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of various stuffs of Syrian and Indian fabric, hung loosely on a light frame of wood, and spread with small Turkey carpets. The ministers, or meleks, were seated at some distance on the right and left, and behind them was a line of guards, bearing a spear and target, with caps, in which a black ostrich feather was stuck. The ground in front was filled with spectators and petitioners, to the number of 1500. On the monarch's left hand stood a person whose employment was to sound his praises, and who vociferated continually, See the buffaloe, the offspring of a buffaloe, a bull of bulls, the elephant of superior strength, the powerful sultan Abd-el-rach-man-el-rashid.'. His revenue is derived from various sources, and often collected by troops who march through the territory, and seize the cattle until it is paid. The king is also an extensive merchant, exporting and importing every year a large quantity of goods on his own

account.

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The religion of Mahomet is professed universally and zealously. But the people are cheerful in their dispositions; and the females not immured, nor, unless in the case of the great, are their faces veiled. A fermented liquor called merise, the same with the bouza of the negroes, is universally indulged in, however, and by both sexes. The men sometimes sit whole days over it. The intercourse of the sexes is extremely licentious, and polygamy has no bounds. The Furians are also considered as by no means conspicuous for honor or even honesty. No property is found to be safe out of the sight of the owner.

The grand intercourse of Darfur is with Egypt, and is carried on entirely by caravans, whose motions from Fur are, however, extremely uncertain, and sometimes two or even three years elapse without one. The caravan going to Egypt is much larger than the one returning, and often consists of 2000 camels. The water is carried in goat-skins or ox-hides, artificially covered to prevent evaporation, and every tenth camel is loaded with straw and beans. Among the articles sent to Egypt, the most important are slaves, taken in the negro countries of the south; ivory, the horns, teeth, and hide of the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, and the camel. The imports comprise beads of all sorts, toys, glass, arms, light cloths, Barbary caps, carpets, silks, shoes, and writing-paper in large quantities. Commerce is transacted entirely by barter. There is also a considerable intercourse with Mecca, which takes the route by Suakem and Jidda, as much shorter than that by Egypt.

DARIC, in antiquity, a famous gold coin, first struck by Darius the Mede, about A. A. C. 538; probably during his stay at Babylon. From thence the darics were dispersed over the east, and into Greece; where they were also called stateres, and were the gold coins best known in Athens in ancient times. According to Dr. Bernard, the daric weighed two grains more than our guinea. Plutarch says, they bore on one side an archer clothed in a long robe, and crowned with a spiked crown, holding a bow in his left hand, and an arrow in his right; and on the other side the effigies of Darius. There were afterwards half darics.

DARIEN, or TERRA FIRMA PROPER, once the northern division of Terra Firma, or Castile del Oro, is now a province of Colombia, and is bounded on the north by the Spanish Main, or Caribbean Sea; on the east by Carthagena; on the west by Panama; and on the south by the Pacific Ocean, and the province of Choco. Darien is one of the largest provinces of Tierra Firme: It is about 200 miles long, and eighty broad.

The Gulf of Darien, which is the mouth of the Rio Atrato, or rather a large arm of the Atlantic, is the most important part of the northern coast, and contains several islands of considerable size. The rivers are very large, but few of them navigable, owing to the shoals, bars, and rapids, in which they abound; most of them, however, yield grains of gold.

The province of Darien is thinly inhabited, and almost wholly by native tribes, who amoun perhaps to 30,000; the unhealthiness of the climate and the impenetrable forests preventing the formation of European settlements. valleys are so marshy, from the overflowing of the rivers, that the natives generally build their habitations in the branches of high trees.

The

The chief products are cotton and tobacco. The mouth of the Atrato, though wide, has many shoals; yet it serves to export much of the internal produce of the neighbouring provinces, and is a noted smuggling station, where European goods are exchanged for the gold of Choco. A small fort which protects the gold mines of Cana is the principal station on the frontiers of Choco: its garrison is sent monthly from Panama.

