{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_40825/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_40825","id":"gutenberg_40825","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40825","summary":null,"tags":["Animals, Mythical","Category: Art","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Heraldry -- Great Britain","Symbolism"],"text":"FICTITIOUS AND SYMBOLIC CREATURES IN ART\n\n\n\n\n  FICTITIOUS & SYMBOLIC CREATURES IN ART\n\n  WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THEIR\n  USE IN BRITISH HERALDRY\n\n\n  BY JOHN VINYCOMB\n  MEMBER OF THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY, FELLOW\n  OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF IRELAND,\n  A VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE EX-LIBRIS SOCIETY\n\n\n  [Illustration: ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON]\n\n\n  _ILLUSTRATED_\n\n\n  CHAPMAN AND HALL, LIMITED\n  11 HENRIETTA STREET, LONDON, W. C.\n  MCMVI\n\n\n\n\n  Printed by BALLANTYNE & CO. LIMITED\n  Tavistock Street, London\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nUnder the title of this book it is proposed to describe and illustrate\nonly those fictitious and symbolic creatures which appear in British\nHeraldry. The list will include all those beings of whose existence we\nhave not the direct evidence of our senses, and those exaggerations and\ncombinations of natural forms which have been adopted in the system of\nsymbolic heraldry handed down to us from the Middle Ages. Many of the\nideas of the writers of that period were undoubtedly derived from still\nearlier sources, namely, classic story, sacred and legendary art, and the\nmarvellous tales of early travellers; others were the coinage of their own\nfancies and their fears.\n\nAs these unreal beings are constantly met with in symbolic art, of which\nheraldry is the chief exponent, it may be assumed that they have been\nadopted in each case with some obvious or latent meaning, as in the case\nof real animals; they may, therefore, equally lay claim to our\nconsideration as emblems or types, more especially as less attention has\nbeen devoted to them and the delineation of their forms by competent\nartists. The writer has been led into considering and investigating the\nsubject with some degree of attention, from finding the frequent need of\nsome reliable authority, both descriptive and artistic, such as would\nenable any one to depict with accuracy and true heraldic spirit the forms\nand features of these chimerical beings. Books of reference on heraldry\nunfortunately give but a meagre description of their shapes, with scarcely\na hint as to their history or meaning, while the illustrations are usually\nstiff and awkward, representing a soulless state of art.\n\nIt cannot be said that artists at any period have succeeded, even in a\nremote degree, in embodying the highly wrought conceptions of the poets\nconcerning these terrible creatures of the imagination. Milton seems to\nhave carried poetic personification to its utmost limits. Who, for\ninstance, could depict a being like this:\n\n            \"Black it stood as night,\n  Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell!\"\n\nOut of the ambiguous and often conflicting accounts of different authors\nand the vagaries of artists it became no easy task to arrive at a clear\nconception of many of the forms of these ideal monsters. The poet's pen\nmay turn them to shapes, shadowy at the best; but the artist who follows\nthe poet in endeavouring to realise and give tangible shape to these ideas\nfinds it beyond his art to give material form and expression to his\npersonifications with anything like photographic fidelity. Such shadowy\nbeings prefer the dim light of allegory to the clear sunlight of reason,\nand shrink from closer inspection. Like all spectres they are ever most\neffective in the dark. In the childhood of the world, from the dawn of\nhistory, and all through the dim and credulous ages past, many such\nillusions have performed an important part in influencing the thought and\nlives of mankind. Over many lands these inherited ideas still exercise a\nparamount influence, but in the enlightenment of the coming time it is\nprobable their power, like that of an evil dream, will fade entirely away\nwith the dawn of a brighter day, and the memories of their name and\ninfluence alone remain. At present we are chiefly concerned with them as\nsymbols, and with their mode of representation, breathing for a brief\nmoment the breath of life into their old dead skins. These mythical\ncreatures may be gazed upon, shorn of all their terrors, in the\nillustrations I have been enabled to make, and if it is found that from\neach creature I have not \"plucked out the heart of its mystery\" it is\nprobably because there is no mystery whatever about it, only what to us\nnow appears as an ingenious fiction engendered by a credulous, imaginative\nand superstitious past. And so we find the old horrors and pleasing\nfictions, after figuring for ages as terrible or bright realities in the\nminds of entire peoples, reduced at length to the dead level of a figure\nof speech and a symbol merely.\n\n  J. VINYCOMB.\n\n  HOLYWOOD,\n    COUNTY DOWN,\n      _April 1906_.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                                      PAGE\n\n  INTRODUCTION                                                           1\n\n  NOTES ON ANIMATED BEINGS IN HERALDIC ART                              13\n    THE SYMBOLISM OF ATTITUDE OR POSITION                               18\n    THE HERALDIC SPIRIT--EFFECTIVE DECORATIVE QUALITY ESSENTIAL\n      IN HERALDRY                                                       22\n\n  CELESTIAL BEINGS                                                      25\n\n  ANGELS                                                                27\n    MISTAKEN MODERN CONCEPTION OF ANGELS                                32\n    MEDI\u00c6VAL ART TREATMENT OF ANGELS                                    34\n\n  CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM IN HERALDRY                                     44\n\n  THE CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM OF SCRIPTURE                                47\n\n  EMBLEMS OF THE FOUR EVANGELISTS                                       53\n\n  CHIMERICAL CREATURES OF THE DRAGON AND SERPENT KIND                   57\n\n  THE DRAGON                                                            59\n\n  THE DRAGON IN CHRISTIAN ART                                           69\n    THE DRAGON IN THE ROYAL HERALDRY OF BRITAIN                         83\n    THE CROCODILE AS THE PROTOTYPE OF THE DRAGON                        91\n    THE HERALDIC DRAGON                                                 92\n\n  THE HYDRA                                                             96\n\n  THE WYVERN                                                            98\n    THE CHIMERA                                                        102\n    THE LION-DRAGON                                                    103\n    THE GORGON                                                         103\n\n  THE COCKATRICE                                                       104\n\n  BASILISK, OR AMPHYSIAN COCKATRICE                                    106\n    THE MYTHICAL SERPENT                                               108\n\n  THE SCORPION                                                         122\n\n  OTHER CHIMERICAL CREATURES AND HERALDIC BEASTS                       125\n\n  THE UNICORN                                                          127\n    MEDI\u00c6VAL CONCEPTION OF THE UNICORN                                 130\n    THE HORN OF THE UNICORN                                            133\n\n  THE PEGASUS                                                          137\n\n  SAGITTARY, CENTAUR, SAGITTARIUS, CENTAURUS, HIPPOCENTAUR             141\n\n  GRIFFIN OR GRYPHON                                                   147\n    THE MALE GRIFFIN                                                   160\n    OTHER VARIETIES OF THE GRIFFIN                                     161\n\n  THE OPINICUS, OR EPIMACUS                                            162\n\n  THE SPHYNX                                                           163\n\n  THE PH\u0152NIX BIRD OF THE SUN                                        171\n\n  THE HARPY                                                            179\n\n  THE HERALDIC PELICAN                                                 182\n\n  THE MARTLET                                                          186\n\n  THE ALERION                                                          188\n    THE LIVER (CORMORANT)                                              189\n\n  THE HERALDIC TIGRE OR TYGER                                          190\n    THE ROYAL TIGER                                                    193\n\n  LEOPARD, OR PANTHER, FELIS PARDUS, LYBBARDE                          194\n    THE PANTHER \"INCENSED\"                                             199\n\n  THE LYNX                                                             203\n\n  CAT-A-MOUNTAIN--TIGER CAT OR WILD CAT                                205\n\n  THE SALAMANDER                                                       209\n\n  HERALDIC ANTELOPE                                                    213\n\n  THE HERALDIC IBEX                                                    215\n\n  BAGWYN                                                               216\n\n  THE CAMELOPARD, CAMEL-LEOPARD                                        216\n\n  MUSIMON, TITYRUS                                                     217\n\n  THE ENFIELD                                                          217\n\n  MANTIGER, MONTEGRE OR MANTICORA SATYRAL                              218\n    LAMIA OR EMIPUSA                                                   220\n    BAPHOMET                                                           221\n    APRES                                                              221\n    STELLIONES                                                         221\n\n  FICTITIOUS CREATURES OF THE SEA                                      223\n    INTRODUCTORY NOTES                                                 225\n\n  POSEIDON, OR NEPTUNE                                                 237\n\n  MERMAN OR TRITON                                                     239\n\n  THE MERMAID OR SIREN                                                 243\n\n  THE SIRENS OF CLASSIC MYTHOLOGY                                      249\n\n  THE DOLPHIN OF LEGEND AND OF HERALDRY                                254\n\n  THE DAUPHIN OF FRANCE                                                265\n\n  THE HERALDIC DOLPHIN                                                 267\n\n  THE SEA-HORSE                                                        270\n\n  SEA-LION                                                             274\n\n  SEA-DOG                                                              275\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                                      PAGE\n\n  CELESTIAL BEINGS:\n    Angel holding Shield                                                27\n    Egyptian Winged Deity                                               28\n    Hawk-headed and winged figure, emblem of Osiris                     29\n    Angel with Cloud Symbol                                             38\n    Angel Supporter                                                     40\n    Kneeling Angel Supporter                                            41\n    Arms of the Abbey of St. Albans                                     42\n    Gloria in Excelsis Deo                                              43\n    Cherubs' Heads                                                      44\n    A Seraph's Head                                                     44\n    Arms--Azure a chevron argent between three cherubs' heads of the\n      last                                                              45\n    Cherubim and Seraphim of Scripture                                  47\n    Angel crest of Tuite, Bart., co. Tipperary                          48\n    Tetramorph                                                          52\n    Symbols of the Four Evangelists                                     54\n    The Lion of St. Mark, Venice                                        56\n\n  CHIMERICAL CREATURES OF THE DRAGON AND SERPENT KIND:\n    The Dragon                                                          59\n    Japanese Dragon                                                     65\n    Japanese Imperial Device                                            67\n    The Dragon of the Apocalypse                                        71\n    St. Michael and the Old Dragon                                      72\n    St. Margaret. From ancient carving                                  73\n    St. George and the Dragon                                           74\n    Dragon Standard. From the Bayeux Tapestry                           86\n    A Dragon passant                                                    90\n    Crest, a Dragon's Head erased collared and chained                  93\n    Arms of the City of London                                          94\n    Sinister supporter of the arms of Viscount Gough                    95\n    Hercules and the Lernean Hydra. From Greek vase                     96\n    The Hydra                                                           97\n    A Wyvern holding a fleur-de-lis                                     98\n    A Wyvern, wings endorsed, tail nowed                                99\n    Wyvern from the Garter plate of Sir John Gray, 1436 A.D.            99\n    Wyvern, or Lindworm (German version)                               100\n    Wyvern, wings displayed (early example)                            101\n    Wyvern, wings depressed                                            101\n    Chimera, from a Greek coin                                         102\n    Cockatrice                                                         105\n    Basilisk or Aphasian Cockatrice, tail nowed                        107\n    Greek Shield, from painted vase in the British Museum              114\n    Brazen Serpent                                                     114\n    Arms of Whitby Abbey                                               118\n    A Serpent, nowed, proper. Crest of Cavendish                       121\n    Amphipt\u00e8re, or flying Serpent                                      122\n    Scorpion                                                           123\n\n  OTHER CHIMERICAL CREATURES AND HERALDIC BEASTS:\n    Unicorn salient                                                    127\n    Crest, a Unicorn's Head, couped                                    128\n    The Legend of the Unicorn                                          131\n    Pegasus or Pegasos                                                 137\n    Coins of Corinth and Syracuse                                      138\n    Pegasus salient                                                    139\n    The Sagittary--Centaur                                             142\n    Ipotane, from Mandeville's travels                                 144\n    Compound figures, gold necklace                                    145\n    Centaur, Greek Sculpture                                           146\n    A Griffin statant, wings endorsed                                  148\n    A Griffin passant, wings raised. (Early English)                   149\n    A Griffin segreant, wings displayed. (German)                      149\n    Sleeping Griffin                                                   150\n    Griffin segreant (German version)                                  152\n    Gold Flying Griffin                                                154\n    Colossal Griffins, Burmah                                          155\n    Carved panel, a Griffin segreant                                   160\n    Male Griffin                                                       161\n    Opinicus statant                                                   162\n    Egyptian Sphynx                                                    163\n    Theban, or Greek Sphynx                                            164\n    A Sphynx passant guardant, wings endorsed                          170\n    The Ph\u0153nix                                                         171\n    A Harpy, wings disclosed                                           179\n    The Harpy, Greek sculpture                                         180\n    A Harpy displayed and crowned (German version)                     181\n    Shield of N\u00fcremberg                                                181\n    A Pelican in her piety, wings displayed                            182\n    Heraldic Pelican in her piety                                      183\n    Crest, a Pelican vulning herself proper, wings endorsed            184\n    The natural Pelican                                                186\n    The Martlet                                                        186\n    Alerion displayed                                                  188\n    Heraldic Eagle                                                     188\n    An Heraldic Tigre passant                                          190\n    Supporter, an Heraldic Tigre, collared and lined                   191\n    Tigre and Mirror                                                   193\n    A Leopard passant                                                  195\n    A Leopard's Face, jessant-de-lis                                   196\n    Panther \"Incensed\"                                                 200\n    The Lynx                                                           203\n    Cat-a-Mountain saliant, collared and lined                         205\n    Crest, a Cat-a-Mountain, sejant, collared and lined                206\n    The crowned Salamander of Francis I.                               209\n    Salamander crest of James, Earl of Douglas                         212\n    Heraldic Antelope                                                  214\n    The Heraldic Ibex                                                  215\n    Musimon, Tityrus                                                   217\n    Mantygre, Satyral                                                  218\n    Manticora. From ancient Bestiaria                                  219\n    Lamia. From old Bestiary                                           220\n\n  FICTITIOUS CREATURES OF THE SEA:\n    Poseidon. Dexter Supporter of Baron Hawke                          237\n    Merman or Triton                                                   240\n    Triton, with two tails (German)                                    240\n    Mermaid and Triton supporters                                      241\n    Mermaid                                                       242, 243\n    Crest of Ellis                                                     244\n    Die Ritter, of Nuremberg                                           245\n    Ulysses and the Sirens                                        249, 250\n    The Dolphin                                                   254, 255\n    Dolphin of classic art                                             259\n    Coin of \u00c6gina                                                      262\n    Sign of the Dolphin                                                263\n    Banner of the Dolphin                                              265\n    Example--Dolphin embowed                                           267\n    Dolphin hauriant, urinant, naiant, torqued                         268\n    Sea-horse naiant                                                   270\n    Sea-horse erect                                                    271\n    Arms of the city of Belfast                                        273\n    Sea-lion erect                                                     275\n    Sea-dog rampant                                                    276\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n  \"_Angels and ministers of grace defend us._\"--\"Hamlet.\"\n\n\nThe human mind has a passionate longing for knowledge even of things past\ncomprehension. Where it cannot know, it will imagine; what the mind\nconceives it will attempt to define. Are facts wanting, poetry steps in,\nand myth and song supply the void; cave and forest, mountain and valley,\nlake and river, are theatres peopled by fancy, and\n\n              \"as imagination bodies forth\n  The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen\n  Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing\n  A local habitation and a name.\"\n\nTraditions of unreal beings inhabit the air, and will not vanish be they\never so sternly commanded; from the misty records of antiquity and the\nrelics of past greatness as seen sculptured in stupendous ruins on the\nbanks of the Nile and the plains of Assyria, strange shapes look with\ntheir mute stony eyes upon a world that knows them but imperfectly, and\nvainly attempts to unriddle the unfathomable mystery of their being.\nWestern nations, with their growing civilisations, conjured up monsters of\nbenign or baneful influence, or engrafted and expanded the older ideas in\na manner suited to their genius and national characteristics.\n\nThe creatures of the imagination, \"Gorgons and Hydras and Chimeras dire,\"\nshapes lovely and shapes terrible begot of unreason in the credulous minds\nof the imaginative, the timid and the superstitious,--or dreamy poetic\nfancies of fairies and elves of whom poets sing so sweetly:\n\n  \"Shapes from the invisible world unearthly singing\n  From out the middle air, from flowery nests\n  And from the pillowy silkiness that rests\n  Full in the speculation of the stars,--\"\n                                    KEATS.\n\n\n                    \"or fairy elves,\n  Whose midnight revels, by the forest side\n  Or fountain, some belated peasant sees,\n  Or dreams he sees,--\"\n                  MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, Book i.\n\nthe nameless dreads and horrors of the unknown powers of darkness, the\npestiferous inhabitants of wastes and desert places where loneliness\nreigns supreme, and imaginary terrors assault the traveller on every hand,\nassuming forms more various and more to be dreaded than aught of mortal\nbirth,--such vague and indefinable ideas, \"legends fed by time and\nchance,\" like rumours in the air, in the course of time assume tangible\nshape, receiving definite expression by the poet and artist until they\nbecome fixed in the popular mind as stern realities influencing the\nthoughts and habits of millions of people through successive generations.\nWe see them in the rude fetish of the South Sea Islander, the myriad gods\nand monsters of heathen mythology, as well as in the superstitions of\nmedi\u00e6val Europe, of which last the devil with horned brow, cloven hoofs\nand forked tail is the most \"unreal mockery\" of them all. The days of\nDiabolism and the old witch creed are, however, passed away; but under the\ndominance of these ideas during centuries, in Protestant and Catholic\nlands alike, hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of all ages and\nboth sexes were accused of the most absurd and impossible crimes, and\nsubjected to almost inconceivable torture and death.\n\nThe dying Christian about to pass through the valley of the shadow of\ndeath, in the words of the poet, expresses his faith in the nearness of\nthe spirit world:\n\n  \"I see a form ye cannot see\n  I hear a voice ye cannot hear.\"\n\nTo the spiritually minded other forms, with more of the beautiful and less\nof the hideous and frightful, revealed themselves; the solitary recluse,\nhis body and mind reduced to an unnatural condition by fasting and\npenance, in mental hallucination beheld his celestial visitants with awe\nand adoration, and saw in visions angels and archangels, cherubim and\nseraphim towering in a blaze of glory to illimitable height and extremest\nspace. The rapt seraph and the whole angelic host of heaven to his\necstatic gaze was a revelation and a reality as tangible as were the\npowers of darkness seen and felt by more sordid natures, incapable of the\nhigher conceptions, and whose minds were accessible chiefly through their\nterrors.\n\nTo classic fable we are indebted for very many of the fictitious animals\nwhich heralds have introduced into coats armorial. In all ages man has\nsought to explain by myths certain phenomena of nature which he has been\nunable to account for in a more rational manner. _Earthquakes_ were the\nawakening of the earth tortoise which carried the earth on its back; _the\ntides_ were the pulses of the ocean; _lightning_ was the breath of demons,\nthe thunderbolt of Jupiter, the hammer of Thor; _volcanoes_ were the\nforges of the infernal deities. In the old Norse legends we read of\n_waterspouts_ being looked upon as sea serpents, and wonderful stories are\nrelated of their power and influence. The Chinese imagine _eclipses_ to be\ncaused by great dragons which seek to devour the sun. Innumerable beliefs\ncluster round the _sun_, _moon_, and _stars_. We may trace from our own\nlanguage the extent of power which these peculiar beliefs have had over\nthe human mind. We still speak of mad people as lunatics, gloomy people as\nsaturnine, sprightly people we term mercurial; we say, \"Ill-starr'd\nevent,\" &c. &c. The ships of the early navigators, with masts and sails\nand other requisites for directing their motion or influencing their\nspeed, would be objects of astonishment to the inhabitants of the\ncountries they visited, causing them to be received with the utmost\nrespect and veneration. The ship was taken for a living animal, and hence\noriginated, some say, the fables of winged dragons, griffons, flying\ncitadels, and men transformed into birds and fishes. The winged Pegasus\nwas nothing but a ship with sails and hence was said to be the offspring\nof Neptune.\n\n\"In reality,\" says Southey, in his preface to the \"Morte d'Arthur,\" vol.\nii. 1817, \"mythological and romantic tales are current among all savages\nof whom we have any full account; for man has his intellectual as well as\nhis bodily appetite, and these things are the food of his imagination and\nfaith. They are found wherever there is language and discourse of reason;\nin other words, wherever there is man. And in similar states of society\nthe fictions of different people will bear a corresponding resemblance,\nnotwithstanding the differences of time and scene.\" And Sir Walter Scott,\nin his \"Essay on Romance and Chivalry,\" following up the same idea, adds,\n\"that the usual appearances and productions of nature offer to the fancy,\nin every part of the world, the same means of diversifying fictitious\nnarrative by the introduction of prodigies. If in any romance we encounter\nthe description of an elephant, we may reasonably conclude that a\nphenomenon unknown in Europe must have been borrowed from the East; but\nwhoever has seen a serpent and a bird may easily aggravate the terrors of\nthe former by conferring on a fictitious monster the wings of the latter;\nand whoever has seen or heard of a wolf, or lion and an eagle, may, by a\nsimilar exercise of invention, imagine a griffon or a hippogriff.\"\n\nBeyond the common experiences of every-day life the popular mind\neverywhere cares very little about simple commonplace practical truths.\nHuman nature seems to crave mystery, to be fond of riddles and the\nmarvellous, and doubtless it was ever so and provided for in all the old\nfaiths of the world.\n\n\"The multitude of dragons, diverse as they are, reflecting the fears and\nfancies of the most different races, it is more than probable is a relic\nof the early serpent-worship which, according to Mr. Fergusson, is of such\nremote antiquity that the religion of the Jews was modern in comparison,\nthe curse laid on the serpent being, in fact, levelled at the ancient\nsuperstition which it was intended to supersede. Notwithstanding the\nvarious forms under which we find the old dragon he ever retains something\nof the serpent about him, if no more than the scales. In the medi\u00e6val\ndevil, too, the tail reveals his descent.\" (Louis F. Day.)\n\nThe fictitious beings used as symbols in heraldry may be divided into two\nclasses: (1) Celestial beings mentioned in Holy Writ, and those creatures\nof the imagination which, from the earliest ages, have held possession of\nmen's minds, profound symbols unlike anything in the heavens or in the\nearth beneath or in the waters under the earth. They may be abstract ideas\nembodied in tangible shape, such as the terrible creature, the type of\nsome divine quality, that stands calm, immovable, and imperishable within\nthe walls of our National Museum; such forms as the dragon, of the purely\nimaginative class, and those creatures compounded of parts of different\nreal animals, yet unlike any one of them, each possessing special symbolic\nattributes, according to the traditional ideas held concerning them. (2)\nAnimals purely heraldic, such as the heraldic tiger, panther incensed,\nheraldic antelope, &c., owe their origin and significance to other ideas,\nand must be accounted for on other grounds, namely, the mistaken ideas\nresulting from imperfect knowledge of these objects in natural history by\nearly writers and herald painters, to whom they were no doubt real animals\nwith natural qualities, and, as such, according to their knowledge, they\ndepicted them; and although more light has been thrown upon the study of\nnatural history since their time, and many of their conceptions have been\nproved to be erroneous, the well-known heraldic shapes of many of these\n_lusus natur\u00e6_ are still retained in modern armory. These animals were\nsuch as they could have little chance of seeing, and they probably\naccepted their descriptions from \"travellers' tales,\" always full of the\nmarvellous--and the misleading histories of still earlier writers. Pliny\nand many of the writers of his day describe certain animals in a way that\nappears the absurdest fable; even the lion described by him is in some\npoints most unnatural. Xenophon, for instance, describing a boar hunt,\ngravely tells us: \"So hot are the boar's tusks when he is just dead that\nif a person lays hairs upon them the hairs will shrivel up; and when the\nboar is alive they--that is, the tusks--are actually red hot when he is\nirritated, for otherwise he would not singe the tips of the dogs' hair\nwhen he misses a blow at their bodies.\" The salamander in flames, of\nfrequent occurrence in heraldry, is of this class. Like the toad, \"ugly\nand venomous,\" the salamander was regarded by the ancients with the utmost\nhorror and aversion. It was accredited with wondrous qualities, and the\nvery sight of it \"abominable and fearful to behold.\" Elian, Nicander,\nDioscorides and Pliny all agree in that it possessed the power of\nimmediately extinguishing any fire into which it was put, and that it\nwould even rush at or charge the flame, which it well knew how to\nextinguish. It was believed that its bite was certainly mortal, that\nanything touched by its saliva became poisonous, nay, that if it crept\nover a tree all the fruit became deleterious. Even Bacon believed in it.\nQuoth he: \"The salamander liveth in the fire and hath the power to\nextinguish it.\" There is, too, a lingering popular belief that if a fire\nhas been burning for seven years there will be a salamander produced from\nit. Such is the monstrous character given to one of the most harmless of\nlittle creatures: the only basis of truth for all this superstructure of\nfable is the fact that it exudes an acrid watery humour from its skin when\nalarmed or in pain.\n\nSpenser, in the \"Fairy Queen,\" Book 1, cant. v. 18, according to the\nmistaken notions of his time, compares the dangerous dissimulation and\ntreacherous tears of Duessa (or Falsehood) to the crocodile:\n\n  \"As when a weary traveller that strays\n  By muddy shore of broad seven-mouthed Nile,\n  Unweeting of the perilous wand'ring ways,\n  Doth meet a cruel, crafty crocodile,\n  Which in false guise hiding his harmful guile,\n  Doth weep full sore, and shedding tender tears;\n  The foolish man, that pities all the while\n  His mournful plight, is swallowed unawares\n  Forgetful of his own that minds another's cares.\"\n\nAnd Shakespeare, _2 Henry VI_. iii. 1:\n\n              \"as the mournful crocodile\n  With sorrow snares relenting passengers.\"\n\nQuarles, too, in his \"Emblems\":\n\n  \"O what a crocodilian world is this,\n  Compos'd of treach'ries and insnaring wiles!\"\n\nBossewell, an heraldic writer of the sixteenth century, after the model of\nhis forerunner, Gerard Leigh, edified his readers with comments on natural\nhistory in such a delightful manner (according to his friend Roscarrocke)\nas to provoke the envy of Pliny in Elysium, though now these descriptions\nin many instances only serve to call up a smile from their very absurdity.\nWith \"veracious\" histories of this description, is it to be wondered at\nthat such beings as those referred to were made use of in heraldry and\naccepted as types or emblems of some particular quality in man? As an\ninstance of how an error in the form of an animal may be perpetuated\nunperceived, it may be mentioned that even in the best books on heraldry,\nnatural history, and in other illustrated publications, the elephant is\nrarely to be seen correctly delineated. A peculiarity in his formation is\nthat the hind legs bend in the same manner as the fore legs, so that,\nunlike other quadrupeds, it can kneel and rest on its four knees, whereas\nit is usually depicted with the hind legs to bend in the same way as those\nof the horse or the cow. When artists and herald-painters continue to\ncommit this blunder unobserved, some palliation may be afforded to the old\nheralds for their offences against zoology in the errors and delusions\narising from lack of information. They could have little opportunity of\nacquiring a correct knowledge of the rarer kinds of animals; they had not\nthe advantage of seeing menageries of wild beasts, or of consulting books\non natural history with excellent illustrations, as the modern herald may\ndo. Only when their scanty information fell short did they venture to draw\non their imaginations for their beasts, after the manner of an ancient\nworthy, who \"where the lion's skin fell short, eked it out with the\nfox's.\"\n\nSome writers, however, maintain that these monstrosities are not so much\nthe result of ignorance of the real forms of the beasts as that they were\nintended to typify certain extraordinary qualities, and therefore\nexaggeration of the natural shapes and functions was needful to express\nsuch qualities. This may be true in some instances. Under this idea the\nnoble form of the lion may have been distorted to resemble the wild cat in\nthe fury of its contortions. _The Panther incensed_, breathing fire and\nsmoke out of its mouth, nose and ears, seems as if taken from some\nmisleading history--like that of the boar, by Xenophon, already referred\nto--or the result of the erroneous description of some terrified\ntraveller. This is a natural and probable mode of accounting for its\nunnatural appearance. It may, however, fairly be said that the natural\nferocity of the brute, and also its destructive qualities, are most fitly\ntypified by the devouring flame issuing from the head of this bloodthirsty\nand treacherous beast of prey.\n\n_The Heraldic Pelican_, again, is evidently a mistake of the early\nartists, similar to the heraldic tiger, heraldic antelope, &c., and the\npersistent following of the traditional \"pattern\" by the heralds when once\nestablished. Early Christian painters always represented this emblem of\ndevoted self-sacrifice, _A Pelican in her piety_--that is, feeding her\nyoung with her own blood--as having the head and beak of an eagle or bird\nof prey such as they must have believed it to possess, and with which it\nwould be possible that it could lacerate its own breast; and not with the\nclumsy and ungainly \"bill\" peculiar to this species of bird, which we know\nis more suited to gobble up small reptiles than to \"_vulning_\" itself.\n\nSome symbols, again, are neither real nor do they pretend to be fabulous,\nsuch as the _two-headed eagle_, but are pure heraldic inventions that have\neach their special signification. _The tricorporate lion_ lays no claim to\nbe other than the symbol of a powerful triune body under one guiding head;\nthe _three legs conjoined_--the arms of the Isle of Man--is an old Greek\nsign for expedition. Many other instances will, no doubt, occur to the\nreader of similar emblems of this class.\n\n\n\n\nNotes on Animated Beings in Heraldic Art\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nNotes on Animated Beings in Heraldic Art\n\n    \"_One chief source of illustration is to be found in the most\n    brilliant, and in its power on character, hitherto the most effective\n    of the Arts--HERALDRY._\"\n\n    RUSKIN,\n      \"Relation of Wise Art and Wise Science.\"\n\nHeraldry is _par excellence_ the science of symbols. A pictorial device is\nsubject to no exact or regular law, provided it carries its meaning with\nit. Heraldry, on the contrary, insists on the observance of certain\ndefinite and easily understood rules constituting it a science, by the\nobservance of which any one acquainted with heraldic language may, from a\nconcise written description (or _blazon_ as it is termed), reconstruct at\nany time the symbol or series of symbols intended, and with perfect\naccuracy; for a heraldic emblem once adopted remains unchangeable, no\nmatter with what amount of naturalness or conventionality it may be done,\nor with what quaintness or even grotesqueness it may be treated; the\nsymbol remains intact. \"_A lion rampant_,\" \"_a dragon_,\" or any other\nheraldic figure is, therefore, a fixed and immutable idea, and not to be\nconfounded with any other, no matter what the style of artistic or\ndecorative treatment it may receive.\n\nNotwithstanding the evident intention everywhere in heraldry to be\nsymbolic, in attitude as well as in tinctures, we find the greatest errors\nand absurdities constantly perpetrated. To many it seems as if it was not\nconsidered essential to acquire a knowledge of the rudiments of the\nscience. Heraldry is a living language, and when the attempt is made to\nexpress it without proper knowledge the result can only be unmitigated\nnonsense. By inattention to those principles which regulate the\n_attitude_, the _tinctures_, and the disposition of every part of an\narmorial achievement, discredit is brought upon the subject, which should\nfall upon the head of the ignorant designer alone. No matter what heraldic\nposition of an animal may be blazoned (though it admits of only one\ninterpretation), we find the most unwarrantable latitude frequently taken\nby otherwise skilful artists in depicting it. The designer becomes a law\nunto himself, and it is posed and treated in a way to suit the fancy of\nthe moment. A lion is only a lion to him, and it is nothing more. To the\ntrue herald it is very much more. As a mild instance, see the unkind\ntreatment meted out to the supporters of the Royal Arms. The lion and\nunicorn are both \"rampant,\" and the head of the lion is turned towards\nthe spectator (termed _guardant_). Not content to be represented in the\nregulation positions, they will be found depicted in most strange and\nfantastic attitudes not recognised in heraldry--not supporting or guarding\nthe shield, which is their special function. At the head of the _Times_\nnewspaper they are represented playing at hide and seek round the shield;\nelsewhere we see them capering and prancing, or we find them sitting, like\nbegging dogs, as if ashamed of themselves and their vocation.\n\nI may here quote from a most admirable work: \"That the decorative beauty\nof heraldry, far from being that of form and colour alone, was also an\nimaginative one depending much on the symbolic meaning of its designs,\nthere can be no doubt.... Early Christian Art was full of symbols, whose\nuse and meaning were discussed in treatises from the second century\nonwards. By the eleventh it had become systemised and ranged under various\nheads,--Bestiaria for beasts, Volucaria for birds, and Lapidaria for\nstones. It permeated the whole life of the people in its religious uses,\nand entered romantically into the half-religious, half-mystical\nobservances of chivalry, the very armour of the valiant knight being full\nof meanings which it was his duty to know.\"[1]\n\n\nThe Symbolism of Attitude or Position\n\nIt must be evident to every one who has given any thought to the subject\nthat a definite idea is meant to be conveyed to the mind by the attitude\nin which an animal is depicted; and such figures are not mere arbitrary\nsigns, like the letters of the alphabet, which of themselves convey no\nmeaning whatever. \"_A lion rampant_\" is, as the term suggests, a lion in\nthe act of fighting, rearing on his hind legs to meet his antagonist. He\nis therefore depicted with wildly tossed mane, staring eyes, and _guly_\nmouth; his muscular limbs and distended claws braced up for the combat\nbetoken the energy and power of the noble brute. How different is the idea\nconveyed by the lion _statant_ in the firm majesty of his pose, calmly\nlooking before him; or _couchant_, fit emblem of restful vigilance and\nconscious power, prepared on the instant alike to attack or defend.\n\nShould any reasons be needed to enforce the necessity of adhering strictly\nto the heraldic law in which attitude plays such an important part, it may\nbe needful only to refer to one or two examples, and cite as an instance\nin point the noblest of all created beings, and ask whether, of the many\nacts in which imperious man himself may be heraldically portrayed, the\naction or position in which he is to be depicted should not indicate\ndistinctly the idea that is to be associated with the representation?