uifual length is about fix or seven inches, The dactyl and spondee are the only Quadrupedante putrem fonitu quatit ungula campum. DACTYLI, in antiquity, a name attributed to the first priefts of the goddess Cy bele, who were particularly called Dactyli Idai, because he was principally honoured on mount Ida in Phrygia. The name Dactyli is fuppofed to be given them on this occafion, that to prevent Saturn from hearing the cries of Jupiter, whom Cybele had committed to their cuftody, they used to fing verfes of their cwn invention, which, by their unequal measures, feemed to refemble the foot Dactylus. Sophocles fays they were called Dactyli, from the greek dixtuλ, finger, by rea. fon their number was equal to that of the fingers, viz. ten, five boys, and five girls; he adds it is to them we owe the invention of iron, and the manner of working it. It is a conjecture, that the curetes and corybantes were not the fame with the dactyli idei; that 100 men born in Crete were firft called dactyli; that each of them had nine children, who were the curetes, and that each of the curetes had ten children, who were allo called dactyli idei. M. Beger makes the dactyli inventors of the art of fhooting with bows and arrows. DACTYLIC VERSES, in antient poetry, hexameter verles ending with a dactyl. See DACTYL and HEXAMETER. DACTYLIOMANCY, dactyliomantia, a fort of divination, performed by means of a ring; confitting chiefly in holding the ring lufpended by a fine thread over a round table, on the edge whereof were made feveral marks with the twenty four letters of the alphabet; and as the ring, in fhaking or vibrating over the table, happened to ftop over certain of the letters, thefe being joined together. composed the answer required. DACTYLIS, in botany, a genus of the triandria-digynia clafs of plants, the flower of which is a bivalve glume, and its fruit a fingle roundish feed, contained DACTYLUS, DACTYL, in poetry. See in the cup and flower. DACTYLUS, among antient botanists, the the article DACTYL. DADO, in architecture, the fame with the fame with DATE. See DATE. DADUCHI, in antiquity, priests of the dye. See the article DYE. goddefs Ceres, fo called, because, at the feafts and facrifices of that goddess, they ran about the temple, carrying a lighted torch, which they delivered from hand to hand, till it had paffed through them all. This they did in memory of Ceres's fearching for her daughter Proferpine, by the light of a torch, which the kindDEDALA, daidada, in antiquity, two led in mount Etna. festivals in Boeotia, one of which was obferved by the Platens at Alalcomenus, where was the largest grove in all Boeotia. Here they affembled, and expofing to the open air pieces of fodden fle, carefully obferved whither the crows that came to feed upon them took their flight, and then hewed down all thofe trees on which any of them alighted, and formed them into ftatues, which by the antient greeks were called dadala. The other folemnity was by far the greatelt and most remarkable of the two, beDEDIS, Aad, among the greeks, ing celebrated only once in fixty years. lemn feftival that lafted three days, dura fo. ing all which time torches were kept DÆMON, daμov, a name given by the burning,which gave occafion to the name. antients to certain fpirits, or genii, which, they fay, appeared to men, either to do them fervice, or to hurt them. The Platonists diftinguish between gods, dæmons, and heroes. The gods are thofe whom Cicero calls Dii majorum gentium. The dæmons are those whom we call angels. See the article ANGEL. Chriftians, by the word dæmon underftand only evil fpirits, or devils. Juftin Martyr fpeaks of the nature of dæmons, as if he thought them not abfolutely spiritual and incorporeal, for which reafon he attributes fuch actions to them as as cannot be performed without the intervention of a body. It was a fabulous notion among the antient Hebrews, that Adam begot dæmons and fpirits on certain fuccubuses. It is difficult to come at a fatisfactory account of the demonology of that people, and therefore it is no eafy matter to explain what is meant by the worshipping of dæmons, or devils, which is the laft fpecies of idolatry, according to the division of the rabbins. "The poets, fays Minucius Felix, ac"knowledge the exiftence of dæmons; "the philofophers make it a matter of "difpute. Socrates was convinced of "it, for he had a demon always at hand, by whofe advice he governed "himself in all his actions: the magi "are not only acquainted with dæmons, "but perform all their magical opera"tions by the help of dæmons." The mahometans allow feveral forts of dæmons; and the miners of Hungary, pretend that, while they are at work in the mines, they often fee dæmons in the fhape of little negro boys, doing them no other harm than often extinguishing their lights. DÆMONIAC, a word applied to a perfon supposed to be poffeffed with an evil fpirit, or dæmon. See DEMON. In the romish church there is a particular office for the exorcifm of Dæmoniacs. See the article EXORCISM. DEMONIACS, in church history, a branch of the anabaptifts, whofe diftinguishing tenet is, that the devils fhall be faved at the end of the world. DÆSION, the macedonian name of the month called by the Athenians, anthefterion. See the article ANTHESTERION, DAFFODIL, the fame with the narciffus of botanists. See NARCISSUS. DAFFODIL LILY, the lilio narciffus of botanists. See LILIO-NARCISSUS. Sea-DAFFODIL, a genus of plants called by latin writers pancratium. See the article PANCRATIUM. DAGO, or DAGERWORT, the capital of an ifland of the fame name in the Baltic, near the coast of Livonia, fubject to Ruffia, east long. 21° 30′, and north latit. 