and veterinary surgeon Bieler asserts they were in ordinary use; while others declare they were only employed as temporary shoes, to be applied when the hoofs were too much worn or the feet diseased. Baron Ziegesar, of Berg, after reading the report of M. Namur regarding the Dalheim discoveries, wrote to the President of the Archæological Society of Luxembourg, informing him that, in his opinion, the sabots, or hippo-sandals, were intended to be put on the horses' feet at night during a halt, and that they were never used for marching.[1] It is, indeed, difficult to understand why defences should be required when the animals were at rest, and the hoofs not exposed to attrition, and why they should be left off at the very time they were likely to be needed. If difficult to be retained on the hoofs during the day, they would not be less so at night when the horses would be lying down and getting up frequently, and the uncouth projections behind, before, and on each side of the feet, would be certain to entangle the animals wearing them, and either cause these clumsy contrivances to be torn off, or expose the horses and their riders to serious accidents.
Mr Roach Smith, at first incredulous as to this application of these articles, appears to have become convinced of its correctness by discovering that in Holland horses yet wear sandals. 'At the present day in Holland it is usual to bind long flat iron shoes to the horses' feet. They are fastened with a strap of leather, and are somewhat in the form of an ordinary horse-shoe, but much longer and wider; and, did we not know they are commonly used,
- ↑ Pub. de la Soc. Arch, de Luxembourg, vol. xii. p. 163.
