FABLE AND FOLKLORE 139 



book on Christian symbolism, 63 the dove is shown de- 

 scending on the Blessed Virgin at the Annunciation. 

 After this date the Holy Dove is commonly shown in 

 depicting both these subjects, as well as the sacrament of 

 baptism. It appears frequently also over the pictures of 

 the Virgin and Child, and in pictures of the Creation, 

 where "the spirit of God moved on the face of the 

 waters. . . . The Holy Spirit as a dove bestowing the 

 Gift of Tongues is shown with flames proceeding from 

 Him." 



The prophet Elisha is represented in a window of 

 Lincoln College, England, with a two-headed dove on his 

 shoulder — evidently an allusion to his petition to Elijah 

 (77 Kings, ii, 9) : "I pray thee, let a double portion of 

 thy spirit be upon me." 



But this venerated bird has many other meanings in 

 Christian art and parable, sometimes so comprehensive 

 as to include the Church, or Pope, or Christians generally 

 in the sense that they are distinguished from Pagans by 

 their gentleness and innocence. 



Reference has been made to the funereal quality of this 

 bird, which appears on medieval funerary monuments as 

 testimony of death in Christian faith. In the miracle- 

 play depicting the career and martyrdom of St. Eulalia 

 of Barcelona, which is still enacted annually in the Cata- 

 lan village-churches of the eastern Pyrenees, it is repre- 

 sented that the tortured soul of the Christian maiden 

 escapes to heaven in the form of a dove. Even to-day 

 one sees these birds, or a pair of them, carved on tomb- 

 stones, or their stuffed skins employed as a part of funeral 

 wreaths and accessories, and certain superstitions have 

 grown out of this practice, as is related elsewhere. 



The white domestic dove has always been a figure of 



