BRAND-MARK OF CIRCASSIAN HORSES. 



211 



fig, 69 



the antiquity of this form of shoe there is no possibility of 

 judging, because the exact counterpart of it existed already 

 at the period when the Ionian Greeks had established fixed 

 symbols as types of their cities and communities. It 

 occurs on the coins of Lycia, and is known to numis- 

 matists by the name of Triquetra (fig. 69). If there 

 be any difference, it is in a row of points 

 on the Lycian type, as if the shoe had 

 been perforated with holes for small nails 

 (fig. 70) ; and v.'hat makes the selection 

 of this object for a symbol of the region 

 in question the more remarkable is, that, 

 in remote antiquity, it was there Celtic 

 breeders are reported to have first com- 

 menced their trade in mules. The horse- 

 shoes of early historians, since they do not 

 mention farriers, appear to have been of this Lycian 

 form, or were not fastened with nails driven through 

 the horny hoof It is difficult to escape an admission 

 that horse-shoes of this kind are as old as the Ionian 

 establishments in Asia Minor, unless by denying that 

 neither the Circassian brand- mark nor the Triquetra 

 of Lycia represent them ; a conclusion which at least is 

 totally at variance with the denomination of the mark by 

 which the Kabardian breed is known, time out of mind. 

 . . . The round shoe of the old Arabian method is evi- 

 dentiy a modification of the Circassian or Lycian, the out- 

 side clamps being omitted, and nail-holes substituted. . . . 

 That the Arabs of the Hegira (a.d. 622), or within a 

 generation later, shod their horses, is plain, if we believe 

 the received opinion that the iron-work on the summit of 



fig. 70 



14 



