Some Harmless Beasts. 159 



" the wiser and older hunters preferred putting salt on the 

 ermines' tails." 



However, the superstition greatly enhanced this dainty 

 little animal's unsullied reputation. Thus Marvel makes 

 the small exquisite one of the creatures of Paradise — 



" In fair Elysium to endure, 



Willi milk-wliite lambs and ermines pure ;" 



while in the present world it has been selected as the most 

 befitting emblem of sovereignty — 



" Whose honour, ermine-like, can never suffer 

 Spot or black soil." 



So the robes of royal and noble personages are lined with 

 this fur, " to signify," says the author of " Historic Devices," 

 " the internal purity that should regulate their conduct." 



At one time it was the only fur represented on coats of- 

 arms, and was the natural white, with black tail-points — 



" Tipped with jet. 

 Fair ermines, spotless as the snows they press. ' 



But afterwards, like every other object in Nature, it wan- 

 dered into varieties — "counter-ermine," which was black, 

 with white tail-tips ; " erminois," gold, with black points ; 

 and " erminite," white, with black points edged with red. 



A special interest attaches to the whimsical exaltation 

 of this elegant creature, as the ermine is really — under a 

 climatic variation of fur — only the stoat, which is as guileful, 

 stealthy, and wicked a little assassin as ever ran on four legs. 

 - Yet, we ask, "What's in a name?" 



Just as the hedgehog is reproached for having " thorns " 

 on its back, so the porcupine for wearing quills. Its mythi- 

 cal power of shooting its quills at assailants is accepted. 

 Thus " like porcupine she sends a piercing dart " ( Jenyns), 

 and "more dangerous than porcupine his quill" (Somer- 

 villc). 