\nwhether vauntingly, like the old kings,--\n\n      \"with high exacting look\n  Sceptred and globed\"\n\n--attributes of his power,--or as a bishop or saint in the act of\nbenediction,--kneeling in prayer as on medi\u00e6val seals,--the three savage\nmen _ambulant_ on the shield of Viscount Halifax,--or the dead men strewn\nover the field on the seal of the city of Lichfield--in each the primary\nidea is _man_, but how different the signification! It will therefore be\nunderstood that the particular action or posture, or any of the various\nforms in which real or imaginary creatures may be blazoned in heraldry,\ngives the keynote to its interpretation, which, in this respect, is\nnothing if not symbolic.\n\nIt will be seen that to interpret the meaning implied in any particular\ncharge, the _tinctures_, as well as the _attitude_, must be considered.\nThese, taken in combination with the _qualities_ or _attributes_ we\nassociate with the creature represented, indicate in a threefold manner\nthe complete idea or phase of meaning intended to be conveyed by the\ncomposition, and may be thus formulated:\n\n    (1) THE CREATURE.--The primary idea in the symbol is in the particular\n    being represented, whether real or fictitious, as _a man_, _a lion_,\n    _an eagle_, _a dragon_, &c., of the form and accepted character for\n    some particular quality or attribute of mind or body, as\n    _fierceness_, _valour_, _fleetness_, &c.\n\n    (2) ATTITUDE.--The various attitudes or positions in which it may be\n    depicted in heraldry, each denoting some special meaning, as\n    _rampant_, _sejant_, _dormant_, &c.\n\n    (3) TINCTURE.--Whether blazoned _proper_ (that is, according to\n    nature) or of some of the heraldic tinctures, as _or_ (gold), _gules_\n    (red), _azure_, _vert_, &c., each tincture, according to the old\n    heralds, bearing a particular and special signification.\n\nTinctures in armorial devices were, however, not always introduced on\nthese scientific principles or adopted from any symbolic meaning, but as\narbitrary variations of colour for distinction merely, and as being in\nthemselves equally honourable; colour alone in many instances serving to\ndistinguish the arms of many families that would otherwise be the same.\nHence the necessity for accuracy in blazoning.\n\nGuillam lays down some general rules regarding the symbolic meaning by\nwhich all sorts of creatures borne in arms or ensigns are to be\ninterpreted, and by which alone a consistent system can be regulated.\n\"They must,\" he says, \"be interpreted in the best sense, that is,\naccording to their most generous and noble qualities, and so to the\ngreatest honour of their bearers.... The _fox_ is full of wit, and withal\ngiven wholly to filching for his prey. If, then, this be the charge of an\nescutcheon, we must conceive the quality represented to be his wit and\ncunning, but not his pilfering and stealing;\" and so of other beasts. Even\nin wild and ruthless animals and fictitious creatures, symbolic heraldry\ndelights in setting forth their most commendable qualities, as fierceness\nand courage in overcoming enemies, though they may also possess most\ndetestable qualities.\n\nIn like manner all sorts of peaceable or gentle-natured creatures must be\nset forth in their most noble and kindly action, each in its disposition\nand that which is most agreeable to nature, rather than of an opposite\ncharacter. Heraldic art thus stamps a peculiar note of dignity for some\nparticular respect in the emblematic figures it accepts, as for some\nspecial use, quality or action in the thing depicted; and this dignity or\nnobility may have a twofold relation, one betwixt creatures of divers\nkinds, as _a lion_ or _a stag_, _a wolf_ and _a lamb_; the other between\nbeings of one and the same kind, according to their various attitudes or\npositions in which they may be represented, as a stag _courant_ or _at\nspeed_, and a stag _lodged_ or _at bay_; a lion _rampant_ and a lion\n_coward_--one will keep the field, the other seek safety in flight, just\nas one attitude conveys a different signification from another.\n\n\nThe Heraldic Spirit--Effective decorative Quality essential in Heraldry\n\nIt will be observable that in the hands of a capable designer imbued with\nthe true heraldic spirit, all objects, animate and inanimate, conform\nafter their kind to decorative necessities, and assume shapes more or less\nconventional, and, as far as is consistent with effective display of the\ncharge, are made to accommodate themselves to the space they must occupy.\nFierce and savage beasts are made to look full of energy and angry power,\nwhile gentle-natured creatures are made to retain their harmless traits.\nIn a monster of the dragon tribe, strong leathern wings add to his\nterrors; his jaws are wide, his claws are strong and sharp; he is clothed\nin impenetrable armour of plates and scales, his breath is fire and flame,\nlightning darts from his eyes, he lashes his tail in fury; and all the\nwhile the artist is most careful so to spread the creature out on shield\nor banner that all his powers shall be displayed at once.\n\nWhatever liberty the artist may take in his interpretation of the form of\nbird, beast, or monster, there is, however, a limit to his licence beyond\nwhich he may not go. He may not alter the recognised symbolic attitude,\nnor change the tincture; he is scarcely at liberty to add a feature. He\nmay curl the mane of his lion, fancifully develop its tongue and tail,\nand display its claws in a manner for which there is little or no\nauthority in nature; but if he add wings, or endow it with a plurality of\nheads or tails, it instantly becomes another creature and a totally\ndifferent symbol.[2] A wise reticence in treatment is more to be commended\nthan such fanciful extravagance.\n\nThe early artists and heralds, in their strivings to exaggerate in a\nconventional manner the characteristics of animals for their most\neffective display, appear to have reached the limits of which their art\nwas capable, and important lessons may be gained from their works. With\nthe extended knowledge of natural history, and the advanced state of art\nat the present day, decorative and symbolic heraldry should take a leading\nplace in the twentieth century, as in the words of Ruskin, it has been\n\"hitherto the most brilliant\" and \"most effective of the Arts.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCelestial Beings\n\n\n[Illustration: Angels]\n\n  \"_They boast ethereal vigour and are form'd\n  From seeds of heavenly birth._\"--VIRGIL.\n\n\n  \"_Down hither prone in flight\n  He speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky\n  Sails between world and world with steady wings:\n  Now on the polar wind, then with quick fan\n  Winnows the buxom air._\"--MILTON.\n\nAngels and Archangels the mind loves to contemplate as the ministers of\nGod's omnipotence and beneficence, and delights in believing these\ncelestial beings to be endowed with a higher and purer intelligence, and\nas being nearer to the divine nature. In all ages civilised man has\nthought of them and represented them in art as of form like to his own,\nand with attributes of volition and power suggested by wings. Scripture\nitself justifies the similitude; the Almighty is sublimely represented as\n\"walking upon the wings of the wind.\" Wings have always been the symbol or\nattribute of _volition_, of _mind_, or of the _spirit_ or _air_. No apter\nemblem could be found for a rapid and resistless element than birds or the\nwings of birds; and however incongruous such appendages may be, and\nanatomically impossible, it is figuratively as the messengers of God's\nwill to man that we have come to view these celestial habitants.\n\n[Illustration: Egyptian Winged Deity.]\n\nThe idea of adding wings to the human form has existed from remote\nantiquity, and for the earliest suggestion of celestial beings of the\nwinged human type we must look to the art works of Egypt and Assyria. In\nEgyptian art, Neith, the goddess of the heavens, was sometimes represented\nwith wings, and in the marbles of Nineveh we find human figures displaying\nfour wings.[3] In classic art wings are given to certain divinities and\ngenii. The Jews probably borrowed the idea from the Egyptians, and the\nearly Christians adopted--in this as in many other instances--existing\nideas in their symbolical art to express the attribute of swiftness and\npower, and the sanction of the practice doubtless fixed it for acceptance\nthrough all future epochs of Christian Art.\n\n[Illustration: Hawk-headed and winged figure, emblem of Osiris, which,\nhaving of all birds the most piercing eye and the most rapid flight,\nserves to express the divine intelligence and activity. (Palace of Nimrod\nin the Louvre.)]\n\nIn holy writ and Jewish tradition angels are usually spoken of as men, and\ntheir wings appear to be implied rather than expressed, as when Abraham in\nthe plains of Mamr\u00e9 addresses his celestial visitors as \"my lord,\" when\nJacob wrestles with the angel, and more particularly when the Angel at the\nSepulchre is described by St. Matthew, \"His countenance was like the\nlightning and his raiment white as snow,\" and by St. Mark as \"A young man\nclothed in a long white garment.\"\n\nThe Seraphim and Cherubim as winged beings are more perfectly described in\nthe Scriptures.\n\n_The Wings Variously Coloured._--Not content with a simple departure in\nform from all natural wings, the early and Middle Age artists resorted to\nmany expedients to invest their angels' wings with unearthly\ncharacteristics. Colour was a fertile field for their ingenuity, and they\nlavished all their brilliant hues in accentuating or separating the\nseveral orders of feathers comprising the wings; now rivalling the\nrainbow, now applying the startling contrasts of the most gorgeous\ntropical butterfly; at other times sprinkling or tipping the richly\npainted feathers with burnished gold, or making them appear alive with\nbrilliant eyes.\n\n_Vesture._--In Early Christian Art the white vesture spoken of by St.\nMatthew and St. John, almost invariably adopted, consisted of garments\nresembling the classic tunica and pallium, sometimes bound with the\n\"golden girdle\" of Revelation. During the medi\u00e6val period they were clad\nin every brilliant colour. Angels do not often appear in the works of art\nexecuted during the first six centuries of the Church; and previous to the\nfifth century they were invariably represented without the nimbus--that\nattribute of divinity with which they were almost always invested\nthroughout the whole range of Middle Age art.\n\n_Nimbus._--The nimbi given to all the orders of the angelic hierarchy are\ncircular in form, with their fields either plain or covered with numerous\nradiating lines or rays, sometimes with broad borders of ornament, but\nnever with the _tri-radiate_ form, which was specially reserved for the\npersons of the trinity.\n\nLord Bacon (\"Advancement of Learning,\" Book i.) says we find, as far as\ncredit is to be given to the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the supposed\nDionysius, the Senator of Athens, that the first place or degree is given\nto the angels of love, which are termed _Seraphim_; the second to the\nangels of light, which are termed _Cherubim_; and the third, and so\nfollowing places, to thrones, principalities, and the rest, which are all\nangels of power and ministry, so that the angels of knowledge and\nillumination are placed before the angels of office and domination.\n\n_Fallen Angels._--We learn from Tradition that many angels, originally\nholy like the rest, fell from their pristine purity, becoming so\ntransformed in character that all their powers are now used for the\npurpose of doing evil instead of doing good. These are to be identified\nwith the devils so frequently mentioned in holy writ. By the artists of\nthe Middle Ages they are depicted in as hideous a manner as could be\nconceived, more generally of the Satyr form with horns and hoofs and tail,\nwhich last connects them with the Dragon of the Apocalypse, the\nimpersonation of the Supreme Spirit of evil (_see_ Dragon). In Milton's\nconception Satan--the fallen Angel--assumes noble and magnificent\nproportions.\n\n\nMistaken Modern Conception of Angels\n\nMany poets and artists of modern times appear to have lost sight of the\ntraditions of sacred art, and in their endeavours to spiritualise the\ncharacter of angelic beings have in this respect been led to portray them\nas altogether feminine in form and appearance. This error should be\ncarefully avoided, because in a spiritual as well as in a human sense the\nvigorous active principle they represent, besides having the warrant of\nScripture, is more fitly represented by man than by woman.\n\nMahomet, who borrowed his ideas mostly from the Christians, in this\ninstance, possibly to guard his followers from some latent form of\nidolatry, said of angels with some show of reason, that \"they were too\npure in nature to admit of sex,\" but to meet the ideas of his followers he\ninvented another race of celestial beings for the delight and solace of\nthe faithful in the paradise to which he lured them.\n\n_Ministering Spirits or Guardian Angels._--These form a frequent theme of\npoets and artists. The idea was apparently evolved from the mention of\n\"ministering spirits\" before the throne of God in holy writ, and from the\necclesiastical legends and traditions of the Christian mythology of early\ndate, derived from still earlier sources. Thus Milton speaks of--\n\n                \"one of the Seven\n  Who in God's presence, nearest to the throne\n  Stand ready at command, and are his eyes\n  That run thro' all the heavens, and down to earth\n  Bear his swift errands.\"\n                                  _Paradise Lost_, iii.\n\nAccording to ancient Jewish belief, each person had his or her guardian\nangel, and a spirit could assume the aspect of some visible being:\n\n  \"But she constantly affirmed that it was even so.\n  Then said they, 'It is _his angel_.'\"\n                                  _Acts_ xii. 15.\n\n\n  \"Brutus as you know was C\u00e6sar's _Angel_:\n  Judge, O ye God, how dearly C\u00e6sar loved him.\"\n        SHAKESPEARE, _Julius C\u00e6sar_, Act iii. sc. 2.\n\nSpenser finely expresses the idea of the good and evil influences\ncontinually warring unseen about us, and his gratitude for the effective\nprotection of the guardian spirits:\n\n  \"How oft do they their silver bowers leave,\n  To come to succour us that succour want!\n  How oft do they with golden pinions cleave\n  The flitting skies, like flying pursuivant,\n  Against fowle fiends to ayde us militant!\n  They for us fight, they watch, and dewly ward,\n  And their bright squadrons round about us plant;\n  And all for love, and nothing for reward:\n  O why should heavenly God to men have such regard?\"\n\nMilton beautifully assumes the pure nature of saintly chastity attended by\nministering spirits:\n\n  \"A thousand liveried angels lackey her,\n  Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt,\n  And in clear dream and solemn vision,\n  Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear;\n  Till oft converse with heavenly habitants\n  Begins to cast a beam on the outward shape.\"\n                                          \"Comus.\"\n\nAnd Scott, in figurative language, apostrophising woman in her higher and\nmore spiritual sphere, says in \"Marmion\":\n\n  \"When pain and anguish wring the brow,\n  A ministering angel thou!\"\n\nShakespeare expresses a prevailing idea that the pure in heart will become\nministering angels in heaven; Laertes, at the grave of Ophelia, fiercely\nthunders forth:\n\n  \"I tell thee, churlish priest,\n  A ministering angel shall my sister be\n  When thou liest howling.\"\n\n\nMedi\u00e6val Art Treatment of Angels\n\nAccording to ecclesiastical legend and tradition there are nine degrees of\nangelic beings. St. Dionysius relates that there are three hierarchies of\nangels and three orders in each; and by wise allegories each had his\nspecial mission, and they were each depicted with certain insignia by\nwhich they were recognised in art representations, which vary somewhat in\nexamples of different periods.\n\nThe nine choirs of angels are classed as follow, with the name of the\nchief of each, according to ancient legend:\n\n  _Cherubim_          Jophiel\n  _Seraphim_          Uriel\n  _Thrones_           Zaphkiel\n  _Dominions_         Zadchiel\n  _Virtues_           Haniel\n  _Powers_            Raphael\n  _Principalities_    Camiel\n  _Archangels_        Michael\n  _Angels_            Gabriel\n\nAccording to A. Welby Pugin's \"Glossary of Architectural Ornament and\nCostume,\" and other authorities, we learn the medi\u00e6val conception of these\nbeings.\n\nThe following emblems are borne by angels: FLAMING SWORDS, denoting \"the\nwrath of God\"; TRUMPETS, \"the voice of God\"; SCEPTRES, \"the power of God\";\nTHURIBLES, or censers, the incense being the prayers of saints;\nINSTRUMENTS OF MUSIC, to denote their felicity.\n\nThe APPARELS, or borders of their robes, are jewelled with SAPPHIRE for\n\"celestial contemplation\"; RUBY, \"divine love\"; CRYSTAL, \"purity\";\nEMERALD, \"unfading youth.\"\n\nARCHANGELS are the principal or chief angels, and are extraordinary\nambassadors. Among these the name of GABRIEL--the angel of the\nannunciation, the head of the entire celestial hierarchy--denotes \"the\npower of God\"; MICHAEL, \"who is like God\"; RAPHAEL, \"the healing of God\";\nURIEL, \"the fire of God.\"\n\nANGEL is the name, not of an order of beings, but of an office, and means\nmessenger: wherefore angels are represented YOUNG to show their continued\nstrength, and WINGED to show their unweariedness; WITHOUT SANDALS, for\nthey do not belong to the earth; and GIRT, to show their readiness to go\nforth and execute the will of God. Their garments are either WHITE, to\ndenote their purity, or GOLDEN, to show their sanctity and glory, or they\nare of any of the symbolical colours used in Christian Art.\n\nA writer in the _Ecclesiastical Art Review_, May 1878, I. Lewis Andr\u00e9,\narchitect, says that \"we seldom find angels clad in any other\necclesiastical vestments than the ALB (or tunic of various colours), and\nthe amice. The AMICE is sometimes like a mere loose collar; at other times\nit has richly embroidered APPARELS (or borders), and is exactly like the\npriestly vestment as worn in the Middle Ages. Instead of the amice we\nsometimes find a scarf or cloth tied in a knot around the neck, the ends\nfalling down in front.\n\n\"In Anne of Brittany's prayer-book is a beautiful figure of St. Michael.\nHe has a rayed nimbus, a cross on a circlet round his head, a richly\nembroidered _dalmatic_ (a long robe with sleeves partly open at the\nsides), and holds a sword in his left hand. The emblems of St. Michael are\na crown, a sword, a shield charged with a cross of St. George, or a spear\nwith the banner of the cross, or else with scales in his hand. Sometimes,\nas at South Leigh, Oxon., he is in complete armour.\n\n\"The archangels are often figured with a trumpet in the right hand, scarfs\nround neck and loins; six wings, sometimes four at the shoulders and two\nat the hips, the legs bare from the thighs. The four archangels are\nfrequently represented in complete armour and with swords.\n\n\"The angels in the Benedictional of St. Ethelwold nearly resemble much\nlater representations; they have wings and the nimbus or aureole, long\nhair and girded loins, whilst the feet are bare, as is generally the case\nat all periods of Gothic Art; but the characteristic drapery is loose and\nflowing as in the Saxon figures of saints; the wings are short and broad,\nthe nimbus is generally rayed like the spokes of a wheel (a form seen in\nthe work of Giotto, with whom it seems to have been a favourite). The alb\nor vesture has loose sleeves, and at times a mantle or cope envelops the\nfigure; both sleeves and mantles have embroideries or apparels.\"\n\n\"The modern taste,\" says the same writer, \"for giving angels pure white\nvesture does not appear to be derived from the Middle Ages, and certainly\nnot from the best period when angels were clad in every brilliant colour,\nas a beautiful example at St. Michael's, York, shows. Here an angel\nswinging a golden censer has a green tunic covered with a white cloak or\nmantle. The nimbus is bright blue, and the wings have the upper parts\nyellow, and are tipped with green. At Goodnestowe church, St. Michael has\na deep crimson tunic, a white mantle edged with a rich gold border, green\nwings, and a light crimson nimbus,\" and mention is here made of the white\nvesture of the angel at the Sepulchre, and that nowhere else does the\nGospel mention any angel clad in white but in the narratives of Our Lord's\nresurrection.\n\n[Illustration: Angel with Cloud Symbol.]\n\n\"Often the angels' wings are feathered red and blue alternately, as on the\npulpit at Cheddar, Somerset. Sometimes the wings have feathers like those\nof a peacock, on the Chapter House, Westminster; round the Wall Arcade,\nangels have their wings inscribed with a text on every feather. This\ncorresponds with the French 'hours' of Anne of Brittany, where an angel\n(St. Gabriel) wears a mantle with a text running along the border.\"\n\nIt was not uncommon to represent angels in carving and stained glass in\nthe latter part of the fifteenth century as feathered all over like birds.\n\n_Cloud Symbol of the_ \"Sky\" _or_ \"Air.\"--Artists of the Medi\u00e6val and\nRenaissance periods, following classical authority, employed the cloud\nsymbol of the sky or air in their allegories and sacred pictures of\ndivine persons, saints, and martyrs, to denote their divine or celestial\ncondition, as distinguished from beings \"of the earth--earthy.\" The\nadoption of _the little cloud_ underneath the feet, when the figure is not\nrepresented flying, naturally suggested itself as the most fitting emblem\nfor a support, and avoided the apparent incongruity of beings in material\nhuman shape _standing_ upon _nothing_. The suggestion of the aerial\nsupport here entirely obviates any thought of the outrage on the laws of\ngravity.\n\nAnother distinguishing attribute is the Nimbus--an emblem of divine power\nand glory--placed behind or over the head. The crown is an insignia of\ncivil power borne by the laity; the nimbus is ecclesiastical and\nreligious. The pagans were familiar with the use of the nimbus, which\nappears upon the coins of some of the Roman Emperors. It was widely\nadopted by the Early Christian artists, and up till the fifteenth century\nwas represented as a circular disc or plate behind the head, of gold or of\nvarious colours, and, according to the shape and ornamentation of the\nnimbus, the elevation or the divine degree of the person was denoted. It\nwas displayed behind the heads of the Persons of the Trinity and of\nangels. It is also worn as a mark of honour and distinction by saints and\nmartyrs. At a later period, when the traditions of early art were to some\nextent laid aside, _i.e._, from the fifteenth century until towards the\nend of the seventeenth century, as M. Dideron informs us, a simple\nunadorned ring, termed a \"circle of glory,\" \"takes the place of the nimbus\nand is represented as hovering over the head. It became thus idealised and\ntransparent, showing an outer circle only; the field or disc is altogether\nomitted or suppressed, being drawn in perspective and formed by a simple\nthread of light as in the _Disputer_ of Raphael. Sometimes it is only an\nuncertain wavering line resembling a circle of light. On the other hand,\nthe circular line often disappears as if it were unworthy to enclose the\ndivine light emanating from the head. It is a shadow of flame, circular in\nform but not permitting itself to be circumscribed.\"\n\n[Illustration: Angel Supporter.]\n\nAlthough the forms of angels are of such frequent occurrence in Medi\u00e6val\nArt they seem to abound more especially in the fifteenth century. Angels\nare seen in every possible combination, with ecclesiastical and domestic\narchitecture, and form the subject of many allusions in heraldry. They are\nfrequently used as supporters.\n\nCharles Boutell, M.A., \"English Heraldry,\" p. 247, says, regarding angels\nused as supporters to the armorial shield: \"The introduction of angelic\nfigures which might have the appearance of acting as 'guardian angels' in\ntheir care of shields of arms, was in accordance with the feelings of the\nearly days of English heraldry; and, while it took a part in leading the\nway to the systematic use of regular supporters, it served to show the\nhigh esteem and honour in which armorial insignia were held by our\nancestors in those ages.\" And reference is made to examples sculptured in\nthe noble timber roof of Westminster Hall and elsewhere. As an example we\ngive the shield of arms of the Abbey of St. Albans.\n\n[Illustration: Kneeling Angel Supporter.]\n\nFigures of angels holding shields of arms, each figure having a shield in\nfront of its breast, are frequently sculptured in Gothic churches. They\nappear on seals, as on that of Henry of Lancaster about 1350, which has\nthe figure of an angel on each side of it. The shield of Richard II. at\nWestminster Hall, bearing the arms of France ancient and England\nquarterly, is supported by angels, which, if not rather ornamental than\nheraldic, were possibly intended to denote his claim to the crown of\nFrance, being the supporters of the Royal arms of that kingdom. Upon his\nGreat Seal other supporters are used. There are also instances of the\nshield of Henry VI. being supported by angels, but they are by some\nauthorities considered as purely religious symbols rather than heraldic.\n\n[Illustration: Arms of the Abbey of St. Albans.]\n\nThe supporters of the King of France were two angels standing on clouds,\nall proper, vested with taberts of the arms, the dexter _France_, the\nsinister _Navarre_, each holding a banner of the same arms affixed to a\ntilting-spear, and the _cri de guerre_ or motto, \"Mont-joye et St. Denis.\"\nThe shield bears the impaled arms of France and Navarre with several\norders of knighthood, helmet, mantling and other accessories, all with a\npavilion mantle.\n\nAlthough Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III. and IV. and Louis XIII. had\nspecial supporters of their arms, yet they did not exclude the two angels\nof Charles VI., which were considered as the ordinary supporters of the\nkingdom of France. Louis XIV., Louis XV. and Louis XVI. never used any\nothers.\n\nVerstegan quaintly says that Egbert was \"chiefly moved\" to call his\nkingdom England \"in respect of Pope Gregory changing the name of Engelisce\ninto Angellyke,\" and this \"may have moved our kings upon their best gold\ncoins to set the image of an angel.\"[4]\n\n[Illustration: Gloria Excelsis Deo]\n\n    \"... Shake the bags\n  Of hoarding abbots; their imprisoned _angels_\n  Set them at liberty.\"\n        SHAKESPEARE, _King John_, iii. 3.\n\nThe gold coin was named from the fact that on one side of it was a\nrepresentation of the archangel in conflict with the dragon (Rev. xii. 7).\nThe reverse had a ship. It was introduced into England by Edward IV. in\n1456. Between his reign and that of Charles I. it varied in value from\n6_s._ 8_d._ to 10_s._\n\n\nCherubim and Seraphim in Heraldry\n\n  \"_On cherubim and seraphim\n  Full royally he rode._\"\n                        STEENHOLD.\n\n\n  \"_What, always dreaming over heavenly things,\n  Like_ angel heads _in stone wish pigeon wings_.\"\n                                COWPER, \"Conversation.\"\n\nIn heraldry A CHERUB (plural Cherubim) is always represented as the head\nof an infant between a pair of wings, usually termed a \"cherub's head.\"\n\n[Illustration: Cherubs' Heads.]\n\n[Illustration: A Seraph's Head.]\n\nA SERAPH (plural Seraphim), in like manner, is always depicted as the head\nof a child, but with three pairs of wings; the two uppermost and the two\nlowermost are contrarily crossed, or in saltire; the two middlemost are\ndisplayed.\n\n_Clavering_, of Callaby Castle, Northumberland, bears for crest a cherub's\nhead with wings erect. Motto: C\u0152LOS VOLENS.\n\nOn funereal achievements, setting forth the rank and circumstance of the\ndeceased, it is usual to place over the lozenge-shaped shield containing\narms of a woman, whether spinster, wife, or widow, a cherub's head, and\nknots or bows of ribbon in place of crests, helmets, or its mantlings,\nwhich, according to heraldic law, cannot be borne by any woman, sovereign\nprincesses only excepted.\n\n[Illustration: Arms--Azure a chevron argent between three cherubs' heads\nof the last.]\n\nIn representing the cherubim by infants' winged heads, the early painters\nmeant them to be emblematic of a pure spirit glowing with love and\nintelligence, the head the seat of the soul, and the wings attribute of\nswiftness and spirit alone retained.\n\nThe body or limbs of the cherub and seraph are never shown in heraldry,\nfor what reason it is difficult to say, unless it be from the ambiguity of\nthe descriptions in the sacred writings and consequent difficulty of\nrepresenting them. The heralds adopted the figure of speech termed\nsynecdoche, which adopts a part to represent the whole.\n\nSir Joshua Reynolds has embodied the modern conception in his exquisite\npainting of cherubs' heads, _Portrait Studies of Frances Isabella Ker,\ndaughter of Lord William Gordon_, now in the National Collection. It\nrepresents five infants' heads with wings, in different positions,\nfloating among clouds. This idea of the cherub seems to have found ready\nacceptance with poets and painters. Shakespeare sings:\n\n              \"Look how the floor of heaven\n  Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:\n  There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest\n  But in his motion like an angel sings,\n  Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim--\n  Such harmony is in immortal souls:\n  But while this muddy vesture of decay\n  Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.\"\n\nMany of the painters of the period of the Renaissance represented the\ncherub similarly to those in Reynolds' picture. They were also in the\nhabit of introducing into their pictures of sacred subjects nude youthful\nwinged figures, \"celestial loves,\" sporting in clouds around the principal\nfigure or figures, or assisting in some act that is being done. Thus\nSpenser invests \"The Queen of Beauty and of Love the Mother\" with a troop\nof these little loves, \"Cupid, their elder brother.\"\n\n  \"And all about her neck and shoulders flew\n  A flock of little loves, and sports and joys\n  With nimble wings of gold and purple hue;\n  Whose shapes seemed not like to terrestrial boys,\n  But like to angels playing heavenly toys.\"\n                _Faerie Queen_, Book x. cant. x. p. 153.\n\nThese must not, however, be confounded with the cherub and seraph of\nScripture. It was a thoroughly pagan idea, borrowed from classic\nmythology, and unworthy of Christian Art. It soon degenerated into\n\"earthly loves\" and \"cupids,\" or amorini as they were termed and as we now\nunderstand them.\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCherubim and Seraphim of Scripture\n\nIn Ecclesiastical Art literal renderings of the descriptions contained in\nthe Old Testament and the Apocalypse are not of unfrequent use. A more\nlengthened reference to these great Hebrew symbolic beings will not be\nconsidered out of place, as there is great doubt and uncertainty as to\ntheir forms.\n\nThese mystic symbolic beings were familiar to all the patriarchs--from\nAdam, who gazed upon them in Paradise, and against whom on his expulsion\nthey stood with flaming sword, turning every way to bar his return--to\nMoses, who trembled before it on Mount Sinai; while to the Priests and\nLevites, the custodians of the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle, the\ncherubim remained the sacred guardians in the Holy of Holies of the\npalladium of the national faith and liberties during the brightest and, as\nit has been termed, the most heroic period of Jewish history.\n\n[Illustration: Angel crest of Tuite, Bart. co. Tip.]\n\nJosephus, the more effectually to excite respect for the great Hebrew\nsymbol in the minds of his readers, purposely throws over it the veil of\nobscurity. He says: \"The cherubim are winged creatures, but the form of\nthem does not resemble that of any living creature seen by man.\" In the\nworks of Philo Jud\u00e6us there is an express dissertation upon the cherubim.\nThe learned Brochart and many others have attempted to elucidate the\nsubject to little purpose. The ambiguity which always accompanies a\nwritten description of objects with which we are imperfectly acquainted\napplies with greater force to this mysterious being combining so many\napparently conflicting attributes.\n\nTo the prophetic vision of Ezekiel, the description of which, in the\nopinion of competent critics, excels in grandeur of idea and energy of\nexpression the most celebrated writers of ancient and modern times, the\nreader is referred, as it supplies at first hand almost all that can be\nknown concerning the fearful form of the cherubim.\n\nThe four living creatures that support the throne of God exhibited to\nEzekiel a fourfold aspect; they had each the face of _a man_, the face of\n_a lion_, and the face of _an ox_; they also had the face of _an eagle_.\nThey had each four wings; they had the hands of a man under their wings.\n\"Two wings of every one were joined one to the other, and two covered\ntheir bodies.\" They were accompanied by wheels which \"went upon their four\nsides, and they turned not when they went\"; \"and their whole body, and\ntheir backs, and their hands, and their wings, and their wheels were full\nof eyes\"; \"and the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of\na flash of lightning.\" Such is a concise description of their appearance\nas set forth in Ezekiel (chap. i.).\n\n\"This wonderful and mysterious hieroglyph must be considered as a striking\nand expressive emblem of the guardian vigilance of providence, all-seeing\nand omniscient; while the number of wings exhibit to us direct symbols of\nthat powerful, that all-pervading spirit which, while it darts through\nnature at a glance, is everywhere present to protect and defend us\"\n(Dideron).\n\nSo attached were the Jews to this celestial symbol that when Solomon\nerected that stupendous temple which continued the glory and boast of the\nHebrew nation for so many ages, we are told (1 Kings, vi. 29, viii. 6, 7),\nhe carved all the walls of the house round about with the sculptured\nfigures of the cherubim, and on each side of the ark was a cherub of gold\nplated upon olive wood fifteen feet high, with their faces to the light,\ntheir expanded wings embracing the whole space of the sacred enclosure,\nserving as a visible sign or symbol of God's immediate presence, whence\nthe saying of David, \"God sitteth between the cherubim\" (Ps. xcix. 1). In\nthis place God perpetually resided in the form of a bright cloud or\nshining luminous body, termed \"shechinah,\" whence the divine oracles were\naudibly delivered.\n\nMilton gives the following description of the Seraph Raphael:\n\n  \"At once on the eastern cliff of Paradise\n  He lights, and to his proper shape returns\n  A seraph wing'd; six wings he wore to shade\n  His lineaments divine; the pair that clad\n  Each shoulder broad came mantling o'er his breast\n  With regal ornament: the middle pair\n  Girt like a starry zone his waist, and round\n  Skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold\n  And colours dipped in heaven; the third, his feet\n  Shadows from either heel with feather'd mail\n  Sky tinctured grain. Like Maia's son he stood\n  And shook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance fill'd\n  The circuit wide.\"\n                              _Paradise Lost_, Book v.\n\nThe _cherub_ is traditionally regarded as a celestial spirit which in the\nhierarchy is placed next in order to the seraphim. All the several\ndescriptions which the Scripture gives us of cherubim differ from one\nanother, as they are described in the shapes of men, eagles, oxen, lions,\nand in a composition of all these figures put together. The hieroglyphical\nrepresentations in the embroidery upon the curtains of the tabernacle were\ncalled by Moses (Ex. xxvi. 1) \"cherubim of cunning work\" (Calmet).\n\nThe _seraphim_ are regarded as an order of angels distinguished for\nfervent zeal and religious ardour. The word means \"burning,\" _i.e._, with\nDivine Love.\n\nThe seraphim are described by Isaiah (vi. 1-3): \"I saw also the Lord\nsitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the\ntemple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he\ncovered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he\ndid fly. And one cried to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord\nof Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.\" And in Revelation (iv.\n6): \"Round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and\nbehind, and the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a\ncalf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was\nlike a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about\nhim, and they were full of eyes within.\" It will be noticed that these\ndescriptions differ from that of Ezekiel, not only in the number of wings,\nbut also in the individuality of each beast being separate and\nindependent, not compounded of the four.\n\n[Illustration: Tetramorph.]\n\nSeveral forms of these mystical creatures, says Audsley, have been devised\nby the early medi\u00e6val artists; those which display the entire forms of\n_the man_, _the lion_, _the ox_, and _the eagle_, all winged and invested\nwith the nimbus, appear to have been most frequently made use of. They are\nto be met with formed of the _heads of the mystical creatures_ on bodies\nor half-bodies of _winged human figures_; at other times we find them\ncomprised in the heads and wings only of the four symbolic creatures.\nSometimes they are found united and forming one mysterious being called\nthe _Tetramorph_ with four heads and numerous wings covered with eyes, the\nfeet resting on wheels, which are also winged. The example is taken from a\nByzantine mosaic in the convent of Vatopedi, on Mount Athos.\n\nPugin's \"Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume\" says the\ncherubim are frequently represented of a bright red colour to set forth\nthe intensity of divine love, and usually standing upon wheels, in\nreference to the vision of the prophet Ezekiel.\n\nCherubim and seraphim seem always vested in the alb or tunic, and a scarf\ntied in a knot round the neck.\n\n\nEmblems of the Four Evangelists\n\nThe winged living figures, symbols of the evangelists, which are most\nfrequently met with, and which have ever been most in favour with Early\nChristian artists, appear to have been used at a very early date. They are\ntaken from the vision of Ezekiel and the Revelation of St. John. \"The\nwritings of St. Jerome,\" says Audsley, \"in the beginning of the fifth\ncentury gave to artists authority for the appropriation of the four\ncreatures to the evangelists,\" and for reasons which are there given at\nlength.\n\nST. MATTHEW: _Winged Man_, Incarnation.--To St. Matthew was given the\ncreature in human likeness, because he commences his gospel with the human\ngeneration of Christ, and because in his writings the human nature of Our\nLord is more dwelt upon than the divine.\n\nST. MARK: _Winged Lion_, The Resurrection.--_The Lion_ was the symbol of\nSt. Mark, who opens his gospel with the mission of John the Baptist, \"the\nvoice of one crying in the wilderness.\" He also sets forth the royal\ndignity of Christ and dwells upon His power manifested in the resurrection\nfrom the dead. The lion was accepted in early times as a symbol of the\nresurrection because the young lion was believed always to be born dead,\nbut was awakened to vitality by the breath, the tongue, and roaring of its\nsire.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\nST. LUKE: _Winged Ox_, Passion.--The form of the ox, the beast of\nsacrifice, fitly sets forth the sacred office, and also the atonement for\nsin by blood, on which, in his gospel, he particularly dwells.\n\nST. JOHN: _The Eagle_, Ascension.--The eagle was allotted to St. John\nbecause, as the eagle soars towards heaven, he soared in spirit upwards to\nthe heaven of heavens to bring back to earth revelation of sublime and\nawful mysteries.\n\nIndependently of their reference to the four evangelists these figures\nsometimes refer to _the Incarnation_, _the Passion_, _the Resurrection_,\nand _the Ascension_.\n\nSedulius, a priest and poet of the fifth century, says much the same in\nthe following verse:\n\n  Hoc Matth\u00e6us agens, Hominem generaliter implet:\n  Marcus ut alta fremit vox per deserta Leonis:\n  Jura sacerdotis Lucas tenet ore Juvenci:\n  More volens Aquil\u00e6 verbo petit astra Johannes.\n\nTHE LION OF ST. MARK.--In the ninth century the rapidly rising State of\nVenice was dignified by the reception of the relics of St. Mark,\ntransported thither from Alexandria. \"Few patron saints,\" says Theodore A.\nBuckley, \"enjoy a greater popularity, whether socially or locally\nexemplified. His lion was emblazoned on the standard of the Republic, and\nstamped on the current coins, while his name was identified with the\npride, the power, and glory of all Venice.\"[5]\n\nEmblems of the evangelists do not often appear in heraldry.\n\nWalter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury, according to a manuscript at\nLambeth (executed for Archbishop Laud), bore _azure on a cross or, between\nthe symbols of the evangelists of the last, four lions rampant gules_.\n\nThe Freemasons appear to use a similar coat of arms upon their seal, viz.,\n_a cross between the emblems of the four evangelists, and for supporters\ntwo cherubims, all proper_.\n\n[Illustration: The Lion of St. Mark, Venice.]\n\n\n\n\nChimerical Creatures of the Dragon and Serpent kind\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Dragon\n\n  \"_The scaly monster of a dragon, coiled\n  Full in the central field--unspeakable,\n  With eyes oblique retorted, that askant\n  Shot gleaming fire._\"\n                    HESIOD.--\"The Shield of Hercules.\"\n\nThe dragon is the most interesting and most frequently seen of all\nchimerical figures, and it is a remarkable fact that such a creature\nappears at an early period of the world's history to have been known in\nthe East and in countries widely separated. Long anterior to the dawn of\ncivilisation in the West of Europe, even in far-off China and Japan in the\nextreme East of Asia we find the dragon delineated in very much the same\nform in which it appears in our national heraldry.