more a shoe, than a moccassin and a Grecian
sandal make a pair of shoes. It ranks
intermediately between a piece of armour
and an article of dress, inclining rather
to the former class of nouns substantive.
The Germans, who call a glove a " hand-shoe,"
might fairly translate sabot as a " foot-
gauntlet," or a " foot boxing-glove." It is
occasionally employed in that way by its
wearers, as well as to serve them as a
protection against mud, and wet, and pebbly
paths, and sloppy standing-places. It is
thus analogous to the snow-shoe, which bears
the Laplander so safely over the dangers of
his path; of existing lives more may
perhaps owe their preservation to the sabot
than to the snow-shoe or, if a comparison
with things worn by animals be permitted,
a pair of sabots carries a man through the
Sloughs of Despond with which back lanes
and cross roads abound during February and
November, much in the same style as four
circular pieces of iron with a hole in the
middle (horse-shoes it is impossible to call
them) preserve the feet of the pack mules
of Vesuvius and Etna from the sulphureous
ashes and lava, which would otherwise reduce
their hoofs to the condition of burnt-out
brimstone matches. The simile ought to
give the less oifence to human pride,
inasmuch as sabot, in French, means not only
what we are now considering, but also the
horny box which constitutes a horse's or
donkey's hoof; and even the brazen claw, or
foot, which supports while it ornaments a
bureau or a chest of drawers. Moreover,
a child's top (peg or whip) is also a sabot.
The common phrase, " to sleep like a sabot"
though it may fairly bear the novel interpretation,
" to sleep like a wooden shoe "—as the
Germans say, " to sleep like a stone "—is
really nothing more than " to sleep like a
top."

The sabot is an ancient, national, and
peculiar mode of protecting the lower
extremities, which is made use of, either
constantly or occasionally, by upwards of thirty
millions of men, women, and children: by
whom it is regarded quite as an article of
necessity, as well as of comfort. It is
ancient: for, to go no farther back than two
thousand years, we learn from Cicero that
parricides at Rome were fitted with a pair of
sabots before they were sown up in the sack in
which they were drowned. It is national
and healthful; for, Diderot tells us that, some
hundred years ago, a London physician
prescribed a pair of sabots to a child of quality
who promised to be rickety, but that not a
single sabot could be found in all Great
Britain, and they were obliged to send across
the Channel to obtain them. Sabots are
cherished by the whole Gallic race. The
gentry, clergy, nobility, and magistrates of
France, now and then enshrine their toes in
these wet-repelling snuggeries—I do not say
while promenading in the garden of the
Tuileries, or on their appearance at a ball
within that caravanserai of monarchs; but
at suitable times, and seasons, and places.
Sabots, nevertheless, are not excluded from
all ball-rooms; and there is an old-fashioned
dance called La sabotière, which is as respectable
in its way as the hornpipe, the jig, the
reel, or the tarantella.

I have actually put my foot into a sabot,
and the sock, or chausson, which those who
can afford it wear with it. Both were warm
and comfortable; and before my readers
laugh too scornfully at hearing how cat-like
the French are in their aversion to stepping
into, or standing in puddles, I would like
them to ask their medical man what good is
to be got by walking about in pumps, with
the thermometer at the genial temperature of
thirty-five degrees, and the rain-gauge at an
overflow. Nor are the cold stone floors of public
buildings very congenial in winter time to thin-
shod and perhaps aged, gouty, or consumptive
feet. It is a well-known fact that Royal
funerals, occurring at inclement periods of
the year, are sure to carry off several senior
members of the lay or episcopal aristocracy
—like attendants whom certain pagans sacrifice
on the tomb of their lord and master.
Sabots, then, are true defensive armour. If
Achilles had worn sabots, he might have
lived to a good old age. Modern heroes
and heroines are foolish in forgetting that
they, too, are vulnerable in the feet, and may
receive their death-wound from below, though
in a different manner to the Grecian warrior.
A few tea-spoonfuls of moisture, piercing
through a thin sole, may prove as mortal as
a poisoned arrow, or a cobra's fang.
"Argal," sabots are sometimes sensible things,
though unsuited for state occasions, either
in Paris or London. But in a French town,
name indefinite, the authorities, and some
of the most respectable people of the place,
go to church in wet weather, some in sabots,
and some in pattens!

It is laughable to see men wearing pattens;
but the fact remains, and they keep their feet
dry in spite of our laughing. It has a droll
effect to see full-grown farmers stalking
backwards and forwards at an elevation of
three inches, or thereabouts, above their
natural standard; the fashion, nevertheless,
is followed publicly, and with a grave face.
At this very moment, I hear a clanking in the
street; it is M. Gosselin (in pattens), Doctor
of Medicine and Accoucheur, who is passing
our windows on his way to wish " good day"
to his sister, Madame Dupont, the timber
merchant. I walked this very morning
through the pig-market; there, I saw a
respectable assortment of the unclean animal,
and among them, several brawny cultivators
raised aloft on patriarchal pattens. Had I
dared to treat the patins disrespectfully, any
one of their wearers could have tossed me
into his canvas-covered charrette, among the
choice little grunters therein, as a hint to be