FIRST MENTION OF SHOEING. 99 



other authors. We will refer to these at another time ; at 

 present it is necessary to observe, that this mode of pre- 

 serving horses' feet must have been in vogue long ages 

 before it is casually alluded to by the Byzantine Emperors ; 

 and in all likelihood was even practised by the Romans in 

 the early centuries of our era, though their writers are 

 silent with regard to it. 



For some years, the study of the ancient languages 

 and of old monuments has assumed the dignity and 

 position of a science, and has gradually introduced great 

 modifications in the opinions held in regard to the primary 

 phases of humanity ; while discoveries, conveniently and 

 reasonably discussed, have brought into view other hori- 

 zons, and given a novel direction to ethnologic research. 

 This new science, which investigates the unwritten history 

 of our race, and illustrates, in a most unequivocal manner, 

 that which has been written, has been styled ' Ethnological 

 Archaeology;' to it the discourse of our subject is already 

 much indebted, as we will see presently. 



The researches of archaeologists and ethnologists have, 

 in this and other countries, thrown much light on the 

 manners and customs of the ancient inhabitants of Europe, 

 and thus largely compensated for the absence of written 

 documents ; and the result has been to carry back the 

 probable date of the introduction of modern shoeing to a 

 generation much beyond that supposed by inquirers, who 

 relied solely on the evidence of Greek and Roman authors, 

 and the creations of the sculptor's chisel. 



In the year 1655, Jean Jacques Chifflet published a 

 description of what he supposed to be the tomb ot 

 Childeric, father of Clovis, discovered at Tournay, in 



7* 



