Chapter III: Part 3

The dragon was a symbol among the heathen. One of the sons of Odin was thus invoked: "Child of the Dragon, Son of Conquest, arise! grasp thy silver spear; thy snowy steed prepare and haste thee to the strife of the shield! Uprise thou Dragon of Onslaught!" And again:

"Wave high the dragon's flaming sign,
Roll wide the shout of glee;
Ho! conquest ope thy crimson gates
This day I give to thee."

"The Dragon of the Shield struck his sounding war-board with his ponderous spada. The fierce-browed children of Hilda gathered round at the signal."

Maglocue, a British king who was a great warrior and of a remarkable stature, whose exploits had rendered him terrible to his foes, as a surname was called "The Dragon of the Isle," perhaps from his seat in Anglesey.

Cuthred, King of Wessex, bore a dragon on his banner. A dragon was also the device of the British King Uther Pendragon, or Dragon's-head, father of that King Arthur of chivalric memory, who so bravely withstood the incursions of the Saxons. _Two dragons addorsed_--that is, back to back--are ascribed to Arthur, as well as several other devices.

Dragon's Hill, Berkshire, is where the legend says St. George killed the dragon. A bare place is shown on the hill where nothing will grow, and there the blood ran out. In Saxon annals we are told that Cedric, founder of the West Saxon kingdom, slew there Naud, the pendragon, with 5000 men. This Naud is called Natan-leod, a corruption of Naud-an-ludh; Naud, the people's refuge.[7]

"It has sometimes been thought," says Miss Millington, "that the royal Saxon banner bore a dragon; certain it is, that on the Bayeux tapestry a dragon raised upon a pole is constantly represented near a figure, whilst the words 'Hic Harold' prove to be intended for Harold; yet Matthew of Westminster, in describing a battle fought in the time of Edward I., says that the place of the king was 'between the dragon and the standard,' which seems to imply that the standard or banner had some other device. The dragon was perhaps a kind of standard borne to indicate the presence of the king. Henry III. carried one at the Battle of Lewes, fought against Simon de Montfort in 1264:

"'Symoun com to the feld,
And put up his banere;
The king schewed forth his scheld,
His dragon full austere.'

It was not, however, at that time restricted to the King, for Simon himself in the same battle

"'Displaied his banere, lift up his dragoun.'

The English at the Battle of Crecy carried a 'burning dragon, made of red silk adorned and beaten with very broad and fair lilies of gold, and broidered about with gold and vermilion.' This banner," adds Miss Millington, "perhaps resembled that used by the Parthians and Dacians, which is described by Ammianus Marcellinus as 'a dragon, formed of purple stuff, resplendent with gold and precious stones fixed on a long pike, and so contrived that when held in a certain manner, with its mouth to the wind, the entire body became inflated, and stretched its sinuous length upon the air.'"

"The dragon," says Mr. Planché, "was the customary standard of the kings of England from the time of the Conquest. It was borne in the battle between Canute and Edmund Ironside; it is figured in the Bayeux tapestry, and there are directions for making one in the reign of Henry III., but it never formed a portion of their armorial bearings, _i.e._, as a charge upon the shield of arms."

Henry VII., first of the Tudor line, assumed as one of his badges the red dragon of Cadwallader--"Red dragon dreadful." Henry claimed an uninterrupted descent from the aboriginal princes of Britain, Arthur and Uther, Caradoc, Halstan, Pendragon, &c. His grandfather, Owen Tudor, bore a dragon as his device in proof of his descent from Cadwallader, the last British prince and first King of Wales (678 A.D.), the dragon being the ensign of that monarch. At the Battle of Bosworth Field Henry bore the dragon standard. After the battle of Bosworth Field Henry went in state to St. Paul's, where he offered three standards. On one was the image of St. George, on the other a "red fierce dragon beaten upon green and white sarsenet" (the livery colours of the House of Tudor); on the third was painted a dun cow upon yellow tartan,--the dun cow, in token of his descent from Guy Earl of Warwick, who had slain

"A monstrous wyld and cruelle beaste
Called ye dun cow of Dunsmore Heath."

The dun cow is still one of the badges of the Guards. This monarch founded the office of _Rouge dragon pursuivant_ on the day before his coronation (October 29, 1485). Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward V., Mary and Elizabeth all carried the dragon as a supporter to the royal arms, but varied in position, and at times superseded by a greyhound. (A greyhound argent, collared or, the collar charged with a rose gules, was a Lancastrian badge.) Henry VIII. used for supporters the _red dragon and white greyhound_ of his family; _a red dragon_ and _a lion gardant gold_, sometimes crowned; at other times _a silver greyhound_ and _a golden lion_, _an antelope_, _a white bull_, _a cock_, &c. On the union of Scotland and England under King James, the Scottish _unicorn_ was substituted for the sinister supporter, while the _lion gardant_, first adopted by Henry VIII., appears to have permanently superseded the red dragon of Wales, the white greyhound, &c., as the other supporter of the royal arms, the dragon being relegated to be the special badge of the principality of Wales, which position it still retains. The present royal badges, as settled at the union, 1801, are:

_A white rose within a red_ ENGLAND.

_A thistle_ SCOTLAND.

_A harp or, stringed argent,
and a trefoil or shamrock vert_ IRELAND.

_Upon a mount vert, a dragon
passant, wings expanded
and endorsed, gules_ WALES.

Richard III. as a badge had a black dragon. "_The bages that he beryth by the Earldom of Wolst{r} (Ulster) ys a blacke dragon_," derived through his mother from the De Burghs, Earls of Ulster.

