CHANGE OF DESIGNATION. 369 



procured. The Druids wore them round their necks 

 richly set, and sold them at a very high price. They 

 appear, nevertheless, to have been nothing more than 

 the shells of echini or ' sea-eggs.' 



At a very early date we discover another evidence of 

 the high antiquity of shoeing among the Celtic and cog- 

 nate races, in the frequent occurrence of a name to de- 

 signate those who had charge of horses, and who had to 

 attend to their shoeing. In French, German, and early 

 British writers, instead of iTnrlarqog and mulomedicus, em- 

 ployed in classical times to denote the veterinary surgeon, 

 there is used the designation 'mariscalcus,' 'manescalcus,' 

 'marescallus,' ' mareschallus,' and finally ' mareschal ;' all, as 

 Verstegan asserts, derived from the German word ' march ' 

 — horse. ' In the ancient Teutonicke,' he says, '■mare 

 had sometime the signification that horse now hath, and 

 so served for the appelation of that whole kind, to wit, 

 both male and female, and gelding, and so all went in 

 general by the name of horse. Scale, in our ancient 

 language, signifieth a kind of servant, as the name of 

 scalco (though a Teutonicke denomination) in Italy yet 

 doth. Marscalc (or marschal) was with our ancestors, 

 as with the ancient Germans, curator equorum, one who 

 had charge of horses. The French, who (as we in Eng- 

 land) very honourably esteeme of this name of office, doe 

 give unto some nobleman that bare it the title of Grand 

 Mareschal de France. And yet notwithstanding they doe 

 no otherwise terme the smith that cureth and shueth 

 horses than by the name of mareschal.' ' Lobineau ^ says 



' Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Titles of Honour. 1635. 



^ Hist, de Bretagne. 

 24 



