Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CHAB'A-SIE, or CHAB'A-SITE, n. [Gr. χαβαζιος, one of twenty species of stones mentioned in the poem περι λιθων, ascribed to Orpheus. This term was introduced into modern mineralogy by Box d'Antic. Schabasit, Werner.]

A mineral which has been regarded as a variety of zeolite. It is divisible into very obtuse rhomboids. – Dict. Nat. Hist. This mineral occurs in crystals, whose primitive form is nearly a cube. – Ure. Chabasie has a foliated structure; its fracture is somewhat conchoidal or uneven, with a glistening vitreous luster. It is translucent, sometimes transparent. Its color is white or grayish white, sometimes with a rosy tinge. Before the blowpipe it intumesces a little, and easily melts into a white spungy mass. – Cleaveland.