Mallet, in his "Northern Antiquities," states "that the thick misshapen walls winding round a rude fortress at the summit of a rock were called by a name signifying dragon, and as women of distinction were, during the ages of chivalry, commonly placed in such castles for security, thence arose the romances of princesses of great beauty being guarded by dragons, and afterwards delivered by young heroes who could not achieve their rescue until they had overcome their terrible guardians." The common heraldic signification of a dragon is one who has successfully overcome such a fortress, or it denotes the protection afforded to the helpless by him to whom it was granted, and the terror inspired in his foes by his doughty or warlike bearing. It was a title of supreme power among the early British.

The dragon has always been an honourable bearing in British armoury, in some instances to commemorate a triumph over a mighty foe, or merely for the purpose of inspiring the enemy with terror. This seems to have been especially the case with the dragon standard--the "red dragon dreadful" of Wales (_y Ddraig Coch_) described as:

"A dragon grete and grimme
Full of fyre and eke venymme."

The Crocodile as the Prototype of the Dragon

In the existing representatives of the antediluvian saurians, the crocodile and alligator, we see the prototypes of the dragons and hydras of poetic fancy. The crocodile is a well-known huge amphibious reptile, in general contour resembling a great lizard covered with large horny scales that cannot be easily pierced, except underneath, and reaching twenty-five to thirty feet in length. The crocodile was held sacred by the ancient Egyptians, the Nile was and is its best-known habitat; it is also found in the rivers of the Indian seas. Though an awkward creature upon land, it darts with rapidity through the water after fish, which is its appropriate food, but it is dangerous also to dogs and other creatures, as well as to human beings entering the water or lingering incautiously on the bank.

It is the _Lacerta crocodilus_ of Linnæus, from Greek κροκοδειλος (_krokodeilos_) a word of uncertain origin. The Alligator, the American crocodile, takes its name from the Spanish _El Legarto_, the lizard. The Latin form is _Lacertus_ or _Lacerta_.

Miss Millington, in her "Heraldry in History, Poetry and Romance," says that both dragon and crocodile seem anciently to have been confounded under one name, and that Philip de Thaun, in his "Bestiarus," says that "crocodille signifie diable en ceste vie." Guillim, an old heraldic writer, says: "The dragons are naturally so hot that they cannot be cooled by drinking of waters, but still gape for the air to refresh them, as appeareth in Jeremiah xiv. 6."

Young, author of "Night Thoughts," in a footnote appended to the magnificent description of the leviathan (crocodile), in his paraphrase of part of the book of Job says: "The crocodile, say the naturalists, lying under water, and being there forced to hold its breath, when it emerges, the breath long repressed is hot, and bursts out so violently that it resembles fire and smoke. The horse suppresses not his breath by any means so long, neither is he so fierce and animated," yet the most correct of poets ventures to use the same metaphor regarding him:

"Collectumque premens volvit sub naribus ignem."

The Heraldic Dragon

The mythical dragon is represented in heraldic art with the huge body of the reptile saurian type covered with impenetrable mail of plates and scales, a row of formidable spines extending from his head to his tail, which ends in a great and deadly sting; his enormous jaws, gaping and bristling with hideous fangs, belch forth sparks and flame; his round luminous eyes seem to shoot gleaming fire; from his nose issues a dreadful spike. He is furnished with sharp-pointed ears and a forked tongue, four sturdy legs terminating in eagle's feet strongly webbed, clawing and clutching at his prey. Great leathern bat-like wings armed with sharp hook's points, complete his equipment. The wings are always "endorsed," that is, elevated and back to back.

The dragon of our modern books of heraldry is a miserable impostor, a degenerate representative of those "dragons of the prime, that tore each other in their slime." It is curious to note in this the gradual degradation from the magnificent saurian type of the best period of heraldic art to a form not far removed from that given to an ordinary four-legged creature covered with plates and scales. His legs are longer and weaker, his mighty caudal appendage, shrunk to insignificant and useless proportion, and most unlike his ancient prototype the crocodile. This error of our modern heraldic artists displays remarkable lack of proper knowledge of this mythical creature and his attributes. Such a splendid creation of the fancy should not be represented in such a weak and meaningless form by the hands of twentieth-century artists. The ancient form is infinitely to be preferred as a work of symbolic art.

ARMS OF THE CITY OF LONDON.--Two dragons are the supporters of the arms of the City of London, the crest a dragon's sinister wing. They are thus blazoned: _Argent a cross gules, in the first quarter, a sword in pale point upwards of the last. Supporters, on either side a dragon with wings elevated and addorsed, argent, and charged on the wing with a cross gules._

The crest is a _dragon's sinister wing charged with a similar cross_.

THE COUNTY OF CHESTER has for its supporters two dragons, each holding an ostrich feather.

Basingstoke, Linlithgow and Dumfries on the town seals have St. Michael overthrowing the dragon (_see_ p. 72).

The dragon appears in various forms in the arms of many towns, and also in those of some peers.

One of the most extraordinary and elaborate coats of arms of modern times is that of Viscount Gough. The sinister supporter of the shield is a dragon (intended to represent the device upon a Chinese flag). _A dragon or, gorged with a mural crown sable, inscribed with the word "China," and chained gold._

Examples vary considerably in the form of the dragon, some early examples represent it to have four legs, others with only two, when it is properly a wyvern. The pendent "George" in the Order of the Garter represents it with a body similar to a crocodile, winged and covered with plates and scales.

A similar device to that of the George noble of Henry VIII. was the St. George slaying the dragon by Pistrucci, a foreigner employed at the mint. This handsome reverse, says Mr. Noel Humphrey, "Coin Collector's Manual," is nearly a copy from a figure in a battle-piece on an antique gem in the Orleans collection, but several Greek coins might equally well have furnished the model. Old George III. sovereigns and five-shilling pieces have this most finely conceived and executed device on the reverse of the coins. It also appears upon some sovereigns of Queen Victoria. Prominence is naturally given to the figure of St. George, the dragon in consequence being diminished in its relative size.

