388 HORSE-SHOES AND HORSE-SHOEING. 



runs the moral of the tradition, iron would soon be beyond 

 price ! ' 



There was to be seen at Ellrich, in Germany, in days 

 long gone by, four horse-shoes, of immense size, nailed 

 to the door of the old church. They astonished every- 

 body; and since the church was destroyed, they have 

 been carefully preserved in the curate's dwelling. In very 

 ancient times, Count Ernest rode one Sunday morning 

 from Klettenberg to Ellrich, in order to contend, glass 

 in hand, with the most intrepid tippler, for a chain of gold. 

 He met a great number of rivals, and defeated them 

 all ; and having put the chain round his neck, he was 

 returning, as conqueror, through this little town to Klet- 

 tenberg. As he crossed the principal thoroughfare, he 

 heard the vespers chanted in the church of Saint Nicholas : 

 drunk as he was, he made up his mind to enter the sacred 

 building. So he rode in, through and over the people, 

 up to the very altar ; but scarcely had his horse put its feet 

 on the steps to clear them, than all at once its four shoes 

 were torn off, and it fell with its rider, both stiff dead on 

 the floor. The shoes have been preserved for ages as a 

 memorial of this event.^ 



Even the loss of shoes from the hoofs appears to have 

 given rise in the middle ages to as great an amount of 

 superstition, as the virtues ascribed to their discovery. So 

 late as the i6th century we find the accomplished diplo- 

 matist, brave soldier, and skilled poet, Du Bartas, blaming 

 the humble little plant, moon-wort {Botrycliium lunaria), 

 for drawing the iron coverings from the horses' feet. 



' Prcptoriits. Weltbeschreib. vol. ii. Grimm. Deutsche Mytlio- 

 logie. " Otmar and Grimm. Deutsche Mythologie. 



