Cheese, Chr. St. Augustine says that a sect called the Artotyrites offered bread and cheese in the Eucharist, saying “that the first oblations which were offered by men, in the infancy of the world, were of the fruits of the earth and of sheep.” (Aug. de Hæres. c. xlviii.)
Chef-d’œuvre, Fr. A work of the highest excellence.
Chekelatoun. (See Ciclatoun.)
Chekere, O. E. Chess (q.v.).
Chele (χηλὴ, prob, from a root χα- meaning cloven). This term is applied to a great variety of objects; it signifies a cloven foot, a hooked claw, or anything presenting a notched or serrated appearance. Thus a breakwater, the irregular projections of which bore some resemblance to the teeth of an immense saw, was also called chêlê. There were, besides, various engines and machines which went under this name.
Chelidoniacus, sc. gladius (from the Greek χελιδὼν, a swallow). A broad-bladed sword with a double point like a swallow’s tail.
Chelidonize, Gr. (lit. to twitter like a swallow). Singing the “Swallow Song” (χελιδόνισμα), a popular song sung by the Rhodian boys in the month Boedromion, on the return of the swallows, and made into an opportunity for begging. A similar song is still popular in Greece. (Fauriel, “Chants de la Grèce.”) (See Coronize.)
Cheliform (χηλὴ, a claw). In the form of a claw.
Chelonium (a tortoise-shell, from χελώνη, a tortoise), (1) A kind of cramp or collar placed at the extremities of the uprights of certain machines. (2) A part of a catapult, also called pulvinus. (See Catapulta.)
Chelys (χέλυς, a tortoise). (1) The lyre of Mercury, formed of strings stretched across a tortoise-shell. (2) In the 16th and 17th centuries, a bass-viol and division-viol were each called chelys. (See also Testudo.)