Santa Cruz de Cana is the capital, and was formerly a considerable place. There were also at one time nine other towns or missions, and several hamlets; but most of them have been abandoned. In this province the Scotch attempted a settlement in 1699; and for this project a fund was subscribed, amounting to about £900,000 sterling. The plan, however, completely failed, partly, it is said, through the jealousy of the English, but chiefly from the unhealthiness of the climate. Of 1200 individuals who embarked for the colony, not above thirty survived.

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DARIEN, a town of the United States, in Liberty county, Georgia, on the banks of the North Channel of the river Alatamaha, ten miles below Fort Barrington.

DARII, in logic, one of the modes of syllogism of the first figure, wherein the major proposition is an universal affirmative, and the minor and conclusion particular affirmatives: thus, DA

RI

Every thing that is moved is moved by another;

Some body is moved;

I, Therefore, some body is moved by another.
DARIUS THE MEDE. See CYAXARES II.

DARK, v. a., n. s. & adj,
DARK'EN, v. a. & n. s.
DARK'ENER, n. s.
DARK'ISH, adj.
DARK LING, part.
DARK'LY, adv.
DARKNESS, n. s.
DARK'SOME, adj.
DARK'-WORKING, adj.

Saxon, deorck Irish dorch. By antiphrasis, from depkw, to see, says Minsheu. To deprive of light (one of our oldest verbs, as Mr. Todd remarks): the state

of being so deprived: not light; opaque ; obscure; blind. Hence gloomy, not cheerful; not of a showy or vivid color. To darken is to make, as well as to grow, or gradually become, dark. Darkish is dusky; that which is approaching a black or dark color. Darkling is a poetical participle to express the state of being without light. The meaning of the other derivatives seems sufficiently obvious.

And the sunne was derked and the eir, of the smoke of the pitt. Wiclif. Apoc. 9. Then the priest shall look: and, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish white. Bible. Lev. 14.

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

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All the light truth has, or can have, is from the clearness and validity of those preofs upon which it is received; to talk of any other light in the understanding, is to put ourselves in the dark; or in the Locke. power of the prince of darkness.

Whether the darkened room to muse invite, Or whitened wall provoke the skewer to write. Pope. of melancholy or enthusiasm, may find convents fitted All men of dark tempers, according to their degree to their humours. Addison on Italy.

Foul ministers, dark-working by the force
Of secret, sapping gold.

Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?
Must no dislike alarm, no wishes rise,
No cries invoke the mercies of the skies?

Thomson.

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Creek. It is thirty five miles long, and twentyfour broad.

DARLINGTON, a town of Durham, situated on a flat on the river Skerne. It stands on the great road from London to Edinburgh. It has a weekly market, and, excepting January and February, a fair once a fortnight through the year. This town carries on linen and woollen manufactures. A curious water machine for grinding optical glasses, and spinning linen yarn, has been erected here; the invention of a native of the town. It is nineteen miles south of Durham, and 247 north by west of London.

DARMSTADT, a neat town of Germany, the capital of the grand duchy of Hesse. It was fortified by a wall in 1330. The town contains a regency, a court of appeals, a consistory, and criminal court. The prince of Hesse Darmstadt entered into the late confederation of the states of the Rhine, and, by the treaty of alliance, received the title of grand duke, and royal high

ness.

The palace of the landgrave Louis VII., and the modern residence of the grand duke, with its beautiful gardens, are principal objects: to which may be added, the town church with the tombs of the landgraves; the state house; the pædagogium, or academy; the public library; the library of the grand duke; the cabinet of natural history (containing a number of curious fossils); the military school; and the building appropriated to military exercises, an edifice 300 feet by 150, and capable of containing 3000 men. It is situated on a river of the same name, thirty miles north-west of Heidelberg, and contains 13,000 inhabitants.

