NOTES. 145 



the discs (rpoxoL) ; for they were used on both 

 kinds, and were actually smaller on the rough than 

 on the smooth. Evidently, therefore, the differ- 

 ence lay in the nature of the " echini ; " this word, 

 the plural of ''echinus," I have felt it necessary to 

 transfer from the Greek bodily, for we have none 

 in English which will exactly express its meaning 

 here. The word in Greek, e^a'c?, means "sea- 

 urchin ; " therefore the contrivance upon the 

 mouthpiece of the bit was probably round, and 

 had on its edges prickly spines, such as we see 

 on the edges of the sea-urchin's shell. In the 

 rough bit these spines were sharp; Xenophon's 

 language suggests that there were echini on the 

 smooth bit, but that their spines in this case were 

 not sharp. Fortunately, light is thrown on this 

 subject by a bit which has actually come down to 

 us from antiquity. This bit (see cut, p. 50) was 

 found on the Acropolis of Athens in 1SS8, when 

 the wall and other works of Cimon were in course 

 of excavation. It lay among the debris used as 

 filling at the time of these works. The bit is 

 therefore very old, dating back nearly, if not quite^ 

 to the time of the Persian wars, 490-479 b. c. I 

 take the picture, with part of my description, from 

 an article by Lechat in the " Bulletin de Cor- 

 respondance Hellenique," 1890, p. 385. The 

 mouthpiece is jointed, and the reins were attached 

 to the large rings at each end. What appear to- 



