Some Harmless Beasts. i6i 



Qtti £y frotte iy pique was the legend on Charles the 

 Bold's device of a porcupine. Another heraldic w him about 

 this animal, and one that might have attracted the poets, is 

 the Colonna's motto of Vecus et iutamen in armis, wherein 

 is contained a wholesome moral both for individuals and 

 nations, and a practical fact, of whic'n the porcupine is 

 most thoroughly well aware. 



The reference in Cowley's lines, quoted above, to the 

 " darting," is an allusion, of course, to the fiction — a very 

 ancient one— that the porcupine can shoot its quills like 

 arrows. When the animal ciiarges an enemy — which it 

 does backwards, by the way — it often, no doubt, leaves a 

 quill or two sticking. Also, when the skin is contracted for 

 the erection of the quiils, a loose one may, no doubt, some- 

 times fall out; and seeing how sudden and violent the 

 muscular action is, it is not inconceivable that such a 

 loosened quill might seem to be " shot " off. But there is 

 no capacity for deliberate archery in the beast. It is not 

 so deficient in sagacity as to fire its weapons away. 



I find in Mrs. Bury Palliser's fascinating volume the 

 following passage : — 



"In 1397, Louis, Duke of Orleans, instituted the Order 

 of the Porcupine, and on the occasion of the baptism of 

 his son Charles he took this animal as his emblem, with 

 the motto ' Near and Afar,' alluding to the vulgar error 

 that the porcupine is able not only to defend itself from 

 close attack, but can throw its quills against more distant 

 assailants, Duke Louis meaning thereby to convey that he 

 would defend himself with his own weapons, and that he 

 would attack his enemy, John, Duke of Burgundy, as well 

 at a distance as near. Louis XIL abolished the Order 

 after his ascension to the throne, but retained the hereditary 

 badge of his family, and took two porcupines for the sup- 

 porters of his arms. His cannons were marked with the 

 porcupine, and his golden * ecus au pore-epic ' were much 



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