\n\nThe ancients conceived it as the embodiment of malignant and destructive\npower, and with attributes of the most terrible kind. Classic story makes\nus acquainted with many dreadful monsters of the dragon kind, to which\nreference will afterwards be more particularly made.\n\nIt is often argued that the monsters of tradition are but the\npersonification of solar influences, storms, the desert wind, the great\ndeeps, rivers inundating their banks, or other violent phenomena of\nnature, and so, no doubt, they are, and have been; but the strange fact\nremains that the same draconic form with slight modifications constantly\nappears as the type of the thing most dreaded, and instead of melting into\nan abstraction and dying out of view, it has remained from age to age, in\nform, distinctly a ferocious flying reptile, until in the opinion of many\nthe tradition has been justified by prosaic science. It is surprising to\nfind that the popular conception of the dragon--founded on tradition,\npassed on through hundreds of generations--not only retains its identity,\nbut bears a startling resemblance to the original antediluvian saurians,\nwhose fossil remains now come to light through geological research, almost\nproving the marvellous power of tradition and the veracity of those who\npassed it on.\n\nMr. Moncure Conway (\"Demonology, or Devil Lore\") says: \"The opinion has\nsteadily gained that the conventional dragon is the traditional form of\nsome huge saurian. It has been suggested that some of those extinct\nsaurians may have been contemporaneous with the earliest men, and that\ntraditions of conflicts with them, transmitted orally and pictorially,\nhave resulted in preserving their forms in fable proximately.\"\n\n\"Among the geological specimens in the British Museum,\" says Hugh Miller,\n\"the visitor sees shapes that more than rival in strangeness the great\ndragons and griffins of medi\u00e6val legends; enormous jaws, bristling with\npointed teeth, gape horrid, in stone, under staring eye-sockets a foot in\ndiameter; and necks that half equal in length the entire body of a\nboa-constrictor. And here we see a winged dragon that, armed with sharp\nteeth and strong claws, has careered through the air on leathern wings\nlike those of a bat.\" We are also told in the sacred Scriptures by Moses\nof \"fiery serpents,\" and by Isaiah of \"a fiery flying serpent.\" Other\nmonsters--dragons, cockatrices, and some of whose form we have no\nconception--are also mentioned. Euripides describes a dragon or snake\nbreathing forth fire and slaughter, and rowing its way with its wings. It\nis evident that such a creature may at one time have existed. Looking at\nthe widespread belief in dragons, there seems little doubt that the\nsemi-myth of to-day is the traditional successor of a really once-existent\nanimal, whose huge size, snake-like appearance, and possibly dangerous\npowers of offence made him so terrible that the earlier races of mankind\nadopted him unanimously as the most fearful embodiment of animal ferocity\nto be found.\n\nOne of the latest acquisitions in the Natural History Museum, South\nKensington, is the skeleton of that enormous creature the long-limbed\ndinosaur (_Diplodicus Carnegii_), recently discovered in America,\neighty-nine feet in length from the head to the tip of the tail, the huge\nbulky framework of the monster measuring eleven feet in height at the\nshoulder. The enormous length of its neck and tail, with relatively small\nhead, would indicate it to be an amphibious inhabitant of the waters,\nfeeding on the vegetation growing in its depths.\n\nMr. Moncure Conway, in his remarkable work, \"Demonology, or Devil Lore,\"\ndescribes all intermediate stages between demon and devil under the head\nof dragon. This he believes to be the only fabulous form which accurately\ndescribes all the transitions. Throughout all the representations of the\ndragon one feature is common, and that is the idealised serpent. The\ndragon possesses all the properties of the demon along with that of\nharmfulness, but differs from the devil in not having the desire of doing\nevil. The dragon in mythology is the combination of every bad feature in\nnature, all of which is combined into one horrible whole. \"The modern\nconventional dragon,\" says Mr. Conway, \"is a terrible monster. His body is\npartially green, with memories of the sea and of slime, and partly brown\nor dark, with lingering shadows of storm-clouds. The lightning flames\nstill in his red eyes, and flashes from his fire-breathing mouth. The\nthunderbolt of Jove, the spear of Woden, are in the barbed point of his\ntail. His huge wings--bat-like and spiked--sum up all the mysteries of\nextinct harpies and vampires. Spine of crocodile is on his neck, tail of\nthe serpent and all the jagged ridges of rocks and sharp thorns of jungles\nbristle round him, while the ice of glaciers and brassy glitter of\nsunstrokes are in his scales. He is ideal of all that is hard,\ndestructive, perilous, loathsome, horrible in nature; every detail of him\nhas been seen through and vanquished by man, here or there; but in\nselection and combination they rise again as principles, and conspire to\nform one great generalisation of the forms of pain, the sum of every\ncreature's worst.\"\n\n\"THE EXTERNAL FORMS OF DRAGONS are greatly dependent on the nature of the\ncountry in which they originate. In the far north, where exist the legends\nof the swan and pigeon, maidens and vampires, exists the swan-shaped\ndragon. As demons of excessive heat principally existed in the south, so\nin the north the great enemy of man was excessive cold. In the northern\ncountries is found also the serpent element, but as serpents are there\nfrequently harmless, this feature does not enter much into their\ncomposition. The CUTTLEFISH is supposed to have helped in the formation of\nthe HYDRA, which in its turn assisted in forming the dragon of the\nApocalypse. Assyrian ideas also seem to have assisted in the pictorial\nimpersonations of the hydra. This many-headed monster is a representation\nof a torrent, which being cut off in one direction breaks out in another.\nThe conflicts of Hercules with the hydra are repeated in those of the\nAssyrian Bel with Trinant (the deep), and also in the contentions of St.\nMichael with the dragon. The old dragon myths left in Europe were\nfrequently utilised by the Christians. Other saints besides St. Michael\nwere invested with the feats of Hercules; St. Margaret, St. Andrew, and\nmany others are pictured as trampling dragons under their feet. The\nEgyptian dragon is based on the crocodile, and this form being received\ninto Christian symbolism did greatly away with other pagan monsters. The\nhideousness of the crocodile and the alligator could easily be exaggerated\nso as to suit the most horrible contortions of the human imagination.\nAmongst the most terrible dragons is Typhon, the impersonation of all the\nterrors of nature. Son of Tartarus, father of the harpies and of the\nwinds, he lives in the African deserts; from thence fled in fear, to\nescape his terrible breath, all the gods and goddesses. He is coiled in\nthe whirlwind, and his many heads are symbolical of the tempest, the\nscrive, the hurricane, and the tornado.\"\n\nUnder the head of THE COLONIAL DRAGON Mr. Conway has embodied all the\nhorrors and difficulties with which the early colonists would be beset.\nAmongst these he places the GORGON and the CHIMERA. The most widely spread\nof all is the last named, and from it is supposed that all Christian and\nBritish dragons are descended. The Christian myth of ST. GEORGE AND THE\nDRAGON is but a variation of BELLEROPHON AND THE CHIMERA, in which the\nlast has given place to the dragon and the pagan hero to St. George.\n\n[Illustration: Japanese Dragon.]\n\n\"In ancient families there are usually traditions of some far-distant\nancestor having slain a desperate monster. It is always the colonial\ndragon that has been borrowed by poets and romancers. THE DRAGON killed by\nGuy of Warwick is but another variation of the chimera. There is again the\nSOCKBURN WORM, slain by Sir John Conyers for the devouring of the people\nof the neighbourhood; the well-known tradition of the LAMBTON WORM is in\nreality a modification of the ARYAN DRAGON OF THE STORMCLOUD; smaller than\na man's hand he swells out to prodigious dimensions.\"\n\nA favourite subject for Chinese and Japanese painting and sculpture is a\ndragon very much of the same type, and a monstrous representation of a\ndragon in the form of a huge Saurian still forms the central object at\nJapanese festivals.\n\nAmong the Chinese the dragon is the representation of sovereignty, and is\nthe imperial emblem borne upon banners, and otherwise displayed as the\nnational ensign. To the people of that vast country it represents\neverything powerful and imposing; and it plays an important part in many\nreligious ceremonies and observances. Dr. S. Wells Williams, the eminent\nsinalogue, describes the fabulous monster of Chinese imagination in the\nfollowing passage: \"There are three dragons--the _lung_ in the sky, the\n_li_ in the sea, and the _kiau_ in the marshes. The first is the only\n_authentic_ species according to the Chinese; it has the head of a camel,\nthe horns of a deer, eyes of a rabbit, ears of a cow, neck of a snake,\nbelly of a frog, scales of a carp, claws of a hawk, and palm of a tiger.\nOn each side of the mouth are whiskers, and its beard contains a bright\npearl; the breath is sometimes changed into water and sometimes into fire,\nand its voice is like the jingling of copper pans. The dragon of the sea\noccasionally ascends to heaven in waterspouts, and is the ruler of all\noceanic phenomena.\" The fishermen and sailors before venturing away from\nland or returning to port, burn joss-sticks and beat gongs to ward off the\nevil influences of the dragon, and it is worshipped in a variety of ways.\nAccording to a fable current in China, the Celestial Emperor Hoang-ti was\ncarried up to heaven, along with seventy other persons, by a great\ndragon; those who were only able to catch at his moustaches were shaken\noff and thrown on the ground. It is still the custom when an emperor dies\nto say that the dragon has ascended to heaven. An eclipse the simple\nCelestials believe to be caused by a great dragon that seeks to devour the\nsun or moon. A great noise is made by firing guns, beating drums, and the\nrattling and jangling of pairs of discordant instruments to frighten the\nmonster away. A frequent subject of their artists is the dreadful dragon\nsprawling through masses of curling clouds in the act of grasping at or\nswallowing the great luminary, a subject which no doubt bears a deeper\nmeaning than we see, and one intimately connected with their mythology.\n\n[Illustration: JAPANESE IMPERIAL DEVICE. The Dragon, the Ho-Ho, or\nPh\u0153nix, and the Chrysanthemum.]\n\nIn some of their splendid festivals the worship of the dragon is\ncelebrated with great excitement and furore. On the Canton river a boat of\nimmense length formed like a dragon in many wondrous folds, rowed by fifty\nor more natives, with wild music and dancing, and accompanied by a crowd\nof junks; the unfurling of sails and the streaming of flags from the\nmasts, the beating of drums, the noise and smoke from the firing of guns,\nall exhibit the fondness of a people for the pleasures of a national\nholiday.\n\n_Dragon's Teeth._--Cadmus slew the dragon that guarded the well of Ares,\nand sowed some of the teeth, from which sprang up the armed men who all\nkilled each other except five, who were the ancestors of the Thebans.\nThose teeth which Cadmus did not sow, came to the possession of \u00c6tes, King\nof Colchis; and one of the tasks he enjoined on Jason was to sow these\nteeth and slay the armed warriors that rose therefrom. The frequent\nallusion to the classic term _dragon's teeth_ refers to subjects of civil\nstrife; whatever rouses citizens to rise in arms.\n\nThe mythical dragon has left the lasting impress of his name in various\nways in our language and literature, as in the art of nearly every\ncountry.\n\n\u03a9 _Dragon's Head_ and \u2127 _Dragon's Tail_.--In astronomy _Nodes_ are the\nopposite points in which the orbit of a planet, or of a moon, crosses the\necliptic. The ascending node marked by the character (\u03a9), termed the\n_Dragon's head_, is where the planet or moon ascends from the south to the\nnorth side of the ecliptic, and the descending node indicated by the\ncharacter (\u2127) the _Dragon's tail_ is where it passes from the north to the\nsouth side.\n\n_Draco_, a constellation in the northern hemisphere, representing the\nmonster that watched the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides,\nslain by Hercules, and set as a constellation in the heavens.\n\n_Draco volens_, a meteor sometimes visible in marshy countries--_Ignus\nfatuus_, or will-o'-the-wisp.\n\n_Draco volens_, or flying dragon, a curious class of saurian reptiles\npeculiar to the East Indies, having membranous attachments to their limbs,\nwhich give them the appearance of flying as they leap from tree to tree.\n\n_Dragon's blood_, a vegetable balsam of a dark red colour brought from\nIndia, Africa, and South America. So called from its resemblance to dried\nand hardened masses of blood.\n\n\nThe Dragon in Christian Art\n\n(The symbol of the Supreme Spirit of Evil, or the Evil One)\n\nIt was believed that in the gloomy land of the Cimmerians and the confines\nof Hades strange monsters were to be met; and not only there, but in any\npart of the universe which was conceived to be beyond the pale of human\nhabitation these weird creatures might be encountered. The same idea is\nrecognised in the Semitic belief, that uncanny beings lurked in the outer\ndeserts, where men did not penetrate at all, or did so only at great\ndanger. The \"place of dragons\" is associated with \"the shadow of death\"\n(Ps. xliv. 19). Dragons are also associated with the waters of the deep\n(Ps. lxxiv. 13) and are called upon to praise Jehovah (Ps. cxlviii. 7);\nand Isaiah (xxxiv.), describing in vivid and picturesque language the\ndestruction and utter desolation which shall come on Zion's enemies,\nprophesies that her palaces and fortresses \"shall be a habitation for\ndragons.\"\n\nThe term dragon is applied by the translators of the Scriptures to some\nmonsters of which we have no knowledge. The word is used by ecclesiastics\nof the Middle Ages as the symbol of sin in general and paganism in\nparticular, though ofttimes heresy is denoted. The metaphor is derived\nfrom Rev. xii. 9, where Satan is termed the Great Dragon; in Psalm xci.\n13, it is said \"the saints shall trample the dragon under their feet.\"\n\nIn the book of Job we recognise in Leviathan a creature more like the\nextinct saurians of the old world than any crocodile recorded in historic\ntimes; and this leviathan is treated as still existing in the days of\nDavid. In Psalm lxxiv. 13, 14, Jehovah is spoken of as having broken the\nheads of the dragons in the waters; in Isaiah li. 9, as having wounded\nthe dragon; and p\u00e6ans are sung on the punishment of \"Leviathan, that\ncrooked serpent,\" and the slaying of \"the dragon that is in the sea\" (Is.\nxxvii. 1). Finally, in the Apocalyptic vision, \"there appeared another\nwonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and\nten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads, and his tail drew the third\npart of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to earth\" (Rev. xii. 3, 4);\n\"I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless\npit and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that\nold serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him\" (Rev. xx. 1, 2).\n\n[Illustration: The Dragon of the Apocalypse. By Albert D\u00fcrer.]\n\nAs a Christian emblem the dragon may be taken to symbolise the supreme\nspirit of evil, a veritable devil whom it was the special mission of\nmilitant saints to slay, as it had been the glory of the heroes of the\npagan mythology to conquer. \"In pictures of sacred and legendary\nsubjects,\" says a late writer, \"the dragon usually formed an important\nfeature. The evil thing was invariably depicted writhing under the foot of\nthe saint, or transfixed with his triumphant spear. In like manner _the\nvirtues_ trampled tranquilly each on her complementary vice, embodied in\nthe form of some impossible creature; and if the rigid virtues were\nsometimes insipid, it must be allowed that the demons were usually\ngrotesquely characteristic, and often delightful in colour.\"\n\n[Illustration: St. Michael and the Old Dragon. Arms of the Royal Burgh of\nDumfries.]\n\nThe prostrate attitude usually signifies the triumph of Christianity over\nPaganism, as in pictures of St. George and St. Sylvester; or over heresy\nand schism, as when it was adopted as the emblem of the Knights of the\nOrder of the Dragon, in Hungary, which was instituted for the purpose of\ncontending against the adherents of John Huss and Jerome of Prague.\n\nThe dragon in Christian Art is often very variously represented, sometimes\nas a serpent, at other times as a dragon or wyvern, or again in the\nsymbolic figure partly human, under which form we find the \"old serpent\"\n(the Devil) often represented, as in the conflict of St. Michael the\nArchangel. The numerous legends of saints who have fought and overcome\ndragons prove the symbolic light in which the impersonation of evil was\ngenerally viewed.\n\n[Illustration: From ancient carving.]\n\nSt. Margaret is the patron saint of the borough of LYNN REGIS, and on the\nold corporation seal she is represented standing on a dragon and wounding\nit with a cross. The Latin inscription on the seal is \"Sub Margaret\nteritur draco stat cruce l\u00e6ta.\" The modern shield of the town is now\nblazoned: _azure three conger's_ (or dragon's) _heads erased and erect,\nthe jaws of each pierced with a cross crosslet fitch\u00e9e or_. In paintings\nSt. Margaret is represented as a young woman of great beauty bearing the\nmartyr's palm and olive crown, or with the dragon chained and helpless at\nher feet as an attribute. Sometimes she is depicted coming from the\ndragon's mouth, for the legend says the monster swallowed her, but on her\nmaking the sign of the cross he was compelled to free her again. A legend\nstates that Olybus, Governor of Antioch, captivated by the beauty of\nMargaret, wished to marry her; as she rejected him with scorn he threw her\ninto a dungeon, where the devil appeared to her in the form of a horrible\ndragon and endeavoured to frighten her from her path. Margaret held up the\ncross and the dragon fled. Other legends say he burst asunder.\n\n[Illustration: St. George and the Dragon.\n\n  \"In many a church his form is seen,\n  With sword, and shield, and helmet sheen:\n  Ye know him by his steed of pride,\n  And by the dragon at his side.\"\n                                CHR. SCHMID.]\n\nST. GEORGE, the patron saint of England, in his legendary combat with the\nmonster, is a subject which occurs frequently in English sculpture and\npainting, and enters largely into the language and literature of the\nnation. St. George appears to have been selected as the patron saint of\nEngland not long after the Norman conquest. We find the anniversary of\nhis martyrdom (April 23) was ordered to be observed as a festival by the\nNational Synod of Oxford in 1222 A.D.\n\nThe \"Golden Legend,\" printed by Pynson in 1507 (fol. cxix.), thus refers\nto \"Saynt George\": \"This blyssed and holy martyr Saynt George is patrone\nof this realme of Engl\u014dd: and ye crye of m\u0113 of warre; and in ye\nworsyp of whome is founded ye noble order of a garter: and also ye noble\ncollege in ye castell of Wyndsore, by Kynges of Englond. In whyche college\nis ye herte of Saynt George: whyche Sygysmond ye Emperour of Alamayn\nbrought: and gaf it for a grete and precyous relyque to kynge Harry the\nfifte. And also the said Sygysmond was broder of the sayd garter. And also\nthere is a piece of his head; which college is nobly endowed to thonour\nand worshippe almighty God and his blyssed Martyr Saynt George. Then late\nus praye vnto hym that he be specyel protectour and defendour of this\nroyaume.\"\n\nThe emblems commonly given to St. George, martyr, and patron saint of\nEngland are: a dragon, a shield bearing a red cross on a white field, and\na spear. He is usually represented on horseback in the act of spearing the\nmonster which is vomiting fire; or as standing with the slain dragon at\nhis feet.\n\nThat St. George is a veritable character is beyond all reasonable doubt,\nand there seems no reason to deny that he was born in Armorica, and was\nbeheaded in Diocletian's persecution by order of Datianus, April 23, 303.\nSt. Jerome (331-420) mentions him in one of his martyrologies; in the\nnext century there were many churches erected to his honour. St. Gregory\n(540-604) has in his sacramentary a \"Preface for St. George's Day\"; and\nthe Venerable Bede (672-735) in his martyrology, says: \"At last St. George\ntruly finished his martyrdom by decapitation, although the gests of his\npassion are numbered among the apocryphal writings.\"\n\nAccording to the old ballad given in Bishop Percy's \"Reliques of Ancient\nPoetry,\" St. George was the son of Lord Albert of Coventry. His mother\ndied in giving him birth, and the new-born babe was stolen away by the\nweird lady of the woods, who brought him up to deeds of arms. His body had\nthree marks: a dragon on the breast, a garter round one of the legs, and a\nblood-red cross on the arm. When he grew to manhood he first fought\nagainst the Saracens, and then went to Sylene, a city of Libya, where was\na stagnant lake infested by a huge dragon, whose poisonous breath \"had\nmany a city slain,\" and whose hide \"no spear nor sword could pierce.\"\nEvery day a virgin was sacrificed to it, and at length it came to the lot\nof Sabra, the king's daughter, to become its victim. Decked out in bridal\narray she went out to meet the dragon; she was tied to the stake, and left\nto be devoured, when St. George appeared in full panoply and mounted on\nhis charger. He vowed to take her cause in hand, and when the dragon came\non the scene it was encountered by the hero, who wounded it, and binding\nit to the lady's girdle it was led like a \"meek beast\" into the city. St.\nGeorge there attacked it, thrusting his lance into its mouth, killed it on\nthe spot, and a church dedicated to Our Lady and St. George was built to\ncommemorate the event. After many adventures he carried off Sabra to\nEngland, where they were wedded, and at Coventry lived happily till their\ndeath.\n\nIn his history of the Order of the Garter Mr. Antis warmly censures those\nwho would doubt the traditionary history of that saint, and says \"he who\nwould credit St. Ambrose will not detract from the honour of our George,\nthe soldier and martyr of Christ, concerning the dragon and the\ndeliverance of the beautiful royal virgin, which is related in so many\npictures,\" adding that \"he shall not contradict those who make an allegory\nof it, so that they do not deny the certainty of this history.... Suppose\nevery one George, who being clothed with the virtue of baptism and armour\nof faith, keeps his earthly body in subjection by the due exercise of\nreligion and piety, and by the armour of the Spirit overcomes, and by the\ntrue spiritual art crushes and confounds the serpent's poison, the snares\nof the old Dragon, and his diabolical arts and stratagems.\"\n\nThe dragon slain by St. George is simply a common allegory to express the\ntriumph of the Christian hero over evil, which St. John the Evangelist\nbeheld under the figure of a dragon. Similarly St. Michael, St. Margaret,\nSt. Sylvester and St. Martha are all depicted as slaying dragons; the\nSaviour and the Virgin as treading them under foot; and St. John the\nEvangelist as charming a winged dragon from a poisoned chalice given him\nto drink. Even John Bunyan avails himself of the same figure, when he\nmakes Christian encounter Apollyon and prevail against him.\n\nA learned Frenchman, M. Clermont Ganneau, in a treatise lately published,\ntraces the legend of St. George and the dragon to a very remote antiquity.\nIn the Louvre at Paris he found an Egyptian bas-relief, which he\nidentified as the combat of Horus against Set, or Typhon, in the\nwell-known Egyptian legend. It represents a man on horseback in Roman\narmour slaying a crocodile with a spear; but for the fact that the rider\nhas a hawk's head, the group might easily be mistaken for the traditional\ncombat of St. George and the dragon. Extending his investigations, M.\nGanneau has brought to light some most startling proofs of the connection\nbetween the eastern and western mythologies. We have therefore, he\nconsiders, evidence as clear and convincing as evidence from deduction can\nbe, that the Egyptian \"Horus and Typhon\"; the Greek \"Perseus and\nAndromeda\"; the \"Bel and Dragon\" of the Apocrypha; the Archangel Michael\nof Christian legend who also slays the old dragon, are all one and the\nsame story with that of our own St. George. We pass over the intermediate\nsteps by which he reconciles the divergent names and qualities of the\npersonages identified, and also the ingenious arguments as to the real\nmeaning of the symbolism in the worship of DAGON THE FISH-GOD.\n\nIn all the old romances dealing with feats of chivalry and knight-errantry\nthe dragon plays an essential if not a leading part; and a romance without\nsome dragon or monster was as rare as one without a valiant knight or a\nbeautiful lady. But of all the malignant creatures dreaded of gods and\nmen, the most hateful and wicked is that prime dragon personified by\nSpenser under the type of the \"blatant beast,\" and which confronts his\nhero, the Red Cross Knight, at every turn: \"a dreadful fiend, of gods and\nmen ydrad,\" who has a thousand tongues, speaks things most shameful, most\nunrighteous, most untrue, and with his sting steeps them in poison.\n\nAs an example of the inception and development of a dragon legend from\nslender materials, the following is related in Figuer's \"World before the\nDeluge\":\n\nIn the city of Klagenfurth, in Carinthia, is a fountain on which is\nsculptured a monstrous dragon with six feet, and a head armed with a stout\nhorn. According to popular tradition this dragon lived in a cave, whence\nit issued from time to time to ravage the country. A bold and venturous\nknight at last kills the monster, paying with his life the forfeit of his\nrashness. The head of the pretended dragon is preserved in the Hotel de\nVille, and this head has furnished the sculptor for a model of the dragon\non the fountain. A learned professor of Vienna on a visit to the city\nrecognised it at a glance as the cranium of the fossil rhinoceros. Its\ndiscovery in some cave had probably originated the fable of the knight and\nthe dragon--and all similar legends are capable of some such explanation\nwhen we trace them back to their sources and reason the circumstances on\nwhich they are founded. The famous bird, the roc, which played so\nimportant a part in the myths of the people of Asia, is also believed to\nhave originated in the discovery of some gigantic bones.\n\nChief among DRAGON-SLAYERS of Christian legend we find the following:\n\n_St. Philip the Apostle_ is said to have destroyed a huge dragon at\nHierapolis, in Phrygia.\n\n_St. Michael_, _St. George_, _St. Margaret_, _Pope Sylvester_, _St.\nSamson_, Archbishop of Dol; _Donatus_ (fourth century), _St. Clement_ of\nMetz, all killed dragons--if we may trust old legends.\n\n_St. Keyne_ of Cornwall slew a dragon.\n\n_St. Florent_ killed a terrible dragon who haunted the Loire.\n\n_St. Cado_, _St. Maudet_ and _St. Paull_ did similar feats in Brittany.\n\nThe town of WORMS (famous as the place at which the Diet of Worms was held\nbefore which the reformer Luther was summoned) owes its name to the\n\"Lind-wurm\" or dragon there conquered by the hero Siegfried as related in\nthe \"Nibelungen Lied.\" (_See_ p. 100.)\n\nDrachenfels, on the Rhine (Dragon Rocks), is so called from the same\nmonster; and at Arles and Rouen legends are preserved of victories gained\nby saints over the _Tarasque_ and _Gargouille_, both local names for the\ndragon. St. Martha conquered the fabulous Tarasque of the city of\nLanguedoc, which bears the name of \"Tarascon.\" Gargouille (waterspout) was\nthe great dragon that lived in the Seine, ravaged Rouen, and was slain by\nSt. Romanus, Bishop of Rouen, in the seventh century. The latter name has\ncome down to us in the term \"gargoyle,\" applied to the monstrous heads\nwhich often decorate the waterspouts of old churches.\n\nA strange relic of the ancient faith is perpetuated in the remains of\nearly Celtic art in the curiously wrought interlaced monsters which form\nthe chief ornament of ancient Irish crosses, and particularly in the\nborders and initials of illuminated manuscripts, whose spirals and\ninterminable interlacements of the most complex character, often allied\nwith equally strange colouring, form a style perfectly unique in itself,\nand unlike any other; the elaborate knots terminating in draconic heads,\nand with wings and animal extremities in wonderfully ingenious patterns\nthat seem almost beyond the limits of human ingenuity. In the kindred art\nof Scandinavia we find similar decoration founded on serpentine forms.\n\nAnother survival of the dragon myth exists in the name given to some of\nour fighting men on the introduction of firearms. A kind of blunderbus\ngave to the troops who used it the name of \"dragoniers,\" whence is\nderived the well-known term dragoons. They used to be armed with\n_dragons_--_i.e._, short muskets--which spouted fire, like the fabulous\nbeast so named. The head of a dragon was wrought on the muzzles of these\nmuskets. We have all heard of the Dragonades, a series of persecutions by\nLouis XIV., which drove many thousands of Protestants out of France--and\nout of the world. Their object was to root out \"heresy.\" A bishop, with\ncertain ecclesiastics, was sent to see if the heretics would recant; if\nnot they were left to the tender mercies of the Dragonniers, who followed\nthese \"ministers of peace and good will to men.\" The same game of\nconversion was practised by the Reformed Church upon the Presbyterians of\nScotland, with its accompaniment of \"dragons let loose\"--in which\nClaverhouse took a leading part.\n\n\"In medi\u00e6val alchemy the dragon seems to have been the emblem of Mercury;\nhence the dragon became one of the 'properties' of the chemist and\napothecary, was painted upon his drug pots, hung up as his sign, and some\ndusty stuffed crocodile hanging from the ceiling in the laboratory had to\ndo service for the monster, and inspire the vulgar with a profound awe of\nthe mighty man who had conquered the vicious reptile.\"[6]\n\nWhen apothecaries' signs were not derived from heraldry, they were used to\ntypify certain chemical actions. In an old German work on alchemy one of\nthe plates represents a dragon eating his own tail; underneath are the\nwords which, translated, signify: \"This is a great wonder and very\nstrange; the dragon contains the greatest medicament,\" and much more of\nsimilar import.\n\n\nThe Dragon in the Royal Heraldry of Britain\n\n  \"_Advance our standards, set upon our foes,\n  Our ancient word of courage fair Saint George\n  Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons._\"\n                            \"Richard III.,\" Act v. sc. 3.\n\n\n  \"_Come not between the dragon and his wrath._\"\n                            \"King Lear,\" Act i. sc. 2.\n\nThe dragon does not seem to have been a native emblem with the Romans, and\nwhen they adopted it it was only as a sort of subordinate emblem--the\neagle still holding the first place. It seems to have been in consequence\nof their intercourse with other nations either of Pelasgic or Teutonic\nrace. Amongst all the new races which overran Europe at the termination of\nthe classical period the dragon seems to have occupied nearly the same\nplace that it held in the earlier stages of Greek life. Among the Teutonic\ntribes which settled in England the dragon was from the first a principal\nemblem, and the custom of carrying the dragon in procession with great\njollity on May eve to Burford is referred to by old historians. The custom\nis said by Brand also to have prevailed in Germany, and was probably\ncommon in other parts of England.\n\nNor was the dragon peculiar to the Teutonic races. Amongst the Celts it\nwas the symbol of sovereignty, and as such was borne on the sovereign's\ncrest. Mr. Tennyson's \"Idylls\" have made us familiar with \"the dragon of\nthe great Pendragonship\" blazing on Arthur's helmet as he rode forth to\nhis last battle, and \"making all the night a stream of fire.\" The fiery\ndragon or drake and the flying dragon of the air were national phenomena\nof which we have frequent accounts in old books.\n\nThe Irish _drag_ means \"fire,\" and the Welsh _dreigiaw_ (silent flashes of\nlightning) \"fiery meteors\"; hence Shakespeare says:\n\n  \"Swift, swift, ye dragons of the night!--that dawning\n  May bare the raven's eye.\"\n                                      _Cymbeline_, ii. 2.\n\nA principal source of the Dragon legends in these countries is the Celtic\nuse of the word \"_dragon_\" for \"a chief.\" Hence Pen-dragon (_sumus rex_),\na sort of dictator in times of danger. Those knights who slew a chief in\nbattle slew a dragon, and the military title soon got confounded with the\nfabulous monster. The name or title _Pendragon_ (dragon's head) was among\nBritish kings and princes what Bretwalda was among the Saxons; and his\nauthority or supremacy over the confederation was greater or less\naccording to his valour, ability, and good fortune. Arthur succeeded his\nfather Uther, and was raised to the pendragonship in the first quarter of\nthe sixth century.\n\nThe dragon was a symbol among the heathen. One of the sons of Odin was\nthus invoked: \"Child of the Dragon, Son of Conquest, arise! grasp thy\nsilver spear; thy snowy steed prepare and haste thee to the strife of the\nshield! Uprise thou Dragon of Onslaught!\" And again:\n\n  \"Wave high the dragon's flaming sign,\n    Roll wide the shout of glee;\n  Ho! conquest ope thy crimson gates\n    This day I give to thee.\"\n\n\"The Dragon of the Shield struck his sounding war-board with his ponderous\nspada. The fierce-browed children of Hilda gathered round at the signal.\"\n\nMaglocue, a British king who was a great warrior and of a remarkable\nstature, whose exploits had rendered him terrible to his foes, as a\nsurname was called \"The Dragon of the Isle,\" perhaps from his seat in\nAnglesey.\n\nCuthred, King of Wessex, bore a dragon on his banner. A dragon was also\nthe device of the British King Uther Pendragon, or Dragon's-head, father\nof that King Arthur of chivalric memory, who so bravely withstood the\nincursions of the Saxons. _Two dragons addorsed_--that is, back to\nback--are ascribed to Arthur, as well as several other devices.\n\n[Illustration: Dragon Standard. From the Bayeux Tapestry.]\n\nDragon's Hill, Berkshire, is where the legend says St. George killed the\ndragon. A bare place is shown on the hill where nothing will grow, and\nthere the blood ran out. In Saxon annals we are told that Cedric, founder\nof the West Saxon kingdom, slew there Naud, the pendragon, with 5000 men.\nThis Naud is called Natan-leod, a corruption of Naud-an-ludh; Naud, the\npeople's refuge.[7]\n\n\"It has sometimes been thought,\" says Miss Millington, \"that the royal\nSaxon banner bore a dragon; certain it is, that on the Bayeux tapestry a\ndragon raised upon a pole is constantly represented near a figure, whilst\nthe words 'Hic Harold' prove to be intended for Harold; yet Matthew of\nWestminster, in describing a battle fought in the time of Edward I., says\nthat the place of the king was 'between the dragon and the standard,'\nwhich seems to imply that the standard or banner had some other device.\nThe dragon was perhaps a kind of standard borne to indicate the presence\nof the king. Henry III. carried one at the Battle of Lewes, fought against\nSimon de Montfort in 1264:\n\n  \"'Symoun com to the feld,\n    And put up his banere;\n  The king schewed forth his scheld,\n    His dragon full austere.'\n\nIt was not, however, at that time restricted to the King, for Simon\nhimself in the same battle\n\n  \"'Displaied his banere, lift up his dragoun.'\n\nThe English at the Battle of Crecy carried a 'burning dragon, made of red\nsilk adorned and beaten with very broad and fair lilies of gold, and\nbroidered about with gold and vermilion.' This banner,\" adds Miss\nMillington, \"perhaps resembled that used by the Parthians and Dacians,\nwhich is described by Ammianus Marcellinus as 'a dragon, formed of purple\nstuff, resplendent with gold and precious stones fixed on a long pike, and\nso contrived that when held in a certain manner, with its mouth to the\nwind, the entire body became inflated, and stretched its sinuous length\nupon the air.'\"\n\n\"The dragon,\" says Mr. Planch\u00e9, \"was the customary standard of the kings\nof England from the time of the Conquest. It was borne in the battle\nbetween Canute and Edmund Ironside; it is figured in the Bayeux tapestry,\nand there are directions for making one in the reign of Henry III., but it\nnever formed a portion of their armorial bearings, _i.e._, as a charge\nupon the shield of arms.\"\n\nHenry VII., first of the Tudor line, assumed as one of his badges the red\ndragon of Cadwallader--\"Red dragon dreadful.\" Henry claimed an\nuninterrupted descent from the aboriginal princes of Britain, Arthur and\nUther, Caradoc, Halstan, Pendragon, &c. His grandfather, Owen Tudor, bore\na dragon as his device in proof of his descent from Cadwallader, the last\nBritish prince and first King of Wales (678 A.D.), the dragon being the\nensign of that monarch. At the Battle of Bosworth Field Henry bore the\ndragon standard. After the battle of Bosworth Field Henry went in state to\nSt. Paul's, where he offered three standards. On one was the image of St.\nGeorge, on the other a \"red fierce dragon beaten upon green and white\nsarsenet\" (the livery colours of the House of Tudor); on the third was\npainted a dun cow upon yellow tartan,--the dun cow, in token of his\ndescent from Guy Earl of Warwick, who had slain\n\n  \"A monstrous wyld and cruelle beaste\n  Called ye dun cow of Dunsmore Heath.\"\n\nThe dun cow is still one of the badges of the Guards. This monarch founded\nthe office of _Rouge dragon pursuivant_ on the day before his coronation\n(October 29, 1485). Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward V., Mary and Elizabeth\nall carried the dragon as a supporter to the royal arms, but varied in\nposition, and at times superseded by a greyhound. (A greyhound argent,\ncollared or, the collar charged with a rose gules, was a Lancastrian\nbadge.) Henry VIII. used for supporters the _red dragon and white\ngreyhound_ of his family; _a red dragon_ and _a lion gardant gold_,\nsometimes crowned; at other times _a silver greyhound_ and _a golden\nlion_, _an antelope_, _a white bull_, _a cock_, &c. On the union of\nScotland and England under King James, the Scottish _unicorn_ was\nsubstituted for the sinister supporter, while the _lion gardant_, first\nadopted by Henry VIII., appears to have permanently superseded the red\ndragon of Wales, the white greyhound, &c., as the other supporter of the\nroyal arms, the dragon being relegated to be the special badge of the\nprincipality of Wales, which position it still retains. The present royal\nbadges, as settled at the union, 1801, are:\n\n  _A white rose within a red_        ENGLAND.\n\n  _A thistle_                        SCOTLAND.\n\n  _A harp or, stringed argent,\n  and a trefoil or shamrock vert_    IRELAND.\n\n  _Upon a mount vert, a dragon\n  passant, wings expanded\n  and endorsed, gules_               WALES.\n\nRichard III. as a badge had a black dragon. \"_The bages that he beryth by\nthe Earldom of Wolst{r} (Ulster) ys a blacke dragon_,\" derived through his\nmother from the De Burghs, Earls of Ulster.\n\nMallet, in his \"Northern Antiquities,\" states \"that the thick misshapen\nwalls winding round a rude fortress at the summit of a rock were called by\na name signifying dragon, and as women of distinction were, during the\nages of chivalry, commonly placed in such castles for security, thence\narose the romances of princesses of great beauty being guarded by dragons,\nand afterwards delivered by young heroes who could not achieve their\nrescue until they had overcome their terrible guardians.\" The common\nheraldic signification of a dragon is one who has successfully overcome\nsuch a fortress, or it denotes the protection afforded to the helpless by\nhim to whom it was granted, and the terror inspired in his foes by his\ndoughty or warlike bearing. It was a title of supreme power among the\nearly British.\n\n[Illustration: A Dragon passant.]\n\nThe dragon has always been an honourable bearing in British armoury, in\nsome instances to commemorate a triumph over a mighty foe, or merely for\nthe purpose of inspiring the enemy with terror. This seems to have been\nespecially the case with the dragon standard--the \"red dragon dreadful\" of\nWales (_y Ddraig Coch_) described as:\n\n  \"A dragon grete and grimme\n  Full of fyre and eke venymme.\"\n\n\nThe Crocodile as the Prototype of the Dragon\n\nIn the existing representatives of the antediluvian saurians, the\ncrocodile and alligator, we see the prototypes of the dragons and hydras\nof poetic fancy. The crocodile is a well-known huge amphibious reptile, in\ngeneral contour resembling a great lizard covered with large horny scales\nthat cannot be easily pierced, except underneath, and reaching twenty-five\nto thirty feet in length. The crocodile was held sacred by the ancient\nEgyptians, the Nile was and is its best-known habitat; it is also found in\nthe rivers of the Indian seas. Though an awkward creature upon land, it\ndarts with rapidity through the water after fish, which is its appropriate\nfood, but it is dangerous also to dogs and other creatures, as well as to\nhuman beings entering the water or lingering incautiously on the bank.\n\nIt is the _Lacerta crocodilus_ of Linn\u00e6us, from Greek \u03ba\u03c1\u03bf\u03ba\u03bf\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2\n(_krokodeilos_) a word of uncertain origin. The Alligator, the American\ncrocodile, takes its name from the Spanish _El Legarto_, the lizard. The\nLatin form is _Lacertus_ or _Lacerta_.