DARN, or DEARNE, v. a. & adj. Ang.-Sax. deorn, secret, or concealed; Arm. and Wel. darne, a patch. To sew up, or conceal holes or rents by imitating the original texture: solitary:

secret.

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No fruitful crop the sickly fields return; But oats and darnel choak the rising corn. Dryden. DARNLEY'S ISLAND, a beautiful island in the Eastern seas, in Torres Strait, between New Holland and New Guinea. It is about fifteen miles in circumference, and varied with hills and plains covered with vegetation. The inhabitants are stout, and exceed the ordinary size. The men go perfectly naked, and the women nearly so. They dwell in conical huts, disposed in villages, and adorned with two or three human

skulls, and several strings of hands, five or six on a string. Their arms are bows and arrows, lances, and long clubs; and they have handsome canoes from fifty to seventy feet in length. They are apparently a treacherous race. Long. 142° 59′ 15 E., lat. 9° 39′ 30′′ S.

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DARRAIN', v. a Old Fr. desrener. By Junius referred to dare. 'It seems to me,' says Dr. Johnson, more probably deducible from arranger la battaille." To prepare, or range troops for battle; to commence single combat.

And on the morwe, or it were day light,
Ful prively two harneis hath he dight,
Both suffisant and mete to darreine
The bataille in the field betwix him tweine.
Chaucer. Cant. Tales.

Therewith they 'gan to hurlen greedily, Redoubted battle ready to darraine. Spenser. Comes Warwick, backing of the duke of York; Darrain your battle; for they are at hand.

Shakspeare.

The town-boys parted in twain, the one side calling themselves Pompeians, the other Cæsarians; and then darraining a kind of battle, but without arms, the Cæsarians got the over hand.

Carew's Survey of Cornwall. DART, v. a., v. n. & n. s. Fr., Teut. and. Arm. dard; Swed. dart; Ital. dardo; from Gr. dopv. To throw a missile, or short lance; to project any thing offensive; to emit; to fly as a dart; to let fly. As a substantive, it is the wea

pon

thrown or darted.

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And that sarcastic levity of tongue, The stinging of a heart the world hath stung, That darts in seeming playfulness around, And makes those feel that will not own the wound; All these seemed his. Byron.

DARTFORD, a market town of Kent, in the road from London to Canterbury. Here was a celebrated nunnery, which Henry VIII.converted into a royal palace, and which is now a gentleman's seat. The river Darent will admit boats to bring up goods to the town. The first paper-mill in England was erected on this river by Sir John Spilman, to whom king Charles I. granted a patent with £200 a-year to encourage the manufactory. On this river also was the first

mili for slitting iron bars to make wire. The town was the first that engaged in the rebellion of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw: the market on Saturday is well supplied with provisions. It is seven miles west of Gravesend, fifteen east by south of London.

DARTMOOR, an extensive moor and forest in Devonshire, reaching from Brent to Oakhampton, twenty miles from south to north, and between five and fifteen miles broad from east to west. It contains about 80,000 acres, and is watered by the river Dart. Many sheep are bred here, but of a small kind, and subject to the mt. The chief riches of the inhabitants of the villages are their black cattle, which thrive well on the coarse herbage. Some thousands of acres of land have lately been cleared, and plantations formed; much barren ground has also been converted into tillage, under the direction of colonel Tyrwhit, by order of his present majesty, when prince of Wales. The French prison, formerly on this moor, is converted into an agricultural settlement for the poor.

DARTMOUTH, a sea-port town in Devonshire, seated on the river Dart, near its fall into the sea: said to have been formerly called Clifton. It is an ancient corporation, and a borough town, sending two members to parliament. The town is large, well built, and populous; but the streets are narrow, though well paved. The harbour is large and safe, capable of containing 500 ships; and the inhabitants have a considerable trade to the south of Europe, and to Newfoundland. Dartmouth is esteemed a great nursery for seamen, the fishery employing nearly 3000, a certain number of which the owners are obliged by act of parliament to select from land men. It has a weekly market on Friday for corn and provisions, and one almost every day for fish. It was burnt in the reign of Richard I. by the French, and again in the reign of Henry VI. They attempted it afterwards, but were repulsed, chiefly by the bravery of the women. Beside a great slaughter which was made, they took M. Castel the French general, three lords, and thirtytwo knights, prisoners. It lies thirty miles S.S. W. of Exeter, and 204 west by south of London.

