Page:The Grammar of Heraldry, Cussans, 1866.djvu/28

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14
Heraldry
The diminutives of this ordinary are the bendlet, which is half the bend; the cost, or cotise, half the bendlet; and the riband, half of the cost.
When a bend is borne between two cotises, it is said to be cotised.
The riband is a cost couped, or cut off, at the ends, so that they do not extend to the edges of the shield.
4. The Bend Sinister is drawn in the opposite direction of the bend, viz. from sinister to dexter.
Its diminutives are the scarpe, one half its width; and the baton, one fourth.
The baton, like the riband, is couped; and is generally considered as a mark of illegitimacy.
5. The Fess is an ordinary horizontally crossing the middle of the shield, of which it occupies the third part.
6. The Bar, although one of the ordinaries, may be considered rather as the diminutive of the fess,