IMPORTANCE OF SHOEING TO CIFILIZJTION. 609 



that from these people the art, more or less modified, and 

 perhaps improved, has descended to our own days, a 

 thousand-fold more necessary to us than it was to them. 

 It is quite possible, and even extrem.ely probable, that for 

 a long period shoeing was but rarely resorted to by the 

 people who were aware of its utility ; and if, as is surmised, 

 the art was kept a secret by the Druid priests, this may 

 account for the Romans being unacquainted with its 

 application for some time after their having been in con- 

 tact with the so-styled barbarous nations of Gaul, Ger- 

 many, and Britain. Before this device was adopted, 

 horses must have been almost exclusively employed to 

 carry riders, who were nearly always warriors ; or to drag 

 those light tiny chariots said to be the invention of 

 Erichthonius, the Athenian, or their modifications — the 

 currus arcuate, the leciica, the carpentum, and the carrucce, 

 which, drawn by one or more horses, were seldom used 

 except in the Grecian or Roman games. In the heroic 

 ages, indeed, they appear to have been almost solely 

 employed for the speedy conveyance of warriors on the 

 march or into action, that they might be vigorous for 

 the fight, and attack where most suitable. When these 

 war-chariots appear with three horses, one of that number 

 was often a spare steed to replace either of the other two 

 that might be disabled from wounds, or perhaps have its 

 feet worn to the quick. For long journeys, mules were 

 preferred either for riding or draught purposes, because 

 of the natural thickness and resistance of their hoofs ; so 

 that it may not have been a matter of fashion, but neces- 

 sity, which compelled the Roman emperors and the 

 Roman ladies to go about in equipages drawn by mules 



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