(Camio in bird aspect, from Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal: Paris, 1863)

The name of this demon is given either as Camio or Caim. Reginald Scot wrote of it: "Caim is a great president, taking the forme of a thrush, but when he putteth on man's shape, he answereth in burning ashes, carrying in his hand a most sharpe swoord, he maketh the best disputers, he giveth men the understanding of all birds, of the lowing of bullocks, and barking of dogs, and also of the sound and noise of waters, he answereth best of things to come, he was of the order of angels, and ruleth thirtie legions of divels."

By "he answereth in burning ashes" is probably meant that the responses of this demon are to be divined in the glowing embers of a fire, either by perceiving writing in the shapes of the embers, or by listening to the hiss of the embers and finding words in the sounds. A fanciful interpretation would be that the demon causes written words resembling glowing embers to appear floating upon the air before the magician; but I believe the prosaic explanation is more likely.

Note that Camio gives the magician an understanding of the sound of flowing water. Listening to the sounds of moving water was a form of auditory divination. Those with a mediumistic gift could discern voices in the sounds of streams, rivers, waves or fountains. Both the sword and the bird are symbols of elemental Air. This spirit is airy in the sense that his power involves communication and the intellect, both airy faculties. By "he maketh the best disputers" should be understood that Camio grants the magician the power of eloquent verbal debate and persuasive argument.

Collin de Plancy has taken considerable liberty illustrating the demon. There is no indication in the text that when Camio first comes in the form of a thrush that he wears a sword. Oddly enough, no sword is shown in the illustration of the demon's human aspect, although the sharp beak of his hat is sword-like.

(Camio in human aspect, from Collin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal: Paris, 1863)