This shoe was for some time, while it was plentifully found in France,
regarded as of Celtic make; but this is certainly not the case, as it
is of Hunish and Hungarian "nationalitat" (nationality). An exactly
scientific proof, it is true, according to our present knowledge,
cannot be furnished; however, it will stand well enough until the
error is proved.
This peculiar kind of horseshoe has been found in South Germany and
Northeast France, as far as the region of Orleans, where, as it has
been proved, the Huns appeared. This, therefore, speaks for their
descendants: 1st, the far extended and yet sharply limited places of
finding the shoe; 2d, the small size corresponds to the historically
proved smallness of the Hunish horse; 3d, the hasty and careless make,
which does not indicate that it was made by settled workmen; 4th, the
horseshoe (Fig. 15) bespeaks the Hunish workmanship of the present
Chinese shoe, which, in making of the nail holes, shows to-day related
touches of the productions of the Mongolian ancestors.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.]
Aside from the peculiar shaped nail holes, the characteristic of the
Hunish shoe consists in the changes of the calks for summer and winter
shoeing, as well as in the sinking of the nail heads.
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