\n\nMiss Millington, in her \"Heraldry in History, Poetry and Romance,\" says\nthat both dragon and crocodile seem anciently to have been confounded\nunder one name, and that Philip de Thaun, in his \"Bestiarus,\" says that\n\"crocodille signifie diable en ceste vie.\" Guillim, an old heraldic\nwriter, says: \"The dragons are naturally so hot that they cannot be\ncooled by drinking of waters, but still gape for the air to refresh them,\nas appeareth in Jeremiah xiv. 6.\"\n\nYoung, author of \"Night Thoughts,\" in a footnote appended to the\nmagnificent description of the leviathan (crocodile), in his paraphrase of\npart of the book of Job says: \"The crocodile, say the naturalists, lying\nunder water, and being there forced to hold its breath, when it emerges,\nthe breath long repressed is hot, and bursts out so violently that it\nresembles fire and smoke. The horse suppresses not his breath by any means\nso long, neither is he so fierce and animated,\" yet the most correct of\npoets ventures to use the same metaphor regarding him:\n\n  \"Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem.\"\n\n\nThe Heraldic Dragon\n\nThe mythical dragon is represented in heraldic art with the huge body of\nthe reptile saurian type covered with impenetrable mail of plates and\nscales, a row of formidable spines extending from his head to his tail,\nwhich ends in a great and deadly sting; his enormous jaws, gaping and\nbristling with hideous fangs, belch forth sparks and flame; his round\nluminous eyes seem to shoot gleaming fire; from his nose issues a dreadful\nspike. He is furnished with sharp-pointed ears and a forked tongue, four\nsturdy legs terminating in eagle's feet strongly webbed, clawing and\nclutching at his prey. Great leathern bat-like wings armed with sharp\nhook's points, complete his equipment. The wings are always \"endorsed,\"\nthat is, elevated and back to back.\n\n[Illustration: Crest, a Dragon's Head erased collared and chained.]\n\nThe dragon of our modern books of heraldry is a miserable impostor, a\ndegenerate representative of those \"dragons of the prime, that tore each\nother in their slime.\" It is curious to note in this the gradual\ndegradation from the magnificent saurian type of the best period of\nheraldic art to a form not far removed from that given to an ordinary\nfour-legged creature covered with plates and scales. His legs are longer\nand weaker, his mighty caudal appendage, shrunk to insignificant and\nuseless proportion, and most unlike his ancient prototype the crocodile.\nThis error of our modern heraldic artists displays remarkable lack of\nproper knowledge of this mythical creature and his attributes. Such a\nsplendid creation of the fancy should not be represented in such a weak\nand meaningless form by the hands of twentieth-century artists. The\nancient form is infinitely to be preferred as a work of symbolic art.\n\n[Illustration: Domine dirige nos]\n\nARMS OF THE CITY OF LONDON.--Two dragons are the supporters of the arms of\nthe City of London, the crest a dragon's sinister wing. They are thus\nblazoned: _Argent a cross gules, in the first quarter, a sword in pale\npoint upwards of the last. Supporters, on either side a dragon with wings\nelevated and addorsed, argent, and charged on the wing with a cross\ngules._\n\nThe crest is a _dragon's sinister wing charged with a similar cross_.\n\nTHE COUNTY OF CHESTER has for its supporters two dragons, each holding an\nostrich feather.\n\nBasingstoke, Linlithgow and Dumfries on the town seals have St. Michael\noverthrowing the dragon (_see_ p. 72).\n\nThe dragon appears in various forms in the arms of many towns, and also in\nthose of some peers.\n\n[Illustration: Sinister supporter of the arms of Viscount Gough.]\n\nOne of the most extraordinary and elaborate coats of arms of modern times\nis that of Viscount Gough. The sinister supporter of the shield is a\ndragon (intended to represent the device upon a Chinese flag). _A dragon\nor, gorged with a mural crown sable, inscribed with the word \"China,\" and\nchained gold._\n\nExamples vary considerably in the form of the dragon, some early examples\nrepresent it to have four legs, others with only two, when it is properly\na wyvern. The pendent \"George\" in the Order of the Garter represents it\nwith a body similar to a crocodile, winged and covered with plates and\nscales.\n\nA similar device to that of the George noble of Henry VIII. was the St.\nGeorge slaying the dragon by Pistrucci, a foreigner employed at the mint.\nThis handsome reverse, says Mr. Noel Humphrey, \"Coin Collector's Manual,\"\nis nearly a copy from a figure in a battle-piece on an antique gem in the\nOrleans collection, but several Greek coins might equally well have\nfurnished the model. Old George III. sovereigns and five-shilling pieces\nhave this most finely conceived and executed device on the reverse of the\ncoins. It also appears upon some sovereigns of Queen Victoria. Prominence\nis naturally given to the figure of St. George, the dragon in consequence\nbeing diminished in its relative size.\n\n\nThe Hydra\n\n  \"_Seven great heads out of his body grew,\n  An iron breast, and back of scaly brass;\n  And all imbrued in blood his eyes did shine as glass,\n  His tail was stretched out in wondrous length._\"\n              SPENSER, \"Faerie Queen,\" Book i. c. vii.\n\nThe hydra is represented in heraldry as a dragon with seven heads; it is\nnot of frequent occurrence as a bearing in armory.\n\n[Illustration: Hercules and the Lernean Hydra. From Greek vase.]\n\nThe terrible dragon, with one hundred heads, that guarded the golden\napples of the Hesperides, slain by Hercules, was celebrated in classic\nmythology; so was the Lernean hydra, a monster of the marshes that ravaged\nthe country of Lerna in Argolis, destroying both men and beasts. The\nnumber of its heads varies with the poets, though ancient gems usually\nrepresent it with seven or nine. Hercules was sent to kill it as one of\nhis twelve labours. After driving the monster from its lair with arrows he\nattacked it with his sword, and in place of each head he struck off two\nsprang up. Setting fire to a neighbouring wood with the firebrands he\nseared the throat of the Hydra until he at length succeeded in slaying it.\nThe fable is usually referred to in illustration of a difficulty which\ngoes on increasing as it is combated. (_See_ page 63.)\n\n  \"Whereon this Hydra son of war is born\n  Whose dangerous eyes may well be charmed asleep.\"\n                          _Henry IV._ part ii. sc. 2.\n\n[Illustration: The Hydra.]\n\nThe Lernean hydra, the watchful dragon of the garden of the Hesperides,\nthe many-headed Naga or snake of the Hindu religion, are, say learned\nwriters, only some of the many forms under which the relics of the ancient\nserpent-worship exhibited itself.\n\n_A hydra, wings endorsed vert, scaled or_, is the crest of _Barret_ of\nAvely, Essex. It is also borne by the names _Crespine_ and _Downes_.\n\n\n[Illustration: A Wyvern holding a fleur-de-lis.]\n\nThe Wyvern\n\n(SAXON, _Wivere_, a serpent) said to represent a flying serpent, an\nimaginary creature resembling the dragon, but having only two legs, which\nare like an eagle's, and a serpent-like tail, barbed, sometimes\nrepresented nowed after the manner of serpents. It is figured on one of\nthe standards in the Bayeux tapestry (_see_ Dragon, p. 86). It is\nerroneously termed a dragon by some writers, though perhaps they may both\nbe classed together. Old heralds say of these imaginary monsters that they\nare emblems of pestilence, and are represented as strong and fierce\nanimals covered with invulnerable mail, and fitly typify viciousness and\nenvy. In armory they are properly applied to tyranny or the overthrow of a\nvicious enemy.\n\n[Illustration: A Wyrvern, wings endorsed, tail nowed.]\n\n[Illustration: Wyvern from the Garter plate of Sir John Gray, 1436 A.D.]\n\nOccasionally a wyvern is borne with the tail nowed and without wings.\n\n_Lindworm._--It is not usual to say a wyvern \"without wings\" or \"without\nlegs,\" but _sans wings_ or _sans legs_, as the case may be. A dragon or\nwyvern sans wings is termed a lindworm. (_See_ page 80.)\n\n[Illustration: Wyvern, or Lindworm. (German version.)]\n\n_Argent, a wyvern, wings endorsed gules_, are the arms of _Drake_, of\nAshe, Devon (Bart.), 1600.\n\nThe town of Leicester has for crest a _wyvern, wings expanded, sans legs,\nstrewed with wounds, gules_.\n\n_Argent on a bend sable, between two lions rampant of the last, a wyvern\nvolant in bend of the field, langued gules, Ruddings._\n\n_Two wyverns, wings endorsed and emitting flames_, are the supporters of\nViscount _Arbuthnot_.\n\nThe arms of the King of Portugal are supported by _two wyverns erect on\ntheir tails or_, each holding a banner, the crest is a _demi-wyvern_ out\nof a ducal coronet.\n\n_Guivre._--The wyvern or serpent in the arms of the Visconti, Lords of\nMilan, _argent a guivre d'azure couronn\u00e9e d'or, issante de gules_ (GUIVRE\nis represented as a serpent or wingless dragon sans feet, with a child's\nbody issuing from its mouth), is said to commemorate the victory of a lord\nof that house over a fiery dragon or guivre which inhabited a cavern under\nthe church of St. Denis in that place. \"It is hardly possible,\" says Miss\nMillington, \"not to think that the story of the dragon as well as its\nadoption in the coat-of-arms bears allusion rather to the dragon of\npaganism, expelled from the city, as it might seem, by the church built\nupon the site of the cave, in which too, by the rite of Holy Baptism,\n_children_ especially were delivered from the power of Satan. Indeed, the\ninnumerable legends of saints who have fought and overcome dragons\nsufficiently prove the symbolic light in which that creature was anciently\nviewed.\" (_See_ also Serpent Biscia, p. 117.)\n\n[Illustration: Wyvern, wings displayed. (Early example.)]\n\n[Illustration: Wyvern, wings depressed.]\n\n\nThe Chimera\n\nAn imaginary fire-breathing monster of great swiftness and strength,\ninvented by the ancient Greek poets. Though mentioned by heraldic\nauthorities, it is not met with in British coat armour; it is described as\nhaving the head, mane and legs of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail\nof a dragon. From this creature the term \"chimerical\" is applied to all\nsuch figures as have no other existence but in the imagination. It is\nrepresented upon the coins of Sycion during the Ach\u00e6an League.\n\n[Illustration: Chimera, from a Greek coin.]\n\nThe origin of the story of the chimera is ascribed to a mountain in Lycia\nwhich had a volcano on its top and nourished lions; the middle part\nafforded pasture for goats, and the bottom was infested with serpents;\naccording to Hesiod it had three heads, that of a lion, a goat, and a\ndragon. Bellerophon destroyed the monster by raising himself in the air on\nhis winged steed Pegasus, and shooting it with his arrows.\n\n  \"Amid the troops, and like the leading god,\n  High o'er the rest in arms the graceful Turnus rode;\n  A triple pile of plumes his crest adorned,\n  On which with belching flames chimera burned:\n  The more the kindled combat rises higher,\n  The more with fury burns the blazing fire.\"\n                        VIRGIL, _\u00c6neid_, Book vii.\n\nPhillip II. of Spain, after his marriage with Queen Mary of England,\nassumed as a device, Bellerophon fighting with the chimera, and the motto,\n\"Hinc vigilo,\" the monster being intended by him for a type of England's\nheresies which he waited his time to destroy.\n\nThe family of _Fada_ of Verona have for arms: Gules a winged chimera\nargent, the head and breasts carnation (or proper), and the wings and feet\nof an eagle. The illustration, however, has the head and breasts of a\nwoman, and eagle's wings and feet, and makes it a different creature\nentirely, and should more properly be blazoned _harpy_.\n\n\nThe Lion-Dragon\n\nis compounded of the forepart of a lion conjoined to the hinder part of a\ndragon.\n\n_Or, a lion-dragon gules armed, langued and crowned of the first_, is the\n_Bretigni_ family.\n\n_Party per chevron gules and or, three lion-dragons ducally crowned and\ncountercharged._--_Easton._\n\n\nThe Gorgon\n\nReference has already been made to the gorgon in a quotation from Milton.\nThe name now denotes anything unusually hideous. In classic story there\nwere three gorgons, with serpents on their heads instead of hair. Medusa\nwas the chief of the three, and the only one that was mortal. So hideous\nwas her face that whoever set eyes on it was instantly turned to stone.\nShe was slain by Perseus, and her head placed upon _the shield of Minerva_\n(termed the \u00c6gis of Minerva). Homer, in the \"Odyssey,\" Book xi. thus\nalludes to the dread creature:\n\n  \"Lest Gorgon rising from the infernal lakes\n  With horrors armed, and curls of hissing snakes,\n  Should fix me stiffened at the monstrous sight,\n  A stony image in eternal night.\"\n\nAnd Shakespeare, in _Macbeth_, Act ii. sc. 3, uses the name to picture, in\na word, the horrible discovery of the murdered Duncan:\n\n  \"Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight\n  With a new gorgon.\"\n\n\nThe Cockatrice\n\nThis chimerical creature was said to be produced from a cock's egg hatched\nby a serpent; hence its name. It differs from the wyvern of heraldry only\nin having a head like that of a dunghill cock. \"This monster is of that\nnature,\" says an old writer, \"that its look or breath is said to be deadly\npoison\"; and this, in addition to the ordinary weapons of offence, would\nconstitute it rather a difficult creature to be interfered with.\n\n[Illustration: Cockatrice.]\n\nThe cockatrice is frequently referred to in the Scriptures as the type of\nsomething evil. \"The weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's\nden\" (Isaiah xi. 8), meaning that the most noxious animal shall not hurt\nthe most feeble of God's creatures.\n\nAnd Jeremiah viii. 17: \"For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices,\namong you which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the\nLord.\"\n\nThe cockatrice is a frequent emblem in heraldry, borne as a charge upon\nthe shield and also as a supporter. To the mailed draconic form of the\nwyvern it had the hideous crested head with livid dangling wattles similar\nto the dunghill cock, its round glittering eyes dealing death; its barbed\ntongue and serpentine tail, with deadly sting, would no doubt render it a\nfearful object to behold, and terrific to its enemies. It is always borne\nin profile, the wings endorsed, or back to back, unless directed\notherwise. The tail is frequently _nowed_, _i.e._, knotted.\n\n_Sable, a cockatrice or, combed and wattled gules._--_Bothe._\n\n_Sable, a cockatrice, displayed argent, crested, membered and jelloped\ngules._--_Baggine._\n\n_Jelloped_, _jowlopped_, terms used to describe the comb or crest, and\ngills or wattles, when of a different tincture from the body. _Beaked_ and\n_membered_, in similar manner, have reference to the beak and legs.\n\n\nBasilisk, or Amphysian Cockatrice\n\nThe amphysian cockatrice or basilisk in heraldry exactly resembles the\ncockatrice, but having an additional head (like that of a dragon) at the\nend of its tail instead of a barb or sting.\n\n  \"With complicated monsters' head and tail\n  Scorpion and Asp and Amphisb\u0153na dire.\"\n                                      MILTON.\n\n_Amphisb\u0153na_, or _Amphista_, is a creature sometimes referred to by old\nwriters as having the dragon's body and wings, the head of a serpent, and\nthe tail ending in a like head. Bossewelle, in \"Armorie of Honour,\" folio\n63, enlarging upon this idea, describes \"a prodigious serpente called\nAmphybene, for that he hath a double head, as though one mouth were too\nlittle to custe his venyme.\"\n\n_Earl Howe_ has for supporters _two cockatrices (amphysian), wings\nelevated, the tails nowed, and ending in a serpent's head or, combed,\nwattled and legged gules_.\n\n_Argent, a basilisk, wings endorsed, tail nowed, sable._--_Langley_,\nRathorpe Hall, Yorks.\n\n[Illustration: Basilisk or Amphysian Cockatrice, tail nowed.]\n\n_Basilisk_, the king of serpents (Greek, _Basileus_, a king), so called\nfrom having on his head a mitre-shaped crest. Old writers give wonderful\naccounts of the death-dealing power of this strange creature. Pliny says,\n\"all other serpents do flee from and are afraid of it,\" and tells of the\ndeadly effect of his breath and glittering eye. The Duke of Alva, the\nscourge of the Netherlands (1566-1575), where he left the eternal memory\nof his cruelties, had for a device a basilisk drawing out serpents, with\nthe motto: \"Tu nomine tantum\" (\"Thou dost so much by thy name alone\"), a\nfitting emblem for so great a monster!\n\nIn allusion to its power of \"looking any one dead on whom it fixed its\neyes,\" Dryden makes Clytus say to Alexander, \"Nay, frown not so; you\ncannot look me dead,\"\n\n                        \"like a boar\n  Plunging his tusk in mastiff's gore,\n  Or basilisk, when roused, whose breath,\n  Teeth, sting and eyeballs all are death.\"\n                            KING, _Art of Love_.\n\nKing Henry, when he hears of the death of his uncle Humphry, the good\nDuke of Gloucester, says to Suffolk:\n\n                    \"come basilisk\n  And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight.\"\n                      _2 King Henry VI._ Act iii. 2.\n\nBeaumont and Fletcher also speak of \"the basilisk's death-dealing eye\" in\n\"The Woman Hater.\"\n\nIts appearance was so dreadful, it was said, that if a mirror was placed\nso that it could see itself, it would instantly burst asunder with horror\nand fear.\n\nIn Christian Art it is the emblem of _deadly sin_ and _the spirit of\nevil_. St. Basil the Great uses it as the type of a depraved woman.\n\n\nThe Mythical Serpent\n\n\"The most remarkable remembrance,\" says Dean, \"of the power of the\nparadisaical serpent is displayed in the position which he retains in\nTartarus. A cuno-draconictic cerberus guards the gates; serpents are\ncoiled upon the chariot wheels of Proserpine; serpents pave the abyss of\ntorment; and even serpents constitute the caduceus of Mercury, the\ntalisman which he holds in his hand when he conveys the soul to Tartarus.\nThe image of the serpent is stamped upon every mythological fable\nconnected with the realms of Pluto. Is it not probable that in the\nuniversal symbol of heathen idolatry we recognise the universal object of\nprimitive worship, the serpent of paradise?\"\n\n\"Speaking of the names of the snake tribe in the great languages,\" Ruskin\nsays, \"in Greek, OPHIS meant the seeing creature, especially one that sees\nall round it; and DRAKON, one that looks well into a thing or person. In\nLatin, ANGUIS, was the strangler; SERPENS, the winding creature; COLUBER,\nthe coiling animal. In our own Saxon the SNAKE meant the crawling\ncreature; and ADDER denoted the groveller.\"\n\nThe true serpents comprise the genera without a sternum or breastbone, in\nwhich there is no vestige of shoulder, but where the ribs surround a great\npart of the circumference of the trunk. To the venomous kind belong the\nrattlesnake, cobra de capello, spectacled or hooded snake, viper, &c. So\nthe non-venomous, the boa constrictor, anaconda, python, black snake,\ncommon snake.\n\nThe minute viper, _V. Brashyura_, is celebrated for the intensity of its\npoison, and is truly one of the most terrible of its genus. The asp of\nEgypt, or Cleopatra's asp (_Coluber naja_, Lin.), was held in great\nveneration by the Egyptians; and it is this snake which the jugglers, by\npressing on the nape of the neck with the finger, throw into a kind of\ncatalepsy, which renders it stiff, or, as they term it, turns it into a\nrod.\n\nAll snakes, says the celebrated naturalist Waterton, take a motion from\nleft to right or _vice versa_--but never up and down--the whole extent of\nthe body being in contact with the ground, saving the head, which is\nsomewhat elevated. This is equally observable both on land and in water.\nThus, when we see a snake represented in an up-and-down attitude, we know\nat once that the artist is to blame.\n\nAnother misconception exploded by Waterton is the common and accepted\nnotion that a snake can fascinate to their destruction and render\npowerless by a dead set of its eye the creatures it makes its prey. Snakes\nhave no such power. The eyes, which are very beautiful, do not move, and\nthey have no eyelids; they have been placed by nature under a scale\nsimilar in composition to the scales of the body, and when the snake casts\nit slough, this scale comes away with it, and is replaced by a new one on\na new skin.\n\n_Noli me tangere_--do not touch me with intent to harm me--is, continues\nWaterton, a most suitable motto for a snake, which towards man never acts\non the offensive (except perhaps only the larger species which may be in\nwaiting for a meal, when any creature, from a bull to a mouse, may be\nacceptable). But when roused into action by the fear of sudden danger,\n'tis then that, in self-defence a snake will punish the intruder by a\nprick (not a laceration) from the poison-fang, fatal or not, according to\nits size and virulence.\n\nA writer in the _Daily Telegraph_ of July 23, 1883, giving an account of\nthe new reptile house in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, dwells\nupon the surpassing beauty of a python that had just cast its skin, \"a\nvery miracle of reptilian loveliness. Watch it breathing; it is as gentle\nas a child, and the beautiful lamia head rests like a crowning jewel upon\nthe softly heaving coils. Let danger threaten, however, and lightning is\nhardly quicker than the dart of those vengeful convolutions. The gleaming\nlength rustles proudly into menace, and instead of the voluptuous lazy\nthing of a moment ago, the python, with all its terrors complete, erects\nitself defiantly, thrilling, so it seems, with eager passion in every\nscale, and measuring in the air, with threatening head, the circle within\nwhich is death. Once let those recurved fangs strike home, and there is no\npoison in them, all hope is gone to the victim. Coil after coil is rapidly\nthrown round the struggling object, and then with slow but relentless\npressure life is throttled out of every limb. No wonder that the world has\nalways held the serpent in awe, and that nations should have worshipped,\nand still worship, this emblem of destruction and death. It is fate\nitself, swift as disaster, deliberate as retribution, incomprehensible as\ndestiny.\" It would be tedious to recapitulate the multitude of myths\nthrough which the \"dire worm\" has come to our times, dignified and made\nawful by the honours and fears of the past. A volume could hardly exhaust\nthe snake-lore scattered up and down in the pages of history and fable.\n\n\"The python in the Zoological Gardens, however,\" adds the same writer,\n\"though it may stand as the modern reality of the old-world fable of a\ngigantic snake that challenged the strength of the gods to overcome it,\npresents to us only one side of snake nature. It possesses a surprising\nbeauty and prodigious strength; but it is not venomous. Probably the more\nsubtle and fearful apprehensions of men originated really from the smaller\nand deadlier kinds, and were then by superstition, poetry and heraldry\nextended to the larger. The little basilisk, crowned king of the vipers;\nthe horned 'cerastes dire,' a few inches in length; the tiny aspic, fatal\nas lightning and as swift; and the fabled cockatrice, that a man might\nhold in his hand, first made the serpent legend terrible; their venom was\nafterwards transferred, and not unnaturally, to the larger species. It was\nthe small minute worms, that carried in their fangs such rapid and\nruthless death, which first struck fear into the minds of the ancients,\nand invested the snake with the mysterious and horrid attributes whereunto\nantiquity from China to Egypt hastened to pay honours.\"\n\nCadmus and his wife Harmonia were by Zeus converted into serpents and\nremoved to Elysium. \u00c6sculapius, son of Apollo, god of medicine, assumed\nthe form of a serpent when he appeared at Rome during a pestilence;\ntherefore he is always represented with his staff entwined with a serpent,\nsymbol of healing. Similarly represented was Hippocrates, a famous\nphysician of Cos; who delivered Athens from a dreadful pestilence, in the\nbeginning of the Peloponnesian War, and was publicly rewarded with a\ngolden crown, and the privileges of a citizen. Therefore it is that the\ngoddess of health bears in her hand a serpent.\n\nThe caduceus of Mercury was a rod adorned with wings, having a male and\nfemale serpent twisted about it, each kissing the other. With this in his\nhands, it was said, the herald of the Gods could give sleep to whomsoever\nhe chose; wherefore Milton, in \"Paradise Lost,\" styles it \"his opiate\nrod.\"\n\n            \"With his caduceus Hermes led\n  From the dark regions of the imprisoned dead;\n  Or drove in silent shoals the lingering train\n  To night's dull shore and Pluto's dreary reign.\"\n                  DARWIN, _Loves of the Plants_, ii. 291.\n\nJupiter Ammon appeared to Olympias in the form of a serpent, and became\nthe father of Alexander the Great:\n\n  \"When glides a silver serpent, treacherous guest!\n  And fair Olympia folds him to her breast.\"\n                  DARWIN, _Economy of Vegetation_, i. 2.\n\nJupiter Capitolinus in a similar form became the father of Scipio\nAfricanus.\n\nIn the temple of Athena at Athens, a serpent was kept in a cage and called\n\"The Guardian Spirit of the Temple.\" This serpent was supposed to be\nanimated by the soul of Ericthonius. It was thus employed by the Greeks\nand Romans to symbolise a guardian spirit, and not unfrequently the figure\nof a serpent was depicted on their altars.\n\nUpon the shields of Greek warriors, on ancient vases, &c., the serpent is\noften to be seen blazoned.\n\n[Illustration: Greek Shield, from painted vase in the British Museum.]\n\nThe serpent monster Python, produced from the mud left on the earth after\nthe deluge of Deucalion, lived in the caves of Mount Parnassus, but was\nslain by Apollo, who founded the Pythian games in commemoration of his\nvictory. This and many similar solar myths are merely classic panegyrics\non the conquering power exercised by the genial warmth of spring over the\ndark gloom of winter.\n\nThe serpent in Christian Art figures in Paradise as the tempter of Eve\nunder that form, and is generally placed under the feet of the Virgin, in\nallusion to the promise made to Eve after the Fall: \"The seed of the woman\nshall bruise the serpent's head.\" The heart of the serpent being close to\nthe head, renders a severe \"bruise\" there fatal. The serpent bruised the\n\"heel\" of man--_i.e._, being a cause of stumbling, it hurt the foot which\ntripped against it (Gen. iii. 15).\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe brazen serpent erected by Moses in the wilderness, which gave newness\nof life to those plague-stricken Israelites who were bitten by the fiery\ndragons and raised their eyes to this symbol (Numb. xxi. 8), as an emblem\nof healing, is represented in Christian art as coiled up on a tau cross, a\nsymbol of which our Saviour did not disdain in some degree to admit the\npropriety when he compared himself to the healing serpent in the\nwilderness.\n\nThe serpent is placed under the feet of St. Cecilia, St. Euphemia, and\nmany other saints, either because they trampled on Satan, or because they\nmiraculously cleared some country of such reptiles. St. Patrick, the\npatron saint of Ireland, is always represented habited as a bishop, his\nfoot upon a viper, the head transfixed with the lower extremity of his\npastoral staff, from his having banished snakes and all venomous reptiles\nfrom the soil of Ireland. As the symbol of the evil principle, a\ndiminutive specimen of the dragon, guivre, or winged snake was more\nfrequently used, wriggling under foot.\n\nThe serpent is emblematical of THE FALL; Satan is called the great serpent\n(Rev. xii. 9); of WISDOM: \"Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless\nas doves\" (Matt. x. 16); of SUBTLETY: \"Now the serpent was more subtil\nthan any beast of the field\" (Gen. iii. 1); of ETERNITY: a serpent in a\ncircle with its tail in its mouth is the well understood symbol of\nunending time.\n\n\"The serpent figures largely in Byzantine Art as the instrument of the\nFall, and one type of the Redemption. The cross planted on the serpent is\nfound sculptured on Mount Athos; and the cross surrounded by the so-called\nrunic knot is only a Scandinavian version of the original Byzantine\nimage--the crushed snake curling round the stem of the avenging cross. The\ncross, with two scrolls at the foot of it typifying the snake, is another\nof its modifications, and a very common Byzantine ornament. The ordinary\nnorthern crosses, so conspicuous for their interlaced ornaments and\ngrotesque monsters, appear to be purely modifications of this idea.\"[8]\n\nBoniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, in his letter to the Archbishop of\nCanterbury, inveighs against the luxuries of dress, and declares against\nthose garments that are adorned with very broad studs and images of worms,\nannouncing the coming of Antichrist.\n\nIn the wonderfully intricate interlacing of snake-like and draconic forms\nof celtic art which appear in the marvellously illuminated manuscripts\nexecuted in Ireland of the sixth and seventh centuries, the great\nsculptured crosses, as well as in gold and metal work, are seen\nunmistakable traces of the traditional ideas relating to the early\nserpent-worship.\n\n\"The serpent,\" says Mr. Planch\u00e9, \"the most terrible of all reptiles, is of\nrare occurrence in English heraldry. Under its Italian name of _Bisse_ it\noccurs in the Roll of Edward III.'s time, 'Monsire William Malbis\n_d'argent, a une chevron de gules, a trois testes de bys rases gules_'\n(_Anglic\u00e9_, argent, a chevron between three serpents' heads erased\ngules).\"\n\nThe well-known historic device, the _Biscia_ or serpent devouring a child,\nof the dukedom of Milan is of much interest. There are many stories as to\nthe origin of this singular bearing. Some writers assign it to Otho\nVisconti, who led a body of Milanese in the train of Peter the Hermit, and\nat the crusades fought and killed in single combat the Saracen giant\nVolux, upon whose helmet was this device, which Otho afterwards assumed as\nhis own. Such is the version adopted by Tasso, who enumerates Otho among\nthe Christian warriors:\n\n  \"Otho fierce, whose valour won the shield\n  That bears a child and serpent on the field.\"\n              _Gerusalemme Liberata_, cant. i. st. 55.\n                                  (Hoole's translation.)\n\nFrom another legend we learn that when Count Boniface, Lord of Milan, went\nto the crusades, his child, born during his absence, was devoured in its\ncradle by a huge serpent which ravaged the country. On his return, Count\nBoniface went in search of the monster, and found it with a child in its\nmouth. He attacked and slew the creature, but at the cost of his own life.\nHence it is said his posterity bore the serpent and child as their ensign.\nA third legend is referred to under Wyvern (which see).\n\nMenestrier says that the first Lords of Milan were called after their\ncastle in Angleria, in Latin _anguis_, and that these are only the _armes\nparlantes_ of their name.[9] Be this as it may, \"_Lo Squamoso Biscion_\"\n(the scaly snake) was adopted by all the Visconti lords, and by their\nsuccessors of the House of Sforza.\n\n  \"Sforza e Viscontei colubri.\"\n              _Orlando Furioso_, cant. xiii. 63.\n\nAnd again in the same poem (cant. iii. 26. Hoole's translation):\n\n  \"Hugo appears with him, his valiant son\n  Who plants his conquering snakes in Milan's town.\"\n\nDante also refers in \"Purgatorio\" to this celebrated device.\n\n[Illustration: Arms of Whitby Abbey.]\n\nThe \"_three coiled snakes_,\" which appear in the arms of Whitby Abbey,\nYorkshire, really represent _fossil ammonites_, which are very plentiful\nin the rocky promontories of that part of the English coast, and on that\naccount were no doubt adopted in the arms of the Abbey, and afterwards of\nthe town of Whitby.\n\nThe arms are: _Azure three snakes coiled or encircled two and one, or_.\n\nPopular legend, however, ascribes their origin to the transformation of a\nmultitude of snakes into stone by _St. Hilda_, an ancient Saxon princess.\nThe legend is referred to by Sir Walter Scott in \"Marmion\":\n\n  \"_How of a thousand snakes each one\n  Was changed into a coil of stone\n  While Holy Hilda prayed._\"\n\nIt is, however, more than likely that the arms suggested the legend of the\nmiracle.\n\nThe ancient myth of the _deaf adder_ seems to have been a favourite\nillustration of the futility of unwelcome counsel.\n\n  \"What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?\n  Be poisonous too.\"\n                    _2 King Henry VI._ Act ii. sc. 2.\n\n\n  \"Pleasure and revenge have ears more deaf than adders\n  To the voice of any true decision.\"\n                    _Troilus and Cressida_, Act ii. sc. 2.\n\n\n  \"He flies me now--nor more attends my pain\n  Than the deaf adder heeds the charmer's strain.\"\n                    _Orlando Furioso_, cant. xxxii. 19.\n                                  (Hoole's translation.)\n\nA serpent or adder stopping his ears, by some writers termed \"_an adder\nobturant his ear_\" from the Latin _obturo_, to shut or stop, is a very\nancient idea. It is said that the asp or adder, to prevent his hearing\nunwelcome truths, puts one ear to the ground and stops the other with his\ntail, a device suggested by Psalm lviii. 4,5: \"They are like the deaf\nadder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of\ncharmers, charming never so wisely.\"\n\nAlessandro d'Alessandri (+ 1523), a lawyer of Naples, of extensive\nlearning, and a member of the Neapolitan Academy, took for device a\nserpent stopping its ears, and the motto, \"Ut prudentia vivam\" (\"That I\nmay live wisely\"), implying that as the serpent by this means refuses to\nhear the voice of the charmer, so the wise man imitates the prudence of\nthe reptile and refuses to listen to the words of malice and slander.\n\nIt is said that the _cerastes_ hides in sand that it may bite the horse's\nfoot and get the rider thrown. In allusion to this belief, Jacob says,\n\"Dan shall be ... an adder in the path, that his rider shall fall\nbackward\" (Gen. xlix. 17).\n\n_Asp._--According to Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, the ancient Egyptian kings\nwore the asp, the emblem of royalty, as an ornament on the forehead. It\nappears on the front of the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.\n\nMany terms have been invented by the heralds to express the positions\nserpents may assume in arms. Berry's \"Encyclop\u00e6dia of Heraldry\"\nillustrates over thirty positions, the terms of blazon of which it is\nimpossible to comprehend, and hardly worth the inquiry. Few of these terms\nare, however, met with in English heraldry.\n\nTwo serpents erect in pale, their tails \"nowed\" (twisted or knotted)\ntogether, are figured in the arms of Caius College, Cambridge. In the\nwords of the old grant, they are blazoned \"_gold, semied with flowers\ngentil, a sengreen_ (or houseleek) _in chief, over the heads of two whole\nserpents in pale, their tails knit together (all in proper colour),\nresting upon a square marble stone vert, between a book sable, garnish't\ngul, buckled, or_.\"\n\nFruiterers' Company of London.--_On a mount in base vert, the tree of\nParadise environed with the serpent between Adam and Eve, all proper._\nMotto: _Arbor vit\u00e6 Christus, fructus perfidem gustamus._\n\n_Nowed_ signifies tied or knotted, and is said of a serpent, wyvern, or\nother creature whose body or tail is twisted like a knot.\n\n_Annodated_, another term for nowed; bent in the form of the letter S, the\nserpents round the caduceus of Mercury may be said to be annodated.\n\n_Torqued_, _torgant_, or _targant_ (from the Latin _torqueo_, to wreathe),\nthe bending and rebending, either in serpents, adders or fish, like the\nletter S.\n\n[Illustration: A Serpent, nowed, proper. Crest of Cavendish.]\n\n_Voluted_, _involved_ or _encircled, gliding_, and several terms used in\nblazon explain themselves, as _erect_, _erect wavy_, &c.\n\nIn blazoning, the terms _snake_, _serpent_, _adder_, appear to be used\nindiscriminately.\n\n_A serpent nowed, proper_, is the crest of Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire.\n\n_Gules, three snakes nowed in triangle argent_ (Ednowain Ap Bradwen,\nMerionethshire).\n\n_Or, three serpents erect wavy sable_ (Codlen, or Cudlen).\n\n_Remora_ is an old term in heraldry for a serpent entwining.\n\n[Illustration: Amphipt\u00e8re, or flying serpent.]\n\nSerpents are also borne entwined round pillars and rods, &c., and around\nthe necks of children, as in the arms of Vaughan or Vahan Wales: _Azure,\nthree boys' heads affront\u00e9, couped at the shoulders proper, crined or,\neach enveloped or enwrapped about the neck with a snake vert_. Entwisted\nand entwined are sometimes used in the same sense.\n\n_The amphipt\u00e8re_ is a winged serpent. _Azure, an amphipt\u00e8re or, rising\nbetween two mountains argent_, are the arms of Camoens, the Portuguese\npoet.\n\nAs a symbol in heraldry the serpent does not usually have reference to the\nmythical creature, as in Early Christian Art, its natural qualities being\nmore generally considered.\n\n\nThe Scorpion\n\nThe reptile of this name, carrying a virulent and deadly sting in its\ntail, is generally borne erect. When it is borne with the head downwards,\nit is described as reversed. One branch of the family of Cole bears:\n_argent, a fesse between three scorpions erect sable_; and another branch\nof the same family, _argent a chevron gules between three scorpions\nreversed, sable_.\n\n[Illustration: Scorpion.]\n\n_Scorpion._--Luigi di Gonzaga, styled Rodomonte for his great intrepidity\nand strength, was a favourite general of Emperor Charles V. in his army\nwith Bourbon at the sack of Rome. When Charles made his public entry into\nMantua, Rodomonte wore a blue surcoat made in squares. Upon one was\nembroidered a scorpion; upon the other his motto, \"_Qui vivens l\u00e6dit morte\nmeditur_\" (\"Who living wounds, in death is healed\"). It being the property\nof the scorpion when killed and laid over the wound to cure the poison, so\nRodomonte, if any one presumed to offend him, would clear himself of the\ninjury by the death of his enemy.\n\n\"If a man be stung with a scorpion, and drink the powder of them in wine,\nit is thought to be present remedie.\"[10]\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOther Chimerical Creatures and Heraldic Beasts\n\n\n[Illustration: Unicorn salient.[11]]\n\nThe Unicorn\n\n  \"_Yon lion placed two unicorns between\n  That rampant with a silver sword is seen\n  Is for the king of Scotland's banner known._\"\n                        ARIOSTO (Hoole's translation).\n\n  \"_The lion and the unicorn fighting for the crown._\"\n                                          Old Nursery Rhyme.\n\nThe unicorn is represented by heraldic usage as having the head and body\nof a horse, with the tail of a lion, and the limbs and hoofs of a stag; a\ntwisted horn grows out from the centre of its forehead. It is rarely met\nwith as a coat-of-arms. As a crest or supporter it is of more frequent\noccurrence. A unicorn's head is a favourite bearing, either _erased_, or\n_couped_, at the shoulder, and always represented in profile.\n\n[Illustration: Crest: A Unicorn's head, couped.]\n\nThe unicorn was a famous device all over Europe, and symbolised the virtue\nof the mind and the strength of the body. It is well known as a supporter\nof the Royal Arms of England, a position it has occupied since the\naccession of James VI. of Scotland to the English throne as James I. _Two\nsilver unicorns_ were the supporters to the arms of that kingdom. On the\nlegislative union with England, the _red dragon of Wales_, introduced by\nHenry VII., gave place to the unicorn as the sinister supporter.\n\nJames III. of Scotland had it figured on coins which were thence called\n\"unicorns.\" James V. first used it with the national arms as supporters.\nAlthough the silver unicorn came into England with James I., Queen Jane\nSeymour had already adopted it.\n\n\"_Unicorn_\" was the pursuivant of Lord Lyon King-at-Arms, the Royal\nScottish Herald.\n\nAs a supporter to the Royal arms it is thus blazoned: _A unicorn argent,\narmed, unguled, crined and gorged or, with a royal coronet_ (_i.e._,\ncomposed of crosses pat\u00e9e and fleurs-de-lis), _having a chain affixed\nthereto, and reflexed over his back of the last_. The term \"_armed_\" has\nreference to his horn, \"_unguled_\" to his hoofs, and \"_crined_\" to his\nflowing mane. \"_Gorged_\" implies that the coronet encircles his \"gorge\" or\nthroat. The term \"_or_\" (that is, the metal gold or the tincture of it)\nbeing only mentioned after the several parts implies that they are all\nalike to be gold. \"_Of the last_\" means of the last colour mentioned.\n\nIn \"The History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art,\" by\nThomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A. (p. 8), appears a curious illustration from an\nEgyptian papyrus of the Roman period, in the British Museum. It represents\na lion and a unicorn playing a game resembling draughts, perhaps the\nearliest instance of the two animals depicted in conjunction. As the\nauthor says: \"The lion has evidently gained the victory and is fingering\nthe money; his bold air of swaggering superiority as well as the look of\nsurprise and disappointment of his vanquished opponent are by no means\nill-pictured.\"\n\nThe animosity which existed between the lion and unicorn is referred to by\nSpenser, and is allegorical of the animosity which once existed between\nEngland and Scotland:\n\n  \"Like as a lyon whose imperiall powre\n  A proud rebellious unicorne defyes.\"\n                          _Faerie Queen_, ii. 5.\n\n\nMedi\u00e6val Conception of the Unicorn\n\nThe medi\u00e6val conception of the unicorn as the water-conner of the beasts\nwas doubtless suggested by that belief of earlier ages which made the\nunicorn not merely symbolical of virtue and purity, but the more immediate\nemblem of Christ as the horn of our salvation (Psalms xcii. 10 and lxxxix.\n17, 24), expressly receiving its general fulfilment in him (St. Luke i.