Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/225

 and Sentiments. 205 aljin, which was again Ibftened down into aufin, the ulual name of the piece in the old French and EngUfh writers. The charader of the bifhop muft have been adopted very early among the Chriftians, and it is found under that charafter among the Northerns, and in England. Such, how- ever, was not the cafe everywhere. The Ruffians and Swedes have pre- ferved the original name of the elephant. In Italy and France this piece was fometimes reprefented as an archer 5 and at an early period in the latter country, from a fiippofed confulion of the Arabic fil with the Frenchyb/, it was fometimes called by the latter name, and reprefented as a court jefter. Roc, the name given by the Saracens to the piece now called the caftle, meant apparently a hero, or champion, Perfian rokh; the name was preferved in the middle ages, but the piece feems to have been firft reprefented under the charafter of an elephant, and it was no doubt, from the tower which the elephant carried on its back, that our modern form originated. The Icelanders feem alone to have adopted if the Thirteenth Century. the name in its original meaning, for with them, as Ibown in cut No. 141, the hrolir is reprefented as a warrior on foot. A few examples of carved cheff-men have been found in different parts of England, which Ihow that thefe highly-ornamented pieces were in ufe at all periods. One of thefe, reprefented in our cut No. 142, is preferved in the Affimolean Mufeum at Oxford, and, to judge by the collume, belongs to the earlier part of the thirteenth century. Its material