BU-SANDALS. 327 



long in showing us shoes made for the single claw of the 

 ox (fig. 129), and yet belonging to this class of pretended 



htppo-sandals whose name it behoves us to rectify 



it should be bu-sandal.' It appears to have been 



forgotten that a bisulcus or cloven-footed animal cannot 

 travel easily with its digits restrained by a solid plate with 

 two iron bands compressing them on each side. And we 

 may ask if the experiment was tried of making oxen walk 

 for a mile or two with any of these Besanqon specimens ? 

 None of those I have examined would fit the foot of an 

 ox, and there is no reason to suppose that they were ever 

 used for that purpose by the Romans. I have already 

 noted that tips of iron, conjectured to have armed the 

 feet of cattle, w^ere recently found at Pompeii. Until I 

 have inspected these articles, or seen drawings of them, I 

 cannot decide as to their having been so employed, though 

 I think it improbable, as Cato the Censor (b.c. 160) speaks 

 of the application of liquid pitch to the under surface of 

 the hoofs of oxen to preserve them from wear, as is now 

 done in the East with the feet of elephants and camels : 

 ' Boves ne pedes subterant, priusquam in viam quoquam 

 ages, pice liquidam cornua infima unguito.' ' 



It will then, I think, be admitted that these strange- 

 looking iron plates are not horse, mule, or ox sandals, and 

 that they could not be employed as such. The form and 

 situation of the clips and hooks alone forbid such a sup- 

 position, and the Romans would indeed deserve to be 

 classed among the most clumsy of all contrivers if they 

 ever attempted to put such a garniture on their horses', 

 mules', or oxen's feet, even supposing they were ignorant 



' De Re Rustica, cap. 72. 



