Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/235

 CHALOHIHUITL CHALCIS 227 plates, &c., of the most exquisite workman- ship, as delicate as the finest chinaware. Spe- cimens of the finest texture and most delicate shades are selected for these, especially such as are more or less white, passing into trans- parent and brown. At Oberstein, in Germany, chalcedony is worked like agate. (See AGATE.) Some of the finest known specimens of chal- cedony were found at the Tresavean copper mine in Cornwall. They occurred in a single pocket or cavity in the mine, and none others were found like them. One of them, described as resembling the anatomized wing of a large bat, displaying its bones and arteries, is pre- served in the British museum. The mineral is frequently met with in the United States, and is particularly abundant where metallic vein's are worked, but no specimens of extra- ordinary beauty are found. It also occurs in Nova Scotia and Iceland. CHALCHIHUITL, the Indian name of a green- colored stone, held in high repute by the an- cient Mexicans, and by the Indian tribes now inhabiting the northern and western portions of New Mexico. They possess the art of fash- ioning it into ornaments, as beads and other trinkets, and occasionally use it in trade, valu- ing it more highly than gold. It proves, ac- cording to the researches of Mr. W. P. Blake, to be turquoise. The locality, at which it has been obtained from remote periods, is in the mountains called Los Cerrillos, 20 m. S. E. from Santa Fe A quarry of extraordinary extent has been excavated in a granular light- colored porphyry ; and around it are a number of smaller excavations. Mr. Blake describes the great pit as appearing, from the top of the cliff, "200 feet in depth, and 300 or more in width." Pine trees more than 100 years old are growing upon the debris in the bottom and about the sides. These excavations were evi- dently made before the conquest of the coun- try by the Spaniards, though the Indians still continue to visit the locality to search among the debris for more crystals. The earliest his- torians, as Bernal Diaz, who accompanied Cortes, and others, make mention of chalchi- huitls among the presents made by Montezuma, intended especially for the Spanish sovereign. Mr. Blake proposes that the name be retained by mineralogists for this New Mexican variety of turquoise. The Indian pronunciation of it is chal-che-we-te. Prof. Pumpelly thinks the feitsui and jade of the Chinese is the same as the chalchihuitl of the ancient Mexicans. CHALCIDIANS, a family of snake-like lizards, whose scales are rectangular as in ordinary reptiles, and arranged in regular transverse rows ; they lead on the one hand to the skinks, and on the other to the long, serpentiform lizards, like the glass snake, blindworm, and amphisbsana. They have four legs, often very rudimentary, and always small and feeble, with one to four or five toes; the eyes are small, with lids, ears exposed, and tongue short and fleshy. They are found in the warmer parts of South America, Africa, and the East Indies. By the older naturalists they were regarded as Brazen Lizard (Chalets flavescens). snakes, to which they form a natural transi- tion. Their food consists of small insects ; they are perfectly harmless. CHALCIDICE, the ancient name of the penin- sula forming the S. E. portion of Macedonia, and terminating in the three smaller peninsulas of Acte, Sithonia, and Pallene, extending into the ^Egean sea. Its eastern extremity is Mt. Athos. Generally hilly and rugged, Chalcidice was more celebrated for the ability and energy of its inhabitants than for its productions or natural features. Settled by colonists from Eubcea about the Yth century B. C., the country maintained its independence until after the Peloponnesian w^r, when it was subdued by the Spartans. Its subsequent history may be found in that of its chief town, Olynthus. CHALCIDICS, a Platonic philosopher, supposed to have flourished in the 5th or 6th century. He is described upon the manuscripts of his work as mr clarissimus, and these vague words are the only allusions which we have to his life. There remains from him a Latin translation of the first part of the " Timseus " of Plato, with a learned commentary. This work is dedi- cated to a certain Osius, who has been by some regarded, but without any evidence, as the archbishop Osius who took a leading part in the debates of the council of Nice in 325. Gi- raldi and Brucker have maintained that Chal- cidius was a Christian, Goujet and Mosheim that he was a pagan. The last and best edition of his commentary is that of Fabricius, at the end of the second volume of the works of St. Hippolytus (Hamburg, 1718). CHALCIS, Eyripo, Egripo, or Negropont, the prin- cipal town of the island of Euboea, in Greece, 34 m. N. by W. of Athens; pop. about 6,000. It is the seat of a Greek archbishop, and is said to be the only town of Greece in which any Mohammedan families remain. The city and fortress, which was one of the strongest and most important of ancient Greece, are situated at the narrowest part of the strait of Euripus (Evripo) separating the island from Boeotia. The strait here is narrowed by a project- ing spur of the mountain of Karababa on the mainland, and the corresponding protru- sion of a rocky promontory on the island