\n69). The horn, as an antidote to all poison, was also believed to be\nemblematical of the conquering or destruction of sin by the Messiah, and\nas such it appears in the catacombs at Rome. The unicorn is the companion\nof St. Justiana, as an emblem betokening in the beautiful legend her pure\nmind, resisting all the Geraldine-like dreams sent by magic art to haunt\nher, till she converted her tormentor himself.\n\nHe is remarkable, say the old writers, for his great strength, but more\nfor his great and haughty mind, as he would rather die than be brought\ninto subjection (Job xxxix. 10-12).\n\nIt was believed the only way to capture him was to leave a beautiful young\nvirgin in the place where he resorted. When the animal perceived her, he\nwould come and lie quietly down beside her, resting his head upon her lap,\nand fall asleep, when he would be surprised by the hunters who lay in wait\nto destroy him.\n\n[Illustration: The Legend of the Unicorn.]\n\nThe unicorn is one of the most famous of all the chimerical monsters of\nantiquity. The Scriptures make repeated mention of such a creature, but of\nits shape we can form little conception. In Early Christian Art the\nunicorn symbolised the highest and purest virtue; not only was it one of\nthe noblest bearings in the heraldry of the Middle Ages, but was viewed as\nthe immediate emblem of our Blessed Lord. Philippe de Thaun says in his\n\"Bestiarius\":\n\n  \"Monoc\u00e9ros est beste\n  Une corne a en la t\u00eate\n  Cette beste en verit\u00e9 nous signifie Dieu.\"\n\nWhence comes the unicorn? It is older than the days of Job. Among the\nhieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt this wonderful creature is depicted.\nSometimes the body is that of an ass, sometimes that of a bull, sometimes\nthat of a horse with the long twisted frontal horn for which he is noted.\nIs the myth derived from some mysterious single-horned antelope, as has\nbeen said, or is the one-horned rhinoceros the prototype of the legendary\nunicorn? As an emblem it figures on the obelisks of Nimroud and the\ncatacombs of Rome. We read of this strange creature in Herodotus, and in\nAristotle, who calls it the \"wild ass\"; Pliny calls it the \"Indian ass,\"\ndescribing it as like a horse with a horn fixed in the front of his head.\nC\u00e6sar counts it among the fauna of the Hyrcinian Forest. The earliest\nauthor who describes it is Ctesias (B.C. 400), who derives it from India.\nAccording to an Eastern legend the unicorn is found in Abyssinia. Lobo\nalso describes it in his history of that country: there the animals are\nundisturbed by man, and live after their own laws. \"Of the many ancient\nand famous men,\" says a modern writer, \"who have written about the\nunicorn, no two seem to agree except when they copy from one another.\"\n\n\"Some writers\" (says Guillim, p. 175) \"have made doubt whether there be\nany such beast as this or no. But the great esteem of his horn (in many\nplaces to be seen) may take away that needless scruple.\"\n\n\nThe Horn of the Unicorn\n\n  \"_The unicorn whose horn is worth a city._\"\n                      DECKER, \"Gull's Hornbook.\"\n\n_The horn_ of the unicorn was supposed to be the most powerful antidote\nagainst, as it was a sure test of, poisons. He was therefore invested by\nthe other beasts of the forest with the office of \"water-conner,\" none\ndaring to taste of fountain or pool until he had stirred the water with\nhis horn, to discover whether any dragon or serpent had deposited his\nvenom therein, and render it innocuous. So complete was the faith in the\nefficacy of the wonder-working horn as a test of poisons, that fabulous\nstore was set upon the possession of even a portion. In old inventories\nthe \"Essai\" of Unicorn's horn is frequently mentioned.\n\n    1391. Un manche d'or d'un essai de licourne pour attoucher aux viandes\n    de monsigneur le Dauphin.--\"Comptes Royaux.\"\n\n    1408. Une pi\u00e8ce de licorne \u00e0 pour faire essai, \u00e0 ung bou.\n    d'argent.--Inv. des ducs de Bourgogne.\n\n    1536. Une touche de licorne, garni d'or, pour faire essai.--Inv. de\n    Charles Quint.\n\nAn Italian author who visited England in the reign of Henry VII., speaking\nof the wealth of the religious houses in this country, says: \"And I have\nbeen informed that, amongst other things, many of these monasteries\npossess unicorns' horns of an extraordinary size.\" Hence such a horn was\nworthy to be placed among the royal jewels. At the head of an inventory\ntaken in the first year of Queen Elizabeth and preserved in the Harleian\nLibrary (No. 5953) we read \"Imprimis, a piece of unicorn's horn,\" which,\nas probably the most important object, is named first. This was no doubt\nthe piece seen by the German traveller Hentzner, at Windsor: \"We were\nshown here, among other things, the horn of a unicorn of about eight spans\nand a half in length, valued at about \u00a310,000.\" Peacham places \"that horne\nof Windsor, of an unicorn very likely,\" amongst the sights worth seeing.\n\n\"One little cup of unicorn's horn\" was also in possession of Queen\nElizabeth, and was subsequently given by James I. to his Queen.\n\nAlviano, a celebrated general of the Venetian Republic, when he took\nViterbo, and dispersed the Gatesca faction, whom he called the poison of\nthe city, caused to be embroidered upon his standard a unicorn at a\nfountain surrounded by snakes and toads and other reptiles, and stirring\nup the water with his horn before he drinks, with the motto or legend\n\"Venene pello\" (I expel poison). Although the unicorn has not been seen\nand described by any modern writer, its horn has been occasionally found,\nsometimes preserved in museums, but alas! the cherished horn, whenever it\nis examined, turns out to be a narwhal's tooth. To this, Wood's \"Natural\nHistory\" makes special reference: \"In former days, an entire tusk of a\nnarwhal was considered to possess an inestimable value, for it was looked\nupon as the weapon of the veritable unicorn reft from his forehead in\ndespite of his supernatural strength and intellect. Setting aside the\nrarity of the thing, it derived a practical value from its presumed\ncapability of disarming all poisons of their terrors, and of changing the\ndeadliest draught into a wholesome beverage.\"\n\nThis antidotal potency was thought to be of vital service to the unicorn,\nwhose residence was in the desert among all kinds of loathsome beasts and\npoisonous reptiles, whose touch was death and whose look was\ncontamination. The springs and pools at which such monsters quenched their\nthirst were saturated with poison by their contact, and would pour a fiery\ndeath through the veins of any animal that partook of them. But the\nunicorn, by dropping the tip of his horn into the pool, neutralised the\nvenom and rendered the deadly waters harmless. This admirable quality of\nthe unicorn's horn was a great recommendation in days when the poisoned\nchalice crept too frequently upon the festive board, and a king could\nreceive no worthier present than a goblet formed from such valuable\nmaterial.\n\nEven a few shavings of the unicorn's horn were purchased at high prices,\nand the ready sale for such antidotes led to considerable adulteration--a\nfact which is piteously recorded by an old writer, who tells us that \"some\nwicked persons do make a mingle-mangle thereof, as I saw among the\nVenetians, being, as I here say, compounded with lime and sope, or\nperadventure with earth or some stone (which things are apt to make\nbubbles arise), and afterwards sell it for the unicorn's horn.\" The same\nwriter, however, supplies an easy test, whereby the genuine substance may\nbe distinguished from the imposition. \"For experience of the unicorn's\nhorn to know whether it be right or not; put silk upon a burning coal, and\nupon the silk the aforesaid horn, and if so be that it be true, the silk\nwill not be a whit consumed.\"\n\nEXAMPLES.--_Argent, a unicorn rampant_ (_sometimes sejant sable armed and\nunguled or_), is borne by _Harling_, Suffolk.\n\nAnother of the name bears the unicorn _courant in chief_ with additional\ncharges upon the shield.\n\n_Azure, a unicorn couchant, argent between twelve cross crosslets,\nor._--_Doon._\n\n_Argent a chevron engrailed gules between three unicorns' heads, erased\nazure._--_Horne._\n\nReligious emblems were in great favour with the early printers; some of\nthem for this reason adopted the unicorn as their sign. Thus John Harrison\nlived at the Unicorn and Bible in Paternoster Row, 1603.\n\nAgain, _the reputed power of the horn_ caused the animal to be taken as a\nsupporter for the Apothecaries' arms, and as a constant signboard by\nchemists.\n\nThe great value set upon unicorn's horn caused the Goldsmiths of London to\nadopt this animal as their sign.\n\n\n[Illustration: Pegasus or Pegasos.]\n\nThe Pegasus\n\n  \"_The cheval volant--the pegasus--\n  He bounds from the earth; he treads the air._\"\n\nA poetic creation of the ancients, a winged horse captured by Bellerophon,\nthe great hero of Corinthian legend. In this he was assisted by the\ngoddess Minerva, who also taught him how to tame and use it. At Corinth\nthere was a temple erected to \u0391\u03b8\u03b7\u03bd\u03b1\u03c7\u03b1\u03bb\u03b9\u03bd\u03af\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 (Minerva the Bridler), in\nallusion to that part of the myth which describes Minerva as instructing\nBellerophon in the mode of placing the bridle on the winged steed. The\nlegend states that the hero caught this wonderful animal as it descended\nat the Acro-Corinthus to drink of the spring of Pirene. Mounted on his\nwinged steed Pegasus, Bellerophon engaged the dire Chimera, and succeeded\nin destroying the monster by rising in the air and shooting it with\narrows.\n\n[Illustration: Coins of Corinth and Syracuse.]\n\nPegasus is the steed of the Muses, and classic story ascribes to it the\norigin of the Castalian fountain \"Hippocrene,\" situated on Mount Helicon,\npart of Parnassus, a mountain range in Greece. When the Muses contended\nwith the daughters of Pieros, \"Helicon rose heavenward with delight\"; but\nPegasus gave it a kick, stopped its rise, and there gushed out of the\nmountain \"the soul-inspiring waters of Hippocrene.\"\n\nThe Standard of Corinth was a winged horse, in consequence of the\ntradition connecting the fountain called Pirene, near the city, with\nPegasus, the fiery winged steed of Apollo and the Muses. The same device\nwas the leading type upon the ancient coins of the city of Corinth. The\nCorinthians founded the colony of Syracuse, in Sicily, which city likewise\nadopted the winged horse and the head of Athena upon its coinage.\n\n[Illustration: Pegasus salient.]\n\nPindar, who grandly relates the feat of the hero Bellerophon, says that he\nincurred the enmity of the gods by attempting to fly to heaven on his\nwinged horse. Zeus sent a gadfly to sting the horse, who thereupon cast\nits rider and flew of his own accord to the stables of Zeus, whose\nthunder-chariot he has ever since drawn.\n\nThe pegasus is of frequent occurrence in heraldry. In its classic\nallusions it denotes fame, eloquence, poetic study, contemplation.\n\nSome modern heraldic writers, however, discarding its classic references,\nregard it merely in the matter-of-fact light as an emblem of swiftness.\nBut it is impossible to disassociate the old and well-known ideas\nrespecting the horse of Apollo and the Muses. In fancy the poet mounts his\nwinged steed to bear his soaring spirit in its wayward flight through the\nrealms of fancy.\n\nAs a type of the perfect horseman, Shakespeare pictures Prince Henry as\nable to--\n\n  \"Turn and wind a fiery pegasus\n  And witch the world with noble horsemanship.\"\n                    _1 King Henry IV._, Act 4, sc. 1.\n\nElsewhere he takes up the later interpretation of the myth, which connects\nit with Perseus:\n\n  \"The strong-ribbed bark through liquid mountains cut\n  Like Perseus' horse.\"\n                      _Troilus and Cressida_, Act i. sc. 3.\n\nCardinal Bembo, poet and historian, secretary to Pope Leo X., used as his\nimpress a pegasus and a hand issuing from a cloud holding a wreath of\nlaurel and palm, with the motto, \"Si te fata vocant\" (\"If the fates call\nthee\").\n\n_Azure, a pegasus salient, the wings expanded argent_, is borne as the\narms of the Society of the Inner Temple, London.\n\nA very early seal of the Knights Templars exhibits two knights riding upon\none horse.\n\nA recent writer remarks upon this strange device that \"it is exceedingly\nprobable that some rude and partially defaced representation of this\ndevice was mistaken by the lawyers of the reign of Queen Elizabeth for a\npegasus. The fact that the Middle Temple adopted the device which appears\nupon the other seal of the ancient Knights strongly confirms this view.\"\n\nOne of the supporters of the arms of Oliver Cromwell is a horse having the\nwings and tail of a dragon.\n\n\nSagittary, Centaur, Sagittarius, Centaurus, Hippocentaur\n\n  \"_... the dreadful sagittary\n  Appals our numbers._\"\n        \"Troilus and Cressida,\" Act v. sc. 5.\n\n\n  \"_Feasts that Thessalian centaurs never knew._\"\n                                  THOMSON, \"Autumn.\"\n\nUnder these names is blazoned a fabled monster of classic origin, half\nman, half horse, holding an arrow upon a bended bow. It is one of the\ntwelve signs of the Zodiac, commonly called Sagittarius, otherwise\nArcitenens, and marked by the hieroglyph \u2650. In its signification in arms\nit may properly be applied to those who are eminent in the field.\n\nThe arms traditionally assigned to King Stephen are thus described by\nNicholas Upton: \"_Scutum rubeum, in quo habuit trium leonum peditantium\ncorpora, usque ad collum cum corporibus humanis superius, ad modum signi\nSagittarii, de auro_.\" In this, as in some other early examples, it is\nrepresented as half man, half lion.\n\n[Illustration: The Sagittary--Centaur.]\n\nThe arms of Stephen are sometimes represented with but one sagittary, and\nis said to have been assumed by him in consequence of his having commenced\nhis reign under the sign of Sagittarius. Others say because he gained a\nbattle by the aid of his archers on entering the kingdom. Others, again,\nsay that the City of Blois used the ensign of a sagittary as an emblem of\nthe chase; and Stephen, son of the Compte de Blois, assumed that ensign in\nhis contest with the Empress Maude or Matilda. There is no contemporary\nauthority, however, it must be confessed, for any of these derivations. A\nsagittary is seen upon the seal of William de Mandeville (_temp._ Henry\nIII.), but not as an heraldic bearing.\n\nThe crest of Lambart, Earl of Cavan, is: _On a mount vert, a centaur\nproper, drawing his bow gules, arrow or_. It also appears as the crest of\nAskelom, Bendlowes, Cromie, Cruell, Lambert, Petty, Petty-Fitzmaurice.\n\nThe term _Centaur_ is most probably derived from the words \u03ba\u03b5\u03bd\u03c4\u03ad\u03c9 (to\nhunt, or to pursue) and \u03c4\u03b1\u1fe6\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 (a bull), the Thracians and Thessalians\nhaving been celebrated from the earliest times for their skill and daring\nin hunting wild bulls, which they pursued mounted on the noble horses of\nthose districts, which were a celebrated breed even in the later times of\nthe Roman Empire. A centaur carrying a female appears on a coin of Lete,\nwhich, according to Pliny and Ptolemy, was situated on the confines of\nMacedonia, and the fables of the centaurs, &c., in that and neighbouring\ndistricts abounding in a noble breed of horses, arose no doubt from the\nfeats performed by those who first subjugated the horse to the will of\nman, and who mounted on one of these beautiful animals and guiding it at\nwill, to approach or retreat with surprising rapidity, gave rise in the\nminds of the vulgar to the idea that the man and the horse were one being.\n\n[Illustration: Ipotane, from Mandeville's travels.]\n\nSir John de Mandeville in his travels (printed by Wynken de Worde, 1499),\ntells us that in Bacharie \"ben many Ipotanes that dwellen sometime in the\nwater and sometime on the land; and thei ben half men and half hors and\nthei eten men when thei may take him.\"\n\nWe have in modern history a singular and interesting example of a similar\nsuperstition. When the natives of South America--where the horse was\nunknown--first saw their invaders, the Spaniards, mounted on these animals\nand in complete armour, they imagined that the cavalier and steed formed\nbut one being of supernatural powers and endowments.\n\nSuch groups as those exhibited on the rude money of Lete and other places\nwere doubtless the first steps toward the treatment of similar subjects by\nPhidias, the celebrated Greek sculptor, whose works illustrating the\nbattle of the Lapith\u00e6 and the Centaurs adorned the metopes of the\nParthenon at Athens, to which they also bear a striking affinity in the\nsimplicity of their conception.\n\nA curious example of the compounded human and animal forms similar to the\nsagittary is represented upon a necklace found in the Isle of Rhodes, and\nnow in the Mus\u00e9e Cluny, Paris. It is formed of a series of thin gold\nplates whereon is represented in relief the complete human figure\nconjoined to the hinder part of a stag (or horse). This is alternated with\nanother compound figure, human and bird, holding up two animals by the\ntails, both subjects, each in their own way, suggestive of the fleet and\ndexterous hunter.\n\n[Illustration: Compound figures, gold necklace, Mus\u00e9e Cluny, Paris.]\n\nIn Homer's account the centaurs are obviously no monsters, but an old\nThessalian mountain tribe, of great strength and savage ferocity. They are\nmerely said to have inhabited the mountain districts of Thessaly, and to\nhave been driven thence by the Lapith\u00e6 into the higher mountains of\nPindus. Their contest with the Lapith\u00e6 is generally conceived as a symbol\nof the struggle of Greek civilisation with the still existing barbarism of\nthe Early Pelasgian period. This may be the reason why Greek art in its\nprime directed itself so especially to this subject.\n\n[Illustration: Centaur, Greek sculpture.]\n\nThe origin of this contest is referred to the marriage feast of Pirithous\nand Hippodamia, to which the principal centaurs were invited. The centaur\nEurytion, heated with wine, attempted to carry off the bride. This gave\nrise to a struggle for supremacy which, after dreadful losses on both\nsides, ended in the complete defeat of the centaurs, who were driven out\nof the country. The custom of depicting the centaurs as half man, half\nhorse arose in later times, and became a favourite subject of the Greek\npoets and artists.\n\nAmongst the centaurs, Chiron, who was famous alike for his wisdom and his\nknowledge of medicine, deserves mention as the preceptor of many of the\nheroes of antiquity. Homer, who knew nothing of the equine shape of the\ncentaurs, represents him as the most upright of the centaurs, makes him\nthe friend of Achilles, whom he instructed in music, medicine and hunting.\nHe was also the friend of Heracles, who, by an unlucky accident, wounded\nhim with a poisoned arrow. The wound being incurable, he voluntarily chose\nto die in the place of Prometheus. Jupiter placed him among the stars,\nwhere he is called Sagittarius.\n\n_Bucentaur_, from Greek \u0392\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2 (bous) an ox, and \u03ba\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03c5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 (kentauros) a\ncentaur, was, in classic mythology, a monster of double shape, half man,\nhalf ox. The state barge of the Doge of Venice was so termed.\n\nThe _Minotaur_ slain by Theseus had the body of a man and the head of a\nbull.\n\n\nGriffin or Gryphon\n\nThe griffin, gryfin, or gryphon, as it is variously termed by old writers,\nis best known as one of the chimerical monsters of heraldry--the medi\u00e6val\nrepresentative of the ancient symbolic creature of Assyria and the East.\nIt may be classed with the dragon, wyvern, ph\u0153nix, sphynx, \"gorgons and\nhydras and chimeras dire,\" and other imaginary beings, that world of\nunreality grown up in the mind of man from the earliest times, the\ninfluence of whose terrors have exercised no little power in the progress\nof humanity.\n\n[Illustration: A Griffin statant, wings endorsed.]\n\nThis favourite bearing was very early adopted in English armory. So early\nindeed as 1167 A.D. we find it on a seal of Richard de Redvers, Earl of\nExeter, attached to a charter at Newport, Isle of Wight. It also appears\non a seal of Simon de Montacute (_temp._ Henry III. and Edward I.). It is\none of the principal bearings in heraldry, either charged upon the shield,\nas the arms, or as the crest placed upon the helm, also as supporters to\nthe shield of arms of many noble and eminent families in this country and\nthe continent.\n\nThe _griffin_, \"sacred to the sun,\" combines the bodily attributes of the\n\"cloud-cleaving eagle\" and the \"king of beasts,\" that is, it has the head,\nneck, wings, and talons of an eagle, conjoined to the hinder parts of a\nlion. It is usually represented with projecting ears, indicating an acute\nsense of hearing, in addition to its other supposed extraordinary\nqualities.\n\n[Illustration: A Griffin passant, wings raised. (Early English.)]\n\n[Illustration: A Griffin segreant, wings displayed. (German.)]\n\nThe griffin is rarely borne in other than two positions, viz., _passant_\nand _segreant_. The latter term is peculiar to the griffin, and seems to\nrefer to the expanded wings. When called _segreant_ only, it means the\nsame as rampant applied to a lion. As a crest, it is not unfrequently\nborne _sejant_, _i.e._, sitting. Parts of the creature, as a\n_demi-griffin_, a _griffin's head_, &c., are also of common use.\n\nThe arms of _Trafford_, Lancashire, are: _Argent a griffin segreant\ngules_. Motto: _Gripe griffin hold fast_. The supporters of the arms of\nViscount Halifax are two griffins.\n\n[Illustration: Sleeping Griffin, by John Tenniel, from \"Alice in\nWonderland.\" (By permission of Macmillan & Co., Limited, proprietors of\nthe copyright.)]\n\nOld heralds gravely relate of this creature that when he attains his full\ngrowth he will never be taken, hence he is a fit emblem of a valiant hero,\nwho, rather than yield himself to his enemy, exposes himself to the worst\nof dangers. As a general symbol in heraldry the griffin expresses strength\nand vigilance.\n\nSir Thomas Browne says it is emblematical of watchfulness, courage,\nperseverance and rapidity of execution.\n\nThe description of the griffin by the old traveller, Sir John Mandeville,\nis a wonderful record of credulity and belief in the marvellous; he states\nit to be a native of \"Bacharie, where ben many griffones, more plentee\nthan in any other countree. Sum men seyn that they have the body upwards\nof an egle and benethe as a lyonn, and truly they seyne soethe that thei\nben of that schapp. But one griffoun hath the body more great and stronger\nthan one hundred egles, such as we have amonges us. For one griffoun there\nwill be flynge to his nest a great hors, or two oxen yoked togidre, as\nthei gon to the plowghe. For he hath his talouns so longe and so grete and\nlarge upon his feet as though thei were hornes of grete oxen, or of bugles\n(bulls), or of kygn, so that men maken cuppes of hem to drynke of, and of\nhire (their) ribbes and of the pennes of hire wenges men maken bowes fulle\nstronge to schote with arrews and quarell.\" Gerard Leigh, an old heraldic\nwriter, discoursing of the griffin, gives his reason for belief, he says,\n\"I thinke they are of a great hugeness, for I have _a clawe_ of one of\ntheir pawes, whiche should shewe them to be as bigge as two lyons.\"\n\n[Illustration: Griffin segreant, German version.]\n\nIn the cathedral of Brunswick there is still preserved the horn of some\nkind of antelope, brought from the Holy Land as \"a griffin's claw,\" by\nHenry the Lion. Three talons of the griffin were preserved at Bayeux, and\nfastened on high festival days to the altar, and there seems to be some\ncurious legend concerning a cup formed of a gryphon's claw dedicated to\nSt. Cuthbert A gryphon's egg was also considered a valuable curiosity,\nbeing used as a goblet in old times when natural history was greatly\nmisunderstood and grossly exaggerated. As an example of the absurd\nmisstatements of the earlier writers and naturalists who so delighted our\nwonder-loving forefathers, a writer in the \"Museum of Animated Nature\"\nrefers to a large species of vulture, the Condor (_Sarcoramphus Gryphus_),\nwhich was painted as rivalling the Rukh of Oriental fable. He adds that\n\"such descriptions have given place to the moderate details of\nsober-minded observers, and we no longer look upon this creature as the\nwinged guardian of mountain mines within whose depths were entombed 'gems\nand barbaric gold,' we no longer imagine it the giant of the winged race,\ndimming the light of the sun by its widespread pinions, and by the mighty\nrushing sound as it sweeps down from some lofty pinnacle or the upper\nregions of the sky deafening and stupefying the terror-stricken\nbeholders.\"\n\nAs the stern avenger of human crimes, the dreaded Nemesis appears in Roman\nArt, as a young woman with wings, in a chariot drawn by griffins, with a\nwhip or sword in her hand.[12]\n\nSmith's \"Classical Dictionary\" gives the following: \"Gryps or gryphus, a\nfabulous monster dwelling in the Rhiph\u00e6an mountains between the\nHyperboreans and the one-eyed Arimaspians, and guarding the treasures of\nthe north. The Arimaspians mounted on horseback attempted to steal the\ngold, and hence arose the hostility between the horse and the griffin. The\nbody of the griffin was that of a lion, while the head, fore-feet and\nwings were those of an eagle. It is probable that the origin of the belief\nin griffins must be looked for in the East, where it seems they have been\nvery ancient. They are also mentioned among the fabulous beasts which\nguarded the gold of India.\"\n\nThe Arimaspians were a one-eyed people of Scythia who adorned their hair\nwith gold. They were constantly at war with the Gryphons who guarded the\ngold mines.\n\n  \"As when a gryphon, through the wilderness ...\n  Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth\n  Had from his wakeful custody purloined\n  The guarded gold.\"\n                              _Paradise Lost_, ii.\n\n[Illustration: Gold Flying Griffin, found by Dr. Schliemann at Mycen\u00e6.]\n\nThat the form of the griffin must have been a well understood symbol is\nevident from the frequency with which it is met in ancient art. Dr.\nSchliemann, in his explorations of the ancient city of Mycen\u00e6, among other\ntreasures found a gold-winged griffin, about two inches in length, in one\nof the sepulchres of the kings (Figure No. 272 in his book), which in\nevery particular as to shape is identical with the heraldic griffin of\nto-day; the same may be said of a coin of Abdera, a city in Thrace, which\nbears the device of a griffin. Abdera was a place of importance when\nXerxes invaded Greece B.C. 554.\n\nHerodotus relates that the Teians, dreading the encroachments of the\nPersians in Ionia, abandoned their city and founded Abdera in Thrace. The\ncoinage of the latter place bears the same type (the griffin) as the\nparent city, but with a slight difference in treatment. This consists in\nthe form of the wings of the griffin, which are pointed on the coins of\nAbdera, while in those of Teos they are rounded. The griffin was sacred to\nApollo, to whom an especial worship was devoted in most of the Ionian\ncities, but more particularly in Teos.[13]\n\n[Illustration: Colossal Griffins, Burmah.]\n\nIn the _Illustrated London News_ of October 21, 1876, is an engraving of\ntwo gigantic wingless griffons, and also a description by the traveller\nwho visited that strange place. \"At Thyetmo, 250 miles up the river\nIrrawaddy from Rangoon in British Burmah, are two colossal 'chin thay' or\nfigures of sacred griffins, standing at the entrance to one of the great\npagodas dedicated to the worship of Gautama Buddha; the outer terraces and\nsteps of these temples are frequently adorned with such mythical monsters.\nNear the ancient ruined city of Paghan, which flourished a thousand years\nago, the bank of the river for a length of eight miles is lined with the\nremains of this quaint architecture and sculpture, covering a space of two\nmiles in breadth from the water's edge. It is not known by what nation of\nold times they were constructed, for Burmese history is apocryphal or at\nleast very obscure.\"\n\nThe symbolic use of images of living creatures was in the instance of the\ncherubim permitted under the Mosaic dispensation, and on this will be\nfound to turn the distinction between the symbolic use and its forbidden\nand dangerous use as a supposed means of assisting devotion. Mr. Henry\nHayman in \"Smith's Dictionary,\" _s.v._, \"cherub,\" as quoted by Tyrwhit,\nsays: \"On the whole it seems likely that the word 'cherub' meant not only\nthe composite creature-form of which the man, lion, ox, and eagle were the\nelements, but further, some peculiar and mystical form which Ezekiel,\nbeing a priest, would know and recognise as 'the face of a cherub,' \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4'\n\u03b5\u03be\u03bf\u03c7\u03ae\u03bd, but which was kept secret from all others.... Such were probably\nthose on the ark, which when moved was always covered, though those on the\nhangings and panels might be of the popular device. The griffin of\nnorthern fable, watching the gold in the wilderness, has been compared\nwith the cherub both as regards his composite form and his functions as\nguardian of a treasure. He goes on to point out the possible affinity\nbetween the Greek root \u03b3\u03c1\u03c5\u03c0 (\u03b3\u03c1\u03c5\u03c8, gryps, griffin), and the Hebrew and\nArabic derivation of the word 'cherub,' which gives it the original\nmeaning of 'carved image,' and says that though the exact form is\nuncertain, it must have borne a general resemblance to the composite\nreligious figures found upon the monuments of Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia\nand Persia.\"\n\nMr. Ruskin,[14] describing the emblematical griffins on the front of the\nDuomo of Verona, points out that the Lombard carver was enabled to form so\nintense a conception, mainly by the fact that his griffin is a great and\nprofoundly felt symbolism. Two wheels are under its eagle's wings, which\nconnect it with the living creatures of the vision of Ezekiel, \"where they\nwent the wheels went by them, and whithersoever the spirit was to go, they\nwent, and the wheels were lifted up over against them, for the spirit of\nthe living creatures was in the wheels.\" The winged shape thus became at\nonce one of the acknowledged symbols of the divine nature. Elsewhere, we\nthink in the \"Stones of Venice,\" the connection is pointed out between the\nAssyrian and Gothic personations.\n\nGian-Paolo Baglione (+ 1520), who usurped the sovereignty of Perugia,\nbore a _silver griffin_ on a red field with the motto, \"_Unguibus et\nrostro atque alis armatus in hostem_\" (\"Armed against the enemy with\ntalons and beak and wings\"), which means of defence proved of no avail\nwhen he was seized by Pope Leo X., who, pretending to consult Baglione on\naffairs of importance, sent him a safe conduct to Rome, but when he\narrived, he caused him to be tortured and beheaded, and afterwards took\npossession of his states. This gave occasion to his enemies to say, \"This\nugly bird has not used his wings as at other times, to flee from the snare\nwhich has been laid for him.\"[15]\n\nIn Dante's description of the triumph of the Church, in the \"Purgatorio,\"\nwe have the medi\u00e6val conception of this wondrous creature, the gryphon.\n\"The mystic shape that joins two natures in one form\"--as he is called by\nthe noble Italian poet--draws the car to which he is harnessed, and\n\n                               \"He above\n  Stretched either wing uplifted 'tween the midst\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  And out of sight they rode. The members, far\n  As he was bird, were golden; white the rest,\n  With vermeil interveined.\"\n\nAnd when the eyes of Beatrice\n\n                                     \"stood\n  Still, fix'd toward the gryphon, motionless.\n  As the sun strikes a mirror, even thus\n  Within those orbs the twyfold being shone;\n  For ever varying, in one figure now\n    Reflected, now in other. Reader! muse\n  How wondrous in my sight it seem'd, to mark\n  A thing, albeit steadfast in itself,\n  Yet in its imaged semblance mutable.\"\n                    Cary's Dante, _Purgatory_, c. xxix.\n\n\"Some commentators of Dante,\" says M. Dideron,[16] \"have supposed the\ngriffin to be the emblem of Christ, who, in fact, is one single person\nwith two natures; of Christ in whom God and man are combined. But in\nthis,\" says M. Dideron, \"they are mistaken. There is, in the first place,\na manifest impropriety in describing the car as drawn by God as a beast of\nburden.\" \"Commentators,\" it is added, \"have been misled by the two-fold\nnature of the gryphon, but that difficulty is removed by recollecting that\nthe Pope resembles the eagle in his spiritual character, and in his\ntemporal authority the lion. The Pope is one person, but of two natures\nand two distinct forms. Thus considered the allegory of Dante becomes\nclear and intelligible.\"\n\nThe gryphon is very frequently seen sculptured in Gothic churches, more\nespecially in those of the Lombard and early Norman style, and is\nevidently intended to refer to the union of the divine and human natures.\n\nA curious example of this compound form of bird and beast occurs on an\nItalian bronze medal of the fifteenth century, about 3-1/2 in. in diameter\n(No. 57.51 in the fine collection in South Kensington Museum). On one side\nit bears a portrait of Niccolo Picininus of Perugia, a celebrated\nmercenary soldier--and on the reverse a griffin, the eagle's head, wings,\nand feet united to the Roman she-wolf, with Romulus and Remus suckling.\nDante's emblem of the Popedom is here apparently adapted to the peculiarly\nRoman national symbol--the nursing mother of nations and the Catholic\nreligion.\n\n[Illustration: Carved panel, a Griffin segreant.]\n\n\nThe Male Griffin\n\nThe griffin is sometimes borne sans wings and termed a _male griffin_, as\nin the supporters to the arms of the Marquis of Ormond, but spikes or\nrays proceed from various parts of its body; sometimes it has two long\nstraight horns.\n\n\nOther Varieties of the Griffin\n\nTwo other varieties of the griffin family, the \"_Hippogriff_\" and the\n\"_Simoorgh_\" appear in the highly wrought imaginings of the poets, and may\nhere be very briefly alluded to. They do not, however, appear in British\nHeraldry.\n\n[Illustration: Male Griffin.]\n\nHIPPOGRYPH, or HIPPOGRIF, the winged horse whose father was a griffin and\nmother a filly (Greek, _hippos_, a horse, and _gryps_, a griffin)--a\nsymbol of love.[17]\n\nSIMOORGH, a sort of griffin or hippogryph, which took some of its breast\nfeathers for Tahmura's helmet. This creature forms a very striking figure\nin the epic poems of Saadi and Ferdusi, the Persian poets.\n\nMilton also makes allusion to this mythical creature:\n\n  \"So saying he caught him up, and without wing\n  Of hippogrif, bore through the air sublime\n  Over the wilderness and o'er the plain.\"\n                            _Paradise Regained_, iv.\n\n\n[Illustration: Opinicus statant.]\n\nThe Opinicus, or Epimacus\n\nThis creature appears to be a variety of the griffin family. Authorities\nblazon it as having its body and four legs like those of a lion; the head\nand neck and wings like an eagle, and the short tail of a camel, sometimes\nborne sans wings.\n\nSuch a monster with wings endorsed or, was the crest of the _Barber\nSurgeons of London_.\n\n_Two opinici vert, purfled or, beaked sable, wings gules_, support the\ninsignia of the _Plasterers' Company_.\n\n\n[Illustration: Egyptian Sphynx.]\n\nThe Sphynx\n\n  \"_That monster whom the Theban knight\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  Made kill herself for very heart's despite\n  That he had read her riddle, which no wight\n  Could ever loose, but suffered deadly doole._\"\n                SPENSER'S \"Faerie Queen,\" Bk. v. cxi.\n\nAccording to some heraldic writers, the sphynx should possess the head and\nbust of a woman, the paws of a lion, the body of a dog, and the tail of a\ndragon. In Lord Chancellor Bacon's book on \"The Wisdom of the Ancients,\"\nthere is an exposition of the meaning of the sphynx, which, says Dr.\nWoodward, is as curious as the creature itself.\n\nIt frequently figures in heraldry as a convenient hieroglyph to\ncommemorate some service in Egypt. It is the crest of British families of\n_Asgill_, Baronets _Lambert_, _Goatley_, &c., and appears in the arms of\n_Sir John Moore_, the hero of Corunna.\n\n[Illustration: Theban, or Greek Sphynx.]\n\nThe strange combination of human and animal features in the figure known\nas the sphynx is of frequent occurrence in both Greek and Egyptian\nmythology and art. The Egyptian sphynx is supposed to represent the\ncombination of physical power, or the kings, as incarnations of such\nattributes. They are also associated with the special forms and attributes\nof the great Egyptian deities Osiris and Ammon, Neph or Jupiter, and Phreh\nor Helios. That is, we have the _man-sphynx_, the _ram-sphynx_, and the\n_hawk-sphynx_, or the lion's body with the head of the man, the ram, or\nthe hawk, according to the deity worshipped. The sphynx itself was\nprobably a religious symbol of the Egyptians, which was transferred to\nGreece, and subsequently underwent a change of meaning. Among the\nEgyptians the sphynx seems to have been a symbol of Royal dignity\nbetokening a combination of wisdom and strength. By the Greeks, however,\nit appears to have been regarded as the symbol of the burning\npestilence-breeding heat of the summer sun. The form of the Theban sphynx\nwas that of a lion, generally in a recumbent position, with the breast and\nupper part of a beautiful woman, and was in imitation of the original male\nsphynxes of Egypt. Greek Art was only acquainted with the sphynx in its\nfemale form, and also departed from the Egyptian type by adding wings to\nthe lion's body.\n\n\"There is a great difference,\" says Sir Gardiner Wilkinson in his account\nof the sphynx,[18] \"between the Greek and Egyptian sphynxes. The latter is\nhuman-headed, ram-headed, or hawk-headed, and is always male; while the\nGreek is female, with the head of a woman, and always has wings, which the\nEgyptian never has.\"\n\nIn the Greek story the monster was sent by Hera (Juno) to devastate the\nland of Thebes. Seated on a rock close to the town, she put to every one\nthat passed by the riddle, \"What walks on four legs in the morning, on two\nlegs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?\" Whoever was unable to\nsolve the riddle was cast by the sphynx from the rock into a deep abyss.\n\u0152dipus succeeded in answering it, and thus delivered the country from\nthe monster, who cast herself into the abyss.\n\nThe sphynx occurs upon a coin of Chios (B.C. 478-412). It is represented\nseated before an amphore, above which is a bunch of grapes. Chios was\nfamed for its wine, and the sphynx was a symbol of Dionysius.[19]\n\nThe Emperor Augustus, on his seal, used the device of the sphynx--\"maid's\nface, bird's wings, and lion's paws\"--\"implying,\" says Mrs. Bury Palliser\n(\"Historical Devices,\" &c.), \"that the secret intentions of a prince\nshould not be divulged. When Augustus was in Asia, he authorised Agrippa\nand Mec\u00e6nas, who administered affairs during his absence, to open and read\nthe letters he addressed to the Senate before any one else; and for this\npurpose he gave them a seal upon which was engraved a sphynx, the emblem\nof secrecy. The device gave occasion to ridicule, and to the saying that\nit was not surprising if the sphynx proposed riddles; upon which Augustus\ndiscontinued it, and adopted one with Alexander the Great, to show that\nhis ideas of dominion were not inferior to Alexander's. Subsequently\nAugustus used his own effigy, which practice was continued by his\nsuccessors.\"\n\nMaurice (\"Oriental Trinities,\" p. 315) says the sphynx was the Egyptian\nsymbol of profound theological mystery, and was therefore placed on either\nside of the _dromoi_, or paths leading to the temples of the gods. \"They\nare black,\" he says, \"in allusion to the obscure nature of the deity and\nhis attributes. The white head-dress may allude to the linen tiaras\nwrapped round the heads of the priests.\" The origin of the myth was not\ndefinitely known even to the ancients. Some early writers say it was\nsymbolical of the overflowing of the Nile, which happened when the sun was\nin the signs of Leo and Virgo; and that it had its name from this\ncircumstance. \"For,\" they say, \"the word sphynx in the Chald\u00e6an language\nsignifies overflowing.\" The fact of the Egyptian sphynx being always male\ndoes not, however, accord with this derivation.\n\nA statue of the Theban sphynx found in Colchester, and now in the museum\nof that town, gives the Greek conception of that creature. It is carved in\noolite, twenty-five inches high, evidently a relic of the Roman occupation\nof Britain. It represents the monster seated over the mangled remains of\none of its victims. Llewellin Jewett, in the _Art Journal_ 1871, p. 113,\ndescribes it as \"combining the five-fold attributes of a virgin, a lion, a\nbird, a dog, and a serpent. The head, breast and arms are those of a\nbeautiful virgin; the body and teats of a female dog; hinder parts, hind\nlegs and fore paws are those of a lioness; the tail doubled in short folds\nis serpent, and the wings those of a bird.\"\n\nThe same writer says: \"The sphynx appears on the reverses of some coins of\nCunobeline (Cymbeline, of Shakespeare), struck in the city of Camalodunum\n(Colchester).