COMMON PIGEOiX. Glass IL 



Quelle ando al Cairo, ed indi fu lasciata 

 Un' altra altrove, come quivi e stilo : 

 Si, che in pochissime ore ando ravviso 

 Per tntto Egiito, ch'era Orn7o ucciso.* 



But the simple use of them was known in very 

 early times : Anacreon tells us, he conveyed 

 his billet-doux, to his beautiful Bathyllus, by 

 a dove. \ 



Kcx,i vvv olcc; aKslvov ' ■ '' - 



'E'ffKn'oXocs y.OfjA^w.f 



' 1 am now Anacreon' s slave. 

 And to me entrusted have 

 All the o'erflowings of his heart 

 To Bathyllus to impart ; 

 Each soft line, with nimble wing. 

 To the lovely boy I bring. 



Taurosthenes also, by means of a pigeon he 

 had decked with purple, sent advice to his fa- 

 ther, who lived in the isle of TEgina, of his vic- 

 tory in the Olympic games, on the very day he 



* ' As soon as the commandant of Da7niata heard that Or- 

 ' rilo was dead, he let loose a pigeon, imder whose wing he had 

 * tied a letter j this fled to Cairo, from whence a second was 

 ' dispatched to another place, as is usual ; so that in a very few 

 ' hours, all Egypt was acquainted with the death of Orrito,' 

 Ariosto, canto 15. " . . 



t Anacreon, ode 9. ei; Tts^ta-ts^ocv, 



