Page:The Grammar of Heraldry, Cussans, 1866.djvu/15



it has been the practice of various communities, in all ages, to distinguish themselves by certain recognised devices, or insignia, we possess abundant and irrefragable testimony, not only in the pages of Sacred History, but in the works of the earliest profane authors of whom we have any record. In the book of Numbers, and elsewhere, constant reference is made the standards, Degalim, which served to distinguish the various Israelitish tribes; and this, too, in such a manner that it is evident the people were previously familiar with the institution.

So Æschylus, who lived nearly 2,500 years ago, in his account of the seven chiefs who warred against Thebes, not only mentions the fact of their having assumed distinctive insignia, but minutely describes the charges blazoned on their respective shields.