304 HERALDIC SCIENCE. 



shaped strips of ermine or foumart to form the fair (variegated fur). The 

 enamel, or sable, which represents black in the language of heraldry, was 

 the fur of the sable, or fisher-weasel, as it is called by several poets of the 

 twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 



Amongst the panels in the coats-of-arms are to be found several other 

 devices borrowed from the dress of the nobility of that period, such as the 

 labels, or gold fringe of sashes ; the orles, or trimmings of tunics ; the bands, 

 or ba rs, which represented scarfs; the lambrequins (mantles), or plumes made 

 of silk or velvet, which were affixed to the extremity of the helmet ; the 

 housseaux, or top-boots with thick soles, which were only worn by men when 

 they went out on foot in wet weather ; the pairlc, which, having the shape of 

 the letter Y, resembled the bishop's pallium, and constituted, according to the 

 heralds of the sixteenth century, the emblem of the great derations of the 

 chevalier : " His God, his Lady, and his King." 



In addition to the hieroglyphics derived from the dress of the nobility, 

 there were other heroic symbols : the vals, or marks of jurisdiction ; the 

 frettiaux, or frettcs, the barriers which fenced in the lists ; the portcullis, the 

 towers, the chains, the arrows, and the battering-rams, emblems which carry 

 their own explanation with them ; and also the keys, which were a souvenir of 

 the capitulation of a castle or of a city. 



Fire, water, clouds, and even the stars (Figs. 240 to 244) also entered into 

 the composition of the shield. The Chains family has azure, with three 

 crescents argent, and that of Cernon azure, with six comets or, three in chief, 

 and three in point, with the crescent en abisme (in the centre of the shield). 



The whole of the human body is not so often used in the blazon as the 

 separate parts of the body head, hands, eyes, legs, &c. which are sometimes 

 represented, as also are animals, plants, and various objects, with their 

 natural colour, called in heraldry carnation. 



The animals, quadrupeds especially, which, as a general rule, imply alle- 

 gorical ideas, are very common in the blazon, though they are always repre- 

 sented after a type more or less untrue to nature : the lion (generosity), the 

 elephant (courtesy), the squirrel (foresight, because that animal is careful to 

 close the apertures of his nest), and the lamb (gentleness). For instance, the 

 Montalembert arms are or, with three wolves' heads, sable ; the Portal arms, 

 azure, with ox or, accompanied in chief by six fleurs-de-lis, the same ; the 

 Coignieux arms, azure, porcupine passant sable. 



