The Manual of Heraldry

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	PEAN -- field sable; powdering or.
	ERMYNITES -- Argent, powdered sable, with the addition of a single red hair on each side the sable tufts. This fur is seldom seen in English heraldry; and it is impossible to give an example without using color.
	VAIR -- argent and azure. It is represented by small bells, part reversed, ranged in lines in such a manner, that the base argent is opposite to the base azure.
	COUNTER-VAIR, -- is when the bells are placed base against base, and point against point.
	POTENT -- an obsolete word for a crutch: it is so called in Chaucer's description of Old Age.

"So eld she was that she ne went
A foote, but it were by potent."

POTENT COUNTER-POTENT. -- The heads of the crutches or potents touch each other in the center of the shield.