More changeable than the chamæleon, which was supposed, though not truly, to assume the colour of every object it approached.

The Chians purchased for themselves masters. When their country was conquered by Mithridates, they were delivered, bound with chains, to their slaves, whom they had purchased, to be by them transported to Colchis. The adage was used when any one by mismanagement had brought upon himself any severe calamity.