368 



HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



troubled with these specimens as other numismatists and 

 archaeologists, and is inclined to think that what we have 

 designated horse-shoes are intended to represent fetters 

 [entraves) for slaves, supporting this opinion by several 

 references to the practice of manacling these unfortunate 

 creatures. He does not, however, attempt to describe 

 the fetters, or account for the presence of holes in these 

 supposed examples. 



As I have just said, I am willing to believe that they 

 are horse-shoes, and that Eckhel is not far from the truth 

 in ascribing the origin of the coin to victories in the hip- 

 podrome. 



As tending to confirm this opinion, it is worthy of 

 note that quite recently, in a German work on farriery,' 

 a tail-piece to one of the chapters shows a serpent en- 

 circling a well-arranged and characteristic group of objects 

 (fig. 142), consisting of a horse-shoe (modern German 



pattern), nails, hammer, pincers, 

 buffer, rasp, and ' boutoir ' or 

 ' hufmesser.' 



It must not be forgotten 

 that the serpent is the emblem 

 of the metempsychosis and eter- 

 nal renovation of Oriental myth- 

 ^s'42 ology, and held a prominent 



place among the superstitions of the Druids. The egg of 

 that creature was looked upon by them as a most potent 

 talisman, and Pliny ^ describes how these articles were 



' Lehr- unci Handbuch der Hufbeschlagskunst. Von J. T. Grosz. 

 3rd edition. Stuttgart, 1861. 



' Hist. Naluralis. Lib. xxix. cap. 44. 



