anciently a people near the Palus Maeotis. They invaded Asia Minor 1284 years before Christ, and seized upon the kingdom of Cyaxares. But after they had been masters of the country for twenty-eight years, they were driven back by Alyates, king of Lydia. This is also the name of another nation on the western coast of Italy. The country which they inhabited was supposed to be so gloomy, that, to indicate great obscurity, the expression of "Cimmerian darkness" has been proverbially used; and Homer, according to Plutarch, drew his images of hell and Pluto from the gloomy and dismal country where they dwelt.

CIMOLIA TERRA, in Natural History, a name applied by the ancients to an earth, at one time much employed in medicine, but which in later ages has been supposed to be no other than our tobacco-pipe clay and fullers' earth.

The cimolia terra of the ancients was found in several of the islands of the Archipelago, particularly in the island of Cimolus, whence it derived its name. It was used with great success in erysipelas, inflammations, and the like, being applied by way of cataplasm to the part affected. The ancients also used, as we do, what we call cimolia, or fullers' earth, for the cleansing of clothes. This earth, though so long disregarded, and by many supposed to be lost, is yet very plentiful in Argentiere (the ancient Cimolus), Sphanto, and many of those islands. It is a marl of a lax and crumbly texture, and a pure bright white colour, but very soft to the touch. It adheres firmly to the tongue, and, if thrown into water, raises a little hiss- Cimolia Alba ing and ebullition, and moulders to a fine powder. It makes a considerable effervescence with acids, and suffers no change of colour in the fire. These are the characters of what the ancients called simply terra cimolia; but besides this, they obtained from the same place another earth which they called by the same general name, but which was distinguished by the epithet purple, purpureascens. This they described as fattish, cold to the touch, of a mixed purple colour, and nearly as hard as a stone.