Fictitious & Symbolic Creatures in Art Part 18

"Further, we are by Pliny told This serpent is extremely cold; So cold that, put it in the fire, 'Twill make the very flames expire."

Marco Polo, the early Venetian traveller, who tells of many strange and wonderful things seen and heard of in his journeyings, was not a believer in the fabulous stories of the salamander, for he dismisses the subject with the curt remark, "Everybody knows that it could be no animal's nature to live in fire." An early heraldic writer of a somewhat later period, with greater credulity, stoutly maintains its reality, and in describing the creature states that he actually possessed some of the hair or down of the salamander. "This," he goes on to say, "I have several times put in the fire and made it red-hot, and after taken out; which, being cold, yet remaineth perfect wool, or fine downy hair."

Marco Polo further on a.s.sures his readers that the true salamander is nothing but an incombustible substance found in the earth, "all the rest being fabulous nonsense." He tells of a mountain in Tartary, "there or thereabouts," in which a "vein" of salamander was found; and so we arrive at the fact that this salamander's wool was nothing but the "asbestos" of the ancients. It is easy to see why asbestos became known as "salamanders'

wool." The name resulted from the juxtaposition of ideas, and shows how deeply impressed was the belief in the salamander's mysterious powers. A late writer tells us that some of the lizard tribe are known to enjoy warmth, and alligators are said to revel in hot water. It needed only that an insignificant member of the genus should have been found among the dead embers of a fire to prove at once the invulnerability of the reptile and its ability to extinguish the flames.

The salamander of mediaeval superst.i.tion was a creature in the shape of a man, which lived in fire (Greek, salambeander, chimney-man), meaning a man that lives in a chimney. It was described by the ancients as bred by fire and existing in flames, an element which must inevitably prove destructive of life. Pliny describes it as "a sort of lizard which seeks the hottest fire to breed in, but quenches it with the extreme frigidity of its body."

He tells us he tried the experiment once, but the creature was soon reduced to powder.[26]

Gregory of n.a.z.ianzen says that the salamander not only lived in and delighted in flames, but extinguished fire. St. Epiphanius compares the virtues of the hyacinth and the salamander. The hyacinth, he states, is unaffected by fire, and will even extinguish it as the salamander does.

"The salamander and the hyacinth were symbols of enduring faith, which triumphs over the ardour of the pa.s.sions. Submitted to fire the hyacinth is discoloured and becomes white. We may here perceive," says M. Portal, "a symbol of enduring and triumphant faith."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Salamander crest of James, Earl of Douglas. From garter-plate.]

This imaginary creature is generally represented as a small wingless dragon or lizard, surrounded by and breathing forth flames. Sometimes it is represented somewhat like a dog breathing flames. A golden salamander is so represented on the garter-plate of James, Earl of Douglas, K.G., the first Scottish n.o.ble elected into the Order of the Garter, and who died 1483 A.D. Tinctured _vert_; and _in flames proper_ it is the crest of Douglas, Earl of Angus.

Francois I. of France adopted as his badge the salamander in the midst of flames, with the legend, "Nutrisco et extinguo" ("I nourish and extinguish"). The Italian motto from which this legend was borrowed was, "Nudrisco il buono e spengo il reo" ("I nourish the good and extinguish the bad;" "Fire purifies good metal, but consumes rubbish"). In his castle of Chambord, the galleries of the Palace of Fontainebleau, and the Hotel St. Bourg Thoroulde at Rouen, this favourite device of the crowned salamander, with the motto, may be everywhere seen.

_Azure, a salamander or, in flames proper_, is the charge on the s.h.i.+eld of the Italian family of Cennio.

The "_lizards_" which form the crest of the Ironmongers' Company, were probably intended for salamanders on the old seal of the company in 1483, but are now blazoned as lizards.

The heraldic signification of the salamander was that of a brave and generous courage that the fire of affliction cannot destroy or consume.

In the animal symbolism of the ancients the salamander may be said to represent the element of FIRE; the eagle, AIR; the lion, EARTH; the dolphin, WATER.

Heraldic Antelope

This fict.i.tious animal, when depicted in heraldry, has a body like that of a stag, the tail of a unicorn, a head like the heraldic tiger, with two serrated horns, and a tusk growing from the tip of his nose, a row of tufts down the back of his neck, and the like on his tail, chest and thighs. Thus represented it is termed an heraldic antelope to distinguish it from the real or natural antelope, which is also borne in modern coats of arms.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Heraldic Antelope.]