\"\n\nThe gigantic statue of the sphynx half buried in the sand near the Great\nPyramids, at Gizeh, is hewn and sculptured out of a spur of solid rock, to\nwhich masonry was added in places to complete the form. The actual age of\nthe great sphynx is not known, but it is supposed to have been commenced\nunder Cheops and finished by order of King Chefren, under whose reign also\nwas probably built the second great pyramid. The able author of \"Eothen\"\nthus describes the appearance of the sphynx of Egypt, and the sentiments\nto which its contemplation gave rise in his mind: \"And near the Pyramids,\nmore numerous and more awful than all else in the land of Egypt, there\nrests the lonely sphynx. Comely the creature is, but the comeliness is not\nof this world. The once worshipped beast is a deformity and a monster to\nthis generation, and yet you can see that these lips, so thick and heavy,\nwere fashioned according to some ancient mould of beauty--some mould of\nbeauty now forgotten--forgotten because that Greece drew forth Cyther\u00e6a\nfrom the flashing bosom of the \u00c6gean, and in her image created new forms\nof beauty, and made it a law among men that the short and proudly wreathed\nlips should stand for the sign and main condition of loveliness through\nall generations to come! Yet there still lives on the race of those who\nwere beautiful in the fashion of the elder world; and Christian girls of\nCoptic blood will look on you with sad, curious gaze, and kiss your\ncharitable hand with the big pouting lips of the very sphynx. Laugh and\nmock if you will at the worship of stone idols; but mark ye this, ye\nbreakers of images, that in one regard the stone idol bears awful\nsemblance of deity--unchangefulness in the midst of change--the same\nseeming will and intent for ever inexorable! Upon ancient dynasties of\nEthiopian and Egyptian kings--upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ottoman\nconquerors--upon Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern empire--upon battle and\npestilence--upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian race--upon keen-eyed\ntravellers--Herodotus yesterday and Warburton to-day--upon all, and more,\nthis unworldly sphynx has watched, and watched like a Providence, with the\nsame earnest eyes and the same sad, tranquil mien. And we shall die, and\nIslam shall wither away; and the Englishman, straining far over to hold\nhis loved India, will plant a firm foot on the banks of the Nile, and sit\non the seats of the faithful; and still that sleepless rock will lie\nwatching and earnest the work of the new busy race with those same sad\neyes and the same tranquil mien everlasting. You dare not mock at the\nsphynx.\" The conclusion of this rhapsody at the present time sounds almost\nlike a half-fulfilled prophecy.\n\nThe sphynx is the special device of several British regiments which landed\nin Egypt, in the Bay of Aboukir, in the face of the French Army; and\nborne as a memento of the battle of Alexandria, when General Sir Ralph\nAbercrombie fell in the moment of victory. It also appears upon the war\nmedals of the English occupation of Egypt, resulting in the battle of\nTel-el-Kebir, 1882, and subsequent victories. In heraldry the sphynx is\nusually couchant; it is, however, borne in other positions, sometimes\nwinged, and when so borne the wings are always endorsed, _i.e._, back to\nback.\n\n_A sphynx passant, wings endorsed argent crined or_, is the crest of\nAsgill (Bart. 1701).\n\n[Illustration: A Sphynx passant guardant, wings endorsed.]\n\n\n[Illustration: The Ph\u0153nix.]\n\nThe Ph\u0153nix Bird of the Sun\n\n  \"_Rara avis in terris._\"\n\nAn imaginary bird, described by ancient writers as in form like an eagle,\nbut more beautiful in its plumage. Among the ancient classical writers it\nwas an emblem of those existing in paradise, enjoying eternal youth and\nnever-ending pleasure. Tacitus describes the ph\u0153nix as a singular bird,\nconsecrated to the sun, and distinguished by its rich appearance and\nvariegated colours. Herodotus na\u00efvely says: \"I never saw one, indeed, but\nin a picture, but if he is like his picture his plumage is partly golden\nand partly red.\" Philippe de Thaun says: \"The ph\u0153nix lives five hundred\nyears and a little more, when it will become young again and leave its old\nage.\" It was said to be sometimes seen in Egypt, and only one was believed\nto exist at a time. When it is advanced in age and its time of change is\nat hand, it hides itself away somewhere in Arabia, and makes itself a nest\nof the rarest spices, which, by the heat of the sun or other secret\nagency, and the fanning of the sacred bird's own wings, soon rises into\nflames and consumes it. Out of its ashes rises another with new life and\nvigour to pursue the same never-ending life and re-birth.\n\n_Fum_ or _Fung_ (the ph\u0153nix) is one of the four symbolical animals\nsupposed to preside over the destinies of the Chinese Empire; the sacred\n_Ho-ho_ or ph\u0153nix also figures with the dragon largely in Japanese\nmythology, and bears a striking analogy to the bird of classic fame. It is\nfabled to have a miraculous existence, and is sent on earth for the\nperformance of extraordinary works in the manifestation of the Divinity\nand in the development of humanity and nature. It appears at different\nstages of the world's progress and in successive ages; after the\naccomplishment of which it reascends to heaven to come down again at the\ncommencement of a new era.\n\nFrom the pagans the Early Christians adopted the symbol, and with them\nits significance had reference to the resurrection and immortality. Like\nthe pelican \"in her piety,\" it was peculiarly an emblem of our Saviour in\nHis resurrection. As the ph\u0153nix when old and wearied seeks the rays of the\nsun to consume its body, again to be revived in life and vigour, so the\nChristian, worn and exhausted by worldly labour and suffering, turns to\nthe Son of Righteousness for regeneration and newness of life. Tertullian\nmakes the ph\u0153nix an image of the resurrection.\n\nIn corroboration of this it must be borne in mind that Jesus Christ, who\ndied A.D. 34, is termed _the ph\u0153nix_ by monastic writers.\n\nThe Ph\u0153nix period or cycle is said to consist of 300 years. \"The bird\nof wonder\" is said to have appeared in Egypt five times:\n\n    1. In the reign of Sesostris, B.C. 866.\n\n    2. In the reign of Amasis, B.C. 566.\n\n    3. In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 266.\n\n    4. In the reign of Tiberius, 34 A.D.\n\n    5. In the reign of Constantine, 334 A.D.\n\nTacitus in the \"_Annales_,\" vi. 28, mentions the first three of these\nappearances.\n\nThe _Ph\u0153nix-tree_ is the palm. In Greek \u03c6\u03bf\u03af\u03bd\u03b9\u03be (_phoinix_) means both\nph\u0153nix and palm-tree. It is thus alluded to in Shakespeare:\n\n  \"Now will I believe ... that in Arabia\n  There is one tree, the ph\u0153nix throne--one ph\u0153nix\n    At this hour reigneth there.\"\n                    _The Tempest_, Act iii. sc. 3.\n\nPliny[20] gives minute particulars concerning the natural history of this\n_rara avis in terris_. But the ancient fable is most fully given by Ovid\nand translated by Dryden. Ariosto, also, and many early writers refer to\nthe wonderful creature with fullest faith in its reality. It is no wonder\nthen, that it became a favourite emblem in an age when it was the fashion\namong persons of distinction to have an impress or device with its\naccompanying legend or motto. Many persons of historical importance\nemployed the ph\u0153nix to express in metaphor the idea they wished to convey\nregarding themselves. Thus we find the ph\u0153nix in flames painted for the\ndevice of Jeanne d'Arc, in the Gallery of the Palais Royal, with the\nmotto: \"Invito funere vivat\" (\"Her death itself will make her live\").\n\nVittoria Colonna (+ 1547) the beautiful and accomplished wife of the\nMarquis of Pescara, used the device of a ph\u0153nix on her medal.\n\nMary Queen of Scots used the impress of her mother, Mary of Lorraine, a\nph\u0153nix in flames, and the motto: \"En ma fin est mon commencement.\" A\nph\u0153nix in flames upon a castle was the badge of Queen Jane Seymour, the\ncrest of the Seymours being a ph\u0153nix in flames issuing from a ducal\ncoronet. Her son, Edward VI., added the motto, \"Nascatur ut alter\" (\"That\nanother may be born\"), alluding to the nature of her death. She lies\nburied in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, with a Latin epitaph by Bishop\nGodwin, which has been thus translated by his son Morgan:\n\n  \"Here a ph\u0153nix lieth, whose death\n  To another ph\u0153nix gave birth.\n  It is to be lamented much\n  The world at once ne'er knew two such.\"\n\nQueen Elizabeth placed a ph\u0153nix upon her medals and tokens with her\nfavourite motto: \"Semper eadem\" (\"Always the same\"), and sometimes with\nthe motto \"Sola ph\u0153nix omnis mundi\" (\"The sole ph\u0153nix of the whole\nworld\"); and on the other side, \"Et Angli\u00e6 gloria\" (\"And the glory of\nEngland\"), with her portrait full-faced. By the poets of the time,\nElizabeth was often compared to the ph\u0153nix. Sylvester, in his \"Corona\nDedicatoria,\" says:\n\n  \"As when the Arabian (only) bird doth burne\n  Her aged bodie in sweet flames to death,\n  Out of her cinders a new bird hath birth,\n  On whom the beauties of the first return;\n  From spicy ashes of the sacred urne\n  Of our dead ph\u0153nix (deare Elizabeth)\n  A new true ph\u0153nix lively flourisheth.\"\n\nAnd Shakespeare, in the prophecy which he puts into the mouth of Cranmer\nat the baptism of the Princess Elizabeth, her great and glorious reign is\nforeshadowed, and finally:\n\n                       \"... as when\n  The bird of wonder dies, the maiden ph\u0153nix,\n  Her ashes new create another heir,\n  As great in admiration as herself.\"\n\nShakespeare elsewhere uses the simile to denote a ph\u0153nix among women--a\nph\u0153nix, a paragon, unique, because alone of its kind:\n\n  \"If she be furnished with a mind so rare,\n  She is alone the Arabian bird.\"\n                    _Cymbeline_, Act i. sc. 7.\n\nMany other heraldic mottoes have been associated with this celebrated\ndevice. The following are from \"Historic Devices, Badges,\" &c., by Mrs.\nBury Palliser:\n\n    Eleanor, Queen of Francis I. of Austria: \"Non est similis illi\"\n    (\"There is none like her\"). She afterwards changed her motto, either\n    showing how much she was neglected, or to express her determination to\n    remain single: \"Unica semper avis\" (\"Always a solitary bird\").\n\n    Bona of Savoy: \"Sola facta solum deum sequor.\"\n\n    Cardinal Trent: \"Ut vivat\" (\"That it may live\").\n\n    Linacre: \"Vivat post funera virtus\" (\"Virtue survives death\").\n\n    \"De mi muerte ma vida\" (\"From my death my life\").\n\n    \"De mort \u00e0 vie\" (\"From death to life\").\n\n    \"Et morte vitam protulit\" (\"And by death has prolonged his life\").\n\n    \"Ex morte, immortalitas\" (\"Out of death, immortality\").\n\n    \"Murio y nacio\" (\"I die and am born\").\n\n    \"Ne pereat\" (\"That it should not perish\").\n\n    \"O mors, ero mors tua\" (\"O death, I shall be thy death\").\n\n    \"Se necat ut vivat\" (\"Slays himself that he may live\").\n\n    \"Trouva sol nei tormenti il suo gioire\" (\"It finds alone its joy in\n    its suffering\").\n\n    \"Vivre pour mourir, mourir pour vivre\" (\"Live to die, die to live\").\n\n    \"Uror, morior, orior\" (\"I am burnt, I die, I arise\").\n\nThe ph\u0153nix in heraldry is never represented in other than in one position,\n_rising from flames_, that is, with expanded wings and enveloped in flames\nof fire in which it is being consumed. It is usually represented exactly\nas an eagle in shape, but may be of any of the heraldic tinctures.\n\nThe ph\u0153nix is of frequent use in heraldry, and borne by many families in\nthe United Kingdom. A ph\u0153nix issuing from a ducal coronet is the crest of\nthe Duke of Somerset.\n\nLinacre, founder of the College of Physicians, and honorary physician to\nfour sovereigns has on his tomb in Westminster Abbey the device of the\nph\u0153nix, with the motto, \"Vivat post funera virtus\" (\"Virtue survives\ndeath\").\n\nFrom the association of this fabulous bird with alchemy, Paracelsus wrote\nconcerning it, and several alchemists employed it to symbolise their\nvocation. It was adopted by the Apothecaries' Company as crest, and is a\nfrequent sign over chemists' shops.\n\n_A ph\u0153nix in flames proper, gorged with a mural coronet_, is the\nallusive crest of the Fenwicks; the motto over the crest is the _cri de\nguerre_, \"A Fenwick! a Fenwick!\" They were a family noted in border\nwarfare. \"The house of Percy,\" says Mrs. Bury Palliser, \"ever ranked the\nFenwicks among the most valiant of its retainers, and in border warfare\nthe banner of the gorged ph\u0153nix in the burning flame always appeared\nwith that of the silver crescent of the Percys.\"\n\nThe bird of paradise is interesting as having for a time been accepted as\nthe veritable ph\u0153nix, a fact which has escaped Gibbon. That luxurious\nEmperor, Heliogabalus, having eaten, as he thought, of every known\ndelicacy, bethought him one day of the fabled ph\u0153nix. What mattered it\nthat only one bird existed at a time; _that one_, the imperial gourmand\nmust have, and was inconsolable that he had not thought of it before. The\nzeal of proconsuls was equal to the great occasion, and from all parts of\nthe earth came strange and wondrous birds, each affirmed with confidence\nto be \"the sacred solitary bird, that knows no second, knows no third.\"\nThe cankerworm of doubt remains! At last, one day there was brought to\nRome from the far islands of the Eastern seas a bird, the like of which\nfor the glory of its plumage had never been seen out of paradise, the\nveritable ph\u0153nix, \"Bird of the Sun!\" The sight of the magnificent\ncreature carried conviction with it. Heliogabalus ate in faith, and went\nto his fathers contented.\n\n\n[Illustration: A Harpy, wings disclosed.]\n\nThe Harpy\n\n  \"_Of monsters all, most monstrous this; no greater wrath\n  God sends 'mongst men; it comes from depth of pitchy hell:\n  And virgin's face, but womb like gulf unsatiate hath,\n  Her hands are griping claws, her colour pale and fell._\"\n                                                 VIRGIL.\n\n\n  \"_Thou art like the harpy,\n  Which to betray, doth wear an angel's face,\n  Seize with an eagle's talons._\"\n             \"Pericles Prince of Tyre,\" Act iv. sc. 4.\n\nA poetical monstrosity of classical origin, described as \"winged creatures\nhaving the head and breasts of a woman, and the body and limbs of a\nvulture; very fierce and loathsome, living in an atmosphere of filth and\nstench, and contaminating anything which they come near. Pale and\nemaciated, they were continually tormented with insatiable hunger.\" They\nare best known from the story of the Argonauts, where they appear as the\ntormentors of the blind king Phineus, whose table they robbed of its\nviands, which they either devoured or spoiled. They were regarded by the\nancients as ministers of sudden death.\n\n[Illustration: The Harpy, Greek sculpture.]\n\nIn Miss Millington's admirable book, \"Heraldry in History, Poetry and\nRomance,\" it is stated that unlike the generality of such mythical beings,\nthe harpies appear originally, as in Homer's \"Odyssey,\" as persons instead\nof personations; while later authors for the most part reduced them to\nwhirlwinds and whirlpools. Homer mentions but one harpy. Hesiod gives two,\nlater writers three. The names indicate that these monsters were\nimpersonations of whirlwinds and storms. The names were: _Ocypeta_\n(rapid), _Celeno_ (blackness), _Aello_ (storm).\n\n  \"I will ... do any embassage ... rather than\n  Hold three words' conference with this harpy.\"\n              _Much Ado About Nothing_, Act ii. sc. 1.\n\n\n  \"Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou\n  Performed, my Ariel; a grace it had devouring.\"\n                            _Tempest_, Act iii. sc. 3.\n\n[Illustration: A Harpy displayed and crowned. German version.]\n\n_Azure, a harpy with her wings disclosed, her hair flotant, or, armed of\nthe same._ This coat existed in Huntingdon Church in Guillam's time.\n\nThe arms of the City of Nuremberg are: _azure, a harpy displayed armed,\ncrined and crowned, or_. It occurs as the city device as early as 1243. In\nGerman heraldry it is termed _jungfraundler_.\n\n[Illustration: Shield of N\u00fcremberg.]\n\nA creature very similar to the harpy (a combination of several badges),\nwas one of the favourite devices of Richard III., viz., a falcon with the\nhead of a maiden holding the white rose of York.\n\n\nThe Heraldic Pelican\n\n      \"_Then sayd the pellycane\n      When my byrats be slayne\n  With my bloude I them reuyue (revive)\n      Scrypture doth record,\n      The same dyd our Lord,\n  And rose from deth to lyue._\"\n                     SKELTON, \"Armory of Birds.\"\n\n[Illustration: A Pelican in her piety, wings displayed.]\n\nThe character ascribed to the pelican is nearly as fabulous as that of the\nph\u0153nix. From a clumsy, gluttonous, piscivorous water-bird, it was by the\ngrowth of legends transformed into a mystic emblem of Christ, whom Dante\nterms \"Nostro Pelicano.\" St. Hieronymus gives the story of the pelican\nrestoring its young ones destroyed by serpents as an illustration of the\ndestruction of man by the old Serpent, and his salvation by the blood of\nChrist.\n\nThe Pelican in Christian Art is an emblem of Jesus Christ, by \"whose blood\nwe are healed.\" It is also a symbol of charity.\n\nThe \"Bestiarum\" says that Physiologus tells us that the pelican is very\nfond of its brood, but when the young ones begin to grow they rebel\nagainst the male bird and provoke his anger, so that he kills them; the\nmother returns to the nest in three days, sits on the dead birds, pours\nher blood over them, and they feed on the blood.\n\n[Illustration: Heraldic Pelican in her piety.]\n\nHeralds usually represent this bird with wings endorsed and neck embowed,\nwounding her breast with her beak. Very many early painters mistakenly\nrepresented it similar to an eagle, and not as a natural pelican, which\nhas an enormous bag attached to the lower mandible, and extending almost\nfrom the point of the bill to the throat. When in her nest feeding her\nyoung with her blood, she is said to be IN HER PIETY.\n\nThe Romans called filial love piety, hence Virgil's hero is called the\n\"pious \u00c6neas,\" because he rescued his father from the flames of Troy.\n\n[Illustration: Crest, a Pelican vulning herself proper, wings endorsed.]\n\nThe myth that pelicans feed their young with their blood arose from the\nfollowing habit, on which the whole superstructure of fable has been\nerected: They have a large bag attached to their under-bill. When the\nparent bird is about to feed its brood, it macerates small fish in this\nbag or pouch; then, pressing the bag against its breast, transfers the\nmacerated food to the mouths of the young ones.\n\nThe pelican in her piety is not an uncommon symbol upon monumental\nbrasses. That of William Prestwick, Dean of Hastings, in Warbleton Church,\nSussex, has it with the explanatory motto: \"Sic Xtus dilexit nos.\"\n\nEXAMPLES.--_Gules, a pelican in her piety, or._--_Chauntrell._\n\n_Azure, three pelicans argent, vulning themselves proper._--_Pelham_,\n_Somerset_, &c.\n\nA pelican's head erased, or otherwise detached from the body, must always\nbe drawn in the same position and vulning itself. It should always be\nseparated as low as the upper part of the breast.\n\nIt is said naturalists of old, observing that the pelican had a crimson\nstain on the tip of its beak, reported that it was accustomed to feed its\nyoung with the blood flowing from its breast, which it tore for the\npurpose. In this belief the Early Christians adopted the pelican to figure\nChrist, and set forth the redemption through His blood, which was\nwillingly shed for us His children.\n\nALPHONSO THE WISE, King of Castile (+ 1252). A pelican in its piety.\nMotto: \"Pro lege et grege.\"\n\nWILLIAM OF NASSAU, founder of the Republic of the United Provinces, one of\nthe noblest characters of modern history. He bore on some of his\nstandards the pelican, and on others the motto: \"Pro lege, grege et rege.\"\n\nPOPE CLEMENT IX. One of his devices was the pelican in its piety. Motto:\n\"Aliis non sibi clemens\" (\"Tender-hearted to others, not himself\").\n\n[Illustration: The natural Pelican.]\n\nOther mottoes for the pelican:\n\n    \"Ut vitam habeant\" (\"That they may have life\").\n\n    \"Immemor ipse sui\" (\"Unmindful herself of herself\").\n\n    \"Mortuos vivificat\" (\"Makes the dead live\").\n\n    \"Nec sibi parcit\" (\"Nor spares herself\").\n\n\nThe Martlet\n\n        \"_The guest of summer,\n  The temple-haunting martlet._\"\n                                 \"Macbeth.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Martlet (_Merlette_ or _Merlot_, French; _Merula_, Latin). The\nhouse-marten or swallow is a favourite device in heraldry all over Europe,\nand has assumed a somewhat unreal character from the circumstance that it\ncatches its food on the wing and never appears to alight on the ground as\nother birds do. It builds its nest frequently under the eaves of houses,\nfrom whence it can take flight readily, rarely alighting, as it gains its\nfood while on the wing; the length of its wings and the shortness of its\nlegs preventing it from rising should it rest on the ground.\n\n                            \"No jutty friese,\n  Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird\n  Hath made his pendant bed, and procreant cradle.\"\n                                _Macbeth_, Act i. sc. 6.\n\nIt is depicted in armory with wings close, and in profile, with thighs,\nbut with no visible legs or feet.\n\nThe martlet is the appropriate \"difference\" or mark of cadency for the\nfourth son. Sylvanus Morgan says: \"It modernly used to signify, as that\nbird seldom lights on land, so younger brothers have little land to rest\non but the wings of their own endeavours, who, like the swallows, become\nthe travellers in their seasons.\"\n\nThe swallow (_hirondelle_) is the punning cognisance for Arundell. The\nseal of the town of Arundel is a swallow, Baron Arundell of Wardour bears\nsix swallows for his arms. The great Arundells have as motto, \"De\nHirundine\" (\"Concerning the swallow\"), and \"Nulli pr\u00e6da\" (\"A prey to\nnone\"). A Latin poem of the twelfth century is thus rendered:\n\n  \"Swift as the swallow, whence his arms' device\n  And his own arms are took, enraged he flies\n  Thro' gazing troops, the wonder of the field,\n  And strikes his lance in William's glittering shield.\"\n\n\"We find it in Glovers' roll,\" says Planch\u00e9, \"borne by Roger de Merley,\nclearly as 'armes parlantes,' although in a border.\" Roger de Merley:\n\"_bar\u00e9e d'argent et de goulz \u00e0 la bordure d'azur, et merlots d'or en le\nbordure_\"; showing it was some difference of a family coat.\n\n\nThe Alerion\n\nis a heraldic bird, represented as an eaglet displayed, but without beak\nor claws. Some writers confound it with the martlet, stating that the\nalerion is the same bird with its wings displayed or extended. They are\nfirst found in the arms of Lorraine, which are blazoned _or, on a bend\ngules, three Alerions argent_, and are said to be assumed in commemoration\nof an extraordinary shot made by Godfrey de Boulogne, \"who at one draught\nof his bow, shooting against David's Tower in Jerusalem, broched three\nfeetless birds called Alerions, which the House of Lorraine, decending\nfrom his race, continued to this day.\" It is impossible, says Planch\u00e9, who\nbroached this wonderful story, but it is perfectly evident that the\nnarrator was the party who drew the longbow, and not the noble Godfrey.\n\n[Illustration: Alerion displayed.]\n\n[Illustration: Heraldic Eagle.]\n\nThe letters of the word ALERION appear to be merely an anagram formed by\nthe same letters LORAINE, and may account for the birds on the shield\n(probably eaglets) being called alerions.\n\nThe eagle displayed and the two-headed eagle are but extreme\nconventionalised representations of the natural bird.\n\n\nThe Liver (Cormorant)\n\nLiver, a fabulous bird, supposed to have given its name to Liverpool and\ncommemorated in the arms of that city. It is traditionally described as a\nbird that frequented _the pool_, near which the town was afterwards\nfounded. The arms granted in 1797 are thus blazoned: _Argent a cormorant,\nin the beak a branch of seaweed all proper_, and for crest, _on a wreath\nof the colours, a cormorant, the wings elevated, in the beak a branch of\nLaver proper_. It is more than probable that the bird on the arms\nsuggested the name \"Liver\" being applied to it. The fiction naturally\narose from the desire to find a derivation for the name of the town. It\nis, however, always depicted as a cormorant. On the shield the bird is\nalways depicted with the wings _close_, and on the crest the wings are\n_elevated_.\n\n\n[Illustration: An Heraldic Tigre passant.]\n\nThe Heraldic Tigre or Tyger\n\n  \"_A savage tygress on her helmet lies;\n  The famous badge Clorinda us'd to wear._\"\n                                 FAIRFAX'S \"Tasso.\"\n\nThe tigre or tyger of the old heralds still holds its place in English\narmory, retaining the ancient name to distinguish it from the natural\ntiger, to which it bears but little resemblance except the name. The early\nartists probably had no better authority for the strange creature they\ndepicted than the wild tales of Eastern travel and their own lively\nimaginations. The habit of drawing in a conventional manner may also have\nassisted in producing such a monster. This type of wild and ruthless\nferocity, approaching the draconic in its power and destructiveness, was\nto their minds fitly suggested by exaggerations of those attributes of\nsavageness and bloodthirstiness with which it was supposed to be endowed.\nShakespeare makes King Henry V., when urging on his \"noblest English\" and\n\"good yeomen\" to the assault at Harfleur, declare that\n\n  \"When the blast of war blows in our ears\n  Then imitate the action of the tiger;\n  Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,\n  Disguise fair Nature with hard-favoured rage.\"\n\n[Illustration: Supporter, an Heraldic Tigre, collared and lined.]\n\n\"The tyger,\" says Bossewell, \"is a beast wonderful in strength, and most\nswift in flight as it were an arrow. For the Persians call an arrow\ntygris. He is distinguished with diverse speckes; and of him the floode\nTygris tooke the name. It is said Bacchus used these beastes in his\nchariot, for their marveilous swiftness in conveying of the same.\"\n\n_The heraldic tigre_, the invention of the early heralds, is depicted as\nhaving the body similar to a wolf, but more strong and massive; powerful\njaws armed with prominent canine tusks, and with a short curved horn or\nspike at the end of his nose. A row of knotted tufts of hair adorn the\nback of his neck as a mane; tufts also on his breast and thighs, and with\nstrong claws; the tail of a lion completes his equipment. He is a most\neffective creature in a heraldic emblazonment, especially when \"_armed_\"\nand \"_tufted_\" of tinctures differing from his body.\n\nThe sinister supporter of the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava is _an heraldic\ntigre ermine, gorged with a tressure flory counter flory or_.\n\n_Gules a chevron argent, between three tigres_, &c., _of the\nsecond_.--_Butler_, Calais.\n\n_Vert, a tigre passant or, maned and tufted argent._--_Love_, Norfolk\n(granted 1663).\n\n_Or, a tigre passant gules._--_Lutwych_, Lutwich, Salop.\n\nBaron Harlech has for dexter supporter, and also for crest, _an heraldic\ntigre argent, maned and tufted sable_.\n\n_The tigre and mirror_ is an uncommon but very remarkable bearing. Amongst\nother remarkable ideas which our ancestors entertained respecting foreign\nanimals, \"some report that those who rob the tigre of her young use a\npolicy to detaine their damme from following them by casting sundry\nlooking-glasses in the way, whereat she useth to long to gaze, whether it\nbe to beholde her owne beauty or because when she seeth her shape in the\nglasse she thinketh she seeth one of her young ones; and so they escape\nthe swiftness of her pursuit.\"[21]\n\n[Illustration: Tigre and Mirror.]\n\n\"_Argent, a tigre passant regardant looking into a mirror lying fessways,\nthe handle to the dexter all proper_,\" is said to have been the coat of\nHadrian de Bardis (probably an Italian), Prebendary of Oxfordshire. These\narms still remain, or were lately remaining, in a window of Thame Church.\nOnly two other examples occur, viz.:\n\n\"_Argent a tigre and mirror_ (as before) _gules_.\"--_Sibell_, Kent.\n\n\nThe Royal Tiger\n\nNext to the lion in power is the tiger, an animal not possessed of the\nnoble qualities of the lion, being fierce without provocation, and cruel\nwithout cause. The chief difference of the tiger from every other animal\nof the mottled kind is in the shape of the spots on the skin, which run in\nstreaks or bands in the direction of the ribs. The leopard, panther and\nthe ounce are all, in a certain degree, marked like this animal, except\nthat the lines are broken by round spots, which cover the whole surface\nof the skin. The use of the _royal tiger_ in modern coats of arms is\nfrequent, and has reference to services in the East.\n\nOutram, Bart., has for supporters: _two royal Bengal tigers guardant\nproper, gorged with a wreath of laurel vert, crowned with an Eastern\ncrown_.\n\n_Note._--In a heraldic description (or blazon as it is termed) it is\nnecessary for the sake of greater clearness, and to prevent confusion, to\nname the older mythical creature the \"HERALDIC TIGRE,\" that it may not be\nconfounded with its natural representative usually called the \"ROYAL\nTIGER.\"\n\n\nLeopard, or Panther, Felis Pardus, Lybbarde\n\n  \"_Upon his shoulders a scheld of stele\n  With the lybbardes painted wele._\"\n              \"The Metrical Romance of Richard\n                     C\u0153ur de Lyon.\"\n\n\n                  \"_Make the libbard stern\n  Leave roaring, when in rage he for revenge did yearn._\"\n           SPENSER, \"Faerie Queen,\" Book i. canto vi.\n\nA curious character, partly real and partly fictitious has been ascribed\nto the lybbard or leopard of heraldry. It was said to be the offspring of\na lioness and a panther, the Northmen or Normans, according to some\nauthorities, having adopted that beast of prey, noted for rashness, as\ntypical of themselves, so characterised by boldness and impetuosity. The\nstandard of Rollo, first Duke of Normandy, they say, bore a leopard. A\nsecond lion or leopard was added to the Norman shield when the county of\nMaine became annexed to the Duchy of Normandy; and the two lions or\nleopards--for they are indiscriminately so termed--were thus borne, it is\nsaid, upon the standard of William the Conqueror, and by his descendants.\nA third lion was added by Henry II. on his marriage with Eleanor of\nAquitain, a lion being also the arms of that province.\n\n[Illustration: A Leopard passant.]\n\nIt has been keenly contested whether the three animals in the royal shield\nof England were lions or leopards. The subject has been ably treated by\nMr. J. R. Planch\u00e9 in the \"Pursuivant of Arms,\" and also by Charles\nBoutell, M.A., in several of his works. The case seems to stand thus:\n\nIn ancient coats the name is believed to be given to the lion in certain\nattitudes. The French heralds call a lion passant a _leopard_. Thus\nBertrand du Guesclin, the famous Breton, declared that men \"devoyent bien\nhonorer la noble fleur-de-lis, qu'ils ne faissaient le f\u00e9lon li\u00e9pard,\" and\nNapoleon, strongly to excite the valour of his soldiers, exclaimed, \"Let\nus drive these leopards (the English) into the sea!\"\n\n\"_Lion L\u00e9oparde_\" is the term used in French heraldry for the lion when\nborne _passant guardant_ as in the royal shield of England. When _rampant_\nthey call it \"l\u00e9oparde lionn\u00e9,\" as if in this attitude the leopard assumed\nthe position and bold character of the lion. The attitude _passant\nguardant_ thus denoted the peculiar stealthy tread and cat-like\nwatchfulness of the leopard and panther.\n\nThe Emperor Frederick II. (1235) sent King Henry of England three leopards\nas a present in token of his armorial bearings.\n\nIt is a great argument in favour of the substitution of the lion for the\nleopard, Mr. Boutell thinks, that the latter should have almost\ndisappeared from English heraldry, the face and head only retaining their\nplace in modern coats.\n\n[Illustration: A Leopard's Face, jessant-de-lis.]\n\n\"_A leopard's head_\" should show part of the neck, _couped_ or _erased_,\nas the case may be; _guardant, affront\u00e9_ or front face, is always to be\nunderstood of the leopard, and never in profile.\n\n\"_A leopard's face_\" shows no part of the neck, and in conjunction with\nthe term \"_jessant-de-lis_\" is used with respect to a leopard's face\nhaving a _fleur-de-lis_ passing through it.\n\nThe insignia of the See of Hereford is: _gules three leopards' heads\nreversed jessant-de-lis, or_.\n\nIn heraldry the leopard represents those brave and generous warriors who\nhave performed some bold enterprise with force, courage, promptitude, and\nactivity. Thus Shakespeare alludes to the character of the bold soldier\n\n  \"Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,\n  Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,\n  Seeking the bubble reputation\n  Even in the cannon's mouth.\"\n\nIn Christian Art the leopard is employed to represent that beast spoken of\nin the Apocalypse, with seven heads and ten horns. Six of the heads are\nnimbed, but the seventh, being \"wounded to death,\" has lost its power, and\nconsequently has no nimbus.\n\n_Three leopards passant guardant or, pellet\u00e9e_, appear on the arms of the\nMarquis of Downshire. It is also the sinister supporter.\n\nThe supporters of the town of Aberdeen are leopards.\n\n_Sable three leopards rampant argent spotted sable_ are given as the arms\nof _Lynch_. It is, however, probable that the _lynx_ was the animal\noriginally blazoned as \"arms parlantes\" for the name.\n\n_Ermine on a cross patonce sable, a leopard's head, issuing out of a ducal\ncoronet or_, crest, a _demi-leopard erect, proper_.--_Dickens._\n\n_A leopard's face, breaking with his mouth a sword_, is the crest of\n_Disne_.\n\nThe supporters of the Earl of Northesk are _two leopards reguardant_.\n\nThe leopard or panther, says Dr. P. M. Duncan, F.R.S.,[22] was the only\none of the greater feline animals, except the lion and tiger, which seems\nto have been known to the ancients. It is always represented as drawing\nthe chariot of Bacchus, and the forlorn Ariadne is sculptured as riding on\none of the spotted steeds of her divine lover. The panther was also\nconstantly used in the barbarous sports of the amphitheatre, and, in\ncommon with the lion and tiger, has been both executioner and grave to\nmany a bold-hearted martyr.\n\nThe leopard's skin was a favourite mantle in the olden times in Greece. In\nthe \"Iliad,\" Homer, speaking of Menelaus, says:\n\n  \"With a pard's spotted hide his shoulders broad\n  He mantled o'er,\"\n\nand the leopard, or panther, is given in the \"Odyssey\" as one of the forms\nassumed by Proteus, \"the Ancient of the Deep.\"\n\nA curious ancient superstition about the leopard is embodied in its name.\nIt was thought not to be actually the same animal as the panther or pard,\nbut to be a mongrel or hybrid between the male pard and the lioness, hence\nit was called the lion-panther, or _leopardus_. This error, as Archbishop\nTrench tells us, \"has lasted into modern times\"; thus Fuller: \"Leopards\nand mules are properly no creatures.\"\n\nSome writers, says Boutell, describe the leopard as the issue of the pard\nand lioness, and they assign the unproductiveness of such hybrids as a\nreason for its frequent adoption in the arms of abbots and abbesses.\n\"Mulus et abbates sunt in honore pares.\"\n\nThe leopard and panther are now acknowledged to be but slight varieties of\nthe same species. In Wood's \"Natural History\" some slight difference is\nmentioned as to the number of spots. \"The panther is fawn-coloured above,\nwhite underneath, with six or seven ranges of patches resembling\nrosettes--that is to say, each composed of an assemblage of five or six\nsimple black spots. It very much resembles the leopard, which inhabits the\nsame region (but has ten rows of spots which are of smaller size), It is\nthe wildest of the feline tribe, always retaining its fierce aspect and\nperpetual growl.\"\n\n\nThe Panther \"Incensed\"\n\n  \"_The panther, knowing that his spotted hide\n     Doth please all beasts, but that his looks them fray,\n  Within a bush his dreadful head doth hide\n     To let them gaze, while he on them doth prey._\"\n                                         SPENSER, Sonnet.\n\nThis beast, like the leopard, has been the object of much mistaken or\nfictitious history. Pliny, who is responsible for many of the errors in\nnatural history since his time, says of the panther: \"It is said that all\nfour-footed beasts are wonderfully delighted and enticed by the smell of\npanthers; but their hideous looke and crabbed countenance which they\nbewray so soon as they show their heads skareth them as much again:\ntherefore their manner is to hide their heads, and when they have trained\nother beasts within their reach by their sweet savour, they fall upon them\nand worry them.\"[23] And again, Sir William Segar, Garter King-of-Arms,\nfollowing the same credulous historian, says: \"The panther is admired of\nall other beasts for the beauty of his skyn, being spotted with variable\ncolours, and beloved of them for the sweetness of his breath that\nstreameth forth of his nostrils and ears like smoke which our paynters\nmistaking, corruptly do make fire.\"[24]\n\n[Illustration: Panther incensed.]\n\nIt is, however, more probable that the creature was represented emitting\nflame and smoke to denote and give characteristic expression to the native\nsavagery of the brute when irritated. If one can imagine the terror\ninspired by remorseless and unpitying fury, sudden and impetuous, we see\nits object fairly typified in the panther \"incensed.\" The idea of fire and\nsmoke darting from its mouth, eyes and ears was doubtless suggested by\nthat habit peculiar to the feline race, observable even in the domestic\ncat, to \"spit fire\" and \"swear\" when rudely attacked, and as an emblem in\nthis sense it is extremely well indicative of sudden fury.\n\nGuillam says: \"Some authors are of opinion that there are no panthers bred\nin Europe; but in Africa, Lybia and Mauritania they are plentiful. The\npanther is a beast of a beautiful aspect, by reason of the manifold\nvariety of his divers coloured spots wherewith his body is overspread. As\na lion doth in most things resemble the nature of a man, so, after a sort,\ndoth the panther of a woman; for it is a beautiful beast, and fierce, yet\nvery loving to their young ones, and will defend them with the hazard of\ntheir own lives; and if they miss them, they bewail their loss with loud\nand miserable howling.\"\n\nThe Lancastrian badge \"the panther,\" says Planch\u00e9, \"which is attributed by\nSir William Segar to Henry VI. and blazoned passant guardant argent\nspotted of all colours with vapour issuant from her mouth and ears; but\nthere is no authority quoted for it, and there is no example extant, the\nonly collateral evidence being the supporters of the Somerset Dukes of\nBeaufort, who are supposed to have used it as a token of their Lancastrian\ndescent.\" The dexter supporter of the Duke of Beaufort thus is blazoned:\n_Dexter, a panther argent, sem\u00e9e of torteaux, hurts and pomies\nalternately, flames issuant from the mouth and ears proper, gorged with a\nplain collar, chained, or_.\n\nThe heraldic panther, or as it is more frequently termed, a panther\nincensed, is always borne _guardant_, _i.e._, full-faced; and \"incensed,\"\nthat is to say, it is depicted with flames and smoke issuing from its\nmouth and ears. Its coat is spotted of various tinctures as the blazon may\nstate.\n\nOdet de Foix, Sieur de Lautrec, Marshal of France (+ 1528) being\nconsidered a person of fierce appearance, took for device a panther, with\nthe motto \"Allicit ulterius\" (\"He entices further\"), alluding to the\nattractive power of that animal notwithstanding its fierce exterior, \"an\nevidence,\" remarks a modern writer, \"that he had as much vanity as\nambition.\"\n\nThe town of Lucca for arms bears a panther: \"_La pantera, che Lucca\nabbraccia e onora_.\"\n\nGian Giacomo Trivulzio, surnamed the Great (+ 1518), a celebrated Italian\nsoldier, bore a panther on his standard, with the motto, \"Mens sibi\nconscia facti\" (\"The mind conscious to itself of the deed\"), the panther\nsignifying foresight (providence) from the number of eyes in his coat.\nOthers said he wished to imply that he knew how to manage for himself in\nthe various changes of his capricious fortune.[25]\n\n\n[Illustration: The Lynx.]\n\nThe Lynx\n\n_Felis Lynx_, or mountain cat, is found in the northern parts of Europe,\nAsia and America, and climbs the highest trees. He preys on squirrels,\ndeer, hares, &c. He is fond of blood and kills great numbers of animals to\nsatisfy his unconquerable thirst. He is smaller than the panther, about\nthree feet and a half in length, his tail is much shorter and black at the\nextremity. His ears are erect with a pencil of black hair at the tips. The\nfur is long and thick, the upper part of the body is a pale grey, the\nunder parts white.\n\nThe sight of the lynx is said to be so piercing that the ancients\nattributed to it the faculty of seeing through stone walls: it may,\nhowever, be asserted with truth that it distinguishes its prey at a\ngreater distance than any other carnivorous quadruped. On this account it\nis frequently employed in heraldry, symbolising watchfulness, keenness of\nvision, and also the ability to profit by it.\n\nLynx-eyed, \"oculis lynceis,\" originally referred to Lynceus, the argonaut,\nwho was famed for the keenness of his vision; then it was transferred to\nthe lynx and gave rise to the fable that it could see through a wall\n(notes to \"Philobiblon,\" by E. C. Thomas).\n\nThe Accademia de Lincei, founded in Rome in 1603, with the object of\nencouraging a taste for natural history, adopted the name and device of\nthe lynx because the members should have the eyes of a lynx to penetrate\nthe secrets of nature. Galileo, Fabio Colonna, and Gianbattista Porta were\namong the members of the academy, the latter philosopher and\nmathematician, who was the inventor of the camera obscura, bore the device\nof the academy, the lynx, and the motto \"Aspicit et inspicit\" (\"Looks at\nand looks into\").