are adorned at their corners with figures sculptured in high
relief. The scroll-work inlay is commonly simple and graceful,
consisting of floral or geometrical motives, or arabesques. The examples
coated with gilded _gesso_ or blazoned with paintings are, however, the
most magnificent. They were often made of chestnut, and decorated with
flowers and foliage in a relief which, low at first, became after the
Renaissance very high and sharp. The panels of the painted cassoni
frequently bore representations of scriptural and mythological subjects,
or incidents derived from the legends of chivalry. Nor was heraldry
forgotten, the arms of the family for which the chest was made being
perhaps emblazoned upon the front. These chests rarely bear dates or
initials, but it is often possible to determine their history from their
armorial bearings.

CASSOWARY (_Casuarius_), a genus of struthious birds, only inferior in
size to the emeu and ostrich, and, according to Sir R. Owen,
approximating more closely than any other living birds to the extinct
moas of New Zealand. The species are all characterized by short
rudimentary wings, bearing four or five barbless shafts, a few inches
long, and apparently useless for purposes of flight, of running, or of
defence; and by loosely webbed feathers, short on the neck, but of great
length on the rump and back, whence they descend over the body forming a
thick hair-like covering. They possess stout limbs, with which they kick
in front, and have the inner toe armed with a long powerful claw. The
common cassowary (_Casuarius galeatus_) stands 5 ft. high, and has a
horny, helmet-like protuberance on the crown of its head; the front of
the neck is naked and provided with two brightly-coloured wattles. It is
a native of the Island of Ceram, where it is said to live in pairs,
feeding on fruits and herbs, and occasionally on small animals. The
mooruk, or Bennett's cassowary (_Casuarius Bennettii_), is a shorter and
more robust bird, approaching in the thickness of its legs to the moas.
It differs further from the preceding species in having its head crowned
with a horny plate instead of a helmet. It has only been found in New
Britain, where the natives are said to regard it with some degree of
veneration. When captured by them shortly after being hatched, and
reared by the hand, it soon becomes tame and familiar; all the specimens
which have reached Europe alive have been thus domesticated by the