Having thus taken a glance at the field, or ground of the heraldric shield, let us next briefly notice what are called the honourable ordinaries, one or other of which occurs in the great majority of arms, viz., the CHIEF, BEND, BEND-SINISTER, FESSE, PALE, CROSS, SALTIRE, CHEVERON, and PILE. The =chief= is a fifth part of the shield nearest the top; _unde nomen_. In the primitive bearings, which were literally coats, or rather mantles of arms, the chief might be formed by turning the upper part of the garment back in form of a collar, thus exposing the lining, which doubtless was often of a different colour from the mantle itself. A knight who might chance at a tournament to wear a scarlet mantle lined with white, would in this manner acquire as arms, 'Gules, a chief argent.' The =bend= is a stripe passing diagonally across the shield from the dexter corner; (and the =bend-sinister=, the contrary way,) and is, etymologically, the same word with the French _bande_ and Saxon band.[89] This ordinary evidently represents a band or scarf worn over one shoulder, and passing under the opposite arm, and is well exemplified in the white belt worn by a soldier over his red coat. Of a similar origin is the =fesse=, a horizontal stripe across the middle of the shield, which represents a sash or military girdle. The term is evidently derived from the Latin _fascia_, through the French _fasce_. The =pale= is like the fesse, except that its direction is perpendicular. From its name it has been supposed to represent the _pales_, or palisades of a camp, and in support of this origin it has been remarked that, in antient warfare, every soldier was obliged to carry a pale, and to fix it as the lines were drawn for the security of the camp. This hypothesis seems to be one of those _after-thoughts_ with which heraldric theories abound. There is no doubt that most armorial _forms_ existed long before the invention of blazon, and that when it was found necessary to give every figure its distinctive appellation, the real origin of many bearings had been lost sight of, and the names assigned them were those of objects they were _conjectured_ to represent.