58° 45'. DAHGESTAN, a country of Afia, bounded by Circaffia on the north, by the Cafpian Sea on the east, by Chirvein, a province of Perfia on the fouth, and by Georgia on the weft. Its chief towns are Turku and Derbent, both fituated on the Caspian Sea, DAHOME, a kingdom of Africa, on the Guinea-coaft. DAILE, in the fea-language, fignifies the trough for carrying the water off the decks, DAIRY, a house or building where milk, butter, cheese, &c. are made or kept. See the articles MILK, BUTTER, &c. DAISY, the english name of a genus of plants, called by authors bellis. the article BELLIS. DAKER-HEN, a bird, otherwite called See ortygometra. See ORTYGOMETRA. DALEBURGH, the capital of the province of Dalia, in Sweden, situated on the western fide of the Wener-lake, fifty miles north east of Gottenburgh, east Ion. 13°, and north lat. 59°. DALECARLIA, a province of Sweden, abounding with iron and copper mines. This is alfo the name of a river, which gives name to the above province. DÂLECHAMPIA, in botany, a genus of the polygamia-monoecia clafs of plants. There is no corolla, either in the male or female flower: the fruit is a globofotriangular scabrous capfule, with three cells: the feeds are roundish and folitary. DALIA, a province of Sweden, bounded on the north by Dalecarlia, on the east by Wermeland and the Wener-lake, on the fouth by Gothland, and on the weft by Norway. DALKEITH, a town of Scotland, in the county of Lothian, four miles fouth east of Edinburgh, weft long. 2° 40′ and north lat. 55° 50′ DALIBARDA, in botany, a genus of the icofandria-polygynia class of plants, the calyx of which confifts of a fingle leafed perianthium, divided into five fegments; the corolla confifts of five oval, equal petals, inferted into the cup: there is no pericarpium; the feeds are five in number, oval, fmooth, and almost of the length of the cup. DALMATIA, a frontier province of Europe, mostly subject to the Turks, but fome towns on the fea-coaft to the Venetians it is bounded by Bosnia on the north, by Servia on the east, by Albania on the fouth, and by Morlachia and the gulph of Venice on the west. DAM, or DIKE, See the article DIKE. DAMA, the FALLOW-DEER, in zoology, a fpecies of the deer-kind, diftinguished by its ramofe and compreffed, or palmated horns. See CERVUS. DAMAGE, in law, is generally under or DAMASKING, the art or operation of beautifying iron, fteel, &c. by making incifions therein, and filling them up with gold and filver wire; chiefly used for adorning fwordblades, guards and gripes, locks of piftols, &c. food of a hurt, or hindrance attending DAMASKEENING, a perfon's eftate: but, in common law, it is a part of what the jurors are to inquire of in giving verdict for the plaintiff or defendant, in a civil action, whether real or perfonal: for after giving verdict on the principal caufe, they are likewife afked their confciences, touching cofts and damages, which contain the hindrances that one party hath fuffered from the wrong done him by the other. See the article COSTS, DAMAGE CLEER, was a fee of the tenth part in the common pleas, and twentieth in the king's-bench and exchequer, formerly paid out of all the damages, exceeding five marks, recovered in those courts, in actions of the cafe, covenant, trefspafs, and all others wherein the damages were uncertain. DAMAGE FEASANT, is when a stranger's beats get into another man's ground, without licence of the owner or occupier of the ground, and there do damage by feeding, or otherwife, to the grafs, corn, wood, &c. in which cafe the tenant whom they damage may there fore take, diftrain, or impound them, as well in the night as in the day; but in other cafes, as for rents and fervices, and fuch like, none may diftrain in the night. DAMAN, a port town of the hither India, in the province of Guzurat, or Cambay, fituated on the west coast, about eighty miles fouth of Surat, in 72° 20′ˇealt long. and 20° north lat. It is fubject to the Portuguese, DAMASCUS, or SCHAM, the capital city of the fouth part of Syria, fituated ninety miles north east of Jerufalem, in a pleafant, extensive, and fruitful plain; east longit. 37° 20′, and north latit. 