Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/461

 12 8. II. DEC. 2, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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by firing a Gun. They train them by tying a young Oxen and an old Bakkeleyer together by the Horns, using also Blows to make them tractable. What these animals perform is amazing, and does Honour to the Hottentot Genius." Astley, ' A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels,' vol. iii. p. 362, 1746.

Do such fighting oxen still flourish ? Are the Hottentots the only people who have ever raised so remarkable a bovine strain ?

KUMAGUSTJ MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

NATIONAL FLAGS : THEIR ORIGINS (12 S. ii. 289,358). I am not aware of {any special work which treats of the " historical genesis," or origin, of national flags or " colours " of the modern European states, will find some very useful information in the late Dr. Woodward's ' Heraldry : British and Foreign' (1896), vol. ii. pp. 306 et seq. But as this work is now out of print and scarce, and may not be easily accessible to your correspondent in Cyprus, perhaps I may foe allowed to give what I have gleaned from it on this subject.
 * is asked for by G. J. ; but I think that he

1. England : America. The history of the English national flag is, as G. J. says, sufficiently well known ; and so, I think, is that of the " Stars and Stripes" of the United States of America.

2. France. G. J. states that the French tricolour combines

u< the ancient blue standard of the Middle Ages, symbol (or perhaps the very ancient red ' ori- .flamme of St. Denis')."
 * he white flag of Henri IV., and the red republican

Dr. Woodward says (p. 312) that the royal flag of France was white, le drapeau blanc. He says that the origin of the tricolour of France, with its vertical division into blue, white, and red, is found in the union of the drapeau blanc with the colours of the city of Paris. In July, 1789, it was deter- mined that a garde civique should be raised, to be called the Parisian militia ; that its colours should be those of the city, blue and red, to which, on the proposal cf La Fayette, the white from le drapeau blanc was added. A few days afterwards Louia XVI., returning to Paris, was presented by the Maire with a tri-coloured cockade, and placed it in his hat, as having become, as Bailly said, " the distinguishing symbol of Frenchmen."

With respect to G. J.'s suggestion that the red of the tricolour may have been derived from the " very ancient red ori- flamme of St. Denis," this is not confirmed by anything that I can find in Dr. Wood- ward's book. That author tells us (p. 309)

that the celebrated oriflamme of France is said to have originated in the cfiape de S. Martin, which became the banner of the Abbey of Marmoutiers. The vulgar tradi- tion was that this was part of the actual blue cloak of the saint, which he divided with the beggar of Amiens, as in the well- known story. Dr. Woodward goes on to say that when the kings of France fixed their residence at Paris their devotion to St. Martin was insensibly transferred to St. Denis, who thus became the patron taint of the realm ; and the chape de S. Martin ceased to be the oriflamme of France. " L'oriflambe de Saint Denise" was composed of crimson silk, with green fringe and tassels, and the common idea that it was seme of fleurs-de-lis is entirely erroneous. It would, therefore, seem that the oriflamme of St. Denis has nothing to do with the red in the French tricolour.

The Imperial Standard of France was the tricolour seme of golden bees, and bearing In the central compartment, i.e., on the white portion of the flag, the Imperial eagle crowned.

3. Germany. The description given by G. J. of the German standard as " derived from the white flag, with a black cross, of the Teutonic knights," would seem to apply more to the -German naval flag, which is: " Argent, a cross cctised sable, on the centre a round shield bearing the arms of Germany." The national colours are " sable, argent, and gules." The German Imperial Standard is used in a double form both of yellow silk one bearing the German single-headed eagle displayed, charged with the arms of Prussia and Hohenzollern ; the other being seme of sable eagles displayed, with the Iron Cross on the field, bearing upon its centre the escutcheon of the Empire, as above.

It should be noticed, says Dr. Woodward, that the term Royal (or Imperial) Standard is now applied to the rectangular flag known in mediaeval times as a " banner."

4. Greece. With reference to G. J.'s remarks as to the origin of the blue and white national and commercial flag of Greece in use at the present day, it should- be remembered that the national arms are^: " Azure, a Greek cross couped argent," with the Danish arms en surtout.

5. Russia. The Russian Imperial Stan- dard is " of yellow, bearing the Imperial arms. The naval flag is of white, charged with St. Andrew's cross -St. Andrew being the patron saint of Russia as of Scotland. The mercantile flag has three horizontal .stripes, white, blue, and red. The white