Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/862

* HERALDRY. 7it6 HERALDRY. beak. (See Cujency. ) The mythical phoenix, the pelican, the swan, the cock, the falcon, the raven, the parrot, or popinjay, and the peacock are all of tolerably frequent occurrence. The pelican generally has her wings placed back to back, and is depicted peeking her breast; she is then said to be vultted, i.e. wounded. When in her nest, feeding her young, she is called a peli- can in her piety. A peacock borne affronts with his tail expanded is said to be in his pride. Birds of prey are armed of the color of whicti their beak and talons are represented. Such as have no talons are heaked and mcmbered ; i.e. the beak and legs are of a different color from tlie Ijody. The cock is said to be armed crested and jelloped, the latter term referring to his comb and gills. Birds having the power of flight are, in respect to their attitude, close, rising, or volant. POMfi<iRANATE Fishes and reptiles occur as charges: the former are said to be nainnt if drawn in a hori- zontal, and haiirient if drawn in a perpendicular position; and the dolphin, in reality straight, is conveniently borne embowed or bent. Sometimes the conventional heraldic form of an animal differs very greatly from its true form, as in the case of the antelope of heraldry, which has the head of a stag, a unicorn's tail, a tusk issuing from the tip of the nose, a row of tufts down the back of the neck, and similar tufts on the tail, chest, and thighs. Of 'animals phan- tastical,' we have, among others, the grithn, ^vy- vern. dragon, unicorn, basilisk, harpy. We have the human body in whole or part, as a naked man or 'savage,' also arms, legs, hearts, Jloors' heads, Saracens' heads, and that strange heraldic freak, the three legs conjoined carried in the escutcheon of the Isle of Man. Of plants, there are roses, trefoils, quatrefoils, cinquefoils (conventional representations of flow- ers with three, four, and five leaves), leaves. garbs (i.e. sheaves of corn), trees, often eradi- cated or fructuated of some other color, and above all the celebrated fleur-de-lis, used as a badge by Louis VJII. of France in 1223. When the charge is repeated a large number of times the term scntc is applied to it. When a plant, animal, or other charge is blazoned proper, wliat is meant is that it is of its natural color. The heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, are also pressed into the service of heraldry, as are things inanimate and artificial without num- ber, particularly such as were familiar to the warriors and pilgrims of the tweltth and thir- teenth centuries. Helmets, buckles, shields, hatches, horseshoes, swords, arrows, battering- rams, pilgrim's staves, mullets (or spur-rowels), and water-boujets, or bags, in which in crusading times water was carried long distances across the desert; also the clarion or war-trumpet, sometimes erroneously called a rest, because it was supposed to re])resent a rest for a lance. Fven the letters of the alphabet have been used as charges. When the field or any charge is covered with drops it is called gutty: when adorned with fleurs-de-lis it is called fleury or flory. When an ordinary is made up of squares of alternate metal and color it is called coinpony or gohony. ^'llen an ordinary has a border of different tinctures it is said to be fimbriated. Charges may be placed either simply on the field or on one of the ordinaries; in some in- stances one of the ordinaries is placed over a charge, in which case the charge is said to be dcbruised by the ordinary. Three charges of one kind are placed two above and one below, imless blazoned in fess or in pale. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the simplicity of early heraldry began to be departed from by accumu- lating a variety of charges on one shield, and in later times we have sometimes a charge receiving another charge like an ordinary. The growing complexity of shields arose from augmentations granted to distinguish the younger branches of a family, or charges assumed from the maternal coat by the descendants of an heiress. In the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nine- teenth century, a practice prevailed for a time of introducing into armorial bearings matter-of- fact landscapes, representations of sea fights, and of medals and decorations worn by the bearer, setting all heraldic conventionalities it defiance, and dealing in details not discernible except on the minutest inspection. The arms of the dift'erent members of a family have been distinguished from one another, some- times by the use of a bordure or other difference; and sometimes, especially by English heralds, by the use of certain figures called inarKs of cadency. (See Caoenct, ) Sometimes the differences and marks of cadency are called diminutions. Besides the heraldic devices depicted on the shield, there are the following borne external to it — the helmet, the mantling, the wreath, the crest, the motto and scroll, the supporters, and the coronet. The helmet, originally a piece of defensive armor, became in the course of time one of the usual accompaniments of the shield: and placed over the arms, it came by its form tc mark the rank of the wearer. These distinctions date from the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and are ap- plicable only to British heraldry.