33° J5'. DAMASK, a filk-ftuff, with a raised pattern, fo as that the right fide of the damafk, is that which hath the flowers railed or fattined. Damafk fhould be of dreffed filk, both DAMASK is alfo applied to a very fine steel, Damafkeening partakes of the mosaic, of engraving, and of carving: like the mofaic, it hath inlaid work; like engraving, it cuts the metal reprefenting divers figures; and as in chafing, gold and filver is wrought in relievo. There are two ways of danking, the one, which is the fineft, is when the metal is cut deep with proper inftruments, and inlaid with gold and filver wire: the other is fuperficial only. DAMBEA, the capital of Abyffinia, or Ethiopia, fituated at the head of a lake, to which it gives name: east long. 34o, and north lat. 15° DAMELOPRE, a kind of bilander, used in Holland for conveying merchandize from one canal to another; being very commodious for paffing under the bridges. DAMIANISTS, in church history, a DAMIETTA, a port-town of Egypt, See the DAMPS, in natural hiftory, noxious fteams and exhalations, frequently found in mines, pits, wells, and other fubterraneous places. Damps are generally reckoned of four kinds. The first, which is the most ordinary, the workmen in the mines know when it is coming, by the flame of their candle's becoming orbicular, and by its leffening gradually till it goes quite out; as alfo, by the difficulty of breathing. Thole that escape fwooning, feldom suffer any harm by it: but fuch as fwoon away, though they mifs of downright fuffocation, are, on their recovery, tor mented with very violent convulfions. Their Their way of cure is to lay the perfon down on the earth, in a prone pofture, with a hole dug in the ground under his mouth; if this fail, they fill him full of good ale, and if that will not do, they conclude the cafe defperate. The fecond kind is the peafe-bloom damp, being fo called from its fmell: this damp, they fay, always comes in the fummertime, but hath never been known to be mortal. The miners in the Peak of Derbyshire, fancy it arifes from the great number of red trefoil flowers, called by them honeyfuckles, with which the Jimeftone meadows of the peak abound. Probably the smell of this damp gives timely notice to get out of the way. The third is the moft peftilential, and the frangest of all, if what is faid of it be true. They who pretend to have feen it, defcribe it thus. In the highest parts of the roof of those passages in a mine which branch out from the main grove, they fee a round thing that hangs about the bigness of a foot-ball, covered with a film of the thickness and colour of a cobweb. If this bag fhould be broke by a splinter, or any other accident, the damp immediately flies out, and fuffocates all the company. The miners have a way of breaking it at a diftance, by means of a ftick and long rope; and when they have done this, they purify the place with fire. They will have it, that it flows from the steam of their bodies and candles, afcends up into the highest part of the vault, and there condenses; and that in time, a film growing over it, it becomes peftilential. The fourth is the fulminating, or firedamp, whofe vappur, being touched by the flame of a candle, prefently takes fire, and has all the effects of lightening, or fired gun-powder. Thefe are frequently met with in the coal-mines, and fometimes, though rarely, in the lead mines. The pernicious damps in mines, fhew abundantly, that nature affords inflammable air in fome cafes; and we have found by experiments, that art can do the fame, and that, very probably, on the fame principles with the natural. Sir James Lowther, having collected the air of fome of these damps in bladders, preferved it fo well, that when brought up to London, it would take fire at the flame of a candle, on being let out at the orifice of a piece of tobacco-pipe, It is well known to all that are verfed in chemical experiments, that moft metals emit a great quantity of fulphurous vapours, during the effervefcence they undergo in the time of their solutions, in their respective menftruums: this vapour, being received into bladders, in the tame manner with the natural air of Sir James Lowther, has been found to take fire, in the like way, on being let out in a small stream, and anfwering all the phænomena of the natural kind. DAMSEL, from the french damoifel, or damoifeau, an appellation antiently given to all young people of either sex, that were of noble or genteel extraction, as the fons and daughters of princes, knights, and barons: thus we read of Damiel Pepin, Damfel Louis le Gros, Damfel Richard prince of Wales. From the fons of kings this appellation firit paffed to thofe of great lords and barons, and at length to thofe of gentle. men, who were not yet knights. At prefent, damfel is applied to all maids or girls, not yet married, provided they be not of the vulgar. DANAE, in antiquity, a coin somewhat more than an obulus, ufed to be put into the mouths of the dead, to pay their paffage over the river Acheron. DANCE, an agreeable motion of the body, adjusted by art to the meatures or tune of inftruments, or of the voice. Athenæus concludes, that in the early ages of antiquity, they accounted dancing an exercise becoming perfons of honour and wifdom, and that, as