YONAH (nni, 7repco-repi). There are probably several species of doves or pigeons in cluded in the Hebrew name yonak. It may con tain all those that inhabit Palestine, exclusive of the turtle-doves properly so called. Thus gener alised, the dove is figuratively, next to man, the most exalted of animals, symbolising the Holy Spirit, the meekness, purity, and splendour of righteousness. Next, it is by some considered (though in an obscure passage) as an early na tional standard (Ps. lxviii. 13), being likewise held in pagan Syria and Phcenicia to be an ensign and a divinity, resplendent with silver and gold ; and so venerated as to be regarded as holy, and for bidden as an article of food. By the Hebrew law, however, doves and turtie-doves were tbe only birds that could be offered in sacrifice, and they were usually selected for that purpose by the less wealthy (Gen. xv. 9; Lev. v. 7 ; xii. 6 ; Luke ii. 24); and to supply the demand for them, dealers in these birds sat about the precincts of the Temple (Matt. xxi. 12, etc.) The dove is the harbing,er of reconciliation with God (Gen. viii. 8, to, etc.) As to the supposed use of doves' dung for food, see DOVES' DUNG.
With regard to the dove as a national ensig,n, it may be remarked that we have two figures where the symbol occurs : one from a Phcenician coin, where the dove stands on a globe instead of the usual pedestal of ancient signa, with wings closed, and a glory of sunbeams round the head; the other, from a defaced bas-relief observed in the Hauran, where the bird, with wings displayed, is seated also on a globe, and the sunbeams, spreading behind the whole, terminate in a circle of stars ; probably representing Assyria, Syria, or perhaps Semiramis (compare several passages in Jeremiah). The brown wood-dove is said to be intended by the FIebrew name ; but all the sacred birds, unless_ex pressly mentioned, were pure white, or with some roseate feathers about the wing coverts, such as are still frequently bred from the carrier-pigeon of Scandiroon. It is this kind which Tibullus notices,
Alba Pakestino sancta Columba Syro.' The carrier-birds are represented in Egyptian bas reliefs, where priests are shown letting them fly on a message; and to them also may be referred the black-doves, which typified or gave their name to an order of Gentile priests, both in Egypt and, it would seem, in early Greece, who, under this char acter, were, in the mysteries, restorers of light. This may have had reference to the return of the dove which caused Noah to uncover the ark. All pigeons in their true wild plumage have iridescent colours about the neck, and often reflected flashes of the same colours on the shoulders, which are the source of the silver and gold feathers asciibed to them in poetical diction ; and thence the epithet of purple bestowed upon them all, though most applicable to the vinous and slaty-coloured species. The coasts and territory of Syria are noted for the great number of doves frequenting them, though they are not so abundant there as in the Coh-i-Suleiman chain near the Indus, which in Sanscrit is named Arga varta, or, as it is interpreted, the dove.' Syria possesses several species of pigeon : the Columba cenas, or stock-dove, C. pal/in/bus, or ring-dove, C. domestic-a, Livia, the common pigeon in several varieties, such as the Barbary, Turkish or Persian carrier, crisp, and shaker. These are still watched in their flight in the same manner as anciently their number, gyrations, and other ma nceuvres were observed by soothsayers. The wild species, as well as the turtle-doves, migrate from Palestine to the south ; but stock and ring doves are not long absent.
We figure above (No. 534) the more rare species of white and pink carrier, and the Plicenician sacred ensign of the dove.—C. H. S.