156 



THE MUSEUM. 



nasal bones, it belonged to the long 

 head (Dolicocephalic) type. 



A careful examination disclosed no 

 instruments or tools of peace or war, 

 or trinkets of any kind. 



The most interesting fact was that, 

 nearly all the stones composing the 

 vault, were splattered with a white 

 substance hard as stone. It was no 

 doubt an oblation to the dead, made 

 by some grim, grand, old priest, amid 

 solemn chant and song. 



WiLL.^RD B. Dobbins. 



Washington, D. C, Notes. 



Messrs. Colburn and Potter at 

 Schmidts Studio of Taxidermy are 

 working up a quantity of African spec- 

 imens, chiefly ruminants; both heads 

 and full mounted mammals. 



The collections at the National Mu- 

 seum are depleted by the Nashville 

 Exposition. This travelling show bus- 

 iness makes work and ruins any quan- 

 tity of good specimens. 



Mr. Wm. Palmer, Chief Taxidermist 

 of the National Museum, left Wash- 

 ington on the 5th inst. for a two 

 weeks' leave of absence, which will be 

 spent in the Dismal Swamp country. 

 To ascertain the varieties of warblers 

 breeding there is one object of the ex- 

 cursion. Dr. Fisher, of the Agricul- 

 tural Department visited the Dismal 

 Swamp some time since and found it 

 an interesting place for the naturalist. 



A specimen of Bachmans Sparrow- 

 was recently taken in Virginia not far 

 from Washington. 



Camei. 



The word cameo has been derived 

 in several ways, and as some of these 

 derivations give an insight into the 

 original use of camei, they may as well 

 be stated at the outset. It is said by 

 some authorities to be derived from the 

 Arabic camaa, an amulet, for which 

 purpose engraved gems were worn in 

 the middle ages. Camilo Leonardo, 

 in 1502, speaks of "gemma; chamina;" 

 in the sense of camei. He speaks of 



a stone called kaman, derived from 

 the Greek kauma, "heat," as being" 

 found in hot places; others derive it 

 from chama, the shell sometimes made 

 use of for this kind of work, just as 

 porcelain is derived from the porcelain 

 shell which was formerly used for the 

 Italian Ftenza ware. The peasants at 

 Rome, in the time of Benvenuto Cel- 

 lini, used the term camei as a name 

 for the onyx stones they found or dug 

 up, and the word appears only to de- 

 note a color — paintings on cainacin — 

 gray objects on a white ground. The 

 word is probably of Italian formation, 

 the Latin word gcmuicits being con- 

 verted into gamahu by the old writers. 

 (janiahii easily becomes cameo, as the 

 letters c and g are interchangeable in 

 Italian. The term cameo applies only 

 to minute bas-reliefs cut on a hard 

 stone or gem, or on an imitation of the 

 same. 



Nearly all the antique camei were 

 too large to be set in rings, and were 

 used to decorate armor. Rings, as is 

 well known, were formerly used mere- 

 ly as signets, and not for personal ad- 

 ornment, and it has been stated that 

 the ancient artists did not engrave 

 their small works with sufficient deli- 

 cacy to be worn on their fingers. The 

 cutting seems to have been done by a 

 tool made in the shape of a chisel, 

 which, of course, left a series of unev- 

 en surfaces that were afterwards pol- 

 ished down. The design was never 

 undercut, as it is in modern cameos, 

 but faded away into the field of the 

 stone; and nearly all the ancient cam- 

 eos were intended to be viewed from a 

 distance, as they generally appear 

 rough on a close inspection. The 

 modern camoes are engraved at rela- 

 tively small cost, as the dealers in 

 Rome pay the cameo cutters about 75 

 cents each for the portraits on onyx of 

 the poets and philosophers, which are 

 purchased by tourists at a much high- 

 er price, to be set in rings, studs and 

 pins. A great number of the modern 

 cameos are engraved upon shells, in 

 which the natural colors imitate the 