The Hydra

"_Seven great heads out of his body grew,
An iron breast, and back of scaly brass;
And all imbrued in blood his eyes did shine as glass,
His tail was stretched out in wondrous length._"
SPENSER, "Faerie Queen," Book i. c. vii.

The hydra is represented in heraldry as a dragon with seven heads; it is not of frequent occurrence as a bearing in armory.

The terrible dragon, with one hundred heads, that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides, slain by Hercules, was celebrated in classic mythology; so was the Lernean hydra, a monster of the marshes that ravaged the country of Lerna in Argolis, destroying both men and beasts. The number of its heads varies with the poets, though ancient gems usually represent it with seven or nine. Hercules was sent to kill it as one of his twelve labours. After driving the monster from its lair with arrows he attacked it with his sword, and in place of each head he struck off two sprang up. Setting fire to a neighbouring wood with the firebrands he seared the throat of the Hydra until he at length succeeded in slaying it. The fable is usually referred to in illustration of a difficulty which goes on increasing as it is combated. (_See_ page 63.)

"Whereon this Hydra son of war is born
Whose dangerous eyes may well be charmed asleep."
_Henry IV._ part ii. sc. 2.

The Lernean hydra, the watchful dragon of the garden of the Hesperides, the many-headed Naga or snake of the Hindu religion, are, say learned writers, only some of the many forms under which the relics of the ancient serpent-worship exhibited itself.

_A hydra, wings endorsed vert, scaled or_, is the crest of _Barret_ of Avely, Essex. It is also borne by the names _Crespine_ and _Downes_.

The Wyvern

(SAXON, _Wivere_, a serpent) said to represent a flying serpent, an imaginary creature resembling the dragon, but having only two legs, which are like an eagle's, and a serpent-like tail, barbed, sometimes represented nowed after the manner of serpents. It is figured on one of the standards in the Bayeux tapestry (_see_ Dragon, p. 86). It is erroneously termed a dragon by some writers, though perhaps they may both be classed together. Old heralds say of these imaginary monsters that they are emblems of pestilence, and are represented as strong and fierce animals covered with invulnerable mail, and fitly typify viciousness and envy. In armory they are properly applied to tyranny or the overthrow of a vicious enemy.

Occasionally a wyvern is borne with the tail nowed and without wings.

_Lindworm._--It is not usual to say a wyvern "without wings" or "without legs," but _sans wings_ or _sans legs_, as the case may be. A dragon or wyvern sans wings is termed a lindworm. (_See_ page 80.)

_Argent, a wyvern, wings endorsed gules_, are the arms of _Drake_, of Ashe, Devon (Bart.), 1600.

The town of Leicester has for crest a _wyvern, wings expanded, sans legs, strewed with wounds, gules_.

_Argent on a bend sable, between two lions rampant of the last, a wyvern volant in bend of the field, langued gules, Ruddings._

_Two wyverns, wings endorsed and emitting flames_, are the supporters of Viscount _Arbuthnot_.

The arms of the King of Portugal are supported by _two wyverns erect on their tails or_, each holding a banner, the crest is a _demi-wyvern_ out of a ducal coronet.

_Guivre._--The wyvern or serpent in the arms of the Visconti, Lords of Milan, _argent a guivre d'azure couronnée d'or, issante de gules_ (GUIVRE is represented as a serpent or wingless dragon sans feet, with a child's body issuing from its mouth), is said to commemorate the victory of a lord of that house over a fiery dragon or guivre which inhabited a cavern under the church of St. Denis in that place. "It is hardly possible," says Miss Millington, "not to think that the story of the dragon as well as its adoption in the coat-of-arms bears allusion rather to the dragon of paganism, expelled from the city, as it might seem, by the church built upon the site of the cave, in which too, by the rite of Holy Baptism, _children_ especially were delivered from the power of Satan. Indeed, the innumerable legends of saints who have fought and overcome dragons sufficiently prove the symbolic light in which that creature was anciently viewed." (_See_ also Serpent Biscia, p. 117.)

The Chimera

An imaginary fire-breathing monster of great swiftness and strength, invented by the ancient Greek poets. Though mentioned by heraldic authorities, it is not met with in British coat armour; it is described as having the head, mane and legs of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon. From this creature the term "chimerical" is applied to all such figures as have no other existence but in the imagination. It is represented upon the coins of Sycion during the Achæan League.

The origin of the story of the chimera is ascribed to a mountain in Lycia which had a volcano on its top and nourished lions; the middle part afforded pasture for goats, and the bottom was infested with serpents; according to Hesiod it had three heads, that of a lion, a goat, and a dragon. Bellerophon destroyed the monster by raising himself in the air on his winged steed Pegasus, and shooting it with his arrows.

"Amid the troops, and like the leading god,
High o'er the rest in arms the graceful Turnus rode;
A triple pile of plumes his crest adorned,
On which with belching flames chimera burned:
The more the kindled combat rises higher,
The more with fury burns the blazing fire."
VIRGIL, _Æneid_, Book vii.

Phillip II. of Spain, after his marriage with Queen Mary of England, assumed as a device, Bellerophon fighting with the chimera, and the motto, "Hinc vigilo," the monster being intended by him for a type of England's heresies which he waited his time to destroy.

The family of _Fada_ of Verona have for arms: Gules a winged chimera argent, the head and breasts carnation (or proper), and the wings and feet of an eagle. The illustration, however, has the head and breasts of a woman, and eagle's wings and feet, and makes it a different creature entirely, and should more properly be blazoned _harpy_.

The Lion-Dragon

is compounded of the forepart of a lion conjoined to the hinder part of a dragon.

_Or, a lion-dragon gules armed, langued and crowned of the first_, is the _Bretigni_ family.