fuch, it had been esteemed by the greatest men in all ages. Thus, Homer calls Merion a fine dancer, and fays, that the gracefu! mein and great agility which he had acquired by that exercife, diftinguished him above the rest in the armies of either Greeks or Trojans. Dancing was in very great efteem among the Greeks, even the Lacedemonians encouraged it: but, at Rome, we find the custom was quite otherwise; for there, to use the words of Cicero, no man dances unless he is mad or drunk: Cicero reproaches Gabinius with having danced and we read, that Domitian excluded several members from the fenate for having danced. Dancing in general, was by the antients divided into cubiftic, fpheriftic, and orcheftic: the cubistic dance was performed with certain wrestlings and contorfions of the body; the fpheriftic with a fort of ball, or bowl play; but the orchettic was was most usual, and what indeed was dancing properly fo called. Dancing is ufually an effect and indication of joy, though Mr. Palleprat affures us, that there are nations in South America, who dance, to fhew their forrow. It has been in ufe. among all nations civilized and barbarous, though held in esteem among fome, and in contempt among others. It has often been, and ftill is, fometimes, made an act of religion. Thus David danced before the ark, to honour God, and exprefs his excess of joy, for its return into Sion. Among the Pagans it made a part of the worship paid to the Gods, it being uful to dance round the altars, and ftatues; and at Rome, the falii, who were priests of Mars, danced through the streets in honour of that God. The poets made the Gods themselves dance. The Chriftians are not free from this fuperftition, for in popifh countries certain fellivals, particularly thofe of the facrament, and paffion of our Lord, are celebrated with dancing. Rope DANCER, Schoenobates, a perfon who walks, leaps, dances, and performs leveral other feats upon a finall rope, or wire. The antients had their rope-dancers, who had four feveral ways of exercising their art; the firtt vaulted, or turned round the rope, like a wheel round its axis, and there hung by the heels or neck. The fecond flew or flid from above, downwards, refting on their ftomach, with the arms and legs extended. The third ran along a rope, ftretched in a right line, or up and down. Lastly, the fourth, not only walked on the rope, but made surpri fing leaps and turns thereon. This art is lately much improved, as well in this nation as in France, and feveral other parts of Europe; witness the admirable feats of feveral rope-dancers, now in this country, who, standing only with one foot on the wire, beat the drum, found the trumpet, play the violin, &c. and all the while the wire is in full fwing. The other feats which they per form on the wire by the help of a balance, are too many to be enumerated here. DANCETTE, in heraldry, is when the outline of any bordure, or ordinary, is indented very largely, the largenel's of the indentures being the only thing that diftinguishes it from indented. See the article INDENTED. * There is alfo the bearing of a bend, called double dancette: thus, he beareth azure, a bend double dancette argent. DANCHE, in heraldry, the fame with dantelle, according to Guillim: but Columbier makes it the fame with indented. See the articles INDENTED and DANTELLE. DANEGELT, a tax, or tribute, on every hide of land, impofed on our ancestors the Saxons by the Danes, on their frequent invafions, as the arbitary terms of peace, and departure. It was fift impofed as a continual yearly tax upon the whole nation, under king Ethelred. It was levied by William I, and II, but was released by king Henry the first; and finally abolished by king Stephen. DANIEL, or book of DANIEL, a canonical book of the old teftament, fo denominated from its author Daniel, who was a very extraordinary perfon, and was favoured of God, and honoured of men, beyond any that had lived in his time. His prophecies concerning the coming of the Meffiah, and the other great events of after times, are fo clear and explicit, that Porphyry objected to them, that they mult have been written after the fas were done. The ftile of Daniel is not fo lofty and figurative as that of the other prophets; it is clear and concife, and his narrations and defcriptions fimple and natural; and, in fhort, he writes more like an hiftorian than a prophet. The Jews do not reckon Daniel among the prophets; part of his book, that is from the 4th verfe of the 2d chapter to the end of the 7th chapter, was originally written in the chaldee language, the reafon of which was, that in that part he treats of the chaldean or babylonifh affairs; all the rest of the book is in hebrew. The fix firft chapters of the book of Daniel are an hiftory of the kings of Babylon, and what befel the Jews under their government. In the fix last, he is altogether prophetical, foretelling not only what fhould happen to his own church and nation, but events in which foreign princes and kingdoms were concerned. 11 |