\n\nCharles IV. of Luxemburg, Emperor of Germany, adopted the lynx for his\nimpress, with the motto, \"Nullius pavit occursum\" (\"He fears not meeting\nwith any one\").\n\nTHE LIZARD LYNX is an animal of the lynx or wild cat kind of a dark brown\ncolour, spotted black; the ears and tail are short. They are frequent in\nthe woods of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, where they are usually termed\nlizards.\n\n\n[Illustration: Cat-a-Mountain saliant, collared and lined.]\n\nCat-a-Mountain--Tiger Cat or Wild Cat\n\nThe Clan Chattan, who gave their name to the county of Caithness, bore as\ntheir cognisance the wild mountain cat, and called their chieftain, the\nEarl of Sutherland, \"Mohr an chat\" (The Great Wild Cat). The Mackintoshes\nstill bear as their crests and supporters these ferocious cats, with the\nappropriate warning as a motto, \"Touch not the cat but a glove.\"\n\nThe whole is a pun upon the word \"Catti,\" the Teutonic settlers of\nCaithness, _i.e._, Catti-ness, and means \"Touch not the Clan Cattan (or\nmountain cat) without a glove.\" Here \"but\" is used in the original\nmeaning, beout, _i.e._, without. For another example of \"but\" meaning\nwithout, see Amos iii. 7. The same words are also used as the motto of\nseveral Scottish families.\n\nNone will forget how the cat-a-mountain showed her claws to the Clan Kay,\nin the Wynds of Perth in Sir Walter Scott's \"Fair Maid of Perth.\"\n\n[Illustration: Crest, a Cat-a-Mountain, sejant, collared and lined.]\n\n_The Heraldic Musion._--Bossewell, in his work on heraldry published 1572,\ndescribes a musion as \"a beaste that is enimie to myse and rattes.\" He\nadds also that he is \"slye and wittie, and seeth so sharply, that he\novercommeth darkness of the nighte by the shyninge lighte of his eyne. In\nthe shape of body, he is like unto a leoparde, and hath a greate mouthe.\nHe doth delighte that he enjoyeth his libertie, and in his youthe he is\nswifte, plyante, and merrie. He maketh a rufull noyse, and a gastefull\nwhen he proffereth to fighte with another. He is a cruel beaste when he is\nwilde and falleth on his owne feet from moste high places, and uneth\n(scarce) is hurte therewith. When he hathe a fayre skinne, he is, as it\nwere, prowde thereof, and then he goeth fast aboute to be seene.\"\n\nChildebert, King of France, in token of his having taken captive\nGondomar of Bourgogne, assumed the device of a tiger-cat or ounce behind a\ngrating or troillis, gules clou\u00e9 argent. This recalls the famous scene\nbetween Sanglier Rouge and Toison d'Or in \"Quentin Durward,\" when Charles\nthe Bold's jester professes to help the unhappy envoy of De la Marck by\ndescribing it as a cat looking out of a dairy window.\n\nThe cat, though domesticated, is considered as possessed of ingratitude;\nin its friendship so uncertain and so vicious in its nature, \"that,\" say\nold writers, \"it is only calculated for destroying the obnoxious race of\nrats and other small game.\"\n\nFrom the medi\u00e6val superstition that Satan's favourite form was a black\ncat, it was superstitiously called \"a familiar.\" Hence witches were said\nto have a cat as their familiar.\n\nTHE CAT: _A symbol of liberty._--The Roman goddess of Liberty was\nrepresented as holding a cup in one hand, a broken sceptre in the other,\nand a cat lying at her feet. No animal is so great an enemy to all\nconstraint as a cat.\n\nThe cat was held in veneration by the Egyptians as sacred to the goddess\nBubastis. This deity is represented with a human body and a cat's head.\nDiodorus tells us that whoever killed a cat, even by accident, was by the\nEgyptians punished with death. According to Egyptian tradition, Diana\nassumed the form of a cat, and thus excited the fury of the giants. The\n_London Review_ says: \"The Egyptians worshipped the cat as a symbol of\nthe moon, not only because it is more active after sunset, but from the\ndilation and contraction of its orb, symbolical of the waxing and waning\nof the night goddess.\"\n\nIn heraldry it should always be represented full-faced like the leopard.\n\n_Erminois three cats-a-mountain passant gardant, in pale azure, each\ncharged on the body with an ermine spot or._ Crest: _a demi cat-a-mountain\ngardant, azure, gorged with a collar gemel, and charged with ermine spots,\ntwo and one_.--_Tibbets._\n\nThe supporters of the Earl of Clanricarde are wild cats, and also those of\nthe Earl of Belmore. It is the crest of De Burgh.\n\n  \"\u00c6NEAS.--His mantle was the lion's,\n             With all its tawny bars,\n           His falchion, like Orion's,\n             Was gemmed with golden stars.\n           Upon his lofty helmet\n             A brazen terror rode;\n           No sword could overwhelm it\n             When in the fight it glowed.\n           For like a wild cat brindled,\n             It spat with eyes on fire,\n           And in the battle kindled\n             Immortal rage and ire,\n           Now in the sunshine sleeping,\n             How gently it reposed;\n           But still in wisdom keeping\n             A single eye unclosed.\"\n                            _Queen Dido_, by T. S.\n\n[Illustration: The Crowned Salamander of Francis I.]\n\nThe Salamander\n\nThe salamander has been immemorially credited with certain fabulous\npowers. Less than a century ago the creature was seriously described as a\n\"spotted lizard, which will endure the flames of fire.\" Divested of its\nsupernatural powers it is simply a harmless little amphibian of the \"newt\"\nfamily, from six to eight inches in length, with black skin and yellow\nspots. The skin was long thought to be poisonous, though it is in reality\nperfectly harmless; but the moist surface is so extremely cold to the\ntouch that, from this peculiar quality in the creature, the idea must have\narisen, not only that it could withstand any heat to which it was exposed,\nbut it would actually subdue and put out fire.\n\nThis was a widespread belief long before the time of Pliny, whose\naccount of the creature is thus paraphrased by Swift:\n\n  \"Further, we are by Pliny told\n  This serpent is extremely cold;\n  So cold that, put it in the fire,\n  'Twill make the very flames expire.\"\n\nMarco Polo, the early Venetian traveller, who tells of many strange and\nwonderful things seen and heard of in his journeyings, was not a believer\nin the fabulous stories of the salamander, for he dismisses the subject\nwith the curt remark, \"Everybody knows that it could be no animal's nature\nto live in fire.\" An early heraldic writer of a somewhat later period,\nwith greater credulity, stoutly maintains its reality, and in describing\nthe creature states that he actually possessed some of the hair or down of\nthe salamander. \"This,\" he goes on to say, \"I have several times put in\nthe fire and made it red-hot, and after taken out; which, being cold, yet\nremaineth perfect wool, or fine downy hair.\"\n\nMarco Polo further on assures his readers that the true salamander is\nnothing but an incombustible substance found in the earth, \"all the rest\nbeing fabulous nonsense.\" He tells of a mountain in Tartary, \"there or\nthereabouts,\" in which a \"vein\" of salamander was found; and so we arrive\nat the fact that this salamander's wool was nothing but the \"asbestos\" of\nthe ancients. It is easy to see why asbestos became known as \"salamanders'\nwool.\" The name resulted from the juxtaposition of ideas, and shows how\ndeeply impressed was the belief in the salamander's mysterious powers. A\nlate writer tells us that some of the lizard tribe are known to enjoy\nwarmth, and alligators are said to revel in hot water. It needed only that\nan insignificant member of the genus should have been found among the dead\nembers of a fire to prove at once the invulnerability of the reptile and\nits ability to extinguish the flames.\n\nThe salamander of medi\u00e6val superstition was a creature in the shape of a\nman, which lived in fire (Greek, salambeander, chimney-man), meaning a man\nthat lives in a chimney. It was described by the ancients as bred by fire\nand existing in flames, an element which must inevitably prove destructive\nof life. Pliny describes it as \"a sort of lizard which seeks the hottest\nfire to breed in, but quenches it with the extreme frigidity of its body.\"\nHe tells us he tried the experiment once, but the creature was soon\nreduced to powder.[26]\n\nGregory of Nazianzen says that the salamander not only lived in and\ndelighted in flames, but extinguished fire. St. Epiphanius compares the\nvirtues of the hyacinth and the salamander. The hyacinth, he states, is\nunaffected by fire, and will even extinguish it as the salamander does.\n\"The salamander and the hyacinth were symbols of enduring faith, which\ntriumphs over the ardour of the passions. Submitted to fire the hyacinth\nis discoloured and becomes white. We may here perceive,\" says M. Portal,\n\"a symbol of enduring and triumphant faith.\"\n\n[Illustration: Salamander crest of James, Earl of Douglas. From\ngarter-plate.]\n\nThis imaginary creature is generally represented as a small wingless\ndragon or lizard, surrounded by and breathing forth flames. Sometimes it\nis represented somewhat like a dog breathing flames. A golden salamander\nis so represented on the garter-plate of James, Earl of Douglas, K.G., the\nfirst Scottish noble elected into the Order of the Garter, and who died\n1483 A.D. Tinctured _vert_; and _in flames proper_ it is the crest of\nDouglas, Earl of Angus.\n\nFran\u00e7ois I. of France adopted as his badge the salamander in the midst of\nflames, with the legend, \"Nutrisco et extinguo\" (\"I nourish and\nextinguish\"). The Italian motto from which this legend was borrowed was,\n\"Nudrisco il buono e spengo il reo\" (\"I nourish the good and extinguish\nthe bad;\" \"Fire purifies good metal, but consumes rubbish\"). In his castle\nof Chambord, the galleries of the Palace of Fontainebleau, and the H\u00f4tel\nSt. Bourg Thoroulde at Rouen, this favourite device of the crowned\nsalamander, with the motto, may be everywhere seen.\n\n_Azure, a salamander or, in flames proper_, is the charge on the shield of\nthe Italian family of Cennio.\n\nThe \"_lizards_\" which form the crest of the Ironmongers' Company, were\nprobably intended for salamanders on the old seal of the company in 1483,\nbut are now blazoned as lizards.\n\nThe heraldic signification of the salamander was that of a brave and\ngenerous courage that the fire of affliction cannot destroy or consume.\n\nIn the animal symbolism of the ancients the salamander may be said to\nrepresent the element of FIRE; the eagle, AIR; the lion, EARTH; the\ndolphin, WATER.\n\n\nHeraldic Antelope\n\nThis fictitious animal, when depicted in heraldry, has a body like that of\na stag, the tail of a unicorn, a head like the heraldic tiger, with two\nserrated horns, and a tusk growing from the tip of his nose, a row of\ntufts down the back of his neck, and the like on his tail, chest and\nthighs. Thus represented it is termed an heraldic antelope to distinguish\nit from the real or natural antelope, which is also borne in modern coats\nof arms.\n\n[Illustration: Heraldic Antelope.]\n\nThe old heralds, with their scant knowledge of the rarer kinds of\nforeign animals, represented the antelope as a fierce beast of prey, and\ntotally unlike in appearance and in disposition to the beautiful\nsmall-limbed gentle creature with which we are acquainted. That such was\nthe prevailing opinion in the time of Spenser is evident. In the \"Faerie\nQueen\" he makes the stout Sir Satyrane--\n\n                    \"In life and manners wild,\n  Amongst wild beasts and woods from laws of man exiled.\"\n\n--more than a match for the most ferocious brutes, all of whom he subdues:\n\n  \"Wild beasts in iron yokes he would compel;\n  The spotted panther, and the tusk\u00e8d boar;\n  The pardale swift, and the tiger cruel,\n  The _antelope_ and wolf, both fierce and fell;\n  And them constrain in equal team to draw.\"\n\nSome authorities give the heraldic antelope with two straight horns, but\nas the ancient badge of the House of Lancaster it was represented with two\nserrated horns curving backward.\n\nIn blazon, the term \"_heraldic antelope_\" should always be used unless the\nnatural antelope is intended.\n\n\nThe Heraldic Ibex\n\nis an imaginary beast resembling the heraldic antelope in appearance, with\nthe exception of the horns projecting from his forehead, which are\nserrated like a saw. Perhaps it would not be erroneous to consider it\nidentical with the heraldic antelope.\n\n[Illustration: The Heraldic Ibex.]\n\nThe real or natural ibex is a native of the Alps, the Pyrenees and the\nGrecian mountains, where they abound in defiance of the hunters. It\nresembles a goat, but the horns are much larger, bent backwards, and full\nof knots, one of which is added every year.\n\n\nBagwyn\n\nA fabulous beast like the heraldic antelope, but having the tail of a\nhorse, and long horns of a goat curved backwards. The dexter supporter of\nthe arms of Carey, Lord Hundson, in Westminster Abbey, is a Bagwyn.\n\n\nThe Camelopard, Camel-leopard\n\nThe Giraffe figures a few times in blazon under these names. It is\ndescribed by old heralds as half camel and half leopard. A curious\nword-combination was made by the Romans when wishing to find a name for\nthe giraffe. \"It is,\" says Archbishop Trench, \"a creature combining,\nthough with infinitely more grace, yet some of the height and even the\nproportions of _a camel_, with the spotted skin of the _pard_.\" They\ncalled it \"camelopardus,\" the camel-panther.\n\nThere are two heraldic creatures based upon the above which are referred\nto in heraldic works, viz., the ALLOCAMELUS or ass-camel, having the body\nof the camel conjoined to the head of an ass; and the CAMELOPARDEL, which\nis like the camelopard, but with two long horns curved backwards.\n\nMusimon, Tityrus\n\nA fictitious animal mentioned by Guillim and others. It nearly resembles\n_a goat, with the head and horns of a ram_, but has besides the horns of\nthat beast, _a pair of goat's horns_. It is also mentioned in Guillim's\n\"Display,\" where it is said to be a bigenerous beast, of unkindly\nprocreation, engendered between a goat and a ram, like the Tityrus, the\noffspring of a sheep and goat, as noted by Upton.\n\n[Illustration: Musimon, Tityrus.]\n\n\nThe Enfield\n\nAn imaginary hybrid animal with _the head of a fox, chest of a greyhound,\ntalons of an eagle, and body of a lion; the hind legs and tail of a wolf_.\nIt occurs as the crest of some Irish families of the name of Kelly.\n\n\n[Illustration: Mantygre--Satyral.]\n\nMantiger, Montegre or Manticora Satyral\n\nA chimerical creature of medi\u00e6val invention, having the body of an\nheraldic tiger with mane, and the head of an old man with long spiral\nhorns. Some heraldic authorities make the horns more like those of an ox,\nand the feet like a dragon's.\n\n_The Satyral_ is apparently identical with the man-tiger.\n\nThe belief that certain persons have the power of assuming the shape of\nthe tiger is common in India, and the Khonds say that a man-killing tiger\nis either an incarnation of the Earth's goddess or a transfigured man. It\nis thus with the Lavas of Birma, supposed to be the broken-down remains\nof a cultured race and dreaded as man-tigers.[27]\n\nTwo satyrals supported the arms of the Lords Stawell.\n\nThe supporters of the arms of the Earl of Huntingdon are mantigers, but\nare represented without horns.\n\n[Illustration: Manticora. From ancient Bestiaria.]\n\nFrom a medi\u00e6val \"Bestiaria\" we have a description and illustration of a\ngruesome creature of this name (manticora), evolved no doubt from some\ntraveller's marvellous tale. We are told that it is \"bred among the\nIndians,\" has a triple row of teeth, in bigness and roughness like a\nlion's, face and ears like a man's, a tail like a scorpion's \"with a sting\nand sharp-pointed quills,\" and that \"his voice is like a small trumpet,\"\nand that he is \"very wild,\" and that after having his tail bruised, he can\nbe tamed without danger.\n\nThere are several other fictitious creatures, which, if we may believe\ncertain old writers, excited the minds of our credulous wonder-loving\nforefathers. Of these little need be said, as they rarely, if ever, appear\nin modern works on heraldry, and may therefore be classed as extinct\nmonsters.\n\n\nLamia or Emipusa\n\n[Illustration: Lamia. From old Bestiary.]\n\nA curious creature of the imagination is the lamia, of which we are told\nmany fictitious stories. It is said to be \"the swiftest of all four-footed\ncreatures, that it is very treacherous and cruel to men. It is stated to\nbe bred in Lybia, and sometimes devours its own young.\" It is represented\nin an ancient \"Bestiaria\" as having the head and breasts of a woman, and\nthe body of a four-footed animal with flowing tail, the hind feet having\ndivided hoofs. It is \"thought to be the creature mentioned in Isaiah\nxxxiv., called in Hebrew _Lilith_, as also the same which is mentioned in\nLamentations iv.\"\n\nIn Dr. Brewer's \"Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,\" LAMIA is \"a female\nphantom whose name was used by the Greeks and Romans as a bugbear to\nchildren, from the classic fable of a Lybian Queen beloved by Jupiter, but\nrobbed of her children by Juno; and in consequence she vowed vengeance\nagainst all children, whom she delighted to entice and murder.\" They are\nagain described as spectres of Africa, who attracted strangers and then\ndevoured them. In the story of \"Machat\u00ebs and Philemon,\" a young man is\nrepresented as marrying an Empusa, who sucks his blood at night. Goethe\nborrowed his ballad of the \"Bride of Corinth\" from this tale.\n\nBeyond casual mention this mythical creature does not appear in heraldry.\n\n\nBaphomet\n\nA fictitious creature having two heads, male and female, the rest of the\nbody female; said to be used as an idol or symbol by the Templars in their\nmysterious rites. The word is a corruption of Mahomet. Though mentioned in\nold works it does not now appear in British heraldry.\n\n\nApres\n\nA fictitious animal resembling a bull, with a short tail like that of a\nbear. It is the sinister supporter of the arms of the Company of Muscovy\nMerchants.\n\n\nStelliones\n\nThe supporters of the Ironmongers' Company of London are two lizards.\nBossewell describes beasts of similar shape--\"Stelliones\" as he terms\nthem, evidently in allusion to steel. He says, \"Stellio is a beaste like a\nlysard, having on his back spotts like starres.\"[28]\n\nStellione-serpent, a serpent with the head of a weasel, borne by the name\nof Baume.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFictitious Creatures of the Sea\n\n\nINTRODUCTORY NOTES\n\n                    \"_The sea, that is\n  A world of waters heap\u00e8d up on high,\n  Rolling like mountains in wild wilderness,\n  Horrible, hideous, roaring with hoarse cry!_\"\n                                          SPENSER.\n\n\n  \"_I can call spirits from the vasty deep._\"\n                                          SHAKESPEARE.\n\nMariners in all ages, prone to superstitious fears, have peopled the great\ndeep with beings of the most dreadful kind, all the more wonderful and\nindescribable because of the mysterious and unknown regions in the sea\ndepths which they were supposed to inhabit. Classic mythology in its\nwealth of imagery allotted a whole hierarchy of greater and lesser\ndivinities to the government of the watery element, whose capricious\nruling of the waves man altogether failed to comprehend. Their fancied\nterrors, begot in calms and storms, in darkness and in fogs, midst dangers\nof the most appalling kind, assumed those monstrous and fantastic shapes\nwhich their own fears created. The active forces of nature in unusual\nforms impressed them as the result of supernatural agency, or the\n\"meddling of the gods,\" whose favours and protection the mariner, by\nprayers and supplications, endeavoured to propitiate; and whilst\ntremblingly he skirts the horizon's edge in timid ventures, new dangers\nimpel him to promises of greater gifts to assuage the wrathful mood of his\nangry god or some other equally powerful or more spiteful.\n\nThe national god of the Philistines was represented with the face and\nhands of a man and the tail of a fish. It was but natural that a seafaring\npeople should adopt a god of that form.\n\n  \"Dagon his name; sea-monster, upward man\n  And downward fish: yet had his temple high\n  Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast\n  Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,\n  And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.\"\n                    _Paradise Lost_, Book i. 462.\n\nIn the leviathan and behemoth of Scripture are darkly indicated monsters\nof the great deep. Scandinavian mythology, like that of all bold maritime\npeoples in old times, is rife with legends of certain great monsters of\nthe sea. The kraken or sea-serpent of popular legend is a myth not yet\nlaid to rest; there is still a lingering belief in the existence of the\nmermaid.\n\n  \"With a comb and a glass in her hand, her hand, her hand,\n  With a comb and a glass in her hand.\"\n                                    Popular sea-song.\n\nChief amongst the Grecian sea-divinities stands _Poseidon_, or _Neptune_\nas he was called by the Romans, the potent \"ruler of the seas.\" He usually\ndwelt, not in Olympus, but at the bottom of the sea, in a magnificent\ngolden palace in the neighbourhood of \u00c6g\u00e6. He is always represented with a\ntrident, sometimes with a rudder--special symbols of his power over the\nsea. Accompanied by his wife, fair Amphitrite, he was frequently pictured\nin royal state in his chariot, drawn through the billows by wild\nsea-horses, attended by \"Triton blowing loud his wreathed horn,\" Proteus,\n\"the godlike shepherd of the sea,\" and other followers--dolphins leaping\nthe waves and showing their high arched backs in wild gambolings.\n\n_Nereus_ and his fifty daughters, the _Nereides_, who dwelt in caves and\ngrottos of the ocean--beneficent sea-nymphs,--win the hearts of the\nsailors, now by their merry sports and dances, now by their timely\nassistance in the hour of danger. Whilst Nereus and his lovely daughters\nrepresent the sea under its calm and pleasant aspect, Thaumas, Phorcys,\nCeto present it as the world of wonders, under its more terrible\nconditions. The storm winds and all the terrors and dangers of the deep\nwere typified under various strange and peculiar forms. Not the least\ndreaded were the _Sirens_, fatal sisters, who \"spread o'er the silver\nwaves their golden hair,\" basked near sunlit rocks, and lured all men to\ntheir ruin by their enchanting voices, save only the crafty Ulysses.\n\nThese and many others of lesser note, Proteus, Glaucus and the rest, make\nup the discordant influences that govern the watery element.\n\nMany wonderful stories are told by classic writers concerning these old\nmyths, and innumerable relics of antique art which embody the conceptions\nof the times are extant in our museums, by which we may judge to what a\nlarge extent such ideas influenced the common life and formed the beliefs\nof ancient peoples.\n\nIt is also worthy of observation to note in what manner the ancients\nsought to identify the various sea-deities and other mythical creatures\nwith the element they lived in. Each was known by his form or the\nattributes by which he was accompanied. Modern heraldry repeats many of\nthese old-world myths as new-coined fables, so that for their proper\nunderstanding and signification it will be necessary briefly to refer to\nancient ideas respecting them. Lakes, rivers and fountains had each their\nimpersonation peculiar to them, which will be found referred to in classic\nstory.\n\nMedi\u00e6val legend is equally rife with accounts of wonderful creatures of\nthe sea. The change of one form of superstition for another alters but\nlittle the constitution of the mind to harbour fears, and the imagination\nwill deceive even the wisest and best so long as Nature's laws are\nmisunderstood.\n\nParticular whirlpools, rocks and other dangerous places to navigation, are\npersonated under the forms of monsters of various and awful shapes\nfeared by the mariner, who dreads\n\n  \"The loud yell of watery wolves to hear.\"\n\nScylla and Charybdis are two rocks which lie between Italy and Sicily.\nShips which tried to avoid one were often wrecked on the other. The\nancients feigned an interesting legend to account for their existence. It\nwas Circe who changed Scylla into a frightful sea monster, and Jupiter who\nchanged Charybdis into a whirlpool, the noise of which was likened to the\nloud barking of dogs; and the monster was therefore represented with\nsavage dogs amidst her scaly folds, and loudly baying.\n\n  \"Far on the right her dogs foul Scylla hides;\n  Charybdis roaring on the left presides,\n  And in her greedy whirlpool sucks the tides,\n  Then spouts them from below; with fury driven\n  The waves mount up, and wash the face of heaven.\n  But Scylla from her den with open jaws\n  The sinking vessel in her eddy draws\n  Then dashes on the rocks. A human face\n  And virgin bosom hides her tail's disgrace;\n  Her parts obscene below the waves descend,\n  With dogs enclosed, and in a dolphin end.\"\n                                  _\u00c6neid_, Book iii.\n\nHomer gives a vivid description of Ulysses passing the rocks and\nwhirlpools:\n\n  \"Now through the rocks, appall'd with deep dismay,\n  We bend our course, and stem the desperate way;\n  Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms;\n  And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms.\n  When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves,\n  The rough rock roars, tumultuous boil the waves;\n  They toss, they foam, a wild confusion raise,\n  Like water bubbling o'er the fiery blaze;\n  Eternal mists obscure the a\u00ebrial plain,\n  And high across the rocks she spouts the main:\n  When in her gulfs the rushing sea subsides,\n  She drains the ocean with the refluent tides:\n  The rock rebellows with a thundering sound;\n  Deep, wondrous deep, below appears the ground.\"\n                                  _Odyssey_, Book xii.\n\nThe giants and ogres of romance were never so fearfully armed or clothed\nby the wildest fiction with so terrible an aspect as the cephalopods, the\nrace to which the cuttlefish or octopus belongs. Eminently carnivorous,\nvoracious and fierce; beneath staring eyes are spread eight strong fleshy\narms furnished with tenacious suckers, which adhere with unrelenting\npertinacity, and the arms are swiftly twined round the struggling prey,\nwhich vainly strives to disengage itself from so fearful and so fatal\nembrace. Cephalopods of enormous size are sometimes found with arms as\nthick as a man's thigh. Homer refers to its tenacity of grip in a simile.\n\nThe cuttlefish appears upon ancient Greek coins of Coressus, in allusion\nto the worship of Neptune, a deity much venerated as the protector of this\nisland.\n\nAmongst the veritable inhabitants of the ocean there are few more\nextraordinary mammals than the sea-unicorn, _Monodon monoceros_, the\nbeaked whale of the Arctic seas, twenty to thirty feet from stern to\nsnout. His length is increased about eight feet by his magnificent\nspirally twisted tusk of the purest ivory, which in reality is simply the\ncanine tooth growing straight out of the upper jaw. One of the royal\ntreasures of Denmark is the narwhal throne of the Castle of Rosenberg. It\nis the horn of this \"strange fish\" which has kept up the belief in the\nexistence of the mythical unicorn.\n\n_Xiphias gladius_, swordfish, is the largest of the thorny fishes, and\nbelongs to the scombers or mackerel group. The sawfish, _Pristis\nantiquorum_, ranks by himself between the rays and sharks. He has the long\nbody of a shark and the underside gill openings of a ray. His saw, like\nthe sword of the Xiphias, is a long flattened bony snout, but is\ndouble-edged and serrated. It is well known as a weapon among the\nPolynesian islanders, and, like the sword of the Xiphias, is frequently\nfound buried in the hulls of ocean-going ships.\n\nThere are two denizens of the deep which bear the name of sea-horse--one\nthe tiny Hippocampus, the other the mighty walrus. The hippocampus of our\npublic aquariums, a bony pipefish some six or eight inches in length,\nswimming upright, his favourite position in the water, with the general\nresemblance of his head to that of a horse, is very striking; anchored to\nthe seaweed stems by their tails they dart on their prey with great\nquickness.\n\nHippocampus (\u1f35\u03c0\u03c0\u03bf\u03c2, _hippos_, a horse; \u03ba\u03ac\u03bc\u03c0\u03b7, _campe_, a bending), the\nsteed of Neptune, had only the two forelegs of a horse, the hinder quarter\nbeing that of a dolphin. The word means \"coiling horse.\"\n\nThe Sea-horse of the North, or walrus--the _Rossmareus_ or _Morse_ of the\nScandinavians, the _Trichecus rosmarus_ of science, is fifteen or twenty\nfeet long, or even longer, and armed with huge canine teeth, sometimes\nmeasuring thirty inches in length--tusks which furnish no small amount of\nour commercial ivory. Many are the thrilling stories of the chase of these\ngreat sea-horses, for the walrus fights for his life as determinedly as\nany animal hunted by man. The walrus has had the honour assigned to it\nalso of being the original of the mermaid, and Scoresby says the front\npart of the head of a young one without tusks might easily be taken at a\nlittle distance for a human face, especially as it has a habit of raising\nits head straight out of the water to look at passing ships.\n\nThe manatee, or sea-cow, found on the tropical coasts and streams of\nAfrica and America, is called by the Portuguese and Spaniards the\n\"woman-fish,\" from its supposed close resemblance. Its English name comes\nfrom the flipper resembling a human hand--_manus_--with which it holds its\nyoung to its breast. One of this species, which died at the Royal Aquarium\nin 1878, was as unlike the typical mermaid as one could possibly imagine,\ngiving one a very startling idea of the difference between romance and\nreality; but if it was observed in its native haunts, and seen at some\nlittle distance, and then only by glimpses, it might possibly, as some\nhave asserted, present a very striking resemblance to the human form.\n\nSir James Emerson Tennent, speaking of the _Dugong_, an herbivorous\ncetacean, says its head has a rude approach to the human outline, and the\nmother while suckling her young holds it to her breast with one flipper,\nas a woman holds an infant in her arm; if disturbed she suddenly dives\nunder water and throws up her fish-like tail. It is this creature, he\nsays, which has probably given rise to the tales about mermaids.\n\nSeals differ from all other animals in having the toes of the feet\nincluded almost to the end in a common integument, converting them into\nbroad fins armed with strong non-retractile claws. Of the many varieties\nof the seal family, from Kamchatka comes the noisy \"SEA-LION\" (_Otaria\njubata_), so called from his curious mane. In the same neighbourhood we\nget the \"SEA-LEOPARD\" (_Leptonyx weddellii_), and the \"SEA-BEAR\" (the\n_Etocephalus ursinus_), whose larger and better-developed limbs enable him\nto stand and walk on shore. But the most important of the seals, in a\ncommercial sense, are the \"HARP SEAL\" (_Phoca Gr\u00e6nlandica_) and the COMMON\nSEAL, or \"SEA-DOG\" (_Phoca vitulina_), which yield the skins so valuable\nto the furrier. There are several other species, of which the most known\nare the CRESTED SEAL, or _Neistsersoak_ (_Stemmatopus cristatus_), and the\nBEARDED SEAL (_Phoca barbata_).\n\nApart from the seal having possibly given rise to legends of the mermaid,\nit has a distinguished position in superstition and mythology on its own\naccount. In Shetland it is the \"haff-fish,\" or selkie, a fallen spirit.\nEvil is sure to follow the unfortunate destroyer of one of these\ncreatures. In the Faroe Islands there is a superstition that the seals\ncast off their skins every ninth night and appear as mortals, dancing\nuntil daybreak on the sands. Sometimes they are induced to marry, but if\never they recover their skins they betake themselves again to the water.\n\nStephen of Byzantium relates that the ships of certain Greek colonists\nwere on their expeditions followed by an immense number of seals, and it\nwas probably on this account that the city they founded in Asia received\nthe name of Phocea, from \u03c6\u03ce\u03ba\u03b7 (_Phok\u00e9_), the Greek name of a seal, and\nthey also adopted that animal as the type or badge of the city upon their\ncoinage. The gold pieces of the Phoceans were well known among the Greek\nStates, and are frequently referred to by ancient writers. \"Thus from a\nsingle coin,\" says Noel Humphreys,[29] \"we obtain the corroboration of the\nlegend of the swarm of seals, of the remote epoch of the emigration in\nquestion, the coin being evidently of the earliest period, most probably\nof the middle of the seventh century before the Christian era.\"\n\nLuigi (+ 1598), brother to the Duke of Mantua, had for device a seal\nasleep upon a rock in a troubled sea, with the motto: \"Sic quiesco\" (\"So\nrest I\"). The seal, say the ancient writers, is never struck by lightning.\nThe Emperor Augustus always wore a belt of seal-skin. \"There is no living\ncreature sleepeth more soundly,\" says Pliny,[30] \"therefore when storms\narise and the sea is rough the seal goes upon the rocks where it sleeps in\nsafety unconscious of the storm.\"\n\nThe poet Spenser embodies many of the conceptions of his time in the\ndescription of the crowning adventures of the Knight Guyon. He here refers\nto \"great sea monsters of all ugly shapes and horrible aspects\" \"such as\nDame Nature's self might fear to see.\"\n\n  \"Spring-headed hydras, and sea-shouldering whales;\n  Great whirlpools, which all fishes make to flee;\n  Bright scolopendras arm'd with silver scales;\n  Mighty monoceroses with unmeasured tails;\n\n  The dreadful fish that hath deserved the name\n  Of death, and like him looks in dreadful hue;\n  The grisly wasserman, that makes his game\n  The flying ships with swiftness to pursue;\n\n  The horrible sea-satyr that doth shew\n  His fearful face in time of greatest storm;\n  Huge Ziffius, whom mariners eschew\n  No less than rocks, as travellers inform;\n  And greedy rose-marines with visages deform;\n  All these, and thousand thousand many more\n  And more deformed monsters, thousandfold.\"\n                  _Faerie Queen_, Book ii. cant. xii.\n\nThe early heralds took little account of these dreadful creatures--more\neasily imagined by fearful mariners or by poets than depicted by artists\nfrom their vague descriptions. The most imaginative of the tribe rarely\nventured beyond such representations of marine monsters as appealed\nstrongly and clearly to the universal sense of mankind--compounds of\nmarine and land animals--either from a belief in the existence of such\ncreatures, or because they used them as emblems or types of qualities,\ncombining for this purpose the attributes of certain inhabitants of the\nsea with those of the land or of the air to form the appropriate symbol.\n\nIn modern heraldry such bearings are usually adopted with special allusion\nto actions performed at sea, or they have reference in some way to the\nname or designation of the bearer, and hence termed allusive or canting\nheraldry. Some maritime towns bear nautical devices of the fictitious kind\nreferred to. For instance, the City of Liverpool has for supporters\nNeptune with his trident, and a Triton with his horn. Cambridge and\nNewcastle-on-Tyne have sea-horses for supporters to their city's arms.\nBelfast has the sea-horse for sinister supporter and also for crest.\n\nMany of the nobility also bear, either as arms or supporters, these\nmythical sea creatures, pointing in many instances to memorable events in\ntheir family history; indeed, as islanders and Britons, marine\nemblems--real and mythical--enter largely into our national heraldry.\n\n\nPoseidon or Neptune\n\n[Illustration: Dexter supporter of Baron Hawke.]\n\nPoseidon or Neptune, the younger brother of Zeus (Jupiter), sometimes\nappears in heraldry, usually as a supporter. In the ancient mythology he\nwas originally a mere symbol of the watery element, he afterwards became a\ndistinct personality; the mighty ruler of the sea who with his powerful\narms upholds and circumscribes the earth, violent and impetuous like the\nelement he represents. When he strikes the sea with his trident, the\nsymbol of his sovereignty, the waves rise with violence, as a word or look\nfrom him suffices to allay the fiercest tempest. Poseidon (Neptune) was\nnaturally regarded as the chief patron and tutelary deity of the seafaring\nGreeks. To him they addressed their prayers before entering on a voyage,\nand to him they brought their offerings in gratitude for their safe\nreturn from the perils of the deep.\n\nIn a famous episode of the \"Faerie Queen\" (Book iv. c. xi.) Spenser\nglowingly pictures the procession of all the water deities and their\nattendants:\n\n  \"First came great Neptune with his three-forked mace,\n  That rules the seas and makes them rise and fall;\n  His dewy locks did drop with brine apace\n  Under his diadem imperial:\n\n  \"And by his side his Queen with coronal,\n  Fair Amphitrite, most divinely fair,\n  Whose ivory shoulders weren covered all,\n  As with a robe, with her own silver hair,\n  And decked with pearls which the Indian seas for her prepare.\"\n\nAmphitrite, his wife, one of the Nereids in ancient art, is represented as\na slim and beautiful young woman, her hair falling loosely about her\nshoulders, and distinguished from all the other deities by the royal\ninsignia. On ancient coins and gems she appears enthroned on the back of a\nmighty triton, or riding on a sea-horse, or dolphin.\n\nEXAMPLES.--Baron Hawke bears for supporters to his shield an aggroupment\nof classic personations of a remarkable symbolic character, granted for\nthe achievements of the renowned Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the\nFleet, Vice-Admiral of Great Britain, &c. &c., created Baron Hawke of\nTarton, Yorks, 1776. _The dexter supporter is a figure of Neptune, his\nmantle vert, edged argent, crowned with an eastern crown, or, his dexter\narm erect and holding a trident pointing downwards in the act of striking,\nsable, headed silver, and resting his left foot on a dolphin proper._\n\nSir Isaac Heard, Somersetshire; Lancaster Herald, afterwards Garter. His\narms, granted 1762, are thus blazoned in Burke's \"General Armory\": _Argent\na Neptune crowned with an eastern crown of gold, his trident sable headed\nor, issuing from a stormy ocean, the sinister hand grasping the head of a\nship's mast appearing above the waves, as part of a wreck, all proper; on\na chief azure, the Arctic pole-star of the first between two water-bougets\nof the second_.\n\n\nMerman or Triton\n\n  \"_Triton, who boasts his high Neptunian race\n  Sprung from the God by Salace's embrace._\"\n                                  CAMO\u00cbNS, \"Lusiad.\"\n\n\n  \"_Triton his trumpet shrill before them blew\n  For goodly triumph and great jolliment\n  That made the rocks to roar as they were rent._\"\n                             SPENSER, \"Faerie Queen.\"\n                           (Procession of the Sea Deities.)\n\n[Illustration: Merman or Triton.]\n\n[Illustration: Triton, with two tails. German.]\n\nTriton was the only son of Neptune and Amphitrite. The poet Apollonius\nRhodius describes him as having the upper parts of the body of a man,\nwhile the lower parts were those of a dolphin. Later poets and artists\nrevelled in the conception of a whole race of similar tritons, who were\nregarded as a wanton, mischievous tribe, like the satyrs on land. Glaucus,\nanother of the inferior deities, is represented as a triton, rough and\nshaggy in appearance, his body covered with mussels and seaweed; his hair\nand beard show that luxuriance which characterises sea-gods. Proteus, as\nshepherd of the seas, is usually distinguished with a crook. Triton, as\nherald of Neptune, is represented always holding, or blowing, his wreathed\nhorn or conch shell. His mythical duties as attendant on the supreme\nsea-divinity would, as an emblem in heraldry, imply a similar duty or\noffice in the bearer to a great naval hero.\n\n[Illustration: Mermaid and Triton supporters.]\n\nEXAMPLES.--The City of Liverpool has for sinister supporter a _Triton\nblowing a conch shell and holding a flag in his right hand_.\n\nLord Lyttelton bears for supporters _two Mermen proper, in their exterior\nhands a trident or_.\n\nOttway, Bart.--Supporters on either side, _a Triton blowing his shell\nproper, navally crowned or, across the shoulder a wreath of red coral, and\nholding in the exterior hand a trident, point downward_.\n\n_Note._--In classic story, Triton and the Siren are distinct poetic\ncreations, their vocation and attributes being altogether at variance--no\nrelationship whatever existing between them. According to modern popular\nnotions, however, the siren or mermaid, and triton, or merman as they\nsometimes term him, appear to be viewed as male and female of the same\ncreature (in heraldic parlance baron and femme). They thus appear in\ncompanionship as supporters to the arms of Viscount Hood, and similarly in\nother achievements.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\nThe Mermaid or Siren\n\n  \"_Mermaid shapes that still the waves with ecstasies of song._\"\n                                               T. SWAN,\n                                   \"The World within the Ocean.\"\n\n\n  \"_And fair Ligea's golden comb,\n  Wherewith she sits on diamond rocks,\n  Sleeking her soft alluring hair._\"\n                                 MILTON, \"Comus.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThis fabulous creature of the sea, well known in ancient and modern times\nas the frequent theme of poets and the subject of numberless legends, has\nfrom a very early date been a favourite device. She is usually represented\nin heraldry as having the upper part the head and body of a beautiful\nyoung woman, holding a comb and glass in her hands, the lower part ending\nin a fish.\n\nEllis (Glasfryn, Merioneth).--_Argent, a mermaid gules, crined or, holding\na mirror in her right hand and a comb in her left, gold. Crest, a mermaid\nas in the arms._ _Motto_, \"Worth ein ffrwythau yn hadna byddir.\" Another\nfamily of the same name, settled in Lancashire, bears the colours\nreversed, viz., _gules, a mermaid argent_.