_Party per chevron gules and or, three lion-dragons ducally crowned and countercharged._--_Easton._

The Gorgon

Reference has already been made to the gorgon in a quotation from Milton. The name now denotes anything unusually hideous. In classic story there were three gorgons, with serpents on their heads instead of hair. Medusa was the chief of the three, and the only one that was mortal. So hideous was her face that whoever set eyes on it was instantly turned to stone. She was slain by Perseus, and her head placed upon _the shield of Minerva_ (termed the Ægis of Minerva). Homer, in the "Odyssey," Book xi. thus alludes to the dread creature:

"Lest Gorgon rising from the infernal lakes
With horrors armed, and curls of hissing snakes,
Should fix me stiffened at the monstrous sight,
A stony image in eternal night."

And Shakespeare, in _Macbeth_, Act ii. sc. 3, uses the name to picture, in a word, the horrible discovery of the murdered Duncan:

"Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new gorgon."

The Cockatrice

This chimerical creature was said to be produced from a cock's egg hatched by a serpent; hence its name. It differs from the wyvern of heraldry only in having a head like that of a dunghill cock. "This monster is of that nature," says an old writer, "that its look or breath is said to be deadly poison"; and this, in addition to the ordinary weapons of offence, would constitute it rather a difficult creature to be interfered with.

The cockatrice is frequently referred to in the Scriptures as the type of something evil. "The weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den" (Isaiah xi. 8), meaning that the most noxious animal shall not hurt the most feeble of God's creatures.

And Jeremiah viii. 17: "For behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord."

The cockatrice is a frequent emblem in heraldry, borne as a charge upon the shield and also as a supporter. To the mailed draconic form of the wyvern it had the hideous crested head with livid dangling wattles similar to the dunghill cock, its round glittering eyes dealing death; its barbed tongue and serpentine tail, with deadly sting, would no doubt render it a fearful object to behold, and terrific to its enemies. It is always borne in profile, the wings endorsed, or back to back, unless directed otherwise. The tail is frequently _nowed_, _i.e._, knotted.

_Sable, a cockatrice or, combed and wattled gules._--_Bothe._

_Sable, a cockatrice, displayed argent, crested, membered and jelloped gules._--_Baggine._

_Jelloped_, _jowlopped_, terms used to describe the comb or crest, and gills or wattles, when of a different tincture from the body. _Beaked_ and _membered_, in similar manner, have reference to the beak and legs.

Basilisk, or Amphysian Cockatrice

The amphysian cockatrice or basilisk in heraldry exactly resembles the cockatrice, but having an additional head (like that of a dragon) at the end of its tail instead of a barb or sting.

"With complicated monsters' head and tail
Scorpion and Asp and Amphisbœna dire."
MILTON.

_Amphisbœna_, or _Amphista_, is a creature sometimes referred to by old writers as having the dragon's body and wings, the head of a serpent, and the tail ending in a like head. Bossewelle, in "Armorie of Honour," folio 63, enlarging upon this idea, describes "a prodigious serpente called Amphybene, for that he hath a double head, as though one mouth were too little to custe his venyme."

_Earl Howe_ has for supporters _two cockatrices (amphysian), wings elevated, the tails nowed, and ending in a serpent's head or, combed, wattled and legged gules_.

_Argent, a basilisk, wings endorsed, tail nowed, sable._--_Langley_, Rathorpe Hall, Yorks.

_Basilisk_, the king of serpents (Greek, _Basileus_, a king), so called from having on his head a mitre-shaped crest. Old writers give wonderful accounts of the death-dealing power of this strange creature. Pliny says, "all other serpents do flee from and are afraid of it," and tells of the deadly effect of his breath and glittering eye. The Duke of Alva, the scourge of the Netherlands (1566-1575), where he left the eternal memory of his cruelties, had for a device a basilisk drawing out serpents, with the motto: "Tu nomine tantum" ("Thou dost so much by thy name alone"), a fitting emblem for so great a monster!

In allusion to its power of "looking any one dead on whom it fixed its eyes," Dryden makes Clytus say to Alexander, "Nay, frown not so; you cannot look me dead,"

"like a boar
Plunging his tusk in mastiff's gore,
Or basilisk, when roused, whose breath,
Teeth, sting and eyeballs all are death."
KING, _Art of Love_.

King Henry, when he hears of the death of his uncle Humphry, the good Duke of Gloucester, says to Suffolk:

"come basilisk
And kill the innocent gazer with thy sight."
_2 King Henry VI._ Act iii. 2.

Beaumont and Fletcher also speak of "the basilisk's death-dealing eye" in "The Woman Hater."

Its appearance was so dreadful, it was said, that if a mirror was placed so that it could see itself, it would instantly burst asunder with horror and fear.

In Christian Art it is the emblem of _deadly sin_ and _the spirit of evil_. St. Basil the Great uses it as the type of a depraved woman.

The Mythical Serpent

"The most remarkable remembrance," says Dean, "of the power of the paradisaical serpent is displayed in the position which he retains in Tartarus. A cuno-draconictic cerberus guards the gates; serpents are coiled upon the chariot wheels of Proserpine; serpents pave the abyss of torment; and even serpents constitute the caduceus of Mercury, the talisman which he holds in his hand when he conveys the soul to Tartarus. The image of the serpent is stamped upon every mythological fable connected with the realms of Pluto. Is it not probable that in the universal symbol of heathen idolatry we recognise the universal object of primitive worship, the serpent of paradise?"

"Speaking of the names of the snake tribe in the great languages," Ruskin says, "in Greek, OPHIS meant the seeing creature, especially one that sees all round it; and DRAKON, one that looks well into a thing or person. In Latin, ANGUIS, was the strangler; SERPENS, the winding creature; COLUBER, the coiling animal. In our own Saxon the SNAKE meant the crawling creature; and ADDER denoted the groveller."