DARTMOUTH, a thriving sea-port town of the United States, in Bristol county, Massachusetts, situated on the west side of the Accushnet, seventy miles south of Boston. It was incorporated in

1664.

DARTMOUTH, a town of the United States, in Elbert county, Georgia, situated on the peninsula formed by the confluence of Broad and Savannah rivers, two miles from Fort James Dartmouth. Also a town of the United States, in Grafton county, New Hampshire, north-west of the foot of the White Mountains: thirty-three miles north-east of Haverhill, and eighty-seven northwest of Portsmouth.

DARWAR, also called Nasserabad, a town and fortress of the province of Bejapore, Hindostan. Although not regularly fortified, it is by nature very strong, and the ditches are good. The town is situated to the south of the fort, and is surrounded by a wall and ditch. In the year 1685 it was taken from the king of Bejapore by

Aurungzebe, and, soon after the decease of that monarch, fell into the hands of the Mahrattas. from whom it was taken by Tippoo in 1784, and retained by him till the year 1791, when it was retaken by the Mahrattas, assisted by the British, after a tedious siege of twenty-nine weeks. It has been lately ceded to the British.

DARWIN (Erasmus), an English physician and poet, was born in December, 1731, at Elston, near Newark. After receiving the early part of his education at Chesterfield, he was sent to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he studied medicine, and took his bachelor's degree in 1755. He was elected to one of Lord Chesterfield's scholarships, worth about £16 per annum. On leaving Cambridge, he attended the lectures of Dr. Hunter in London, and afterwards completed his medical studies at Edinburgh, where he took the degree of M. D. He first settled at Nottingham, as a physician; but, not meeting with the practice he hoped for, he went to Litchfield, where his knowledge and acquirements were justly appreciated. In 1757 he married the daughter of Charles Howard Esq., who died in 1770, leaving him three sons. Not long after the death of his wife, Dr. Darwin commenced his laborious work, the Zoonomia, but which he declined publishing for above twenty-five years. He next wrote his Botanic Garden, and The Loves of the Plants. About 1780 Dr. Darwin married the widow of colonel Pole, of Radbournehall, near Derby, who brought him a large fortune; and he removed, in consequence of this connexion, to Radbourne, with a view of settling in Derby. He continued in this neighbourhood till February 1802, when he removed to Breadwall Priory, about three miles distant, a commodious retirement for his age and infirmities, and at this place he died in his seventy-first year. The literary fame of Dr. Darwin rests on the Botanic Garden, with philosophical notes, in two parts; 1. The Economy of Vegetation; 2. The Loves of the Plants, 2 vols. 8vo.: Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life, 4 vols. 8vo.: Phytologia, or the Philosophy of Agriculture and Gardening, 1 vol. 4to.: works which display not only the poet, but the botanist and the philosopher; though there is frequently too much sacrificed to imagination; and the author evinces a contempt for all religion. Dr. Darwin was also the author of several medical and philosophical papers in the Philosophical Transactions, a Treatise on Female Education, and a poem published since his death, entitled The Temple of Fame. He had likewise a principal share in the translation of Linnæus's Systema Vegetabulum, published in the name of the Botanical Society of Litchfield.

