In the old days, the Crimean Tatars had an interesting life hack that helped them walk through mud and slush without getting their feet dirty. They wore special wooden shoes with nails over their regular shoes…
Here is how Gustav Radde described them in 1856: “From thick wood,
usually from black poplar, two thick planks are cut, up to six inches long, which are almost the same shape as the soles of the feet; and nails are driven into their front parts for the sake of running comfortably. The soles are held on two transverse planks from 3 to 6 inches high; a wide belt is attached to them in the form of a stirrup, and thus the shoe is kept on the foot. The rich ones possessed shoes that are very beautifully cut, polished and even trimmed with pearl notch. ”
In the photo: Engraving by Christian Geisler “Crimean Tatars”, 1799-1801. On the feet of the girl on the right are the same wooden shoes.