The true serpents comprise the genera without a sternum or breastbone, in which there is no vestige of shoulder, but where the ribs surround a great part of the circumference of the trunk. To the venomous kind belong the rattlesnake, cobra de capello, spectacled or hooded snake, viper, &c. So the non-venomous, the boa constrictor, anaconda, python, black snake, common snake.

The minute viper, _V. Brashyura_, is celebrated for the intensity of its poison, and is truly one of the most terrible of its genus. The asp of Egypt, or Cleopatra's asp (_Coluber naja_, Lin.), was held in great veneration by the Egyptians; and it is this snake which the jugglers, by pressing on the nape of the neck with the finger, throw into a kind of catalepsy, which renders it stiff, or, as they term it, turns it into a rod.

All snakes, says the celebrated naturalist Waterton, take a motion from left to right or _vice versa_--but never up and down--the whole extent of the body being in contact with the ground, saving the head, which is somewhat elevated. This is equally observable both on land and in water. Thus, when we see a snake represented in an up-and-down attitude, we know at once that the artist is to blame.

Another misconception exploded by Waterton is the common and accepted notion that a snake can fascinate to their destruction and render powerless by a dead set of its eye the creatures it makes its prey. Snakes have no such power. The eyes, which are very beautiful, do not move, and they have no eyelids; they have been placed by nature under a scale similar in composition to the scales of the body, and when the snake casts it slough, this scale comes away with it, and is replaced by a new one on a new skin.

_Noli me tangere_--do not touch me with intent to harm me--is, continues Waterton, a most suitable motto for a snake, which towards man never acts on the offensive (except perhaps only the larger species which may be in waiting for a meal, when any creature, from a bull to a mouse, may be acceptable). But when roused into action by the fear of sudden danger, 'tis then that, in self-defence a snake will punish the intruder by a prick (not a laceration) from the poison-fang, fatal or not, according to its size and virulence.

A writer in the _Daily Telegraph_ of July 23, 1883, giving an account of the new reptile house in the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, dwells upon the surpassing beauty of a python that had just cast its skin, "a very miracle of reptilian loveliness. Watch it breathing; it is as gentle as a child, and the beautiful lamia head rests like a crowning jewel upon the softly heaving coils. Let danger threaten, however, and lightning is hardly quicker than the dart of those vengeful convolutions. The gleaming length rustles proudly into menace, and instead of the voluptuous lazy thing of a moment ago, the python, with all its terrors complete, erects itself defiantly, thrilling, so it seems, with eager passion in every scale, and measuring in the air, with threatening head, the circle within which is death. Once let those recurved fangs strike home, and there is no poison in them, all hope is gone to the victim. Coil after coil is rapidly thrown round the struggling object, and then with slow but relentless pressure life is throttled out of every limb. No wonder that the world has always held the serpent in awe, and that nations should have worshipped, and still worship, this emblem of destruction and death. It is fate itself, swift as disaster, deliberate as retribution, incomprehensible as destiny." It would be tedious to recapitulate the multitude of myths through which the "dire worm" has come to our times, dignified and made awful by the honours and fears of the past. A volume could hardly exhaust the snake-lore scattered up and down in the pages of history and fable.

"The python in the Zoological Gardens, however," adds the same writer, "though it may stand as the modern reality of the old-world fable of a gigantic snake that challenged the strength of the gods to overcome it, presents to us only one side of snake nature. It possesses a surprising beauty and prodigious strength; but it is not venomous. Probably the more subtle and fearful apprehensions of men originated really from the smaller and deadlier kinds, and were then by superstition, poetry and heraldry extended to the larger. The little basilisk, crowned king of the vipers; the horned 'cerastes dire,' a few inches in length; the tiny aspic, fatal as lightning and as swift; and the fabled cockatrice, that a man might hold in his hand, first made the serpent legend terrible; their venom was afterwards transferred, and not unnaturally, to the larger species. It was the small minute worms, that carried in their fangs such rapid and ruthless death, which first struck fear into the minds of the ancients, and invested the snake with the mysterious and horrid attributes whereunto antiquity from China to Egypt hastened to pay honours."

Cadmus and his wife Harmonia were by Zeus converted into serpents and removed to Elysium. Æsculapius, son of Apollo, god of medicine, assumed the form of a serpent when he appeared at Rome during a pestilence; therefore he is always represented with his staff entwined with a serpent, symbol of healing. Similarly represented was Hippocrates, a famous physician of Cos; who delivered Athens from a dreadful pestilence, in the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, and was publicly rewarded with a golden crown, and the privileges of a citizen. Therefore it is that the goddess of health bears in her hand a serpent.

The caduceus of Mercury was a rod adorned with wings, having a male and female serpent twisted about it, each kissing the other. With this in his hands, it was said, the herald of the Gods could give sleep to whomsoever he chose; wherefore Milton, in "Paradise Lost," styles it "his opiate rod."

"With his caduceus Hermes led
From the dark regions of the imprisoned dead;
Or drove in silent shoals the lingering train
To night's dull shore and Pluto's dreary reign."
DARWIN, _Loves of the Plants_, ii. 291.

Jupiter Ammon appeared to Olympias in the form of a serpent, and became the father of Alexander the Great:

"When glides a silver serpent, treacherous guest!
And fair Olympia folds him to her breast."
DARWIN, _Economy of Vegetation_, i. 2.

Jupiter Capitolinus in a similar form became the father of Scipio Africanus.

In the temple of Athena at Athens, a serpent was kept in a cage and called "The Guardian Spirit of the Temple." This serpent was supposed to be animated by the soul of Ericthonius. It was thus employed by the Greeks and Romans to symbolise a guardian spirit, and not unfrequently the figure of a serpent was depicted on their altars.

