where the Mohammedans say 

 that the swallow must be a very holy bird, because it 

 makes an annual pilgrimage to Mecca. 



John Keane, 14 an Englishman who spent a long time 

 in Arabia about forty years ago, records that at Mecca 

 vast flocks of pigeons were to be seen in the public space 

 surrounding the kaaba. By repeated observations he esti- 

 mated that between 5000 and 6000 pigeons assembled 

 there daily, all so tame that they would alight on men's 



