356 Pliny tells some extremely pretty stories of this kind. (_Hist. Nat._ ix. 8-9.) See, too, Aulus Gellius, xvi. 19. The dolphin, on account of its love for its young, became a common symbol of Christ among the early Christians. 357 A very full account of the opinions, both of ancient and modern philosophers, concerning the souls of animals, is given by Bayle, _Dict._ arts. “Pereira E,” “Rorarius K.” 358 The Jewish law did not confine its care to oxen. The reader will remember the touching provision, “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk” (Deut. xiv. 21); and the law forbidding men to take a parent bird that was sitting on its young or on its eggs. (Deut. xxii. 6, 7.) 359 “Cujus tanta fuit apud antiquos veneratio, ut tam capital esset bovem necuisse quam civem.”—Columella, lib. vi. in proœm. “Hic socius hominum in rustico opere et Cereris minister. Ab hoc antiqui manus ita abstinere voluerunt ut capite sanxerint si quis occidisset.”—Varro, _De Re Rustic._ lib. ii. cap. v. 360 See Legendre, tome ii. p. 338. The sword with which the priest sacrificed the ox was afterwards pronounced accursed. (Ælian, _Hist. Var._ lib. viii. cap. iii.) 361 Diog. Laërt. _Xenocrates_. 362 There is a story told by Herodotus (i. 157-159) of an ambassador who was sent by his fellow-countrymen to consult an oracle at Miletus about a suppliant who had taken refuge with the Cymæans and was demanded with menace by his enemies. The oracle, being bribed, enjoined the surrender. The ambassador on leaving, with seeming carelessness disturbed the sparrows under the portico of the temple, when the voice from behind the altar denounced his impiety for disturbing the guests of the gods. The ambassador replied with an obvious and withering retort. Ælian says (_Hist. Var._) that the Athenians condemned to death a boy for killing a sparrow that had taken refuge in the temple of Æsculapius. 363 Quintilian, _Inst._ v. 9. 364 In the same way we find several chapters in the _Zendavesta_ about the criminality of injuring dogs; which is explained by the great importance of shepherd’s dogs to a pastoral people.