Upon the shields of Greek warriors, on ancient vases, &c., the serpent is often to be seen blazoned.

The serpent monster Python, produced from the mud left on the earth after the deluge of Deucalion, lived in the caves of Mount Parnassus, but was slain by Apollo, who founded the Pythian games in commemoration of his victory. This and many similar solar myths are merely classic panegyrics on the conquering power exercised by the genial warmth of spring over the dark gloom of winter.

The serpent in Christian Art figures in Paradise as the tempter of Eve under that form, and is generally placed under the feet of the Virgin, in allusion to the promise made to Eve after the Fall: "The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." The heart of the serpent being close to the head, renders a severe "bruise" there fatal. The serpent bruised the "heel" of man--_i.e._, being a cause of stumbling, it hurt the foot which tripped against it (Gen. iii. 15).

The brazen serpent erected by Moses in the wilderness, which gave newness of life to those plague-stricken Israelites who were bitten by the fiery dragons and raised their eyes to this symbol (Numb. xxi. 8), as an emblem of healing, is represented in Christian art as coiled up on a tau cross, a symbol of which our Saviour did not disdain in some degree to admit the propriety when he compared himself to the healing serpent in the wilderness.

The serpent is placed under the feet of St. Cecilia, St. Euphemia, and many other saints, either because they trampled on Satan, or because they miraculously cleared some country of such reptiles. St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is always represented habited as a bishop, his foot upon a viper, the head transfixed with the lower extremity of his pastoral staff, from his having banished snakes and all venomous reptiles from the soil of Ireland. As the symbol of the evil principle, a diminutive specimen of the dragon, guivre, or winged snake was more frequently used, wriggling under foot.

The serpent is emblematical of THE FALL; Satan is called the great serpent (Rev. xii. 9); of WISDOM: "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matt. x. 16); of SUBTLETY: "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field" (Gen. iii. 1); of ETERNITY: a serpent in a circle with its tail in its mouth is the well understood symbol of unending time.

"The serpent figures largely in Byzantine Art as the instrument of the Fall, and one type of the Redemption. The cross planted on the serpent is found sculptured on Mount Athos; and the cross surrounded by the so-called runic knot is only a Scandinavian version of the original Byzantine image--the crushed snake curling round the stem of the avenging cross. The cross, with two scrolls at the foot of it typifying the snake, is another of its modifications, and a very common Byzantine ornament. The ordinary northern crosses, so conspicuous for their interlaced ornaments and grotesque monsters, appear to be purely modifications of this idea."[8]

Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary, in his letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, inveighs against the luxuries of dress, and declares against those garments that are adorned with very broad studs and images of worms, announcing the coming of Antichrist.

In the wonderfully intricate interlacing of snake-like and draconic forms of celtic art which appear in the marvellously illuminated manuscripts executed in Ireland of the sixth and seventh centuries, the great sculptured crosses, as well as in gold and metal work, are seen unmistakable traces of the traditional ideas relating to the early serpent-worship.

"The serpent," says Mr. Planché, "the most terrible of all reptiles, is of rare occurrence in English heraldry. Under its Italian name of _Bisse_ it occurs in the Roll of Edward III.'s time, 'Monsire William Malbis _d'argent, a une chevron de gules, a trois testes de bys rases gules_' (_Anglicé_, argent, a chevron between three serpents' heads erased gules)."

The well-known historic device, the _Biscia_ or serpent devouring a child, of the dukedom of Milan is of much interest. There are many stories as to the origin of this singular bearing. Some writers assign it to Otho Visconti, who led a body of Milanese in the train of Peter the Hermit, and at the crusades fought and killed in single combat the Saracen giant Volux, upon whose helmet was this device, which Otho afterwards assumed as his own. Such is the version adopted by Tasso, who enumerates Otho among the Christian warriors:

"Otho fierce, whose valour won the shield
That bears a child and serpent on the field."
_Gerusalemme Liberata_, cant. i. st. 55.
(Hoole's translation.)

From another legend we learn that when Count Boniface, Lord of Milan, went to the crusades, his child, born during his absence, was devoured in its cradle by a huge serpent which ravaged the country. On his return, Count Boniface went in search of the monster, and found it with a child in its mouth. He attacked and slew the creature, but at the cost of his own life. Hence it is said his posterity bore the serpent and child as their ensign. A third legend is referred to under Wyvern (which see).

Menestrier says that the first Lords of Milan were called after their castle in Angleria, in Latin _anguis_, and that these are only the _armes parlantes_ of their name.[9] Be this as it may, "_Lo Squamoso Biscion_" (the scaly snake) was adopted by all the Visconti lords, and by their successors of the House of Sforza.

"Sforza e Viscontei colubri."
_Orlando Furioso_, cant. xiii. 63.

And again in the same poem (cant. iii. 26. Hoole's translation):

"Hugo appears with him, his valiant son
Who plants his conquering snakes in Milan's town."

Dante also refers in "Purgatorio" to this celebrated device.

The "_three coiled snakes_," which appear in the arms of Whitby Abbey, Yorkshire, really represent _fossil ammonites_, which are very plentiful in the rocky promontories of that part of the English coast, and on that account were no doubt adopted in the arms of the Abbey, and afterwards of the town of Whitby.

The arms are: _Azure three snakes coiled or encircled two and one, or_.

Popular legend, however, ascribes their origin to the transformation of a multitude of snakes into stone by _St. Hilda_, an ancient Saxon princess. The legend is referred to by Sir Walter Scott in "Marmion":

"_How of a thousand snakes each one
Was changed into a coil of stone
While Holy Hilda prayed._"

It is, however, more than likely that the arms suggested the legend of the miracle.

The ancient myth of the _deaf adder_ seems to have been a favourite illustration of the futility of unwelcome counsel.