\n\n[Illustration: Crest of Ellis.]\n\nSIR JOSIAH MASON.--CREST, _a mermaid, per fess wavy argent and azure, the\nupper part gutt\u00e9e de larmes, in the dexter hand a comb, and in the\nsinister a mirror, frame and hair sable_.\n\nBalfour of Burleigh.--_On a rock, a mermaid proper, holding in her dexter\nhand an otter's head erased sable, and in the sinister a swan's head,\nerased proper._ The supporters of Baron Balfour are an otter and a swan,\nwhich will account for the heads appearing in the hands of the mermaid,\ninstead of the traditionary comb and mirror. In some other instances the\nlike occurs, as in the mermaid crest of Cussack, _the mermaid sable crined\nor, holds in dexter hand a sword, and in the sinister a sceptre_.\n\nSir George Francis Bonham, Bart.--_Crest, a mermaid holding in dexter hand\na wreath of coral, and in the sinister a mirror._\n\nWallop, Earl of Portsmouth, bears for crest _a mermaid proper_, with her\nusual accompaniments, the comb and mirror. Another family of the same name\nand bearing the same arms has for crest _a mermaid with two tails extended\nproper, hair gold, holding her tails in her hands extended wide_.\n\nIn foreign heraldry the mermaid is generally termed _M\u00e9lusine_, and\nrepresented with two fishy extremities.\n\n[Illustration: Die Ritter, of Nuremberg]\n\nDie Ritter of Nuremberg bears _per fess sable and or, a mermaid holding\nher two tails, vested gules, crowned or_.\n\nThe Austrian family of Estenberger bears for crest _a mermaid without\narms, and having wings_.\n\nA mermaid was the device of Sir William de Brivere, who died in 1226. It\nis the badge of the Berkeleys; in the monumental brass of Lord Berkeley,\nat Wolton-under-Edge, 1392 A.D., he bears a collar of mermaids over his\ncamail. The Black Prince, in his will, mentions certain devices that he\nappears to have used as badges; among the rest we find \"Mermaids of the\nSea.\" It was the dexter supporter in the coat-of-arms of Sir Walter Scott,\nand the crest of Lord Byron. The supporters of Viscount Boyne are\nmermaids. Skiffington, Viscount Marsereene, the Earl of Caledon, the Earl\nof Howth, Viscount Hood, and many other titled families bear it as crest\nor supporters. It is also borne by many untitled families.\n\nThe arms of the princely house of Lusignan, kings of Cyprus and Jerusalem,\n\"Une sir\u00e8ne dans une cuv\u00e9,\" were founded on a curious medi\u00e6val legend of\na mermaid or siren, termed M\u00e9lusine, a fairy, condemned by some spell to\nbecome on one day of the week only, half woman, half serpent. The Knight\nRoimoudin de Forez, meeting her in the forest by chance, became enamoured\nand married her, and she became the mother of several children, but she\ncarefully avoided seeing her husband on the day of her change; one day,\nhowever, his curiosity led him to watch her, which led to the spell being\nbroken, and the soul with which by her union with a Christian she hoped to\nhave been endowed, was lost to her for ever.\n\nThis interesting myth is fully examined in Baring Gould's \"Curious Myths\nof the Middle Ages.\"\n\nThe mermaid is represented as the upper half of a beautiful maiden joined\nto the lower half of a fish, and usually holding a comb in the right hand\nand a mirror in the left; these articles of the toilet have reference to\nthe old fable that always when observed by man mermaids are found to be\nresting upon the waves, combing out their long yellow hair, while admiring\nthemselves in the glass: they are also accredited with wondrous vocal\npowers, to hear which was death to the listener. It was long believed such\ncreatures really did exist, and had from time to time been seen and spoken\nwith; many, we are told, have fatally listened to \"the mermaid's charm\u00e8d\nspeech,\" and have blindly followed the beguiling, deluding creature to her\nhaunts beneath the wave, as did Sidratta, who, falling in the Ganges,\nbecame enamoured of one of these beautiful beings, the Upsaras, the\nswan-maidens of the Vedas.\n\nAll countries seem to have invented some fairy-like story of the waters.\nThe Finnish Nakki play their silver harps o' nights; the water imp or\nNixey of Germany sings and dances on land with mortals, and the \"Davy\"\n(Deva), whose \"locker\" is at the bottom of the deep blue sea, are all\npoetical conceptions of the same description. The same may be said of the\nMerminne of the Netherlands, the White Lady of Scotland and the Silver\nSwan of the German legend, that drew the ship in which the Knight\nLohengrin departed never to return.\n\nIn the \"Bestiary\" of Philip de Thaun he tells us that \"Siren lives in the\nsea, it sings at the approach of a storm and weeps in fine weather; such\nis its nature: and it has the make of a woman down to the waist, and the\nfeet of a falcon, and the tail of a fish. When it will divert itself, then\nit sings loud and clear; if then the steersman who navigates the sea hears\nit, he forgets his ship and immediately falls asleep.\"\n\nThe legendary mermaid still retains her place in popular legends of our\nsea coasts, especially in the remoter parts of our islands. The stories of\nthe Mirrow, or Irish fairy, hold a prominent place among Crofton Croker's\n\"Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland.\" Round the shores of Lough Neagh\nold people still tell how, in the days of their youth, mermaids were\nsupposed to reside in the water, and with what fear and trepidation they\nwould, on their homeward way in the twilight, approach some lonely and\nsequestered spot on the shore, expecting every moment to be captured and\ncarried off by the witching mere-maidens. On the Continent the same idea\nprevails. Among the numerous legends of the Rhine many have reference to\nthe same fabled creature.\n\nAs we know, mariners in all ages have delighted in tales of the\nmarvellous, and in less enlightened times than the present, they were not\nunlikely to have found many willing listeners and sound believers. Early\nvoyagers tell wonderful stories of these \"fish-women,\" or \"women-fish,\" as\nthey termed them. The ancient chronicles indeed teem with tales of the\ncapture of \"mermaids,\" \"mermen,\" and similar strange creatures; stories\nwhich now only excite a smile from their utter absurdity. So late as 1857\nthere appeared an article in the _Shipping Gazette_, under intelligence of\nJune 4, signed by some Scotch sailors, and describing an object seen off\nthe North British coast \"in the shape of a woman, with full breast, dark\ncomplexion, comely face\" and the rest. It is probable that some variety of\nthe seal family may be the prototype of this interesting myth.\n\nThe myth of the mermaid is, however, of far older date; Homer and later\nGreek and Roman poets have said and sung a great deal about it.\n\n\nThe Sirens of Classic Mythology\n\nThe Sirens (Greek, entanglers) enticed seamen by the sweetness of their\nsong to such a degree that the listeners forgot everything and died of\nhunger. Their names were, Parthenope, Ligea, and Leucosia.\n\n[Illustration: Ulysses and the Sirens. Flaxman's \"Odyssey.\"]\n\nParthenope, the ancient name of Neapolis (Naples) was derived from one of\nthe sirens, whose tomb was shown in Strabo's time. Poetic legend states\nthat she threw herself into the sea out of love for Ulysses, and was cast\nup on the Bay of Naples.\n\nThe celebrated Parthenon at Athens, the beautiful temple of Pallas Athen\u00e6,\nso richly adorned with sculptures, likewise derives its name from this\nsource.\n\nDante interviews the siren in \"Purgatorio,\" xix. 7-33.\n\nFlaxman, in his designs illustrating the \"Odyssey,\" represents the sirens\nas beautiful young women seated on the strand and singing.\n\n[Illustration: Ulysses and the Sirens. From a painting on a Greek vase.]\n\nIn the illustration from an ancient Greek vase gives a Grecian rendering\nof the story, and represents the Sirens as birds with heads of maidens.\n\nThe Sirens are best known from the story that Odysseus succeeded in\npassing them with his companions without being seduced by their song. He\nhad the prudence to stop the ears of his companions with wax and to have\nhimself bound to the mast. Only two are mentioned in Homer, but three or\nfour are mentioned in later times and introduced into various legends.\nDemeter (_Ceres_) is said to have changed their bodies into those of\nbirds, because they refused to go to the help of their companion,\nPersephone, when she was carried off by Pluto. \"They are represented in\nGreek art like the harpies, as young women with the wings and feet of\nbirds. Sometimes they appear altogether like birds, only with human faces;\nat other times with the bodies of women, in which case they generally hold\ninstruments of music in their hands. As their songs are death to those\nsubdued by them they are often depicted on tombs as spirits of death.\"\n\nBy the fables of the Sirens is represented the ensnaring nature of vain\nand deceitful pleasures, which sing and soothe to sleep, and never fail to\ndestroy those who succumb to their beguiling influence.\n\nSpenser, in the \"Faerie Queen,\" describes a place \"where many mermaids\nhaunt, making false melodies,\" by which the knight Guyon makes a somewhat\n\"perilous passage.\" There were five sisters that had been fair ladies,\ntill too confident in their skill in music they had ventured to contend\nwith the Muses, when they were transformed in their lower extremities to\nfish:\n\n  \"But the upper half their hue retained still,\n  And their sweet skill in wonted melody;\n  Which ever after they abused to ill\n  To allure weak travellers, whom gotten they did kill.\"\n                                  Book ii. cant. cxii.\n\nShakespeare charmingly pictures Oberon in the moonlight, fascinated by the\ngraceful form and the melodious strains of the mermaid half reclining on\nthe back of the dolphin:\n\n    \"OBERON: ... Thou rememberest\n  Since once I sat upon a promontory,\n  And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back\n  Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath\n  That the rude sea grew civil at her song\n  And certain stars shot madly from their spheres\n  To hear the sea-maid's music.\"\n\nCommentators of Shakespeare find in this passage (and subsequent parts)\ncertain references to Mary Queen of Scots, which they consider beyond\ndispute. She was frequently referred to in the poetry of the time under\nthis title. She was married to the Dauphin (or Dolphin) of France. The\nrude sea means the Scotch rebels, and the shooting stars referred to were\nthe Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, who, with others of lesser\nnote, forgot their allegiance to Elizabeth out of love to Mary.\n\n\"Few eyes,\" says Sir Thomas Browne, \"have escaped the picture of a mermaid\nwith a woman's head above and a fish's extremity below.\" In those old days\nwhen reading and writing were rare accomplishments, pictured signboards\nserved to give \"a local habitation and a name\" to hostelries and other\nplaces of business and resort. Among the most celebrated of the old London\ntaverns bearing this sign,[31] that in Bread Street stands foremost.\n\nWe find this \"Mermayde\" mentioned as early as 1464. In 1603 Sir Walter\nRaleigh established a literary club in this house, and here Shakespeare,\nBen Jonson, and the choice intellectual spirits of the time used to meet,\nand there took place those wit combats which Beaumont has commemorated and\nFuller described. It is frequently alluded to by Beaumont and Fletcher in\ntheir comedies, but best known is that quotation from a letter of Beaumont\nto Ben Jonson:\n\n            \"What things have we seen\n  Done at the Mermaid? heard words that have been\n  So nimble and so full of subtle flame,\n  As if that any one from whence they came\n  Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest,\n  And had resolved to live a fool the rest\n  Of his dull life; then when there had been thrown\n  Wit able enough to justify the town\n  For three days past; wit that might warrant be\n  For the whole city to talk foolishly,\n  Till that were cancell'd; and when that was gone,\n  We left an air behind us, which alone\n  Was able to make the next two companies\n  (Right witty, though but downright fools) more wise.\"\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe Dolphin of Legend and of Heraldry\n\n            \"_... his delights\n  Were dolphin-like; they showed his back above\n  The element they lived in._\"\n                \"Anthony and Cleopatra,\" Act v. sc. 2.\n\nAs the Lion is the king of beasts, the Eagle the king of birds, so in\nsimilar heraldic sense the Dolphin is king of fishes. His position in\nlegend is probably due to his being one of the biggest and boldest\ncreatures of the sea that passed the Pillars of Hercules into the\nMediterranean Sea. Pliny (Book ix. ch. 8) calls it \"The swiftest of all\nother living creatures whatsoever, and not of sea fish only, is the\ndolphin; quicker than any fowle, swifter than the arrow shot from a bow.\"\n\nThe dolphin, of which there are several varieties, enjoys a pretty wide\ngeographical distribution, being found in the Arctic seas, the Atlantic\nOcean, and indeed of all seas. It was well known to the ancients and\nfurnished the theme of many a fabulous story.\n\n[Illustration: The Dolphin.]\n\nThe common dolphin (_Delphinus Delphis_) the true _hieros ichthus_, is\nonly rarely met with on the British coast. Its length is usually seven or\neight feet, though some specimens have been found to measure ten feet. Its\nback is almost straight, or only slightly elevated; its colour is dusky\nblack above and whitish beneath. Its pectorals or flappers, which are\nplaced low in the sides, are well developed, and a dorsal fin, which is\nsomewhat short, is much elevated. Its tail is broad and notched in the\ncentre and expanded horizontally--not vertically as in most other\nfishes--by the help of which it makes its peculiar leaps over the surface\nof the water and at the same time takes its breath.\n\nUnlike its near relatives the porpoises, who haunt the coast, dolphins\nlive far out at sea, and are generally mistaken for porpoises. The\nlong-snouted dolphin feeds on pelagic fishes. The short-nosed porpoise\nlikes salmon and mackerel, robs the fishermen's nets, and even burrows in\nthe sand in search of odds and ends. The dolphin is the sea-goose. The\nporpoise is the sea-pig; he is the _porc-poisson_, the _porc-pois_, or\nsea-hog.\n\nThe convex snout of the dolphin is separated from the forehead by a deep\nfurrow; the muzzle is greatly extended, compressed, and much attenuated\nespecially towards the apex, where it terminates in a rather sharp-pointed\nbeak. The French name _bec d'oie_, from the great projection of its nose\nor beak, has led to its adoption in the arms of English families of the\nname of Beck. The dolphin is an elegant and swift swimmer, and capable of\novertaking the swiftest of the finny tribe. Because the creature is noted\nfor its swiftness it has been adopted in the arms of Fleet.\n\nThe dolphin is able to hold his own against nearly all others of his size\nand weight, and even some of the larger cetaceans only come off second\nbest in an encounter with the dolphin. He is voracious, gluttonous, and\never on the look out for something to turn up, hunting his prey with great\npersistency and devouring it with avidity. He has been not inaptly styled\n\"the plunderer of the deep.\"\n\nThe destructive character of the dolphin amongst the various tribes of\nfish is not lessened when we examine its formidable jaws studded with an\nimmense number of interlocking teeth. Notwithstanding its rapacious habits\nand the variety of its diet it was in England formerly regarded as a royal\nfish, and its flesh held in high estimation. Old chroniclers have frequent\nentries of dolphins being caught in the Thames, thus: \"3 Henry V.--Seven\ndolphins came up the Thames, whereof four were taken.\" \"14th Richard\nII.--On Christmas Day one was taken at London Bridge, being ten feet long,\nand a monstrous grown fish.\" (Delalune's \"Present State of London,\" 1681.)\nThe early fathers of the Church deemed \"all fish that swam in the sea\";\nthe dolphin was therefore eaten in Lent. He is, however, a mammal, not a\nfish, and though an air-breathing creature he lives and dies in the ocean.\nBut one is brought forth at a birth, and between the old and young of\ntheir kind, as in the case of all marine animals, a strong affection\nexists.\n\nTravellers' tales are notoriously hard of belief, and must be taken _cum\ngrano salis_. We learn from Sir Thomas Herbert, an early voyager, that\nwhen he was on the coast of Sanquehar, a large kingdom on the east side of\nthe Cape of Good Hope, he \"saw there great numbers of dolphins,\" of which\nhe says: \"They much affect the company of men, and are nourished like men;\nthey are always constant to their mates, tenderly affected to their\nparents, feeding and defending them against hungry fishes when they are\nold,\" and much more information equally astonishing.\n\nA story is related of a man who once went to a mufti and asked him whether\nthe flesh of the sea-pig (the dolphin) was lawful food. Without any\nhesitation the mufti declared that pig's flesh was unlawful at all times\nand under all circumstances. Some time after another person submitted the\nquestion to the same authority, whether the _fish_ of the sea, called the\nsea-pig, was lawful food. The mufti replied: \"Fish is lawful food by\nwhatever name it may be called.\"\n\nCLASSIC FABLE AND MEDI\u00c6VAL LEGEND have shed a halo of romantic interest\naround the dolphin which cleaves to it even to the present hour; the rare\nevent of a dolphin being caught in British waters revives with a thrill\nall the old-world stories and historic associations of this famous fish as\nif it were a veritable relic of the golden age. The dolphin of fact we\nhave found to be quite a different creature from what he is pictured by\nthe ancients. The mariner may be engulfed by \"the yawning, dashing,\nfurious sea,\" but no generous dolphin now watches with tender eye,\nsolicitous for his safety, nor offers his ready back to speed him to the\nshore.\n\nThe dolphin of our modern poets and sailors--the swift swimmer that leaps\nafter the flying-fish and frolics in front of the vessel's prow until he\nis caught by the glittering tin--is the _Coryph\u00e6na hippurus_, the species\nfamed for its changing tints when taken from the water. During a calm,\nthese fishes, when swimming about a ship, appear of a brilliant blue or\npurple, shining with a metallic lustre in every change of reflected light.\nOn being captured and brought on deck, the variety of these tints is very\nbeautiful. The bright purple and golden yellow hues change to brilliant\nsilver, varying back again into the original colours, purple and gold.\nThis alteration of tints continues for some time, diminishing in\nintensity, and at last settles down into a dull leaden hue. The\niridescent lines which play along its elegant curves as he lies on deck\nhas awakened the enthusiasm of many a writer. Byron tells us in a\nbeautiful simile:\n\n                      \"Parting day\n  Dies like the dolphin, whom each pang imbues\n  With a new lustre, as it gasps away,\n  The last still loveliest, till 'tis gone--and all is grey.\"\n\n[Illustration: Dolphin of classic art.]\n\nIt is needless to say that the legendary dolphin is not to be confounded\nwith the gay and graceful _coryph\u00e6na_ to whom alone belong those rainbow\nflashes of colour in dying. The common dolphin (_Delphinus delphis_) is\ndark on the back and satiny white beneath but not even in the agonies of\ndeath does he change colour, though like all dead things the body becomes\nslightly phosphorescent during decomposition. There are two curious fresh\nwater dolphins, the Sooloo of the Ganges and the Inia of the Amazon, which\nform the connecting-link between the herbaceous and carnivorous cetacea.\n\nThe dolphin (\u03b4\u03b5\u03bb\u03c6\u03af\u03bd) may be considered an accessory symbol of Apollo, who,\nas we read in the Homeric hymns, once took the form of a dolphin when he\nguided the Cretan ship to Crissa, whence, after commanding the crew to\nburn the ship and erect an altar to him as Apollo Delphinios, he led them\nto Delphi, and appointed them to be the first priests of his temple.\n\nThe dolphin is the most classic of fishes, the favourite of Apollo, and\nsacred to that bright divinity, deriving his name from the oracular\nDelphi, that mysterious spot, \"the earth's umbilicus,\" the very centre of\nthe world, Delphi or Delphos, a town in Phocis, famous for its oracle in\nthe Temple of Apollo, upon the walls of which were sculptured the _Helios\nichthus_, Apollo's fish.\n\nIn the legend of Tarento, Phalantus, heading the Patheni\u00e6, was driven from\nSparta and shipwrecked off the coast of Italy, and escaped on a friendly\ndolphin's back to Tarentum. We learn from Aristotle that the youthful\nfigure seated on the dolphin, which is the most common type on the coins\nof this city, was intended for Taras, a son of Poseidon, from whom the\ncity is said to have derived its name.\n\nThe dolphins, \"the arrows of the sea,\" were the great carriers of ancient\ntimes. Not only did they bear the Nereides safely on their backs, but\nArion, the sweet singer, when forced to leap into the sea to escape the\nmariners who would have murdered him, had previously so charmed the\ndolphins by his playing that they gathered round the ship and one of them\nbore Arion safely to T\u00e6narus, whilst the musician\n\n                \"with harmonious strains\n  Requites his bearer for his friendly pains.\"\n\nThe classic myth of Arion and the dolphin, like many other pagan\nfictions, was invested by the early Christians with an entirely different\nsignification, and in the sculptures and frescoes of the catacombs and\nother symbolic representations of the Christian converts, the frequent\nintroduction of the dolphin \"points not to the deliverer of Arion, but to\nHim who through the waters of baptism opens to mankind the paths of\ndeliverance, causing them to so pass the waves of this troublesome world\nthat finally they may come to the land of everlasting life.\"\n\nThe poet Licophron says Ulysses bore a dolphin on his shield, on the\npommel of his sword, as well as on his ring, in commemoration of the\nextraordinary escape of his son Telemachus, who when young fell into the\nsea and was taken up by a dolphin and safely brought on shore. Pliny and\nothers relate a story of one of these fishes which frequented the Lake\nLucrin: \"A boy who went every day to school from Baia to Puzzoli used to\nfeed this dolphin with bread, and it became at last so familiar with the\nboy that it carried him often on its back over the bay.\"\n\nThe dolphins were early symbols on the coins of \u00c6gina, and though\nabandoned for a time were afterwards resumed; and they appear upon later\nand well-known coins of that State accompanied by the wolf and other\nnational devices. Argos had anciently two dolphins; Syracuse, a winged\nsea-dog, a dolphin, &c.; Teneos (Cyclades) two dolphins and a trident. The\ndolphin and trident figures also upon coins of the ancient city of\nByzantium, signifying probably the sovereignty of the seas. It is even\nfigured by the ancients as a constellation in the heraldry of the heavens.\nIn botany it lives in larkspurs called delphiniums, from their curious\npetals and the slender segments of their leaves.\n\n[Illustration: Coin of \u00c6gina.]\n\nThe dolphin and anchor is a famous historic symbol. Titus, Emperor of\nRome, took the device of a dolphin twisted round an anchor, to imply, like\nthe emblem of Augustus, the medium between haste and slowness, the anchor\nbeing the symbol of delay, as it is also of firmness and security, while\nthe dolphin is the swiftest of fish. This device appears also upon the\ncoins of Vespasian, the father of Titus. The anchor was also used as a\nsignet ring by Seleneus, King of Syria. The dolphin and anchor was also\nused, with the motto \"Festina lente\" (\"Hasten slowly\"), by the Emperor\nAdolphus of Nassau, and by Admiral Chabot. The family of Onslow bear the\nsame for crest and motto.\n\nAldus Manutius, the celebrated Venetian printer, adopted this well-known\ndevice from a silver medal presented to him by Cardinal Bembo, with the\nmotto in Greek \"hasten slowly.\" Camerarius describes this sign in his book\nof symbols \"to represent that maturity in business which is the medium\nbetween too great haste and slowness.\" \"When violent winds disturb the sea\nthe anchor is cast by seamen, the dolphin winds herself round it out of a\nparticular love for mankind, and directs it as with a human intellect so\nthat it may more safely take hold of the ground; for dolphins have this\npeculiar property that they can, as it were, foretell storms. The anchor\nthen signifies a stay and security whilst the dolphin is a hieroglyphic\nfor philanthropy and safety.\"\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThis sign was afterwards adopted by William Pickering, a worthy\n\"Discipulus Aldi\" as he styles himself. Sir Egerton Bridges has some\nverses upon it, amongst which occur the following:\n\n  \"Would thou still be safely landed,\n    On the Aldine anchor ride;\n  Never yet was vessel stranded,\n    With the dolphin by its side.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  \"Nor time nor envy shall ever canker,\n    The sign which is my lasting pride;\n  Joy then to the Aldus anchor\n    And the dolphin at its side.\n\n  \"To the dolphin as we're drinking,\n    Life and health and joy we send;\n  A poet once he saved from sinking,\n    And still he lives the poet's friend.\"\n\nThe dolphin was the insignia of the Eastern Empire--the Empire of\nConstantinople. The Courteneys, a noble Devonshire family, still bear the\ndolphin as crest and badge, and the melancholy motto, \"Ubi lapsus? Quid\nfeci?\" (\"Whither have I fallen? What have I done?\"), \"a touching\nallusion,\" says Miss Millington (\"Heraldry in History and Romance\"), \"to\nthe misfortunes of their race, three of whom filled the imperial throne of\nConstantinople during the time that city was in possession of the Latins\nafter the siege of 1204. Expelled at length by the Greeks, Baldwin, the\nlast of the three, wandered from Court to Court throughout Europe vainly\nseeking aid to replace him upon the throne.\"\n\nA branch of the imperial Courteneys settled in England during the reign of\nHenry II., and their descendants were among the principal Barons of the\nrealm. Three Earls of Courteney perished on the scaffold during the Wars\nof the Roses; the family was restored to favour by Henry VII. Another\nCourteney, the Marquis of Exeter, became first the favourite, and\nsubsequently the victim of the brutal tyrant Henry VIII. His son Edward,\nafter being long a prisoner in the tower, ended his days in exile, and the\nfamily estates passed into other hands.\n\nSir William Courteney, of Powderham Castle, Devon (_temp._ Edw. IV.),\nbore emblazoned on his standard three dolphins in reference to the purple\nof three Emperors.\n\nThe Arms of Peter Courteney, Bishop of Exeter, 1478, is still to be seen\nin the episcopal palace environed with the dolphins of Constantinople.\n\n\nThe Dauphin of France\n\n[Illustration: Banner of the Dauphin.]\n\nIn France the bearing of the dolphin was exclusively restricted to the\nDauphin or heir to the throne of the kingdom. Brydson mentions that one of\nthe first of the troubadours was called the Dauphin, or Knight of the\nDolphin, from bearing that figure on his shield, adding that \"the name in\nhis successors became a title of sovereign dignity.\"\n\nThe title \"Dauphin,\" borne by the eldest son and heir-apparent of the\nkings of France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, originated in the\nDauphins of Viennois, sovereigns of the province of Dauphin\u00e9. Guy VIII.,\nCount of Vienne, was the first so styled. The title descended in the\nfamily till 1349, when Humbert II., _de la Tour de Pisa_, sold his\nseigneurie, called the Dauphin\u00e9, to Philippe VI. (de Valois), on condition\nthat the heir of France assumed the title of \"Le Dauphin.\" The first\nFrench prince so called was Jean, who succeeded Philippe; and the last was\nthe Duc d'Angoul\u00eame, son of Charles X., who renounced the title in 1830.\nIn 1601, when Louis XIII. was born, there had not been a Dauphin since\nFrancis II. (the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots)--eighty-four years. The\nprovince of Dauphin\u00e9 sent a deputation to Fontainebleau, headed by the\nArchbishop of Vienne, to recognise the infant as their sovereign, and make\nhim a present of an entire service of richly chased plate with various\nfigures of dolphins, estimated at 12,000 crowns.\n\nGRAND DAUPHIN.--Louis, duc de Bourgogne, eldest son of Louis XIV., for\nwhom was published the edition of the Latin classics entitled \"Ad usum\nDelphini\" (1661-1711).\n\nSECOND, OR LITTLE DAUPHIN.--Louis, son of the Grand Dauphin (1682-1712).\n\nShakespeare, by an anachronism of a hundred years, introduced into King\nJohn\n\n  \"Lewis, the Dauphin and the heir of France.\"\n\nMary Queen of Scots bore the title on her marriage in 1558 to the Dauphin,\nafterwards Francis II., and styled by her adherents:\n\n      \"Mary, Queen, and Dolphiness of Fraunce,\n  The nobillest lady in earth.\"\n\n\nThe Heraldic Dolphin\n\n[Illustration: Example--Dolphin embowed.]\n\nThe heraldic dolphin, as usually represented by modern heralds, is an\nornamental monstrosity bearing but slight resemblance to the natural form\nof this celebrated historic marine symbol; a nearer resemblance to the\nnatural shape is decidedly preferable. Some of the early heraldic\nrepresentations, though a little crude, are very characteristic and\nthoroughly heraldic in treatment, though at the same time very unlike the\nreal dolphin.\n\nIn its series of leaps out of the water the dolphin appears with high\narched back, just as we see it represented in antique works; its natural\nshape, however, is straight, the back being but slightly curved. The broad\ntail paddle being placed in a horizontal position necessitates an up and\ndown stroke, which makes their swimming to appear a series of leaps and\ndivings. Like its near relative the porpoise, it is an air-breathing\nanimal; its apparent gambollings on the water may, therefore, be more\ntruly attributed to its breathing and blowing whilst in pursuit of its\nprey.\n\nThe Dolphin is generally, if not always, depicted in heraldry _embowed_,\nthat is, having its back greatly incurvated. In blazon the word _Dolphin_,\nalone, implies that its natural position, _naiant_ (swimming) and embowed,\nis understood, but for the sake of accuracy it is better always to give\nthe description in full, as a doubt may arise as to the omission of a word\nindicating its position.\n\n_Torqued_, _torquend_, _torgant_, or _targant_, from the Latin _torquere_,\nto twist, are old terms for embowed, or bowed embowed, bent in the form of\nthe letter S, turning contrary ways at each bending; applicable also to\nserpents.\n\n_Hauriant_, from the Latin _ab hauriendo_, is a term applied to fishes\ngenerally when placed in an upright position or _in pale_, as if putting\nthe head above water to get air.\n\n[Illustration: Hauriant]\n\n[Illustration: Urinant]\n\n[Illustration: Naiant]\n\n[Illustration: Torqued]\n\nShell-fish are blazoned _erect_ or _upright_, the term hauriant being only\napplicable to fishes with scales and fins.\n\n_Urinant_ (from the Latin _urino_, to duck or dive under water) signifies\nborne with the head downwards and the tail erect, the reverse position of\nhauriant.\n\nTwo dolphins are occasionally borne together, sometimes endorsed, or back\nto back; sometimes respecting each other.\n\nAs signifying the conquest of the sea, it appears in the shields of many\nseaport cities. It figures on the well-known bearings of the towns of\nBrighton, Dunkirk, Poole, &c.\n\nThe Dolphin appears in English heraldry as early as the middle of the\nthirteenth century. In a roll of arms of that date, a dolphin is given as\nthe coat of Gile de Fiseburn.\n\n\"The Godolphins of Helston,\" says Miss Millington, \"who had estates in\nthat part of the kingdom (Cornwall) at the time of the Conquest, bore\n_argent three dolphins embowed, sable_.\" Similar arms are borne by many\nEnglish families.\n\nThe Godolphins, Franklins, Franklands, Frenches, Fishers and Kennedys, in\nmany of their branches, bear the dolphin fish as their crest.\n\nA man playing the harp on a dolphin is the heraldic cognisance of the\nWalterton family.\n\n\n[Illustration: Sea-horse naiant.]\n\n\nThe Sea--Horse\n\n  \"_His sea-horses did seem to snort amain\n  And from their nostrils blow the fiery stream\n  That made the sparkling waves to smoke again\n  And flame with gold; but the white foam cream\n  Did shine with silver, and shoot forth his beam._\"\n                            SPENSER'S _Faerie Queen_.\n                           (Procession of the Sea Divinities.)\n\nThe steeds of Neptune are favourite subjects in ancient poetry and art in\nthe triumphs and processions of the marine deities, drawing the chariot of\nthe sea-god in its progress through the waves. The imaginative Greeks\npictured to themselves the horses of Poseidon in the rolling and bounding\nwaves as they pursue each other in haste towards the shore, \"curling their\nmonstrous heads.\" This may seem to account for the constant and close\nconnection between the god and the horse. The origin of the horse is\nascribed to the contest between Poseidon and Athen\u00e6 as to who should make\nto mankind the most useful present; Neptune created the horse, Minerva the\nolive-tree.\n\n[Illustration: Sea-horse erect.]\n\nThe city of Lampsacus, in Mysia, founded by the Phoceans, adopted the\nwinged sea-horse as their monetary type, in allusion to the fleetness of\ntheir vessels. Others of the maritime States of Greece also adopted the\nsea-horse upon their coins.\n\nA coin of the celebrated Pyrrhus, King of Epirus (slain B.C. 272), the\nknight-errant of ancient heroes, represents the head of Achilles, the\nreputed ancestor of Pyrrhus, on one side, and the Nereid, Thetis, the\nmother of Achilles, on the sea-horse on the reverse. Thetis carries the\narms forged by Vulcan for Achilles, in allusion to the succour brought by\nPyrrhus to the Italian Greeks against the barbarians, as the rising Romans\nwere termed by them.\n\nIn Gibbon's \"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,\" we find a reference to\na veritable sea-horse, if we may believe our authority. John Sobieski,\nthe victorious King of Poland, in his letters to his wife, when he raised\nthe memorable siege of Vienna and delivered Europe for ever from the\nincursions of the Turks, describes to her how, in the tent of Mustapha, he\nfound the great standard of the Turks, \"_made of the hair of the sea-horse\n(?) wrought with a needle and embroidered with Arabic figures_.\" It was\nafterwards hung up by the order of the Emperor in the Cathedral of St.\nStephens, \"where,\" adds the historian, \"_I have seen it_.\"\n\nThe coast of Naples is celebrated for the production of a small fish in\ngreat repute with mothers who nurse their offspring; among its other\nvirtues it is said to cure the bite of a mad dog. It is about four to six\ninches in length, and has a head resembling that of a horse, terminating\nin a dragon's tail. This is the tiny hippocampus of our public aquariums.\nThe Neapolitans call them \"cavalli-marini,\" which was once ingeniously\ntranslated by a learned English traveller as \"horse marines.\"\n\nThis fabulous marine creature in heraldry is compounded of the fore\nquarters of a horse with webbed paws, and the hinder part of a fish or\ndolphin. A scalloped fin is continued down the neck and back in place of a\nmane. It is frequently, though erroneously, to be seen depicted with the\nflowing mane of a horse; wings are also sometimes added to it, both of\nwhich, it is needless to say, are wrong, unless specially mentioned in the\nblazon.\n\nThe Westenras (Baron Rossmore), descended from the family of Van\nWassenhaer of Wassenburg, were of great antiquity in Holland, and they\nbore the augmentation of the sea-horse in reference to the valour and\nintrepidity of an ancestor, who, during the Duke of Alva's campaign, was\nactively employed against the enemies of his country and undertook at\ngreat risk to swim across an arm of the sea with important despatches to\nhis besieged countrymen.\n\n[Illustration: Arms of the city of Belfast. The sinister supporter and\ncrest are Sea-horses.]\n\nThe Sea-horse is of very frequent use in armory, and usually has reference\nto meritorious actions performed at sea. It is also borne by many seaport\ntowns in allusion to the trade and commerce of the port, as in the arms\nof the city of Belfast.\n\nCromwell, Protector, bore as supporters a lion of England and a sea-horse,\nprobably to denote his protectorship of the sea, as of the land.\n\nBossewell (\"Works of Armorie,\" 1589), in his peculiar mixture of English\nand Latin, gives a quaint description of the animal: \"This water-horse of\nthe sea is called a hippotame, for that he is like an horse in back,\nmayne, and neying: rostro resupinato a primis dentibus: cauda tortuosa,\nungulis binis. He abideth in the waters on the day, and eateth corn by\nnight et hunc Nilus gignit.\" The latter may be classed with those\nfantastic ornamental forms frequently employed in fountains and\nwaterworks, such as the _Ichthyocentaur_, _i.e._, a combination of man and\nhorse, or the centaur with a fish's extremity.\n\n\nSea-lion\n\nor _Lion poisson_, a mythical sea-creature, frequently used in heraldry as\nan emblem of bold actions achieved on the ocean in the country's service.\nIt is depicted as the fore part of a lion with webbed feet, the hinder\npart ending in a fish's tail.\n\nTwo such animals support the arms of Viscount Falmouth.\n\nThe Earl of Howth has for supporters _a sea-lion argent_, and a mermaid,\nproper. The crest also is a sea-lion.\n\n[Illustration: Sea-lion erect.]\n\nThe crest of Duckworth is _a tower, the battlements partly demolished,\nfrom the top flames issuant proper; on the sinister side a sea-lion erect\nazure, pressing against the tower_.\n\nSilvestre.--_Argent, a sea-lion couchant azure, crowned armed and langued\ngules._\n\nWhen the sea-lion or other compounded creature of this kind is erect, it\nshould be clearly blazoned as \"a sea-lion erect on his tail,\" to\ndistinguish it from naiant, the swimming position natural to it.\n\n\nSea-dog\n\nis depicted like a talbot in shape, but with the tail like that of a\nbeaver, the feet webbed and the whole body scaled like a fish, a scalloped\nfin continued along the back from the head to the tail.\n\nBaron Stourton has two such beasts, sable, scaled or, for his supporters.\n\nThe crest of Sir H. Delves Broughton.--_A sea-dog's head gules, eared and\nfinned argent._\n\n[Illustration: Sea-dog rampant.]\n\nThe SEA-BULL, SEA-WOLF, SEA-BEAR, SEA-CAT, SEA-DRAGON, etc., when they\noccur in heraldry, are all depicted as having the anterior portions of\ntheir bodies in the forms which their several names denote; but, like the\nsea-lion and sea-horse, they have fishes tails and webbed paws.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn conclusion, having, as far as possible, given the _raison d'\u00eatre_ of\neach, and traced the life-history and characteristics of the many strange\nand fantastic creatures in our symbolic menagerie, it only remains to\nexpress the hope that the information contained in this volume may be\nfound both interesting and useful, as without some such knowledge there\ncan be little or no intelligent understanding of the proper treatment of\nthe forms of these mythical and symbolic beings. The suggestive\nillustrations, while giving the recognised forms of each, leaves to the\nartist free scope to adopt his own style of art treatment, whether purely\nheraldic or merely decorative.\n\n\n  Printed by BALLANTYNE & CO. LIMITED\n  Tavistock Street, London\n\n\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1] \"Decorative Heraldry,\" by G. W. Eve.\n\n[2] The above notes on heraldic treatment are largely adapted from the\nadmirable works on Decorative Art, by Louis F. Day.\n\n[3] See Audsley's \"Glossary of Architecture,\" \"Angel,\" p. 101.\n\n[4] \"Restit. of Decayed Intell. in Antiq.\" p. 147.\n\n[5] \"Great Cities of the Middle Ages.\"\n\n[6] \"History of Signboards.\"\n\n[7] Brewer's \"Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.\"\n\n[8] \"Analysis of Ornament,\" by Ralph N. Wornum.\n\n[9] That is, _Visconti_ is only a variation of _Biscia_ equivalent to\n_Anguis_, Italianised to _Angleria_.\n\n[10] Pliny, Book xi. ch. 25, from an old translation.\n\n[11] But for an oversight in the drawing, the unicorn should have been\nrepresented with the divided hoofs of a stag.\n\n[12] \"Mythology of Greece and Rome, with special reference to its Use in\nArt,\" from the German of O. Seemann.\n\n[13] W. N. Humphry's \"Coin Collector's Manual.\"\n\n[14] \"Modern Painters,\" vol. iii. ch. 8.\n\n[15] \"Historical Devices, Badges, and War Cries,\" p. 10.\n\n[16] \"Iconography of Christian Art.\"\n\n[17] \"Orlando Furioso,\" iv. 18, 19.\n\n[18] \"Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.\"\n\n[19] W. Noel Humphry's \"Coin Collector's Manual.\"\n\n[20] Book x. ch. 2.\n\n[21] Guillam's \"Display of Heraldry.\" The same is also related in the\nLatin \"Bestiarium,\" Harl. MSS. 4751; and by Albertus Magnus, Camerarius,\n&c.\n\n[22] \"Cassell's Natural History.\"\n\n[23] Bk. viii. ch. 17.\n\n[24] Harl. MSS. 6085.\n\n[25] Hist. Dev. 260.\n\n[26] \"Natural History,\" x. 67, xxix. 4.\n\n[27] Tylor's \"Primitive Culture.\"\n\n[28] Armorie of Honour, 62.\n\n[29] \"Coin Collector's Manual,\" Bohn.\n\n[30] Book ix. ch. 13.\n\n[31] The sign was also used by printers: John Rastall, brother-in-law to\nSir Thomas More, \"emprynted in the Cheapesyde at the Sygne of the\nMermayde; next to Powlsgate in 1572.\" Henry Binnemann, the Queen's\nprinter, dedicated a work to Sir Thomas Gresham, in 1576, at the sign of\nthe Mermaid, Knightrider Street. A representation of the creature was\ngenerally prefixed to his books.--\"History of Sign-boards,\" p. 227.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nPassages in italics are indicated by _italics_.\n\nSuperscripted characters are indicated by {superscript}.","title":"Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art: With Special Reference to Their Use in British Heraldry","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":53992}