CHAP. I.] THE FIRST DA Y. 27 



either record, or lay up in their memories when they return from 

 travel. 



This for the birds' of pleasure, of which very much more might 

 be said. My next shall be of birds of political use. I think it is 

 not to be doubted that Swallows have been taught to carry letters 

 between two armies 3 but 'tis certain that when the Turks besieged 

 Malta or Rhodes, I now remember not which it was, Pigeons are 

 then related to carry and recarry letters : and Mr G. Sandys,* 

 in his " Travels," relates it to be done betwixt Aleppo and Babylon. 

 But if that be disbelieved, it is not to be doubted that the Dove 

 was sent out of the ark by Noah, to give him notice of land, when 

 to him all appeared to be sea ; and the Dove proved a faithful 

 and comfortable messenger. And for the sacrifices of the law, a 

 pair of Turtle-doves, or young Pigeons, were as well accepted as 

 costly Bulls and Rams ; and when God would feed the Prophet 

 Elijahjt after a kind of miraculous manner, he did it by Ravens, 

 who brought him meat morning and evening. Lastly, the Holy 

 Ghost, when he descended visibly upon our Saviour, did it by 

 assuming the shape of a Dove.:j: And, to conclude this part of 



* Mr George Sandys, a very pious, learned, and accomplished gentleman, was the 

 youngest son of Dr Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York. He published his Travels to 

 the Holy Land, -Egypt, and elsewhere, in folio, 1615 ; and made an excellent Paraphrase 

 on the Psalms, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes, in verse ; and also translated Ovid's 

 Meiaviorphoses. He was one of the best versifiers of that age, and died in 1642. — H. 

 George Sandys was born in the archiepiscopal palace, at Bishops Thorpe, in 1577, was 

 entered at St Mary's Hall, Oxford, in 1588. and in August 1610 commenced his travels 

 through Europe and Asia, which occupied two years. His Travels have been often 

 reprinted ; and besides the works just noticed, he was the author of Christ's Passion, 

 a tragedy, translated from Grotius, 1640, i2mo; and a Paraphrase on the Song of 

 Solomon, 4to, 1641. He died in 1643 : the following passage which is cited in the text 

 occurs in his "Relation of a Journey," 1615, fol. p. 209 — T. 



" A thing usual it is betweene Tripoly and Aleppo, as betweene Aleppo and Babylon, 

 to make tame Doves the speedy transporters of their Letters ; which they wrap about 

 their legs like jesses ; trained thereunto at such time as they have yong ones, by- 

 bearing them from them in open cages. A fowle of a notable memory. Nor is it a 

 moderne invention. For we reade that Thaurosthones, by a pigeon stained with purple, 

 gave notice of his victory at the Olimpian games the selfe same day to his father in 

 jEgina. By which meanes also the Consul Hircus held intelligence with Decimus 

 Brutus besieged in Mutina. The lite perhaps is meant by the Poet, when he saith 



'Tanquam e diversis partibus Orbis 

 Anxia praecipiti venisset Epistola prima.' — yuv. Sai. Q^c. 



As if from parts removed farre, from some 

 A wofuU Letter swiftly wing'd should come. 



When the Christians besieged Acre, Saladine sent out one of these winged scouts to 

 confirme the courages of the besieged, with promise of a speedy reliefe : when I know 

 not by what chance or policy, intercepted, and furnished with a contrary message, 

 occasioned a sodaine surrender. "^E. 



t I Kings xvii. 4-6. 



X Does not Walton here mistake the sense of two passages in Scripture, viz., Matt. iii. 

 16. "And Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the water : and, lo, 

 the Heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a 



