Camel swallower

Applied to a weakly credulous person, or to one who is punctilious in small matters while negligent of greater. Cameo, (kam'e-o,) n. [It. cammeo; Lat. gemma , a gem.] (Fine Arts.) A term applied to gems of different colors sculptured in relief. The art of engraving on gems boasts of high antiquity, having been practised with various degrees of succe by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. It was revived in Italy in the 15th century, and is even at the present day cultivated with considerable succe . The C. of the ancients were usually confined to the agate, onyx, and sard, which, on account of the variety of their strata, were better suited to display the artist's talents; but they are also occasionally found executed on opal, beryl, or emerald, and even on a sort of factitious stone, the Vitrum obsidianum of Pliny, distinguished by the moderns as the antique paste. (Encycl. Metrop.) One of the most famous C. is the onyx at present in Paris called the Apotheosis of Augus tus. It is one foot in height, and 10 inches in width. Cameo is sometimes, but wrongly, written Camaieu. Cam'era, n. [Lat., a chamber.] ( Arch .) In Greek architecture, an arched or vaulted roof, covering, or ceiling, formed by circular bands or beams of wood, over the intervals of which a coating of lath and plaster was spread; they resembled, in their construction, the hooped awnings now commonly in use. -The form of the camera obscura used in photography. Cameral is'tic, a. Pertaining to public revenue and finance.