Fig. 10.—Sa.Fig. 11.—V.Fig. 12.—Purpure.
Two other colours, orange and blood-colour, were formerly in use, but they are practically obsolete now.
Furs constitute the second class of tinctures. Eight kinds occur in English heraldry, but we can only mention the two most important—viz., ermine and vair. The former is represented by black spots on a white ground (Fig. 13).[4] As shields were anciently covered with the skins of animals, it is quite natural that furs should appear in armorial bearings. "Ermine," says Guillim, "is a little beast that hath his being in the woods of Armenia, whereof he taketh his name."
[4:] When the same spots are in white on a black field it is termed ermines, whilst black spots on a gold field are blazoned or described as erminois.
Many legends account for the heraldic use of ermine, notably that relating how, when Conan Meriadic landed in Brittany, an ermine sought shelter from his pursuers under Conan's shield. Thereupon the Prince protected the small fugitive, and adopted an ermine as his arms.
Fig. 13.—Ermine.
From early days the wearing of ermine was a most honourable distinction, enjoyed only by certain privileged persons, and disallowed to them in cases of misdemeanour. Thus, when, in the thirteenth century, Pope Innocent III. absolved Henry of Falkenburg for his share in the murder of the Bishop of Wurtzburg, he imposed on him as a penance never to appear in ermine, vair, or any other colour used in tournaments. And, according to Joinville, when St. Louis returned to France from Egypt, "he renounced the wearing of furs as a mark of humility, contenting himself with linings for his garments made of doeskins or legs of hares."
As to vair, Mackenzie tells us that it was the skin of a beast whose back was blue-grey (it was actually meant for the boar, for which verres was the Latin name), and that the figure used in heraldry to indicate vair represents the shape of the skin when the head and feet have been taken away (Fig. 14). "These skins," he says, "were used by ancient governors to line their pompous robes, sewing one skin to the other."