a specimen of the long flat laces employed to fasten boots and shoes. The small sole of oak (Plate XX., Fig. 2) has evidently been intended for a child's sandal, but it bears few marks of wear.
Passing from boots and shoes, we come next to an object which illustrates more strikingly than anything else the decorative skill of the Roman leather worker. At the bottom of Pit LXXVIII, associated with a group of vessels which must belong to the first century, there were lying a number of fragments which at once attracted attention because, even in their muddy condition, they exhibited clear traces of a pattern executed in bright brass studs. When they were collected and examined in the National Museum, it became evident that originally they had all belonged to one and the same article-apparently a single piece of leather, which on being put together was found to measure twenty-two and a half inches in height and twenty and a quarter inches in breadth.
At first sight it bears some resemblance to a conventional eagle with outspread wings, but a closer examination conveys the impression that the portion which appears to correspond to the eagle's head is really a terminal peak. Along the straight margin, at the opposite end, is a line of small holes which seem to have been made with a view to attach the leather to some other object. There is no corresponding line on any of the other margins, although one or two isolated holes are to be noted elsewhere, and it seems probable that the whole hung from a line of studs inserted along this straight margin. The exact shape of the object will be seen in Plate XXI. From the ends of the margin which seems to form its base the sides expand in graceful curves, forming wing-like projections, and the whole figure terminates in three peaks,—a central point resembling a hammer in its outline with two leaf-shaped pieces springing from its base. Two circular openings, three and three-quarter inches in diameter, occupy a central position, one on each side of the figure.
Examination showed that two pieces of leather, not one, had been employed in its production-an upper layer of considerable thickness, and a backing of finer and thinner material. Here and there on its lower surface are small metal washers, apparently of bronze, of the type to be seen on the back of the studs in Plate XXV., Figs. 28 and 30. It is probable that the function of these was to assist in holding the two layers of leather together. Three such washers seem to have been attached to the back of each leaf or circle in the pattern on the front, to be
153