NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF HOKSE-SHOEING. 467 
entirely upon the authority of a coloured engraving, it may be 
doubted whether it be not merely an invention of the modern 
copyist; and, taking for granted that the horseshoe is really de¬ 
picted in the Mosaic, we still have no further claim upon the reality, 
than the fact that, at the time when the representation was executed, 
horseshoes were known and used in Italy. Now, of this we are 
already assured by a line in Catullus, who, speaking of a mule, 
says, 
“ Ferream ut soleam tenaci in Voragine mula, 
Derelinquit.” 
We know that Nero had his horses shod with silver, and Poppoea, 
his wife, had similarly protected her mules with gold; and both 
lived only a few years before the destruction of Pompeii (a. d. 79), 
or about a century later than the poet just mentioned. Aldrovandus, 
quoting Suetonius in Caligula, speaks of the horseshoe, and the 
eight nails to fix it on the hoof. These notices we think sufficient 
to establish the use of them as old as the commencement of the 
Christian era, and if not of Persian invention, that the Romans 
have the best claim to it. There is, however, another, deserving 
at least to be mentioned ; it is that of high northern Mongoles, 
who, it is asserted, have shod their horses for many ages with 
metal, and, where it is wanting, employ, even at present, the palmy 
parts of rein-deer horns. The use of materials positively local is 
somewhat a proof of originality of invention ; nor is it, indeed, un¬ 
likely that the same want should have produced more than one 
attempt to supply the deficiency. 
In support of this observation may be quoted the form of the 
most ancient Asiatic horseshoe, exemplified in the brand mark of 
a renowned breed of Circassian or Abassian horses, known by the 
name of Shalokh. The shape is perfectly circular, and instead of 
being fastened on by means of nails driven through the corneous 
portion of the hoof, it is secured by three clamps, that appear to 
have been closed on the outside, or on the ascending surface. Of 
the antiquity of this form of shoe there is no possibility of judging, 
because the exact counterpart of it existed already at the period 
when the Ionian Greeks had established fixed symbols as types of 
their cities and communities. It occurs on the coins of Lycia, and 
is known to numismatists by the name of Triquetra. If there be 
any difference, it is in a row of points on the Lycian type, as if 
the shoe had been perforated with holes for small nails: and what 
makes the selection of this object for symbol of the region in ques¬ 
tion the more remarkable is, that, in remote antiquity, it was there 
Celtic breeders are reported to have first commenced their trade in 
mules. The horseshoes of early historians, since they do not 
mention farriers, appear to have been of this Lycian form, or were 
