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Camahutum, Cameo

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CAMAHUTUM.
71
temporary Matthew Paris Latinises it into quite the modem form (Vita Leofrici), " lapidibus nobilibus insculptis quos cameos vulgariter appellamus." Later, in the year 1341, we find the great French Cameo entered in the inventory of the jewels of the Ste. Chapelle as " unum pulcherrimum camaul." Now, the term is evidently of foreign origin, and in these early lists it seems to designate rather the species of the stone than the nature of the work upon it, which latter the writer in each case particularly describes. Camaut, therefore, may bo safely put down as the original form of the word. Now Camea is said to be Hebrew or Arabic for a talisman, for which with either nation every engraved stone passed. It long retained that meaning : Gaffarel, in his ' Curiositez Inouyes' (1632), has, "Figures ou Images naturelles, Gamahé ou Camayeu, tiré par adventure du mot Hébreu, Chemaia." In another place, however, ho derives the word from the French camaieu, which he says means a figured Agate, evidently supposing the latter an indigenous word. This word camea, however spelt, has puzzled philo­logists, but the true connection of ideas appears to me to be this. Ben Mansur has (Div. ii. No. 2), "The Camahem, called by some the Ass-stone ; it is very hard, can only be pierced by the Diamond ; if broken, it separates into fine splinters. Rubbed down on a hard stone, it gives out a red colour. The finest sort is the Black-Red dug up in the district of Karak."' Meaning unmistakeably our compact Haematite ; giving its distinctive characters, the iron-grey colour (that of an ass-hide), its hardness, splintery fracture, and red streak. Now this stone being frequently magnetic is the substance chosen, before all others, and from the very earliest times, to engrave talismans upon. Its use begins with the Babylonian Cylinders (most abundant in this), and ends through the Gnostic series with the Cufic stamps of the 8th and 9th centuries. Thus we can perceive
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