DOVES' DUNG (cluv's dung), (Heb. khar-ay'yo-neem', 2 Kings vi:25, which in the mar gin is written dib-yonim, both meaning the same thing .
(1) In the above compounds, khir and dib be ing prefixed to yonim, the plural form for doves, the literal meaning is as above translated. By many the expression is considered to signify lit erally the dung of pigeons, as in the passage of 2 Kings vi :25.
(2) Different opinions, however, have been en tertained respecting the meaning of the words which are the subject of this article, namely, whether they should be taken literally, or as a figurative name of some vegetable substance. The strongest point in favor of the former view is that all ancient Jewish writers have understood the term literally. Taking it, however, in this sense, various explanations have been given of the use to which the doves' dung was applied. Some of the rabbins were of opinion, that the doves' dung v..as used for fuel, and Josephus, that it was pur chased for its salt. Mr. Harmer has suggested tom it might have been a valuable article, as be ing of great use for quickening the growth of esculent plants, particularly melons. Mr. Ed wards, as cited by Dr. Harris, remarks that it is not likely they had much ground to cultivate in so populous a city for gardens; and is dis posed therefore to understand it as meaning the offals or refuse of all sorts of grain, which was wont to be given to pigeons, etc. Dr. Harris, however, observes that the stress of the famine might have been so great as to have compelled the poor among the besieged in Samaria to devour either the intestines of the doves, after the more wealthy had eaten the bodies, or, as it might perhaps be rendered, the crops.
(3) Bochart, however, has shown (Hicrozoieon ii :37) that the term 'pigeons' dung' was applied by the Arabs to different vegetable substances.
He quotes Avicenna as applying the term stercus cofmnboruns to two different plants or substances. From this Bochart has been led to consider it as identical with another plant, which occurs under the name of kali, both in the Hebrew and Arabic languages, and which was one of the pulses used in ancient times, as at the present day, as an ar ticle of diet. (Sec KALI.) With reference to this grain, it has been observed that 'large quantities of it are parched and dried, and stored in maga zines at Cairo and Damascus. It is much used during journeys, and particularly by the great pilgrim-caravan to Mecca; and if this conjecture be correct, it may be supposed to have been among the provisions stored up in the besieged city, and sold at the extravagant price mentioned in the text' (Pict. Bible). The late Lady Callcott, in her Scripture Herbal, 1842, adduces the orni thogoluon umbellatum, or common Star of Beth lehem, as the 'doves' dung' of Scripture, and as signs this, as well as 'birds' milk,' as two of its vernacular names, and infers that the pigeons' dung which has been mentioned above as being eaten in England in the famine of 1316 was the roots of this plant. It is a native of this country, and also of Taurus, Caucasus, and Northern Africa. Dioscorides states that its bulbs were sometimes cooked with bread in the same way as the melanthium, and also that it was eaten both raw and roasted. The roots were also com monly eaten in Italy and other southern coun tries at an early period.