In Fig. 5, _A_, _B_, _C_, mark the chief--_i.e._, the highest and most honourable point of the shield--_A_ marking the dexter chief or upper right-hand side of the shield, _B_ the middle chief, and _C_ the sinister or left-hand side of the chief. _E_ denotes the fess point, or centre; _G_, _H_, and _I_, mark the base of the shield--_G_ and _I_ denoting respectively the dexter and sinister sides of the shield, and _H_ the middle base. After the points of a field, come the tinctures, which give the colour to a coat of arms, and are divided into two classes. The first includes the two metals, gold and silver, and the five colours proper--viz., blue, red, black, green, purple. In heraldic language these tinctures are described as "or," "argent" (always written arg:), "azure" (az:), "gules" (gu:),[3] "sable" (sa:), "vert," and "purpure." According to Guillim, each tincture was supposed to teach its own lesson--_e.g._, "as gold excelleth all other metals in value and purity, so ought its bearer to surpass all others in prowess and virtue," and so on. [Footnote 3: This term for red is thought to be derived either from the Hebrew _gulude_, a bit of red cloth, or from the Arabic, _gulu_, a rose.] [Illustration: FIG. 5.] In the seventeenth century one Petrosancta introduced the system of delineating the tinctures of the shield by certain dots and lines, in the use of which we have a good example of how heraldry can dispense with words. Thus pin-prick dots represent or (Fig. 6); a blank surface, argent (Fig. 7); horizontal lines, azure (Fig. 8); perpendicular, gules (Fig. 9); horizontal and perpendicular lines crossing each other, sable (Fig. 10); diagonal lines running from the dexter chief to the sinister base, vert (Fig. 11); diagonal lines running in an opposite direction, purpure (Fig. 12). [Illustration: FIG. 6.--OR.] [Illustration: FIG. 7.--ARG.] [Illustration: FIG. 8.--AZ.] [Illustration: FIG. 9.--GU.] [Illustration: FIG. 10.--SA.] [Illustration: FIG. 11.--V.] [Illustration: 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." [Footnote 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_.]