HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE HORSESHOE.

Otago Witness, Volume 01, Issue 2123, 1 November 1894, Page 8

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE HORSESHOE.

From the German, by S. E Weber, V S For the descendants of the Numidian light cavalry, the Roman and old Spanish horseshoe was evidently too heavy for their sandy, roadless deserts, so they made it thinner and omitted the bent-up rim, because it prevented the quick movement of the horse. For the

protection of the nail heads the outer margin of the shoe was staved, bo as to form a email rim on the outer surface of the shoe, thus preventing the nail heads from being worn and the shoe lost too soon. A horseshoe of that kind U shown by Fig. 8, which was used in North Africa in the twelfth century, and became the model for all forms of horseshoes of the Mahometan tribes. Even now quite similar shoes (Fig. 9) are made south and east from the Caspian Sea, at the

Amu-Darja, in Samarkand, &c, which were probably introduced under Tamerlane, the conqueror of nearly the whole of Asia Minor in the fourteenth century. The so-called " Sarmatisohe " (Sarmatian) horseshoe (Figs. 10 and 11), of South Russia,

shows in its form, at the same time, traces of the last-named shoe, however, greatly influenced by the Mongolian shoe, the "Goldenen Horde/ which at the tarn of the sixteenth to the seventeenth century played havoc at th| Volga. >nd thj^Ajat __ Ui&_u&njaal width tf.

the toe, and especially tbe lightness of the iron, reminds us of the Turkomanio horseshoe, whereas, on the contrary, the large bean-shaped holes, as well as the calks, were furnished through Mongolian influence. The Sarmatian tribes were principally horsemen, and it is not surprising, therefore, that the coat of arms of the former kingdom of Poland in the second and third quadrate shows a silver rider in armour on a silver running horse shod with golden shoes, and that at present about 1000 families in 25 lineages of

the Polish Counts Jast.rzembiec B^leaezy, the co-called "Polnische Huftistn Adel ' (Polish Horseshoe Nobility), at the same time also carry the horseshoe on their coats of arms. The silver horseshoe in a blue fie'd appears here as a symbol of the •• Herbesipfardes " (autumnal horse), to which, after the chtistianisation of Poland, was added the golden cross. The noblemen participating in the murder of the holy Stanislaus in 1084 had to carry the horseshoe reversed on their escutcheon. From the African and Turkomanio horseshoe, through the turning up of the toes and heels, originated later the Turkish, Grecian, and Montenegrin horseshoe oE the present, as shown by Fig. 12.

By the Moorish invasion ia Spain the Spanish-Gothic horseshoeing was also modified, through which the shoe became pmooth, staved at tbe margin, very broad in the toe, and turned up at toe and heel, and at a later period the old open Spanish national horseshoe (Fig. 13) was developed. As we thus see, we can in no way deny the Arabian-Turkish origin of this shoe. As France had received her whole culture from tbe south, and as the crusades espeoiaily

brought the Roman nation in close contact with them foe centuries, so it cannot appear strange that the old French horseshoe, a form of which has been preserved by Bourgelst «nd is represented by Fig. 14, still remaiued in the smooth, turned up in front and behind, like i the shoe of the southern climates, with Asiatic trices, which hold on the ground, the same as a'l southern shoeing, by tbe nail heads #> The transit of the German empire, in order to keep up the historical course, once more brings us back to the middle of the fifth century. At tbis time AttiU, the "Godegisel" (gods' scourge), left his wooden capitol ia the lowlands near the river Theiß, to go to the Roman empire and to the German and G tllican

provinces, there to spread indescribable misery to the horrors of judgment day. The following is a prayer in those days of horror : Kleiner Huf, kleines Ross, Krummer Sabel, spitz Geschoss— Blitzesschnell und sattlefest : | Schrim uns Herr yon Hunnenpest. ] We are at present reminded of those times of fright, when during the clearing and tilling of the soil a small roughly made horseshoe is found in Southern Germany, about as far as the water boundary of the Thuringian forest, and occasionally on, but principally around, Augsberg, and in Franco as far as the Loire. These shoes, covering the margin or wall of the foot, show slight traces of having been bevelled on the lower surface, and contain two bent calks very taperflolally placed. Occasionally they are sharpened and turned in two directions. The characteristic swide bean■haped nail holei are conical onjhe inside, and m- fceanieffo Jelled n> new the outer mm*

of the shoe that from the pressure tb.6 aoOfi \ were likely to split open. The nail heads werff shaped like a sleigh runner, and almost entirely sunk into the shoe. It evidently was not benS up at the toe, like the old form of these klndt of shoes. These shoes, according to our conception o£ to-day, were so carelessly finished that in tha scientific circles of historical researches thejf were, until very recently, looked upon as saddli mountings or something similar, and not; a» horseshoes. ) This shoe was for some time, while it wmM plentifully found in Franoe, regarded a» of Celtic make ; but this is certainly not the casfr* as it is of Hunish and Hungarian "nationalita^' (nationality). An exactly soientiflo proof, it fe true, according to our present knowledge, cannot be furnished ; however, it will stand well enough until the error is proved. — Scientiflo American.