in Latin Aphlastre, a wooden ornament, shaped like a plume of feathers, fastened on the goose's or swan's neck used by the ancient Greeks in the heads of their ships. The Aphlaston had much the same office and effect in a ship that the crest had on the helmet. It seems also to have had the further use of indicating the quarter of the wind by the waving of a party-coloured ribbon fastened to it.