Part 4 (2/2)

In Northumberlande there is no man, But that they be slayne everychone; For there dare no man route, By twenty myle rounde aboute, For doubt of a fowle dragon, That sleath men and beastes downe.

He is blacke as any cole, Ragged as a rough fole; His body from the navill upwards.

No man may it pierce it is so harde; His neck is great as any summere; He renneth as swift as any distrere; Pawes he hath as a lyon; All that he toucheth he sleath dead downe, Great winges he hath to flight, That is no man that bare him might, There may no man fight him agayne, But that he sleath him certayne; For a fowler beast then is he, Ywis of none never heard ye.

The said Guy, amongst other marvellous exploits, killed at ”Winsor,”

A bore of pa.s.sing might and strength, Whose like in England never was, For hugenesse both in breadth and length.

Mr. Barrett, a saddler, of Manchester, with antiquarian taste, in an illuminated MS., now in the Chetham Library, refers to an old tradition concerning a dragon whose den was amongst the red sandstone rocks in the neighbourhood of Lymm, about five miles from Warrington. Geoffrey of Monmouth, in Merlin's prophesy especially, often refers to these mythical monsters; and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is equally expressive in attributing disaster to their influences. In the latter work we read: ”A.D. 793. This year dire forewarnings came over the land of the Northumbrians, and miserably terrified the people; these were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings; and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed these tokens.” Mr. Baring-Gould says, as recently as the year 1600,--”A German writer would ill.u.s.trate a thunderstorm destroying a crop of corn by a picture of a dragon devouring the produce of the field with his flaming tongue and iron teeth.”

That this tradition at Winwick respecting a ”monster in former ages, which prowled over the neighbourhood, inflicting injury on man and beast,” is a legitimate descendant from our Aryan ancestors'

personification of natural phenomena, seems very apparent, and aptly ill.u.s.trates what Sir G. W. Dasent terms the ”toughness of tradition,”

especially when interwoven with the marvellous or supernatural. Mr.

Walter K. Kelly, in his ”Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk-Lore,” says--”These phenomena were noted and designated with a watchfulness and a wealth of imagery which made them the princ.i.p.al groundwork of all the Indo-European mythologies and superst.i.tions. The thunder was the bellowing of a mighty beast or the rolling of a wagon.

The lightning was a sinuous serpent, or a spear shot straight athwart the sky, or a fish darting in zigzags through the waters of heaven. The stormy winds were howling dogs or wolves; the ravages of the whirlwind that tore up the earth _were the work of a wild boar_.”[27] Mr. Fiske, in his ”Myths and Myth-makers,” says that these mythical monsters ”not only steal the daylight, but they parch the earth and wither the fruits, and they slay vegetation during the winter months.”

These traditionary ”Harvest Blasters,” as they are sometimes styled, have a wide range, and are not confined even to the various branches of the Aryan race.

Most writers agree in a.s.signing the origin of heraldry, in the modern acceptation of the term, to the crusades. At least little is recorded concerning the ”science,” or ”art,” as it is sometimes termed, previously to the middle of the twelfth century. It was found necessary during the religious wars in the east that the knights should wear some device or distinguis.h.i.+ng badge on the field of battle, on account of the diversity of the languages spoken by the combatants, and hence the term ”cognizance” was often applied to these symbols. This, in the following century, eventuated in the adoption of the warlike badges or ”arms” of the original bearers by their families. They afterwards became hereditary characteristics, and hence the development of the _quasi_ science. These devices were figured on crest, banner, and s.h.i.+eld. One authority (Pen. Cyclop.) says--”The crest is said to have been carved on light wood, or made of leather, _in the shape of some animal, real or fict.i.tious_, and fastened by a fillet of silk round the helmet, over which was a large piece of fringed samit or taffeta, pointed with a ta.s.sel at the end.” The same writer adds--”The custom of conferring crests as distinguis.h.i.+ng marks seems to have originated with Edward III., who, in 1333 (Rot. Pat., 9 Edward III.), granted one to William Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, his 'tymbre,' as it is called, of the eagle. By a further grant, in the thirteenth of the same king (Rot.

Vasc., 13 Edward III., m. 4), the grant of this crest was made hereditary, and the manor of Wodeton given in addition to support its dignity.”

