468 NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF HORSE-SHOEING. 
not fastened with nails driven through the horny hoof, yet both 
Tartars and Cossacks still often shoe their own horses. It is diffi¬ 
cult to escape an admission that horseshoes of this kind are as old 
as the Ionian establishments in Asia Minor, unless by denying 
that neither the Circassian brand mark nor the Triquetra of Lycia* 
represent them : a conclusion which at least is totally at variance 
with the denomination of the mark by which the Kabardian breed 
is known, time out of mind. It does not appear to us a satisfactory 
argument to deny the probability of one or more of these inven¬ 
tions so far back as the Roman empire, or even to believe in a 
much earlier age, because, from positive testimonies, the use was 
unknown to the classical ages; for we should bear in mind that 
many of the most important usages and discoveries have been 
much retarded, and fated to actual opposition, from a dislike of all 
innovation, or abandoning a beaten track so common to mankind. 
If we add to this the imperfection of first attempts^ the difficulty of 
executing the rather nice operation of shoeing, of which, in failure, 
pricking the horse’s foot must have materially raised the prejudice 
against the practice, there remains no room for wonder that so many 
ages should have passed without a full recognition of its use. 
The round horseshoe of the old Arabian method is evidently a 
modification of the Circassian or Lycian, the outside clamps being 
omitted, and nail-holes substituted. Then came the further alter¬ 
ation of thinner iron plates, with hardly an opening in the after 
portion, such as the present Arabian and the more lengthened heels 
of the Syrian ; all of them very unfit for securing the feet in rocky 
countries. Thus we see the researches of Cardanus, Beckman, 
and Mr. Bracy Clark, led to erroneous conclusions, for the form of 
the shoe is but a secondary question; and to refer horse-shoeing, 
with Beckman, to the ninth century on that account, would exclude 
the practice from a great part of Asia, where the European shape 
is not even now admitted. That the Arabs of the Hegira, or 
within a generation later, shod their horses, is plain, if we believe 
the received opinion that the iron work on the summit of the 
standard of Hosein, at Ardebil, was made from a horseshoe be¬ 
longing to Abbas, uncle of Mohammed, by order of his daughter 
Fatima. “ It was brought,” says the legend, “ from Arabia by 
Scheik sed Reddeen, son of the holy Scheik Sofi, who was son of 
another holy villager, after the manner of the Moslem!” If the 
intention had been to advance a mere falsehood, it is to be won¬ 
dered that Fatima, or the Prophet himself, should not have fur¬ 
nished a sacred shoe of one of the celebrated mares, from which 
sprung so many of the first breeds of Arabia, according to the as- 
* See Veter: Popul. et Regum minimi, ex Mus. Brit. 4to. 
