 The device of "a pelican in her piety" or "a pelican vulning (from Latin "vulno", "to wound") herself" was used in heraldry.An older version of the myth is that the pelican used to kill its young then resurrect them with its blood, again analogous to the sacrifice of Jesus.Likewise, a folktale from India says that a pelican killed her young by rough treatment, but was then so contrite that she resurrected them with her own blood.