Colourful mediaeval legends were known to accompany the emergecne of many Polish noble clans and their distinguishing coat of arms. A case in point is PÓ£KOZIC. According to legend, the Polish knight Stawisz was defending a castle in Hungary against the pagans who had hoped to starve out the garrison. Although food supplies were running low inside the castle, Stawisz ordered a donkey and goat to be slaughtered, their blood smeared over a large number of ox hides and the hides and the butchered animals to be dumped over the wall. Seeing that the defenders had so much meat that they could afford to waste it, the pagans lifted their siege and retreated. Stawisz was rewarded by master of this castle with a coat of arms depicting a donkey's head on a red shield with the half-goat in the crest (upper section) and could return to Poland as a hero. The Półkozic armorial was shgared by the noble lines of 274 variously surnamed families including: Broniszewski, Chmielewski, Jedliński, Jeleniewicz, Jurkowski, Laskowski, Mikołajewski, Orlikowski, Pawłowski, Pułaski, Radziszewski, Sienkiewicz, Świderski and Żebrowski. More information at PM.