The old heralds, with their scant knowledge of the rarer kinds of foreign animals, represented the antelope as a fierce beast of prey, and totally unlike in appearance and in disposition to the beautiful small-limbed gentle creature with which we are acquainted. That such was the prevailing opinion in the time of Spenser is evident. In the "Faerie Queen" he makes the stout Sir Satyrane--

"In life and manners wild, Amongst wild beasts and woods from laws of man exiled."

--more than a match for the most ferocious brutes, all of whom he subdues:

"Wild beasts in iron yokes he would compel; The spotted panther, and the tusked boar; The pardale swift, and the tiger cruel, The _antelope_ and wolf, both fierce and fell; And them constrain in equal team to draw."

Some authorities give the heraldic antelope with two straight horns, but as the ancient badge of the House of Lancaster it was represented with two serrated horns curving backward.

In blazon, the term "_heraldic antelope_" should always be used unless the natural antelope is intended.

The Heraldic Ibex

is an imaginary beast resembling the heraldic antelope in appearance, with the exception of the horns projecting from his forehead, which are serrated like a saw. Perhaps it would not be erroneous to consider it identical with the heraldic antelope.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Heraldic Ibex.]

The real or natural ibex is a native of the Alps, the Pyrenees and the Grecian mountains, where they abound in defiance of the hunters. It resembles a goat, but the horns are much larger, bent backwards, and full of knots, one of which is added every year.

Bagwyn

A fabulous beast like the heraldic antelope, but having the tail of a horse, and long horns of a goat curved backwards. The dexter supporter of the arms of Carey, Lord Hundson, in Westminster Abbey, is a Bagwyn.

The Camelopard, Camel-leopard

The Giraffe figures a few times in blazon under these names. It is described by old heralds as half camel and half leopard. A curious word-combination was made by the Romans when wis.h.i.+ng to find a name for the giraffe. "It is," says Archbishop Trench, "a creature combining, though with infinitely more grace, yet some of the height and even the proportions of _a camel_, with the spotted skin of the _pard_." They called it "camelopardus," the camel-panther.

There are two heraldic creatures based upon the above which are referred to in heraldic works, viz., the ALLOCAMELUS or a.s.s-camel, having the body of the camel conjoined to the head of an a.s.s; and the CAMELOPARDEL, which is like the camelopard, but with two long horns curved backwards.

Musimon, t.i.tyrus

A fict.i.tious animal mentioned by Guillim and others. It nearly resembles _a goat, with the head and horns of a ram_, but has besides the horns of that beast, _a pair of goat's horns_. It is also mentioned in Guillim's "Display," where it is said to be a bigenerous beast, of unkindly procreation, engendered between a goat and a ram, like the t.i.tyrus, the offspring of a sheep and goat, as noted by Upton.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Musimon, t.i.tyrus.]

The Enfield

An imaginary hybrid animal with _the head of a fox, chest of a greyhound, talons of an eagle, and body of a lion; the hind legs and tail of a wolf_.

It occurs as the crest of some Irish families of the name of Kelly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Mantygre--Satyral.]

Mantiger, Montegre or Manticora Satyral

A chimerical creature of mediaeval invention, having the body of an heraldic tiger with mane, and the head of an old man with long spiral horns. Some heraldic authorities make the horns more like those of an ox, and the feet like a dragon's.

_The Satyral_ is apparently identical with the man-tiger.

The belief that certain persons have the power of a.s.suming the shape of the tiger is common in India, and the Khonds say that a man-killing tiger is either an incarnation of the Earth's G.o.ddess or a transfigured man. It is thus with the Lavas of Birma, supposed to be the broken-down remains of a cultured race and dreaded as man-tigers.[27]

Two satyrals supported the arms of the Lords Stawell.

The supporters of the arms of the Earl of Huntingdon are mantigers, but are represented without horns.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Manticora. From ancient Bestiaria.]

From a mediaeval "Bestiaria" we have a description and ill.u.s.tration of a gruesome creature of this name (manticora), evolved no doubt from some traveller's marvellous tale. We are told that it is "bred among the Indians," has a triple row of teeth, in bigness and roughness like a lion's, face and ears like a man's, a tail like a scorpion's "with a sting and sharp-pointed quills," and that "his voice is like a small trumpet,"

and that he is "very wild," and that after having his tail bruised, he can be tamed without danger.