128 



GEMARA 



GENDER 



of which are taken in the same way as moulds are 

 obtained from gems. 



For the making of imitation gems or precious 

 stones ( engraved or not ) from glass specially pre- 

 pared and coloured, as well as for the production 

 of actual but artificial precious stones by chemical 

 methods, see STONES (PRECIOUS), as also DIA- 

 MOND, RUBY, PEARL, &c. For seals, see SEAL. 



The chief implement used by the ancient en- 

 gravers appears to have been made by splitting 

 corundum into splints by a heavy hammer, and 

 then fixing these points like glaziers' diamonds 

 into iron instruments, with which the work was 

 executed by the hand (ferra retusa). The drill, 

 terebra, was also extensively used for hollowing 

 out the deeper and larger parts of the work, and 

 emery powder, the smaris or Naxian stone, for 

 polishing. The so-called wheel, a minute disc of 

 copper, secured to the end of a spindle, and 

 moistened with emery powder or diamond dust, 

 and driven by a lathe, does not appear to have 

 come into use till the Byzantine epoch. It has 

 been conjectured that the artist used lenses of 

 some kind, or globes filled with water, to execute 

 his minute work ; but the ancient, like the modern 

 engraver, rather felt than saw his way. All these 

 processes were not employed by the same artist, 

 for, besides the engraver (scalptor cavarius, dacty- 

 lioglyphus), there was a polisher (politor), not to 

 mention arrangers ( compositor es gemmarum), and 

 merchants (gemmarii, mangones gemmarum) who 

 drove a flourishing trade in emeralds and pearls 

 and engraved stones in the days of Horace. 



The principal writers of antiquity who treated of 

 gems are Onomacritus or the Pseudo-Orpheus, 

 Dionysius Periegetes, Theophrastus, and Pliny, 

 whose chapter is compiled from antecedent Greek 

 and Roman authors. Isidorus, 630 A.D., gives an 

 account of the principal stones ; so do Psellus and 

 Marbodus in the llth century. 



See Marietta, Pierres Gravees ( Paris, 1750 ) ; Raspe, 

 Descriptive Catalogue of Engraved Gems ( Lond. 1791 ) ; 

 Millin, Introduction, a I'Etude des Pierres Gravees 

 (Paris, 1797); Krause, Pyn/oteles (Halle, 1856); King, 

 Antique Gems and Rings (3d ed. 2 vols. 1872), and 

 Handbook of Engraved Gems (2d ed. 1885); Bucher, 

 Gesch. der technischen Kiinste (1875); Billings, Science 

 of Gems, &c. ( Lond. ,1875 ) ; Pannier, Les Lapidaires 

 Prancaix da Moyen Age (Paris, 1872); Jones, History 

 and Mystery of Precious Stones (1880) ; Gatty, Cata- 

 logue of the Engraved Gems in the Collection of J. Mayer 

 ( 1879 ) ; Catalogue of the Engraved Gems in the British 

 Museum (Lond. 1889). 



Gemara. See TALMUD. 



Gemini ('the Twins'), the third constellation 

 in the zodiac. See CASTOR AND POLLUX. 



Gemistus. See PLETHON. 



Gemmation. See REPRODUCTION. 



Gemini Pass, a narrow path, nearly 2 miles 

 long, which crosses the Alps at a height of 7553 

 feet, and connects the Swiss cantons of Bern and 

 Valois. 



Gemot. See FOLKMOOT, VILLAGE COMMUNI- 

 TIES, WlTENAGEMOT. 



GeillS-bok (Oryx Gazella), a species of ante- 

 lope, described by some naturalists as the Oryx, 

 but which, being a native of South Africa only, 

 cannot be the Oryx of the ancients, although it 

 is certainly a nearly allied species. It is a heavy, 

 stout animal, about the size of a stag, with rough 

 reversed hair on the neck and along the ridge of 

 the back ; large pointed ears ; and almost perfectly 

 straight horns, fully two feet long, in the plane of 

 the forehead, little diverging, and obscurely ringed 

 at the base. The colours are harshly contrasted, 

 dark rusty gray above, and white on the under parts, 

 separated by a broad dark-brown or black baud ; 



the head white, with black transverse bands ; the 

 thighs black, and the legs white. The hoofs are 



Gems-bok. 



remarkably long, adapted to the rocky mountain- 

 ous districts which the animal frequents. The 

 Gems-bok makes such use of its horns as some- 

 times even to beat off the lion. It inhabits dis- 

 tricts free from wood, and is generally found in 

 pairs or in very small herds. 



Genazzano.a small town of 4008 inhabitants, 

 27 miles E. of Rome, containing an old castle of 

 the Colonna family, and the far-famed pilgrimage- 

 chapel of the Madonna del Buon Consiglio. See 

 The Virgin Mother of Good Counsel, by Dr G. F. 

 Dillon (1885). 



Gendarmes (Fr., 'men-at-arms') were orig- 

 inally mounted lancers, armed at all points, and 

 attended by five inferior soldiers, who were fur- 

 nished by the holders of fiefs ; these were replaced 

 by Charles VII. 's compagnies d'ordonnance, which 

 were dissolved in 1787, one company of gendar- 

 merie being retained as the bodyguard of Louis 

 XVI. Since the Revolution, except for a short 

 interval at the Restoration, the gendarmes have 

 constituted a military police, which superseded the 

 old marechaussee, and comprises both cavalry and 

 infantry ; divided into legions and companies, and 

 these latter into brigades, the organisation of the 

 force corresponds to the territorial divisions of the 

 army. The men receive much higher pay than the 

 rest of the army, of which, however, the corps is 

 a part, its members being drafted from the line 

 for this service. Germany also since 1808 has had 

 its gendarmen. See POLICE. 



Gender, a grammatical distinction between 

 words corresponding directly or metaphorically to 

 the natural distinction of sex. Names applied to 

 the male sex are said to be of the masculine gender ; 

 those applied to the female sex, feminine ; while 

 words that are neither masculine nor feminine are 

 said to be neuter or of neither gender. In modern 

 English we have no such thing as merely gram- 

 matical gender, save when sex is implied meta- 

 phorically to inanimate things (a ship, a steam- 

 engine, &c.) by such a figure of speech as per- 

 sonification ; but in Old English, as well as in 

 Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, the greater part of 

 inanimate things are either masculine or feminine, 

 the others being neuter ; and this distinction of 

 gender is marked by the terminations of the nom- 

 inative and other case-endings. Grammatical 

 gender went gradually out of use after the Norman 



