Carcass, Arch. The unfinished frame or skeleton of a building.
Fig. 137. Carceres. Roman prisons.
Carcer (akin to arceo, i. e. an enclosure (Gr. ἕρκος). (1) A prison. (2) The circus. At Rome the prisons were divided into three stages: the first, which formed a story above ground (carcer superior), was for prisoners who had only committed slight offences; the carcer interior, or stage on a level with the ground, served as a place of confinement in which criminals were placed to await the execution of their sentence; lastly there was the carcer inferior, or subterranean dungeon called robur, for criminals condemned to death. Fig. [137] represents the carcer built at Rome by Ancus Martius and Servius Tullius; Fig. [138] the carceres of the circus.
Fig. 138. Carceres. Stables in the circus at Rome.
Carchesium (καρχήσιον). (1) A drinking-cup of Greek invention, and having slender handles rising high over the edge, and reaching to the foot. It was an attribute of Bacchus, and was used in the religious ceremonies. (2) A scaffolding in the shape of the carchesium at the masthead of a ship. (Anglicè, “crow’s-nest.”)
Cardinalis. (See Scapus.)
Cardo. A pivot and socket used for the hinge of a door. The term was also used in carpentry to denote a dove-tailed tenon; this was called cardo securi-culatus, i. e. a tenon in the shape of an axe, the dove-tail bearing some resemblance to the blade of that tool.
Care-cloth, O. E. A cloth held over the bride and bridegroom’s heads at a wedding.