Sandals

SANDALS. We find the Name of Sandals in three Passages of Scripture. When Judith went to the Camp of Holofernes, she put Sandals on her Feet. And Holofernes was captivated at the Sight of these Sandals. Her Sandals ravished his Eyes. They were a magnificent Kind of Stockens or Buskins, of an extraordinary Beauty, and were proper only to Ladies of Condition, and such as dress’d themselves out to be admired. They had generally Slaves to carry their Sandals, which were sometimes of Gold, or other precious Matter; and they had often Cases or Plaut. in Trinum. Act. 2. scen. 1. Mat. iii. 11.Boxes to put them in. These Cases in Menander are called Sandalothecæ; and the Slaves that carry’d the Sandals are call’d Pueri sandali-geruli, or Puellæ sandaligerulæ. John the Baptist says of himself, that he was not worthy to be sandali-gerulus to our Saviour. Whose Shoes I am not worthy to bear. The prophane Writers say, That when Hercules became Slave to Omphale, she often us’d to give him Correction with her Sandal¹. But there were Sandals also belonging to Men, and which were by no means of any Value. Jesus Christ allows the Use of ‘em to Mar. vi. 9. Strabo Geograph. l. 16.his Disciples; and whole Nations wore them, as the Nabatheans. At first Sandals were only Soles tyed to the Feet with Strings or Thongs; afterwards they were cover’d, and at last they call’d even Shoes Sandals. In Authors that speak of Ecclesiastical Rites and Ornaments, we find the Word Sandals to signify a valuable Kind of Shoes, worn by the Prelates at Solemnities. The Reader may consult Benedictus Baudouinus, in his Treatise de Calceo antiquo. M. Du Cange, Glossar. Sandalia, Saumaise upon Tertullian, De Pallio, &c.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages