XI 



SPURS 



"I was up in half a minute, but he never seemed to stir, 

 Though I scored him with my rowels in the fall," 



Whyte Melville. 



T> UXTORFF, in describing the horsemen of an- 

 cient Egypt, says that the word " Parash," or 

 rider, is derived from the Hebrew root to prick or 

 spur (Head) ; and Xenophon in his treatise makes 

 mention of spurs, but no frieze or statue of about 

 that period shows any rider wearing them. A draw- 

 ing of a spur used in the fifth century, which is given 

 in Berenger's book, depicts a milder instrument than 

 those in use at the time of the Conquest, which were 

 at that period, and for some time afterwards, most 

 murderous-looking implements. They were of three 

 kinds : one of them, the " pryck," having only a sin- 

 gle long point, another several points of considerable 

 size, and a third three necks. Happily, nowadays 



the use and not the abuse of spurs is more generally 



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