Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 5, BUR-CHI

Caaba
I! .
Caballana.
CAB
conftantly lighted at night. The firfl:
this fecund enclofure was laid by Omar the fecund ca¬
liph, whu built nu mure than a luw wall, te prevent
the cuurt uf the Caaba frum being encroached upon by
private buildings 5 but by the liberality of fucceeding
princes, the whole has been raifed to that Hate of mag¬
nificence in which it appears at prefent.
This temple enjoys the privilege of an afylum for
all forts of criminals: but it is moll; remarkable for
the pilgrimages made to it by the devout Muffulmans,
who pay fo great a veneration to it, that they believe
a Angle fight of its facred walls, without any particu¬
lar act of devotion, is as meritorious in the fight of
God, as the molt careful difcharge of one’s duty, for
the fpace of a whole year, in any other temple.
CAAMINI, in Botany, a name given by the Spa¬
niards and others to the finett fort of Paraguayan
tea. It is the leaf of a (hrub which grows on the
mountains of Maracaya, and is ufed in Chili and Pe®
ru as the tea is with us. The mountains where this
ihrub grows naturally are far from the inhabited parts
of Paraguay : but the people of the place know fo well
the value and ufe of it, that they conilantly furnifh
themfelves with great quantities of it from the fpots
They ufed to go out on thefe expeditions many thou-
fands together 5 leaving their country, In the mean time,
expofed to the infults of their enemies, and many of
themfelves perilhing by fatigue. To avoid thefe in¬
conveniences, they have of late planted thefe trees about
their habitations; but the leaves of thefe cultivated
onss have not the fine flavour of thofe that grow
wild. The king of Spain has permitted the Indians
of Paraguay to bring to the town of Saintfoy 12,000
arobes of the leaves of this tree every year, but they
are not able to procure fo much of the wild leaves an¬
nually : about half the quantity is the utmofl: they
bring of this: the other half is made up of the leaves
of the trees in their own plantations j and this fells at
a lower price, and is called pabos. The arobe is about
25 pound weight; the general price is four piaftres;
and the money is always divided equally among the
people of the colony.
CAANA, or Kaana, a town in Upper Ugypt^
feated on the eaftem bank. of the river Nile, from
whence they carry corn and pulfe for the fupply of
Mecca in Arabia. E. Long. 32^ 23. N. Lat. 24: 30.
Here are feveral monuments of antiquity yet remain¬
ing, adorned with hieroglyphics.
CAB, a Hebrew dry meafure, being the fixth part
of a feah or fatum, and the 1 8ih part of an ephah. A
cab contained 2^ pints of our corn-meafure : a quarter
cab was the meafure of dove’s dung, or more properly
a fort of chick-peafe called by this name, which was
fold at Samaria, during the fiege of that city, for five
fhekels.
CABAL, an apt name currently given to the infa¬
mous miniitry of Charles II. compofed of five perfons,
Clifford, Aihley, Buckingham, Arlington, and Lau¬
derdale ; the fir ft letters of whofe names, in this or¬
der, furniflied the appellation by which they were di-
ftinguifhed.
CABALIST, in French commerce, a fa£lor or
perfon who is concerned in managing the trade of an¬
other.
CABALLARIA, in middle-age writers, lands held
Cabbala.
[ 37 ] c. A B
foundation of by the tenure of furnilhing a horfeman, with fuitable Caballaria
equipage in time of war, or when the lord had occa-
fion for him.
CABALLEROS, or Cavalleros, are Spanifli
wools, of which there is a pretty confiderable trade at
Bayonne in France.
CABALLINE, denotes fomething belonging to
horfes ; thus caballine aloes is fo called, from its being
chiefly ufed for purging horfes ; and common brim*-
Hone is called fulphur caballinum for a like reafon.
CABALLINUM, in Andent Geography, a town of
the AEdui in Gallia Celtica ; now Chalons fur Saonef
which fee.
CABALLINUS, in Ancient Geography, a very clear
fountain in Mount Helicon in Boeotia ; called Hip-
pocreneby the Greeks, becaufe opened by Pegafus on
ftriking the rock with his hoof, and hence called Pe-
gafuis.
CAB ALL 10, or Cabellto, in Ancient Geography,
a town of the Cavares in Gallia Narbonenfis, fituated
on the Druentia. One of the Latin colonies, in the
Notitiae called Civitas Cabelhcorurn. Now Cavaillon
in Provence.
CABBAGE, in So/fl/Ty. See BRASSiCA; and A-
GRICULTURE Index.
Cabbage- Tree, or True CABB AG E-Palm. See A
reca, Botany Index.
Cabbage*bark Tree. See Geoffrjea, Botany
Index.
CABBALA, according to the Hebrew ftyle, has
a very diftinct fignification from that wherein w'e un~
derfland it in our language. The Hebrew cabbala fig-
nifies tradition ; and the rabbins, who are called cab-
balijls, ftudy principally the combination of particular
words, letters, and numbers, and by this means pretend
to difeover what is to come, and to fee clearly into the
fenfe of many difficult paffages of Scripture. There
are no fure principles of this knowledge, but it depends
upon fome particular traditions of the ancients ; for
which reafon it is termed cabbala.
The cabbalifts have abundance of names which they
call facred; thefe they make ufe of in invoking of
fpirits, and imagine they receive great light from them.
They tell us, that the fecrets of the Cabbala were dif-
covered to Mofes on Mount Sinai ; and that thefe have
been delivered to them down froraffather to fon, with¬
out interruption, and without any ufe of letters; for
to write them down, is what they are by no means
permitted to do. This is likewife termed the oral law,
beeaufe it- palled from father to fon, in order to di-
ftinguiffi it from the written laws.
There is- another cabbala, called artificial, which
confifts in fearching for abftrufe and myfterious figni-
fications of a word in Scripture, from W'hence they bor¬
row certain explanations, by combining the letters
wffiich compofe it; this cabbala is divided into three
kinds, the gematric, the notaricon, and the temura or
themura. The firfl; whereof confifts in taking the
letters of a Hebrew word -for ciphers or arithmetical
numbers, and explaining every word by the arithmeti¬
cal value of the letters whereof it is compofed. The
fecond fort of cabbala, called notaricon, confifts in tak¬
ing every particular letter of a word for an entire
didtion ; and the third, called themura, i. e. change,
confifts in making different tranfpofitions or changes
o£