Dove-cot
Dove-Cot.
Isaiah (60:8) clearly refers to such structures in describing the final restoration of Israel after their long exile: "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" (אֶלאּאֲרֻכֹּתֵיהֶם כִּיּוֹנַים, like the doves to their lattices). They doubtless derived their Hebrews name from their latticed or window-like form. SEE WINDOW. Morier illustrates this comparison from what he observed in Persia. "In the environs of the city, to the westward, near the Zainderood, aie many pigeon-houses, erected at a distance from habitations, for the sole purpose of collecting pigeons' dung for manure. They are long round towers, rather broader at the bottom than the top, and crowned by conical spiracles, through which the pigeons descend. Their interior resembles a honey-comb, pierced with a thousand holes, each of which forms a snug retreat for a nest. More care appears to have been bestowed upon their outside than upon that of the generality of the dwelling-houses, for they are pointed and ornamented. The extraordinary flights of pigeons which I have seen alight upon one of these buildings afford, perhaps, a good illustration of that passage in Isa 60:8. Their great numbers, and the compactness of their mass, literally look like a cloud at a distance, and obscure the sun in their passage" (Second Journey through Persia, page 140). Not only are these birds profitable as food, but both Porter and Morier assure us that their manure is used in Persia. According to the latter, "the dung of pigeons is the dearest manure that the Persians use; and as they apply it almost entirely for the rearing of melons, it is probably on that account that the melons of Ispahan are so much finer than those of other cities. The revenue of a pigeon-house is about a hundred tomauns per annum" (Second Journey, page 141). Porter says "two hundred tomauns" (Travels, 1:451). See below.
