the picture; neither the altar, which the hand of man has not fashioned, nor the insignia of the pontiff-blacksmith, nor the buckle of his magical leather apron, nor yet the sacrificing knife, or the bones of boars, horses, and bears mingled with the remains of human victims consumed by the flames. More able men than ourselves had fanned these embers eighteen centuries ago, and from them had attempted to wring out lamentable secrets. They carry us back to distant ages, and show us the chiefs of Gaul deliberating around this place of worship, and the Druids, the ovates, and the bards seeking to gain, by sacrifices and supplications, the countenance of the tutelary genii of their nation; then, when all hope has disappeared, when the fates have pronounced the fatal decree, the worshipping priests have broken the sacred instruments, and have covered over their holy place to conceal it from the profanation of their vanquishers.'[1]
The publication of this discovery gave rise to much discussion. Col. Coinard denied the accuracy of the conclusions arrived at by the Besançon archæologists, and clung to the written history of the Greeks and Romans. M. Quicherat, however, replied to his attacks in a very direct manner. 'M. de Coinard exults because we admit that the Gaulish horses were shod; he overwhelms us with citations to prove that shoeing was not practised, neither in the Roman cavalry nor yet in that of Mithridates, when we speak of the cavalry of Gaul. Horseshoes are discovered with Gaulish pottery; in two of the tumuli of Alesia they are embedded in the floor of the graves, in the midst of cinders, under a thick pavement.
- ↑ Caston. Les Tombelles Celtiques. Besançon, 1858. Megnin.
