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72
NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
how C'amahem, the common material for a talisman, came to be identified with, the talisman itself. Camillo, writing at the close of the Middle Ages, certainly has the Camahed in view when talking of the stone Kaman, and Kakaman, a name he, with his favourite ostentation of his small know­ledge of Greek, derives from Êáýìá, from its volcanic origin, adding, " it is like the Onyx : " by which comparison he doubtless refers to the engraved Cameo. These latter works he actually cites by the name of ' Chamaini ',when contrasting them with the similar reputed lusus naturœ in stone.
I am tempted to think that Commit came to be applied to gems in relief, as being accounted talismans par eminence, seeing how the Arabs have over looked upon all ancient bas-reliefs as magical ; and so the word travelled into Europe in the vocabulary of the Crusaders in this restricted sense. Intagli, on the other hand, the latter continued to use whenever they could procure them for personal seals, secreta, and distinguished such by the name Sigilla (the diminutive of Signum, in its sense of signet), in popular parlance termed 'Pierres d'Israël,' as the supposed works of the ancient sages of that race.
Important Camei are not unfrequent which have been converted into Gnostic amulets by the engraving of their customary types and formulae upon the reverse. I have noticed examples in the Eoyal and in the Marlborough Collections. The latter possesses a fine Cameo bust of Commodus : on the reverse has been added a figure of the Abraxas-god surrounded by the legend :
This superstitious ancient practice supports the derivation, now the most popular, of " Cameo," from the supposed Hebrew or Arabic word " camea," a spell. Such additions