The Rebus reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Rebus

Helping orphans the way you would do it
A rebus is a kind of word puzzle which uses pictures to represent words or parts of words.

Arms of Congleton Borough Council: conger, leo, tunEnlarge

Arms of Congleton Borough Council: conger, leo, tun

Rebuses are used extensively in heraldry as a hint to the name of the owner of a coat of arms. This practice is known as canting. For example, the arms of the Borough of Congleton in Cheshire contain a conger eel, a lion (in Latin, leo) and a tun (another word for a barrel). This word sequence "conger leo tun" recalls the town's name.