"Pork-pisee" and "Wheale" (Vol. vi., p. 579.).—Has not Mr. Warde, in his second quotation, copied the word wrongly—"pork-pisee" for pork-pesse? A porpoise is the creature alluded to; or porpesse, as some modern naturalists spell it. "Wheale" evidently means whey: the former expression is probably a provincialism.
Jaydee.
Did the Carians use Heraldic Devices? (Vol. vi., p. 556.).—Perhaps the following, from an heraldic work of Dr. Bernd, professor at the University of Bonn, may serve to answer the Queries of Mr. Booker.
Herodotus ascribes the first use, or, as he expresses it, the invention of signs on shields, which we call arms, and of the supporter or handle of the shield, which till then had been suspended by straps from the neck, as well as of the tuft of feathers or horse-hair on the helmet, to the Carians; in which Strabo agrees with him, and, as far as regards the supporters and crest, Ælian also:
"Herodot schrieb den ersten Gebrauch, oder wie er sich ausdrückt, die Erfindung der Zeichen auf Schilden, die wir Wappen nennen, wie auch der Halter oder Handhaben an den Schilden, die bis dahin nur an Riemen um den Nacken getragen wurden, und die Büsche von Federn oder Rosshaaren auf den Helmen, den Cariern zu, worin ihm Strabo (Geogr. 14. I. § 27.), und was die Handhaben und Helmbüsche betrifft, auch Ælian (Hist. Animal. 12. 30.), beistimmen."—Bernd's Wappenwissen der Griechen und Römer, p. 4. Bonn, 1841.
On Thucydides i. 8., where mention is made of Carians disinterred by the Athenians in the island of Delos, the scholiast, evidently referring to the passage cited by Mr. Booker, says:
"Κᾶρες πρῶτοι εὗρον τοὺς ὀμφαλοὺς τῶν ἀσπίδων, καὶ τοὺς λόφους. τοῖς οὖν ἀποθνήσκουσι συνέθαπτον ἀσπιδισκιον μικρὸν καὶ λόφον, σημεῖον τῆς ἑυρέσεως."
From Plutarch's Artaxerxes (10.) may be inferred, that the Carian standard was a cock; for the king presented the Carian who slew Cyrus with a golden one, to be thenceforth carried at the head of the troop.
For full information on the heraldry of the ancients, your correspondent can scarcely do better than consult the above-quoted work of Dr. Bernd.
John Scott.