THE SOLEM SPARTEM. 69 



foment the feet with it till they become clean and soft. 

 Then the loose parts must be removed from the hoofs, 

 and all bruises be laid bare in the water ; and then you 

 are to have in immediate readiness slender tivigs of broom y 

 or twine cords, and rough cloths, tow and other coarse 

 stuffing, with garlic (aAXiov) and axle-grease — one by 

 one, so as to have them ready to fix by ties (or bands) 

 round the hoofs. If they (the feet) should inflame, let 

 blood be abstracted from the coronets, and cause the horse 

 to remain in a warm place where there is sunshine, or let 

 a fire be kindled if it be winter-time, and make him a bed 

 of dry dung, that he may not stand on what is hard. The 

 feet may suffer in this way without being much inflamed. 

 Let him be attended for eight days, and stand in-doors on 

 dung ; also have his water brought to him, that his hoofs 

 by walking be not torn asunder, but may grow, being 

 nourished by w^hat comes from the dung.' ' 



As Bracy Clark has noted, the twigs of the ' spartium ' 

 are here recommended to be simply employed as cords to 

 maintain the soft dressing to the tender feet, enclosing the 

 hoofs like a net. 



The w^ord spartum, as used by the Greeks and Romans, 

 was meant by them to indicate several species of plants 

 which, like hemp or flax, could be easily manufactured 

 into various articles of utility. But the former people, 

 more particularly, applied this term to a shrub, the Spar- 

 tium Junceum, or Spanish broom, which is found in a 

 wild state on the dry lands of the Levant and the southern 

 parts of Europe, and the slender branches of which were 

 woven into baskets, while the shoots were prepared and 

 ' Ruellis. Scriptores Graeci Veteriiiarii, p. 254. 



