On the Fur Trade, and Fur-bearing Animals. S15 
The four noble furs were “ the sable, the ermine, the vair and the 
gris.” The three first were admitted into armorial bearings. “ Er- 
mine is represented in Heraldry, by a white ground, with small black 
lengthened spots... The vair was a squirrel with a dove colored back, 
from Hungary and the southern provinces of Russia, and when bla- 
zoned was azure.* The sable is a rich dark color, between black 
and brown, witha tinge of olive, and in heraldry was the black color, 
in the arms of princes and nobles. The gris was probably a squir- 
rel, but antiquaries are not confident to which variety it belonged. 
_ In the first crusade, in 1097, the most sumptuous display on_re- 
cord was made before the Emperor Alexius Comnenus, at Constan- 
tinople. That city had not been overrun by the barbarians who des- 
olated the countries of southern and western Europe. It was: the 
last resort of arts, of law, of letters, of elegance and refinement; the 
strong hold of civilization. Here those martial devotees, the crusa- 
ders, descendants of the Goths, amazed at the splendors of this al- 
most oriental city, caught the graces of an accomplished and polished 
people, and engrafted upon their own. primitive tastes every congenial 
improvement. The canon, Albert, describes in glowing colors, the 
splendid vestments of purple, the cloth of gold, the robes of ermine, 
the mantles of furs, of martin, gris, and vair, which the crusaders dis- 
played in the court of the Emperor. It was more than three hundred 
years from this era, before this. resplendent city felt the withering arm 
of the Turk.t In 1453, Mahomet IL., in the insolence of victory gave 
itover to pillage. After the work of desolation was completed, and 
rapine and cruelty had done their worst, he entered the ruined palace 
of the Constantines, and exclaimed, in the language of the Persian 
poet, “‘ the spider may weave his web in the prince’s peor and the 
owl may sing his watch song on the towers of Afrasiah.” 
For many centuries the furs of ermine and sable were among the 
insignia of royalty, and the use of them was regulated by sumptuary 
laws. They were-denied to the common people, and permitted to 
none but kings and princes, with a few exceptions in favor of distin- 
guished nobles, certain state dignitaries, and the presiding magistrates 
in the high courts of justice. They were not blazoned in heraldry as 
mere ornaments, but as discriminating marks of high quality. They 
were associated with the poetry and chivalry of the age; and with 
" The skins of vair.were imported from Hungary, regedit to Guill Le Breton. 
t See Dearborn’s Memoir on the Commerce of the Black Sea 
