Charge, Her. Any heraldic figure or device.
Charisia, Gr. (Χάριτες, the Graces). Nocturnal festivals held in honour of the Graces, at which cakes and honey were distributed to those present.
Charisteria, Gr. (χάρις, gratitude). Festivals celebrated yearly at Athens, in remembrance of the Athenian general Thrasybulus, the saviour of his country.
Charistia. (See Caristia.)
Charistion. An instrument of Archimedes for weighing. Whether it bore most resemblance to the balance (libra), or the steelyard (statera), is uncertain, as its form is entirely unknown.
Charles’s Wain (Anglo-Saxon, carles-waen, the churl’s waggon). The seven stars forming the constellation generally called the Great Bear.
Charnel, O. E. Apex of the basinet.
Charnel-house. A small building attached to a cemetery, for a receptacle for the human bones disinterred when fresh graves were dug.
Charta, Gr. and R. Writing-paper in use among the ancients. There were eight different kinds, which were classed as follows in the order of their quality: (1) Charta Augustana or Claudiana; (2) Liviana; (3) hieratica; (4) amphitheatrica; (5) Saitica; (6) leneotica; (7) fanniana; (8) dentata. The last was so called from being polished by means of the tooth (dens) of some animal, or a piece of ivory. There was also a charta emporetica or packing-paper, and lastly a charta bibula. It is uncertain whether this last was blotting-paper, or a kind of transparent paper which had been steeped in oil or some other fatty substance.
Charter-room or Charter-house. A place in which the charters of a particular family or house were preserved.