Mouse

The soul or spirit was often supposed in olden times to assume a zoömorphic form, and to make its way at death through the mouth of man in a visible form, sometimes as a pigeon, sometimes as a mouse or rat. A red mouse indicated a pure soul; a black mouse, a soul blackened by pollution; a pigeon or dove, a saintly soul.

Exorcists used to drive out evil spirits from the human body, and Harsnet gives several instances of such expulsions in his Popular Impositions (1604).

⁂ No doubt pigeons were at one time trained to represent the departing soul, and also to represent the Holy Ghost.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.