After the arms of Stephen Dūshan follow those of the various Illyrian provinces in detail, as being more immediately involved in this Armorial of Nobility. Illyria herself as a unity does not figure in the Czar’s shield, but her crescent beneath a star of eight points follows, argent on a field gules. This design appears in the centre of the Bosnian arms; to betoken—so the monks assured us—that Bosnia is the heart of Illyria. One is at once struck with its general resemblance to the star and crescent of the Turks, though their star is at one side of the moon instead of above it. Indeed the presence of these emblems on the Bosnian arms has given rise to the erroneous idea that they were imposed by the Turks as a badge of suzerainty on their conquest of the country.[217] The monks, however, were undoubtedly right in referring the star and crescent on the Bosnian shield to her Illyrian connexions; and in fact, in the title at the beginning of the book, Bosnia and Illyria are made synonymous. [Illustration: Bosnian Armorial Bearings.] Besides the star and crescent, the Bosnian arms consisted of two crossed stakes, sable on ground or, each surmounted by the head of a Moorish king. These trophies appeared in the arms of several of the nobles contained in the volume, and recalled the long struggles of the Sea Serbs with the African corsairs. The early annals of Ragusa—or, as the Serbs call her, Dubrovnik, who often stood in peculiarly close relations with Bosnia, being practically her seaport and emporium—are much occupied with these Saracenic infestations, which extended along the whole Serbian coastland to Albania, and at one time desolated the Bocche di Cattaro. These trophies bear interesting witness to the deep impression left by those struggles on the national mind; and point to those early days when Trajekto on the Bocche di Cattaro was the residence of a Bosnian Ban.[218] The scimetar on the arms of Primorie, or Serbia-on-the-Sea, seems to refer to these same struggles, and I cannot help suspecting that here is also to be found the true clue towards solving the mystery of the appearance of the star and crescent on the Illyrian escutcheon. The Moslems had early appropriated the old Byzantine half-moon,[219] and Richard Cœur de Lion, on returning from his wars in Palestine, added it as a Saracenic trophy to his royal seal. The moon and stars appear on the Irish coins of John. Nothing could have been more natural than for the Illyrian Serbs engaged in the long contests with the Saracen corsairs to have added this device to their shields for the same reason.