RAPID OXIDATION OF IRON. 113 



With the Celts, it appears that it was not unfrequently 

 the custom to place in the warrior's tomb, besides his 

 horse, one or two wheels of the chariot, and sometimes the 

 whole carriage and harness. At Alaise, in France, and 

 among the tombs of Anet, Switzerland, this has been 

 noticed.' 



If my memory serves me right, the remains of a 

 chariot found in a tomb are now in the York Museum, 



Unfortunately, as Mr Knowles observes, these remains 

 of horses in graves do not constitute any distinguishing 

 mark of time or race, as the slaughter and burial of horses 

 appear to have belonged to almost all nations and all 

 ages ; the custom extending from the Tschuds of the 

 Altai and the Crim Tartars to the Franks and Saxons ; 

 even in the sarcophagi of Christian knights, buried in 

 churches during the Middle Ages, besides their own 

 weapons and bones, the less perishable parts of their steeds 

 are there. So late as the eighteenth century the custom 

 was in vogue, for a martial and Christian order of knight- 

 hood, in 1 78 1, laid Frederick Casimir in his grave with 

 his slaughtered horse beside him. In 1866, Her Majesty 

 Q-ueen Victoria's huntsman died ; his old and favourite 

 horse was destroyed, and the animal's ears were deposited 

 on his late master's coffin before the earth had shut him 

 out from the world. 



And still more unfortunately for our subject, these 

 remains of the gentle soliped do but seldom testify to 

 the existence of nail-pierced hoofs and a metallic mount- 

 ing. From shoes being nearly always manufactured of 

 iron, that metal oxidizes so rapidly, that in the presence 



' Troy on. Habitations Lacustres, p. 334. Lausanne, i860. 



8 



