a covering for the foot, usually of leather. Shoes among the Jews were made of leather, linen, rush, or wood; those of soldiers were sometimes of brass 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 kind of service.

Among the Greeks, shoes of various kinds were used. Sandals were worn by women of distinction. The Lace-daemonians 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 solea, or sandal, 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; sandals 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 Sholapore buckle; and these were called calcei lunati. Slaves wore no shoes, and hence they were called cretati, from their dusty feet. Phocion also and Cato of Utica went without shoes. The toes of the Roman shoes were turned up in the point; and hence they were called calcei rostrati.

In the ninth and tenth 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 bean, Robert, surnamed the Horned, used shoes with long sharp points, stuffed with tow, and twisted like a ram's horn. It is said that the clergy, being highly offended, declaimed with great vehemence against the long-pointed shoes. 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 were in Chaucer's time cut in imitation of a church-window. The long-pointed shoes were called crackowes, and continued in fashion for three centuries, in spite of the bulls of popes, the decrees of councils, and the declamations of the clergy. At length the parliament of England imposed by an act passed in the year 1468, prohibited the use of shoes or boots with pikes exceeding two inches in length, and forbade 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 1638, but the buckle was not used till 1670. The customary shoe of the American Indians, known as the moccasin, is generally made of deer-skin or other soft leather, and is without a sole, but ornamented on the upper side.