Horses that, feeding on the grassy hills, tread upon moonwort
with their hollow heels, though lately shod, at night go
barefoot home, their maister musing where their shoes become.
O moonwort! tell me where thou hid’st the smith, hammer and
pinchers, thou unshodd’st them with.
The horse-shoe has sometimes been identified with the cross, and has been
supposed to derive its amuletic power from a fancied resemblance to the
sacred Christian symbol. But inasmuch as it is difficult to find any
marked similarity in form between the crescent and the cross, this theory
does not appear to warrant serious consideration.