I am inclined, notwithstanding, to regard heraldry in its more extended significance, that is if the term can properly be applied to practices anterior to the establishment of heralds, as of much greater antiquity than the crusades. Herodotus tells us that the Carians first set the Greeks the example of fastening crests upon their helmets, and of putting devices upon their s.h.i.+elds. The ”totems,” or beast symbols, of our savage ancestors undoubtedly preceded the mediaeval practice, and influenced its incipient development. The ”White Horse” of Hengist, the ”Raven” of the Scandinavian vikings, the ”Golden Dragon” of the kings of Wess.e.x, as well as others, might be mentioned, which clearly demonstrate this position. Uther, the father of Arthur, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, caused ”two dragons to be made of gold, which was done with wondrous nicety of workmans.h.i.+p.” The quasi-historian adds--”He made a present of one to the cathedral church of Winchester, but reserved the other for himself to be carried along with him to his wars. From this time, therefore, he was called Uther Pendragon, which in the British tongue signifies the dragon's head.” Indeed, amongst savage nations at the present or relatively recent time, we find ”totems” or symbols, such as beaver, snake, hare, cornstalk, black hawk, dog, wolf, bear, beaver, little bear, crazy horse, and sitting bull, not only used by the warrior chiefs, but even the tribes sometimes take their names therefrom.

Mr. E. B. Tylor, in his ”Early History of Mankind,” says--”More than twenty years ago, Sir George Grey called attention to the divisions of the Australians into families, and distinguished by the name of some animal or vegetable, which served as their crest or _kobong_.” He adds--”The Indian tribes” (of America) ”are usually divided into clans, each distinguished by a _totem_ (Algonquin _do-daim_, that is 'town mark,') which is commonly some animal, as a bear, wolf, deer, etc., which may be compared on the one hand to a crest, and on the other to a surname.”

Indeed, until very recently, some of our own regiments had their ”beast totem” in the shape of a goat, a bear, or a tiger, which generally marched at the head of the corps. The goat, I believe, yet survives, and the men of one regiment are designated ”tigers” to this day.

The crest is evidently one of the oldest, if not the oldest, forms in which the beast symbol was displayed. The bronze Roman helmet, or rather bust or head of Minerva, found at Ribchester, in 1796, had originally a sphinx as a crest. This appendage, however, having become detached, has since been lost. The gladiators' helmet decorations, in the pictures found at Pompeii, are generally plumes or tufts of horsehair, but some of their s.h.i.+elds exhibit devices suggestive of those of more recent date. The Roman historians, recording the events pertaining to the great Cimbri-Teutonic invasion rather more than a century before the Christian era, state that each of the fifteen thousand hors.e.m.e.n, which formed the elite of the army of Bojorix, ”bore upon his helmet the head of some savage beast, with its mouth gaping wide.”

Osman, the son of Ertoghrul, was the founder of the Turkish empire (A.D.

1288-1326). One writer (Pen. Cyc.) says--”The name Osman is of Arabic origin (Othman), and signifies literally the bone-breaker; but it also designates a species of large vulture, usually called the royal vulture, and in this latter acceptation it was given to the son of Ertoghrul.”

The Rev. Isaac Taylor, in his ”Etruscan Researches,” referring to the origin of the tribal ”totem” of the Asena horde, afterwards named Turks, says--”It is not difficult to discover the genesis of the legend. It has been already shown that the ancient Ugric word _sena_ meant a 'man.' The a.n.a.logy of a host of ancient tribe-names leaves little doubt that the Asena simply called themselves 'the men.' This obvious etymology of the name having in lapse of time become obscure by linguistic changes, the word _schino_, a wolf, was a.s.sumed to be the true source of the national appellation, and the myth came into existence as a means of accounting for the name of the nation which proudly called itself the 'wolf-race,'

and bore the wolves' heads as its 'totem.'”

It is said the Kabyls tattoo figures of animals on their foreheads, cheeks, nose, or temples, in order to distinguish their various tribes.

A similar practice obtains generally in central Africa and the Caroline archipelago.

The plague, sent by Artemis to punish aeneus, who had neglected to offer up to her a portion of a sacrifice, was a ”monstrous boar,” afterwards slain by Meleagros, Atalanta, and others, in the famous Kalydonian hunt, is evidently a Greek form of a mythical ”monster, which in former ages prowled over the neighbourhood, inflicting injury on man and beast.”

The boar, or the boar's head, was a favourite helmet crest or ”totem”

amongst our Teutonic ancestors, both Scandinavian and German. This animal was sacred to the G.o.ddess Friga, or Freya, whom Tacitus, in his ”Germania,” styles the ”mother of the G.o.ds,” and from whom our Friday is named. She was propitiated by the warriors in order to secure her protection in battle. This practice is often referred to in the sagas, as well as in the earliest known example of Anglo-Saxon poetry extant, ”Beowulf.” The following ill.u.s.trations are from this remarkable poem:--

When we in battle our mail hoods defended, When troops rushed together and boar-crests crashed.

Then commanded he to bring in The boar, an ornament to the head, The helmet lofty in war.

Surrounded with lordly chains, Even as in days of yore, The weapon-smith had wrought it, Had wondrously finished it, Had set it round with shapes of swine, That never afterwards brand or war-knife Might have power to bite it.

<script>