CAMAIEU, or CAMAYEU, a word used to express a peculiar sort of onyx: also by some to express a stone, wherein are found various figures, and representations of landscapes, &c. formed by a kind of lusus natura, so as to exhibit pictures without painting. The word comes from camabuia, a name the Orientals give to the onyx, when they find, in preparing it, another colour; as who should say, a second stone. It is of these camaioux Pliny is to be understood when he speaks of the manifold picture of gems, and the party-coloured spots of precious stones: Gemmarum picturam multiplex lapidumque tam discolorer macula.