LYCIAN TRIQUETRA. 



213 



correspond to holes for small nails, wherewith to attach 

 a shoe to a hoof, as they extend along the clamp which 

 Col. Smith says was employed to grasp the front of the 

 hoof. Fellows also gives a copy (No. 30) of a four- 

 limbed figure belonging to this class (fig. 71), the original 

 being in the British Museum, and which 

 could never be meant to represent a shoe. 

 Sir Charles Fellows does not attempt to 

 explain the origin or import of the trique- 

 tra, and it would certainly require a lively 

 imagination to associate it in any way with horse-shoes. 

 On the contrary, a very frequent device on the ancient coins 

 of Pamphylia is three human legs, arranged like the hooks 

 on the triquetra, and the same as borne by the currency 

 of the Isle of Man. Figure 72 is a copy of an ancient 

 coin in the British Museum, which has 

 neither prongs nor men's legs, but cocks' 

 heads ! Surely there is nothing here to 

 offer the remotest conjecture as to the 

 origin of Eastern shoeing ! 



Col. Smith asserts that ' there are indeed ancient 

 Tartar horse-shoes of a circular form, apparently with 

 only three nails or fasteners to the outside of the hoof;'' 

 but we may be pardoned for doubting the correctness of 

 this statement. 



That shoeing was known among the Arabs as early as 

 the days of Moham.med, appears certain. In the chapter 



1855. Fig. 2j. I am greatly indebted to Mr A. T. Murray of the 

 British Museum, for tracings and impressions of these interesting and 

 rare coins. 



' The Natural History of Horses, p. 130. 



