the
tree or pillar from the underworld, so the dove, with which this
goddess is also associated, shows its possession from the world of the
sky".[485] Professor Robertson Smith has demonstrated that the dove
was of great sanctity among the Semites.[486] It figures in Hittite
sculptures and was probably connected with the goddess cult in Asia
Minor. Although Egypt had no dove goddess, the bird was addressed by
lovers--

I hear thy voice, O turtle dove--
The dawn is all aglow--
Weary am I with love, with love,
Oh, whither shall I go?[487]

Pigeons, as indicated, are in Egypt still regarded as sacred birds,
and a few years ago British soldiers created a riot by shooting them.
Doves were connected with the ancient Greek oracle at Dodona. In many
countries the dove is closely associated with love, and also
symbolizes innocence, gentleness, and holiness.

The pigeon was anciently, it would appear, a sacred bird in these
islands, and Brand has recorded curious folk beliefs connected with
it. In some districts the idea prevailed that no person could die on a
bed which contained pigeon feathers: "If anybody be sick and lye a
dying, if they lye upon pigeon feathers they will be languishing and
never die, but be in pain and torment," wrote a correspondent. A
similar superstition about the feathers of different varieties of wild
fowl[488] obtained in other districts. Brand traced this interesting
traditional belief in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire, and some of
the Welsh and Irish counties.[489] It still lingers in parts of the
Scottish Highlands. In the old ballad of "The Bloody Gardener" the
white dove appears to a young man as the soul of his lady love who was
murdered by his mother. He first saw the bird perched on his breast
and then "sitting on a myrtle tree".[490]

The dove was not only a symbol of Semiramis, but also of her mother
Derceto, the Phoenician fish goddess. The connection between bird and
fish may have been given an astral significance. In "Poor Robin's
Almanack" for 1757 a St. Valentine rhyme begins:--

This month bright Phoebus enters Pisces,
The maids will have good store of kisses,
For always when the sun comes there,
Valentine's day is drawing near,
And both the men and maids incline
To choose them each a Valentine.

As we have seen, the example was set by the mating birds. The
"Almanack" poet no doubt versified an old astrological belief: when
the s