204 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



the way he occurs in the above and other traditions 

 relating to horses or farriery. Lyndesay says : 



And again : 



* Saint Eloy, he cloth stov;tly stand, 

 Ane new horseshoe in his hand.' 



' Sonae makis oftering to Saint Eloy, 

 That he their horse may well convoy.' 



Horsemen also appear to have sworn by the good bishop ; 

 for Chaucer makes the carter in the ' Friar's Tale,' when 

 he had been assisted out of the mud into which his horses 

 and cart had stuck fast, to thank his assistants by the best 

 animal in his team, and to exclaim ; 



' That was well t wight (pulled) my owen Liard boy, 

 I pray God save thy body, and Saint Eloy.' 



The saint was supposed to work great miracles among 

 diseased animals. We will have more to say about him, 

 however, at a later period. 



So far as I am able to ascertain, we have no written 

 evidence to show that the Germans shod their horses 

 before a.d. i 185. According to Anton,' about that time 

 mention is made of the shoeing of two horses (II. equorum 

 ferramenta, Kindliger). In some old German records, 

 given on the authority of Shopflin, there is a notice that 

 the smith was obliged to deliver sixteen horse-shoes and 

 the necessary nails. And in another writing (Sachsen 

 Spiegel), it is ordered that 'the horses of messengers (die 

 Pferde der Boten) shall only be shod on the fore-feet.' 



' Geschichte der Teutschen Landwirthschaft von den Altesten 

 Zeiten bis zu Ende des Funfzehnten Jahrhunderts, p. 37. Gorlitz, 

 1802. 