DASH, v. a. v. n., n. s. & adv. Goth. and Swed. daska; Scot. dusch. Serenius refers to the first as the etymology of our word, which Dr. Johnson considers in all its senses very doubtful.' Minsheu derives it from the Gr. data, detow, and defines it to bedash, dabble, bemire with dust.' This is at any rate not improbable. It is a word variously applied. It signifies to throw; to strike; to break to pieces by collision; to besprinkle; to agitate; to mingle fluids; to strike off in haste; to blot; to con found; to strike down. As a neuter verb, to ily

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If a woman once dash upon the rock of reproach,
she hardly ever recruits her credit. Bp. Taylor.
Whacum, bred to dash and draw,
Not wine, but more unwholesome law.

Hudibras.

Nothing dashed the confidence of the mule like the braying of the ass, while he was dilating upon his genealogy. L'Estrange.

A man that cuts himself, and tears his own flesh, and dashes his head against the stones, does not act so unreasonably as the wicked man. Tillotson.

At once the blushing oars and brazen prow
Dash up the sandy waves, and ope the depths below.
Dryden.

Doeg, though without knowing how or why,
Spurred boldly on, and dashed thro' thick and thin;
Thro' sense and nonsense, never out or in.

Id.

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The cruelty and envy of the people,
Permitted by our dastard nobles,

Have suffered me by the voice of slaves to be
Whooped out of Rome.
Shakspeare.

Dastard and drunkard, mean and insolent.
Tongue-valiant hero, vaunter of thy might,
In threats the foremost, but the last in fight.
Dryden.
He had such things to urge against our marriage,
As, now declared, would blunt my sword in battle,
And dastardise my courage.
Id.
Brawl and clamour is so arrant a mark of a das-
tardly wretch, that he does as good as call himself so
that uses it.
L'Estrange.

Bug-bear thoughts, in the minds of children, make them dustards, and afraid of the shadow of darkness

ever after.

Locke.

Curse on their dastard souls, they stand astonished!
Addison.

DASYPUS, the armadillo, or tatou, in zoology; a genus of quadrupeds, belonging to the order of bruta. The dasypus has neither fore-teeth nor dog-teeth; it is covered with a hard bony shell, intersected with distinct moveable zones or belts: this shell covers the head, the neck, the back, the flanks, and extends even to the extremity of the tail; the only parts to which it does not extend, are the throat, the breast, and the belly, which are covered with a whitish skin of a coarse grain, resembling that of a hen after the feathers are pulled off. The shell does not consist of one entire piece, like that of the tortoise; but is divided into separate belts, connected

To dash this cavil, read but the practice of Chris- with each other by membranes, which enable the

tian emperors.

Some stronger power eludes our sickly will; Dashes our rising hope with certain ill.

Never was dashed out, at one lucky hit, A fool so just a copy of a wit.

South.

Prior.

Pope.

To dash over this with a line, will deface the whole copy extremely, and to a degree that, I fear, may displease you. Id.

There is nothing which one regards so much with an eye of mirth and pity, as innocence, when it has in it a dash of folly. Addison.

Middling his head, and prone to earth his view,
With ears and chest that dash the morning dew.
Tickel.

Torrents that from yon promontory's head
Dashed furious down in desperate cascade
Heard from afar amid the lonely night,
That oft have led the wanderer right,
Are silent at the noise.

Beattie.

Here Time's huge fingers grasp his giant mace, And dash proud Superstition from her base.

Darwin.

animal to move it, and even to roll itself up like a hedgehog. All the species of this animal are originally natives of the western continent, and are endowed with the faculty of extending and contracting their bodies, and of rolling themselves up like a ball, like the hedgehog, though not into so complete a sphere. They are very inoffensive, excepting when they get into gardens, where they devour the melons, potatoes, and other roots. They walk quickly; but can hardly be said to run or leap, so that they seldom escape the pursuit either of men or dogs. But they dig deep holes in the earth, and seldom go very far from their subterraneous habitations; or, when at a great distance, require but a few moments to make one. When taken, they roll themselves up, and will not extend their bodies unless they are held near a fire. There is no other method of making them come out from deep holes, but by forcing in smoke or water. The female generally brings forth four young ones every month; which is the reason why the species are so numerous, notwithstanding they are much sought after

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