[Illustration: FIG. 164.--An English horse amulet showing both the heart and the sun.] An amulet found by Professor Vellucci in Umbria consisted of an arrow-head sewn upon a piece of scarlet cloth, which was of a heart shape, and was intended doubtless to emphasize the heart significance. Another horse amulet, obtained by Miss Eckenstein from Sicily, also consists of a piece of scarlet cloth cut into the shape of a heart and decorated with tinsel. An English horse brass seen in Figure 164 shows both the heart and the sun. While on the subject of horses, one might allude to the wisps of straw which are twisted in the mane and tail of cart-horses when they are for sale at markets and fairs. Horses were sacrificed in the old days; and as the slaying of domestic animals was supposed to secure fruitfulness, the horse became identified as a corn spirit, and the killing of horses formed a necessary incident of the harvest. The deity Demeter took upon himself the semblance of a mare, and the word mare is applied in the Midlands to the last uncut ears of corn, at which the sickles are thrown in order to bring them down. It is possible that the wisps of straw worn by horses are connected with these ideas. A very curious and interesting custom is represented on the trappings of the horses ridden by the officers of the 10th Hussars. These trappings are ornamented on full-dress occasions with cowry shells; and to find a parallel to this we have to go to the East, where the head-stalls of the camels and mules are covered with the shells, while round their necks and those of donkeys there may hang an ornament or bell on a band which is similarly decorated. It will be noted that there is a pendant from the head of the Hussar horse which resembles that of the mule of the Holy Land. There is no doubt but that originally these ornaments were really amulets, and it is said that they are a survival of ancient phallic worship. (See Figures 165-7.) Cowry shells were once generally used by the Hussars, and were revived in the case of the 10th Hussars in connection with service in India. [Illustration: FIG. 165.--The cowry-shell ornaments on the head of an officer's charger of the 10th Hussars. The pendant recalls that on mules in Palestine.] Toby, as we have seen, is decorated with an Elizabethan ruff, but the wearing of collars and bells by pet animals is a remnant of a very old custom, and on early mediæval brasses in this country, dogs are often seen decorated with collars--sometimes bearing their actual names--and with bells. Now the wearing of a collar is enforced by law as a means of identification. All dogs found without collars may be considered as strays, and the regulation followed, as is well known, upon the muzzling order by which hydrophobia was practically stamped out. [Illustration: FIG. 166.--Cowry shells on an Eastern mule, hanging like the pendant of the 10th Hussars.]