A chapter might be written on Hugo's bold and occasionally strange uses of this word. Its primary meaning is either 'dull red' or 'tawny', but in Hugo's poetry it is used rather as a somewhat vague epithet to suggest darkness, gloom, cruelty, savagery, or oppressive power. It never denotes merely a physical quality; in such expressions as 'leur fauve volée', speaking of the ravens in _La Fin de Satan_, 'le désert fauve' (_Androclès_), 'son bec fauve', of the vulture (_Sultan Mourad_), the suggestion of wildness or ruthlessness predominates. Usually the word is used in a wholly figurative sense. Thus in _La Fin de Satan_ the fallen archangel, flying from Jehovah, is 'fauve et hagard', Barabbas stumbling against the Cross is 'fauve', and of the lunatic in the tombs it is said: 'fauve il mordait'. In all these cases the meaning is 'wild','savage '. In _Dieu_ we have `Vénus, fauve et fatale' ('cruel'), in _L'Ane_ les canons dont les fauves gueulées' ('terrible'), in _L'Année Terrible_'un hallier fauve où des sabres fourmillent' ('wild'), and France is called upon to be 'franchement fauve et sombre' ('fierce'). In the following passages we have bolder uses still: Le progrès a parfois l'allure vaste et fauve ('awe-inspiring') Et le bien bondissant effare ceux qu'il sauve. (_Dieu_.) If man had been unselfish, L'ombre immense serait son fauve auxiliaire. (Ibid.) Of war, Elle chantait, terrible et tranquille, et sa bouche Fauve bavait du sang dans le clairon farouche. (_Changement d'Horizon._) La fauve volupté de mourir. (_Mangeront-ils?_) It is applied even to sound. 'Le fauve bruit' is used in _L'Ane_ of the battles of primeval monsters, and more mystically in _La Vision d'où sortit le livre_ of the passing of the Spirit of Fatality. Also of smell Que l'homme au ciel s'égare ou qu'il fanatise Avec la fauve odeur des bûchers qu'il attise. (_Religions et Religion_.) Nor must the strange well-known line in _La Bouche d'Ombre_ be forgotten Le fauve Univers est le forçat de Dieu. _Fauve_ is always used of what is dark and gloomy, just as _vermeil_ is always applied to what is bright and pleasant. _cimier_. See note on LE MARIAGE DE ROLAND. _mélusine_. A heraldic figure, half woman, half serpent, bathing in a basin. Taken from the name of a fairy, celebrated in the folklore of Poitou. _alérion_, a heraldic figure, representing an eagle without beak or claws. _le manche d'une guitare_ is the small end. _bourguignotte_, a small helmet without throat-piece, so called because it was first used by the Burgundians. _Diane éblouissait le pâtre: a reference to the `old sweet mythos,' as Browning calls it, of Diana, the goddess of the Moon, stooping from heaven to kiss the shepherd Endymion, as he lay asleep on Mount Latmos. _Rhodope_, the wife of Haemus, king of Thrace, who was changed into a mountain because she thought herself more beautiful than Hera.