similar shoes (Fig.
9) are made south and east from the Caspian Sea, at the Amu-Darja, in
Samarkand, etc., which were probably introduced under Tamerlane, the
conqueror of nearly the whole of Asia Minor in the fourteenth century.

The so-called "Sarmatische" (Sarmatian) horseshoe (Figs. 10 and 11),
of South Russia, shows in its form, at the same time, traces of the
last named shoe, however, greatly influenced by the Mongolian shoe,
the "Goldenen Horde," which at the turn of the sixteenth to the
seventeenth century played havoc at the Volga and the Aral. The
unusual width of the toe, and especially the lightness of the iron,
reminds us of the Turkomanic horseshoe, whereas, on the contrary, the
large bean-shaped holes, as well as the calks, were furnished through
Mongolian influence.

[Illustration: FIG. 10.]

The Sarmatian tribes were principally horsemen, and it is not
surprising, therefore, that the coat of arms of the former kingdom of
Poland in the second and third quadrate shows a silver rider in armor
on a silver running horse shod with golden shoes, and that at present
about 1,000 families in 25 lineages of the Polish Counts Jastrzembiec
Bolesezy, the so-called "Polnische Hufeisen Adel" (Polish Horseshoe
Nobility), at the same time also carried the horseshoe on their coats
of arms. The silver horseshoe in a blue field appears here as a symbol
of the "Herbestpfardes" (autumnal horse), to which, after the
christianization of Poland, was added the golden cross. The noblemen
participating in the murder of the holy Stanislaus in 1084 had to
carry the horseshoe reversed on their escutcheon.

[Illustration: FIG. 11.]

From the African and Turkomanic horseshoe, through the turning up of
the toes and heels, originated later the Turkish, Grecian and
Montenegrin horseshoe of the present as shown by Fig. 12.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.]

By the Moorish invasion in Spain, the Spanish-Gothic horseshoeing was
also modified, through which the shoe became smooth, staved at the
margin, very broad in the toe, and turned up at toe and heel, and at a
later period the old open Spanish national horseshoe (Fig. 13) was
developed. As we thus see, we can in no way deny the Arabian-Turkish
origin of this shoe.

[Illustration: FIG. 13.]

As France had received her whole culture from the south, and as the
crusades especially brought the Roman nation in close contact with
them for centuries, so it cannot appear strange that the old F