"What, art thou, like the adder, waxen deaf?
Be poisonous too."
_2 King Henry VI._ Act ii. sc. 2.

"Pleasure and revenge have ears more deaf than adders
To the voice of any true decision."
_Troilus and Cressida_, Act ii. sc. 2.

"He flies me now--nor more attends my pain
Than the deaf adder heeds the charmer's strain."
_Orlando Furioso_, cant. xxxii. 19.
(Hoole's translation.)

A serpent or adder stopping his ears, by some writers termed "_an adder obturant his ear_" from the Latin _obturo_, to shut or stop, is a very ancient idea. It is said that the asp or adder, to prevent his hearing unwelcome truths, puts one ear to the ground and stops the other with his tail, a device suggested by Psalm lviii. 4,5: "They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely."

Alessandro d'Alessandri (+ 1523), a lawyer of Naples, of extensive learning, and a member of the Neapolitan Academy, took for device a serpent stopping its ears, and the motto, "Ut prudentia vivam" ("That I may live wisely"), implying that as the serpent by this means refuses to hear the voice of the charmer, so the wise man imitates the prudence of the reptile and refuses to listen to the words of malice and slander.

It is said that the _cerastes_ hides in sand that it may bite the horse's foot and get the rider thrown. In allusion to this belief, Jacob says, "Dan shall be ... an adder in the path, that his rider shall fall backward" (Gen. xlix. 17).

_Asp._--According to Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, the ancient Egyptian kings wore the asp, the emblem of royalty, as an ornament on the forehead. It appears on the front of the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Many terms have been invented by the heralds to express the positions serpents may assume in arms. Berry's "Encyclopædia of Heraldry" illustrates over thirty positions, the terms of blazon of which it is impossible to comprehend, and hardly worth the inquiry. Few of these terms are, however, met with in English heraldry.

Two serpents erect in pale, their tails "nowed" (twisted or knotted) together, are figured in the arms of Caius College, Cambridge. In the words of the old grant, they are blazoned "_gold, semied with flowers gentil, a sengreen_ (or houseleek) _in chief, over the heads of two whole serpents in pale, their tails knit together (all in proper colour), resting upon a square marble stone vert, between a book sable, garnish't gul, buckled, or_."

Fruiterers' Company of London.--_On a mount in base vert, the tree of Paradise environed with the serpent between Adam and Eve, all proper._ Motto: _Arbor vitæ Christus, fructus perfidem gustamus._

_Nowed_ signifies tied or knotted, and is said of a serpent, wyvern, or other creature whose body or tail is twisted like a knot.

_Annodated_, another term for nowed; bent in the form of the letter S, the serpents round the caduceus of Mercury may be said to be annodated.

_Torqued_, _torgant_, or _targant_ (from the Latin _torqueo_, to wreathe), the bending and rebending, either in serpents, adders or fish, like the letter S.

_Voluted_, _involved_ or _encircled, gliding_, and several terms used in blazon explain themselves, as _erect_, _erect wavy_, &c.

In blazoning, the terms _snake_, _serpent_, _adder_, appear to be used indiscriminately.

_A serpent nowed, proper_, is the crest of Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire.

_Gules, three snakes nowed in triangle argent_ (Ednowain Ap Bradwen, Merionethshire).

_Or, three serpents erect wavy sable_ (Codlen, or Cudlen).

_Remora_ is an old term in heraldry for a serpent entwining.

Serpents are also borne entwined round pillars and rods, &c., and around the necks of children, as in the arms of Vaughan or Vahan Wales: _Azure, three boys' heads affronté, couped at the shoulders proper, crined or, each enveloped or enwrapped about the neck with a snake vert_. Entwisted and entwined are sometimes used in the same sense.

_The amphiptère_ is a winged serpent. _Azure, an amphiptère or, rising between two mountains argent_, are the arms of Camoens, the Portuguese poet.

As a symbol in heraldry the serpent does not usually have reference to the mythical creature, as in Early Christian Art, its natural qualities being more generally considered.

The Scorpion

The reptile of this name, carrying a virulent and deadly sting in its tail, is generally borne erect. When it is borne with the head downwards, it is described as reversed. One branch of the family of Cole bears: _argent, a fesse between three scorpions erect sable_; and another branch of the same family, _argent a chevron gules between three scorpions reversed, sable_.

_Scorpion._--Luigi di Gonzaga, styled Rodomonte for his great intrepidity and strength, was a favourite general of Emperor Charles V. in his army with Bourbon at the sack of Rome. When Charles made his public entry into Mantua, Rodomonte wore a blue surcoat made in squares. Upon one was embroidered a scorpion; upon the other his motto, "_Qui vivens lædit morte meditur_" ("Who living wounds, in death is healed"). It being the property of the scorpion when killed and laid over the wound to cure the poison, so Rodomonte, if any one presumed to offend him, would clear himself of the injury by the death of his enemy.

"If a man be stung with a scorpion, and drink the powder of them in wine, it is thought to be present remedie."[10]

Other Chimerical Creatures and Heraldic Beasts

]

The Unicorn

"_Yon lion placed two unicorns between
That rampant with a silver sword is seen
Is for the king of Scotland's banner known._"
ARIOSTO (Hoole's translation).

"_The lion and the unicorn fighting for the crown._"
Old Nursery Rhyme.

The unicorn is represented by heraldic usage as having the head and body of a horse, with the tail of a lion, and the limbs and hoofs of a stag; a twisted horn grows out from the centre of its forehead. It is rarely met with as a coat-of-arms. As a crest or supporter it is of more frequent occurrence. A unicorn's head is a favourite bearing, either _erased_, or _couped_, at the shoulder, and always represented in profile.

