We resume our quotations from this treasurable little volume already
noticed in No. 551, of _The Mirror_. Taken altogether, it is an
exhaustless mine of research upon subjects which have awakened curiosity
from childhood to old age--from the little wonder-struck learner on the
school form to the patient inquirer with spectacle on nose.
_The Raven and the Dove at the Deluge._
"We shall quote the interesting account which the Sacred Volume supplies
us, of the singular messenger employed by the patriarch, to procure
information as to the state of the diluvial waters;--'And it came to
pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark
which he had made: and he sent forth a raven, which went to and fro (in
going forth and returning), until the waters were dried up from off the
earth. Also, he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were
abated from off the face of the ground: but the dove found no rest for
the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark: for the
waters were on the face of the whole earth. Then he put forth his hand,
and took her and pulled her (caused her to come) in unto him into the
ark. And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the
dove out of the ark: and the dove came into him in the evening; and lo!
in her mouth was an olive leaf, plucked off. So Noah knew that the
waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven
days, and sent forth the dove which returned not again unto him any
more.' This narrative, though simple in its style, is expressive and
beautiful. There is an eloquent charm which, while it touches the chords
of truth, makes the heart respond to the tale. The raven would find
sufficient for its carnivorous appetite in the floatage of the animal
remains, on the briny flood, and would return to roost on the ark; but
it was far different with Noah's bird, so long as the waters prevailed,
there could be no pause for her weary wing, and the messenger would
return to the ark. So soon, however, as the subsidence of the waters had
permitted the olive to emerge, a sprig was plucked off, and borne to the
patriarch in triumph. Emphatic symbol of peace! Commemorated through
ages, it is still the symbol of peace. Along with the fig tree and vine,
it is associated, as the emblem of man's inheritance, and in the
geography of its locality, the patriarch would hail the plain on which
it flourished, and from which it was borne, as the place of his former
abode. The dove would return, though the olive had emerged, because no
food had as yet been provided. How long this ambassador of peace was
absent, we cannot tell: we are only informed that the dove returned in
the _evening_. If the winged messenger was despatched early in the day,
it is not improbable that the delightful trophy was obtained from Mount
Olivet, where, according to the late Dr. Clarke, 'the olive still
vindicates its parental soil.' In considering the question of the
geographical distribution of plants, this would likely be the nearest
olive plane from the mountains of Armenia. It may be remarked also, that
the olive remarkably synchronizes with the habits of the dove; since,
according to Dr. Chandler, in his Travels in Greece, as soon as the
olive matures its berries, vast numbers of doves, among other birds,
repair for food to the olive groves. It cannot be irrelevant to remind
our readers of the habits of the _columba tabellaria_, or the carrier
pigeon, so called from the office to which it has been applied, viz.
that of carrying letters, in the Levant, &c. Those of Mesopotamia are
the most famous in the world, and the Babylonian carrier pigeon is
employed even on ordinary occasions at Bagdad. The geographical
locality, therefore, of the carrier pigeon, it is interesting to
remember, is in the vicinity of those very mountains where the ark
finally rested. With us the carrier pigeon is an exotic, and is now
acclimated, or naturalized. Carrier pigeons fly at the rate of fifty
miles an hour.--'Napoleon,' the name of one of the carrier pigeons which
was despatched from London a short time ago, at four o'clock A.M.,
reached Liege, in France, about ten o'clock in the day. Mr. Audubon
states his having shot the passenger pigeon (_columba migratoria_) in
America, and found in its stomach, _rice_, which could not have been
obtained within a distance of eight hundred miles."
_Parable of the Good Samaritan._
"Our readers will remember the beautiful parable of the _good
Samaritan_, and his kindness and compassion for the wounded stranger
'who fell among thieves,' on his journey from _Jerusalem to Jericho_.
Sichem or Sychar, the district of the Samaritans, and which they now
inhabit, is about forty miles from Jerusalem. Jericho is about nineteen
miles from the capital of Judea; and, as it was in the first century, so
the intervening country _still remains_ infested by banditti. Sir
Frederick Henniker, as late as 1820, on his journey from Jerusalem to
Jericho, was way-laid, attacked by a band of predatory Arabs, and
plundered. He was stripped naked, and left severely wounded; and in this
state was carried to Jericho."
_David and Goliath._
"David's encounter with Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, is
mentioned in I Samuel xvii.: and in the 40th verse is described the
simple armour with which the shepherd boy, Jesse's son, repaired to the
contest. Many a thirsty pilgrim, as he passes through the valley of
Eluh, on the road from Bethlehem to Jaffa (Joppa), has drunk of 'the
brook in the way'--that very brook from whence the minstrel youth 'chose
him five smooth stones.' 'Its present appearance,' says a recent
traveller, 'answers exactly to the description given in Scripture; the
two hills on which the armies stood, entirely confined it on the right
and left. The valley is not above half a mile broad. Tradition was not
required to identify this spot. Nature has stamped it with everlasting
features of truth. The brook still flows through it in a winding course,
from which David took the smooth stones.'"
_The Willows of Babylon._
"In reference to the willow and the streams of Babylon, where the
Hebrews remembered Zion so mournfully, Sir Robert Ker Porter states,
that 'the banks of the Euphrates were hoary with reeds, and the grey
osier willows were yet there on which the captives of Israel hung their
harps,' and wept in the land of the stranger. The _salix babylonica_, or
the weeping willow, in its geographical range, sweeps through the plains
of Judea, and by the ruins of Babylon, from the verge of the
Mediterranean to the frontiers of Japan--a lovely line of beauty--the
Niobe of vegetation! Sad memorial of the mournful march of the captive
Hebrews. It is, we think, a very striking circumstance, that these
countries should even now retain such unchanged lineaments of their
ancient history. Time seems to linger, or move slowly on; as if the
wheels of nature stood still, and paused at the mournful sight of
departed grandeur and buried magnificence--BABYLON in ruins! 'MENE!--GOD
hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it!' Mr. Rich has given us a
sketch of a spade copied from a Babylonian brick found near El Kasr, and
detached from a mass of ruin, in all probability, on the very site of
Nebuchadnezzar's pensile gardens; and he remarks, that it is almost a
fac simile of the spade used at this very day in Chaldea."
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