E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Hind.
Emblematic of St. Giles, because “a heaven-directed hind went daily to give him milk in the desert, near the mouth of the Rhone.” (See HART.)
1
The hind of Sertorius. Serto’rius was invited by the Lusita’nians to defend them against the Romans. He had a tame white hind, which he taught to follow him, and from which he pretended to receive the instructions of Dian’a. By this artifice, says Plutarch, he imposed on the superstition of the people.
2
“He feigned a demon (in a hind concealed)
To him the counsels of the gods revealed.”
Camoens: Lusiad, i.
The milk-white hind, in Dryden’s poem, The Hind and the Panther, means the Roman Catholic Church, milk-white because “infallible.” The panther, full of the spots of error, is the Church of England.