The unicorn was a famous device all over Europe, and symbolised the virtue of the mind and the strength of the body. It is well known as a supporter of the Royal Arms of England, a position it has occupied since the accession of James VI. of Scotland to the English throne as James I. _Two silver unicorns_ were the supporters to the arms of that kingdom. On the legislative union with England, the _red dragon of Wales_, introduced by Henry VII., gave place to the unicorn as the sinister supporter.

James III. of Scotland had it figured on coins which were thence called "unicorns." James V. first used it with the national arms as supporters. Although the silver unicorn came into England with James I., Queen Jane Seymour had already adopted it.

"_Unicorn_" was the pursuivant of Lord Lyon King-at-Arms, the Royal Scottish Herald.

As a supporter to the Royal arms it is thus blazoned: _A unicorn argent, armed, unguled, crined and gorged or, with a royal coronet_ (_i.e._, composed of crosses patée and fleurs-de-lis), _having a chain affixed thereto, and reflexed over his back of the last_. The term "_armed_" has reference to his horn, "_unguled_" to his hoofs, and "_crined_" to his flowing mane. "_Gorged_" implies that the coronet encircles his "gorge" or throat. The term "_or_" (that is, the metal gold or the tincture of it) being only mentioned after the several parts implies that they are all alike to be gold. "_Of the last_" means of the last colour mentioned.

In "The History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art," by Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A. (p. 8), appears a curious illustration from an Egyptian papyrus of the Roman period, in the British Museum. It represents a lion and a unicorn playing a game resembling draughts, perhaps the earliest instance of the two animals depicted in conjunction. As the author says: "The lion has evidently gained the victory and is fingering the money; his bold air of swaggering superiority as well as the look of surprise and disappointment of his vanquished opponent are by no means ill-pictured."

The animosity which existed between the lion and unicorn is referred to by Spenser, and is allegorical of the animosity which once existed between England and Scotland:

"Like as a lyon whose imperiall powre
A proud rebellious unicorne defyes."
_Faerie Queen_, ii. 5.

Mediæval Conception of the Unicorn

The mediæval conception of the unicorn as the water-conner of the beasts was doubtless suggested by that belief of earlier ages which made the unicorn not merely symbolical of virtue and purity, but the more immediate emblem of Christ as the horn of our salvation (Psalms xcii. 10 and lxxxix. 17, 24), expressly receiving its general fulfilment in him (St. Luke i. 69). The horn, as an antidote to all poison, was also believed to be emblematical of the conquering or destruction of sin by the Messiah, and as such it appears in the catacombs at Rome. The unicorn is the companion of St. Justiana, as an emblem betokening in the beautiful legend her pure mind, resisting all the Geraldine-like dreams sent by magic art to haunt her, till she converted her tormentor himself.

He is remarkable, say the old writers, for his great strength, but more for his great and haughty mind, as he would rather die than be brought into subjection (Job xxxix. 10-12).

It was believed the only way to capture him was to leave a beautiful young virgin in the place where he resorted. When the animal perceived her, he would come and lie quietly down beside her, resting his head upon her lap, and fall asleep, when he would be surprised by the hunters who lay in wait to destroy him.

The unicorn is one of the most famous of all the chimerical monsters of antiquity. The Scriptures make repeated mention of such a creature, but of its shape we can form little conception. In Early Christian Art the unicorn symbolised the highest and purest virtue; not only was it one of the noblest bearings in the heraldry of the Middle Ages, but was viewed as the immediate emblem of our Blessed Lord. Philippe de Thaun says in his "Bestiarius":

"Monocéros est beste
Une corne a en la tête
Cette beste en verité nous signifie Dieu."

Whence comes the unicorn? It is older than the days of Job. Among the hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt this wonderful creature is depicted. Sometimes the body is that of an ass, sometimes that of a bull, sometimes that of a horse with the long twisted frontal horn for which he is noted. Is the myth derived from some mysterious single-horned antelope, as has been said, or is the one-horned rhinoceros the prototype of the legendary unicorn? As an emblem it figures on the obelisks of Nimroud and the catacombs of Rome. We read of this strange creature in Herodotus, and in Aristotle, who calls it the "wild ass"; Pliny calls it the "Indian ass," describing it as like a horse with a horn fixed in the front of his head. Cæsar counts it among the fauna of the Hyrcinian Forest. The earliest author who describes it is Ctesias (B.C. 400), who derives it from India. According to an Eastern legend the unicorn is found in Abyssinia. Lobo also describes it in his history of that country: there the animals are undisturbed by man, and live after their own laws. "Of the many ancient and famous men," says a modern writer, "who have written about the unicorn, no two seem to agree except when they copy from one another."

"Some writers" (says Guillim, p. 175) "have made doubt whether there be any such beast as this or no. But the great esteem of his horn (in many places to be seen) may take away that needless scruple."

The Horn of the Unicorn

"_The unicorn whose horn is worth a city._"
DECKER, "Gull's Hornbook."

_The horn_ of the unicorn was supposed to be the most powerful antidote against, as it was a sure test of, poisons. He was therefore invested by the other beasts of the forest with the office of "water-conner," none daring to taste of fountain or pool until he had stirred the water with his horn, to discover whether any dragon or serpent had deposited his venom therein, and render it innocuous. So complete was the faith in the efficacy of the wonder-working horn as a test of poisons, that fabulous store was set upon the possession of even a portion. In old inventories the "Essai" of Unicorn's horn is frequently mentioned.

1391. Un manche d'or d'un essai de licourne pour attoucher aux viandes
de monsigneur le Dauphin.--"Comptes Royaux."

1408. Une pièce de licorne à pour faire essai, à ung bou.
d'argent.--Inv. des ducs de Bourgogne.

1536. Une touche de licorne, garni d'or, pour faire essai.--Inv. de
Charles Quint.