a covering for the foot, usually of leather.

Shoes, among the Jews, were made of leather, linen, ruff, or wood; those of soldiers were sometimes of braids or iron. They were tied with thongs which passed under the soles of the feet. To put off their shoes was an act of veneration; it was also a sign of mourning and humiliation: to bear one's shoes, or to untie the latches of them, was considered as the meanest service.

Among the Greeks shoes of various kinds were used. Sandals were worn by women of distinction. The Macedonians wore red shoes. The Grecian shoes generally reached to the middle of the leg. The Romans used two kinds of shoes; the calceus, which covered the whole foot somewhat like our shoes, and was tied above with latches or strings; and the flosa or flipper, which covered only the sole of the foot, and was fastened with leathern thongs. The calceus was always worn along with the toga when a person went abroad; flippers were put on during a journey and at feasts, but it was reckoned effeminate to appear in public with them. Black shoes were worn by the citizens of ordinary rank, and white ones by the women. Red shoes were sometimes worn by the ladies, and purple ones by the coxcombs of the other sex. Red shoes were put on by the chief magistrates of Rome on days of ceremony and triumphs. The shoes of senators, patricians, and their children, had a crescent upon them which served for a buckle; these were called calcei lunati. Slaves wore no shoes; hence they were called cretati from their dusty feet. Phocion also and Cato Uticensis went without shoes. The toes of the Roman shoes were turned up in the point; hence they were called calcei rostrati, repandi, &c.

In the 9th and 10th centuries the greatest princes of Europe wore wooden shoes, or the upper part of leather and the sole of wood. In the reign of William Rufus, a great beau, Robert, surnamed the horned, used shoes with long sharp points, stuffed with tow, and twisted like a ram's horn. It is said the clergy, being highly offended, declaimed against the long-pointed shoes with great vehemence. The points, however, continued to increase till, in the reign of Richard II., they were of so enormous a length that they were tied to the knees with chains, sometimes of gold, sometimes of silver. The upper parts of these shoes in Chaucer's time were cut in imitation of a church window. The long-pointed shoes were called crackowers, and continued in fashion for three centuries in spite of the bulls of popes, the decrees of councils, and the declarations of the clergy. At length the parliament of England interposed by an act A.D. 1463, prohibiting the use of shoes or boots with pikes exceeding two inches in length, and prohibiting all shoemakers from making shoes or boots with longer pikes under severe penalties. But even this was not sufficient: it was necessary to denounce the dreadful sentence of excommunication against all who wore shoes or boots with points longer than two inches. The present fashion of shoes was introduced in 1633, but the buckle was not used till 1670.

In Norway they use shoes of a particular construction, consisting of two pieces, and without heels; in which the upper leather fits close to the foot, the sole being joined to it by many plaited folds.

The shoes or slippers of the Japanese, as we are informed by Professor Thunberg, are made of rice-straw woven, but sometimes for people of distinction of fine slips of rattan. The shoe consists of a sole, without upper leather or hind-piece; forwards it is crossed by a strap, of the thickness of one's finger, which is lined with linen; from the tip of the shoe to the strap a cylindrical string is carried, which passes between the great and second toe, and keeps the shoe fast on the foot. As these shoes have no hind-piece, they make a noise when people walk in them like flippers. When the Japanese travel, their shoes are furnished with three strings made of twisted straw, with which they are tied to the legs and feet, to prevent them from falling off. Some people carry one or more pairs of shoes with them on their journeys, in order to put on new, when the old ones are worn out. When it rains, or the roads are very dirty, these shoes are soon wetted through, and one continually sees a great number of worn-out shoes lying on the roads, especially near the brooks, where travelers have changed their shoes after washing their feet. Instead of these, in rainy or dirty weather they wear high wooden clogs, which underneath are hollowed out in the middle, and at top have a band across like a stirrup, and a string for the great toe; so that they can walk without foiling their feet. Some of them have their straw shoes fastened to these wooden clogs. The Japanese never enter their houses with their shoes on; but leave them in the entry, or place them on the bench near the door, and thus are always barefooted in their houses, so as not to dirty their neat mats. During the time that the Dutch live at Japan, when they are sometimes under an obligation of paying visits at the houses of the Japanese, their own rooms at the factory being likewise covered with mats of this kind, they wear, instead of the usual shoes, red, green, or black slippers, which, on entering the house they pull off; however, they have stockings on, and shoes made of cotton stuff with buckles in them, which shoes are made at Japan, and can be washed whenever they are dirty. Some have them of black satin, in order to avoid washing them.

SHOE of an Anchor, a small block of wood, convex on the back, and having a small hole, sufficient to contain the point of the anchor fluke, on the foreside. It is used to prevent the anchor from tearing or wounding the planks on the ship's bow, when ascending or descending; for which purpose the shoe slides up and down along the bow between the fluke of the anchor and the planks, as being pressed close to the latter by the weight of the former.

To SHOE an Anchor, is to cover the flukes with a broad broad triangular piece of plank, whose area or surfaces is much larger than that of the flukes. It is intended to give the anchor a stronger and surer hold of the bottom in very soft and oozy ground.