Chapter Cadmeans to Calamity of C by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Cæteris paribus (Latin). Other things being equal; presuming all other conditions to be equal.

Caf (Mount). In Mohammedan mythology is that huge mountain in the middle of which the earth is sunk, as a night light is placed in a cup. Its foundation is the emerald Sakhrat, the reflection of which gives the azure hue to the sky.

Caftan A garment worn in Turkey and other Eastern countries. It is a sort of under-tunic or vest tied by a girdle at the waist.

“Picturesque merchants and their customers, no longer in the big trousers of Egypt, but [in] the long caftans and abas of Syria.”- B. Taylor. Lands of the Saracen, chap. ix. p. 122.

Cag Mag Offal, bad meat; also a tough old goose; food which none can relish. (Gaelic and Welsh, cag magu. )

Cage To whistle or sing in the cage. The cage is a jail, and to whistle in a cage is to turn Queen's evidence, or peach against a comrade.

Cagliostro Conte de Cagliostro, or Giuseppe Balsamo of Palermo, a charlatan who offered everlasting youth to all who would pay him for his secret (1743-1795).

Cagots A sort of gipsy race in Gascony and Bearne, supposed to be descendants of the Visigoths, and shunned as something loathsome. (See Caqueux, Colliberts .)

“Cagoti non fuerunt monachi, anachoritæ, aut leprosi; ... sed genus quoddam hominum cæteris odiosum. Vasconibus Cagots, nonnullis Capoti, Burdegalentibus Gaheti, Vascis et Navarris Agoti, dicuntur.”- Ducange: Glossarium Manuale, vol. ii. pp. 23, 24.

Cahors Usuriers de Cahors. In the thirteenth century there was a colony of Jewish money-lenders settled at Cahors, which was to France what Lombard Street was to London.

Caiaphas The country-house of Caiaphas, in which Judas concluded his bargain to betray his Master, stood on “The Hill of Evil Counsel.”

Cain-coloured Beard Yellow, symbolic of treason. In the ancient tapestries Cain and Judas are represented with yellow beards. (See Yellow .)

“He hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow heard, a Cain-coloured beard.”- Shakespeare: Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 4.

Cainites (2 syl.). Disciples of Cain, a pseudo-Gnostic sect of the second century. They renounced the New Testament, and received instead The Gospel of Judas, which justified the false disciple and the crucifixion of Jesus. This sect maintained that heaven and earth were created by the evil principle, and that Cain with his descendants were the persecuted party.

Cairds or Jockeys. Gipsy tribes. Halliwell tells us “Caird” in Northumberland = tinker, and gipsies are great menders of pots and pans. (Irish, ceard, a tinker; Welsh, cordd, art or craft.)

“Donald Caird's come again.” Popular Song.

Caius (Dr. ). A French physician in Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.

“The clipped English of Dr. Caius.”- Macaulay.

   Caius College (Cambridge). Elevated by Dr. John Key (Caius ), of Norwich, into a college, being previously only a hall called Gonville. Called Keys. (1557.)

Cake A fool, a poor thing. (Cf. HALF-BAKED.)