a word which occurs in several places of the Hebrew Bible, and is generally translated the priests of the idols, or the priests clothed in black, because chamar signifies black, or blackness. St Jerome, in the second book of Kings, renders it aruspices. In Hosea and Zephaniah he translates it adliti or church-wardens. But the best commentators are of opinion that by this word we are to understand the priests of the false gods, and in particular the worshippers of fire; because they were, as they say, dressed in black; or perhaps the Hebrews gave them this name in derision, because, as they were continually employed in providing the fuel, and keeping up the fire, they were always as black as smiths or colliers. We find priests, among those of Isis, called melamorphoi, or wearers of black; but whether this epithet was applied by reason of their dressing in black, or whether because they wore a certain shining black veil in the processions of this goddess, is not certain. Camar, in Arabic, signifies the moon; and Isis is the same deity. Grotius thinks the Roman priests, called camillii, came from the Hebrew chamarim. Those among the heathens who sacrificed to the infernal gods were dressed in black.