72 



Roman Villa at North Wrmhall. 



ment to thoir "horses" chests. Indeed upon consulting the 

 sculptures of Trajan's column at Rome, several examples will 

 bo seen in which tho war-horse of tho Emperor is repre- 

 sented as adorned with one or more crescent-shapod ornaments 

 hanging upon his chest from a sort of necklace (monile). (PI. 

 iv. fig. 13.) It is possible that these may have been made of 

 other material than boar's tusks. 1 But it is evident how well 

 such curved tusks lend themselves to adaptation to the form of 

 a crescent, white and polished, of this kind. It is therefore 

 not uplikely that they were frequently employed for this pur- 

 pose when obtainable, as they would be in countries abounding 

 with wild boars, such as our wooded hills of North Wiltshire. 

 Indeed more than one other pair of tusks found in the Wraxhall 

 excavations present marks by which it would appear that they had 

 been connected by a sheath or mounting of this kind. Mr Aker- 

 man speaks of some found together with Roman relics, which seemed 

 to have been mounted singly for suspension round the neck, as a 

 charm perhaps against the evil eye, in which way it is well known 

 that horns are still worn in Italy, and were formerly by the Romans, 

 as an amulet or charm. In regard to the Arab horse ornament I 

 have lately been favored by a communication from Mr. Churchill, 

 a gentleman now residing at Beyrout, who states that such cres- 

 cents are frequently so worn by the higher class Bedouin Chiefs, 

 with the object of averting, not the evil eye, but a skin disease 

 to which the horses are liable in that climate. If so, however, 

 it can only be as a kind of charm that the boar's teeth are supposed 

 to operate. Mr. Churchill speaks of blue beads being worn to pre- 

 serve from the evil eye, and the Arab crescent belonging to Mr. 

 Akerman has a blue glass bead strung upon its suspending cord. 

 Both charms are therefore probably united in this instance for the 

 double purpose. Whether any superstition of the kind was attached 

 by the Romans to the crescent ornament does not appear. But it is 



1 We read in the classic authors of the rich ' phalerse ' and ' ephippia' worn 

 by the Roman Cavalry — thus Virgil tells us " aurea pectoribus demissa monilia 

 pendent." And Claudian "Dumque auro phalerse, gemmis dum frenarenitent." 

 And Aulus Gellius " Equitatus frenis, ephippiis, monilibus, phaleris, proeful- 

 gens." Lib. 5 cap. 5. 



