76 FISHES OF FANCY. 



and shields, date back to the palmy days of Phoenicia, 

 when Tyre and other cities of the Mediterranean stamped 

 their medals and coins with them. The nautilus, a favourite 

 emblem in Southern Europe, bears in the badge of the 

 Affidati Academy the motto, " Safe above and below," in 

 allusion to the old-world description of its habits. 



" But among the greatest wonders of nature is that fish which of 

 some is called nautilos, of others pompilos. This fish, for to come 

 aloft above the water turneth upon his backe, and raiseth or heaveth 

 himselfe up by little and little ; and to the end he might swim with 

 more ease as disburdened of a sinke, he dischargeth all the water 

 within him at a pipe. After this, turning up his two foremost clawes, or 

 armes, hee displaieth and stretcheth out betweene them a membrane 

 or skin of a wonderful thinnesse ; this serveth him instead of a saile in 

 the aire above water. With the rest of his armes or clawes he roweth 

 and laboureth under water, and with his taile in the mids, he directeth 

 his course, and steereth as it were with an helme. Thus, holdeth he 

 on, and maketh way in the sea, with a faire shew of a foist or galley 

 under saile. Now if he be afraid of anything in the way, hee makes 

 no more adoe but draweth in water to baillise his bodie, and so 

 plungeth himselfe downe, and sinketh to the bottom." 



But, of course, the most celebrated and popular of shell 

 crests and devices was the pearl-oyster. Charged with 

 its precious freight, it appears in a hundred forms, the 

 legend always repeating one or other of the curious and 

 beautiful fancies of antiquity. Every royal Margaret, by 

 right of name, claimed the precious thing as her emblem ; 

 princes and nobles bore it on their impresas, and the 

 coronets of nobility take the degrees of rank from the 

 pearls upon them. 



In German heraldry, fish as devices are even more 

 common, and their positions on the shields are infinitely 

 more varied than in the armorial bearings of England. 

 In France, also, where heraldry is more generally popular 

 than in Britain, there is a striking fertility in design, and 



