328 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



of nail-shoeing, which at the time these were made it ap- 

 pears they were not. 



If not supports for lamps, ancient stirrups, sandals for 

 sound or diseased feet-, or iron socks for wearing at night 

 while the horses were resting, what then are they ? The 

 first one I saw in the British Museum — belonging to the 

 second class — suggested its probable use. Was it not a 

 skid or drag {sabot or enrayeur) to put under the wheel 

 of a carriage to moderate its descent on steep places ? 

 This appeared to me a very likely supposition. It is well 

 known that the Romans employed such instruments for 

 their vehicles, and they are often mentioned in their real, 

 as well as in a figurative, sense, by the designation of 

 'sufflamen.' For instance, Juvenal, in the ist century, 

 in his eighth satire (148), writes: 



Ipse rotam astringit multo sufflamine Consul. 



And in his sixteenth satire (50) he also alludes to it: 



Nee res atteritur longo sufflamine lilis. 



Seneca, also in the ist century, speaks of the 'rota suf- 

 flaminanda ;' and Prudentius in the fourth century (Psych. 

 417), notices it : 



Tardat sufflamine currum. 



Gruter, in his collection of Ancient Inscriptions (1803) 

 gives the following reference to it : ' Fontium aquarumque 

 coelestium ex montibus delabentium torrenti sufiiamen 

 his muris fossaque opposuit, et ad plana perduxit.' 



Ainsworth, in his Latin Dictionary, explains the mean- 

 ing of the designation : Sufflamen. SufBo, machinae genus, 

 quo in descendu vel procursu nimio tota solet sufflari, i. e., 

 retineri. And another classical dictionary explains it as 



