The _guige_ or strap by which the target was occasionally suspended from the combatant's neck, leaving the hands free to direct the steed or ply the weapon, appears (at least during the later days of Saxon rule) to have been in use among our countrymen, as well as with their Norman neighbours. Of Harold's nobles, Wace tells us:-- "Chescun out son haubert vestu, Espée ceinte, _el col l'escu_."--_Rom. de Rou_, ii. 213. And in the Bayeux Tapestry, the kite-shield thus fixed may be seen on the English side. The place occupied by the shield in the graves of the Frankish, Germanic, and Scandinavian heroes is by no means uniform. It has been found on the breast, on the right arm, upon the knees, and beneath the head. It is by the position of the umbo in the grave that this fact has been exactly ascertained. Examples will be found in the Ozingell Cemetery, in the explorations at Harnham Hill (_Archæologia_, vol. xxxv.), in the Selzen find, in the _Normandie Souterraine_, and in the account of the cemetery at Linton Heath (Archæol. Journ., vol. xi. p. 108). The HORSE FURNITURE of the Northern cavalry appears to have been usually very simple. By referring to our engravings, Nos. 16 and 21, it will be seen that the saddle was provided with girth, breastplate, and crupper, the latter being fixed to the sides of the saddle: pendent ornaments are attached to the bridle, breastplate, and crupper. From the poem of "Beowulf" we learn that the war-horse was occasionally furnished with much costliness:-- "Then did the Refuge of warriors command eight horses, ornamented on the cheek, to be brought into the palace: ... on one of which stood a saddle variegated with work, made valuable with treasure: that was the war-seat of a lofty king when the son of Healfdene would perform the game of swords."--_Canto_ 15. A donation of the Anglo-Saxon king Ethelbert affords another example:--"Missurum etiam argenteum, scapton aureum, item _sellam cum freno aureo gemmis exornatam_, speculum argenteum, armilaisia oloserica, camisiam ornatam prædicto monasterio gratanter obtuli[132]." [Illustration: No. 22.]