196 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



the same Duchy of Luxemberg, Engling ' found two 

 iron plates which had been horse-shoes, and he figures 

 them among Roman urns and vases from this antique 

 locality, believing them to be Roman. Each shoe pos- 

 sesses six nail-holes, and has the ra'niure circling from 

 heel to heel. In shape they are not very unlike those 

 from Dalheim (and which are now in the Archaeological 

 Museum of Luxemberg). They are described as so 

 remarkably small that they were surmised to have been 

 worn by mules ; but, from their form, they were un- 

 doubtedly intended for the small indigenous horse (figs. 

 62, 6oj). This grooved shoe is perfectly distinct from 



that of the Gauls or Celts, and is 

 certainly a great advance in work- 

 manship. The rough, bulging 

 border gives place to an uniform 

 ^^- ^^ ^^- ^3 one ; and the groove, as well as 



the nail-holes and general form of the shoe, evidence skilful 

 manufacture. From these discoveries, we are led to be- 

 lieve that the powerful equestrian nation of the Suevi, 

 as well as the German tribe which in after-times con- 

 stituted the Burgundi, shod their horses immediately 

 after, if not before, the Christian era. How they acquired 

 the art we know not ; but it is well to remember that, in 

 the 3rd century b.c, the Gauls passed along the line of 

 the Danube as conquerors, and in their course left colonies 

 among the Suevi, who, even in the time of Tacitus, still 

 spoke the Gaulish tongue ; ' and also that it was often 



' Lc Tombeau de Childeric I., p. 158. 

 " Tacitus, lib. xliii. 



