650 



DACE 



DACTYL 



hospital; in 1878 a system of water- works was 

 opened, and the sanitary condition has since im- 

 proved. Pop. ( 1891 ) 82,321. DACCA DISTRICT has 

 an area of 2797 sq. m., and consists of a level 

 plain, intersected by a network of rivers and arti- 

 ficial watercourses. Two-thirds of the district is 

 under cultivation ; food-crops, oil-seeds, jute, cot- 

 ton, safflower, and sugar-cane are grown. Trade 

 is carried on chiefly by water, and the rivers are 

 crowded at all seasons with steamers and native 

 craft ; the adventurous boatmen of the district 

 have a name throughout Bengal. Floods, blight, 

 or drought never seriously affect the district, but 

 earthquakes are of common occurrence. Outside 

 Dacca city sanitation is unthought of ; fevers, 

 dysentery, and goitre are among the endemic 

 diseases, and epidemics of cholera and smallpox 

 are not infrequent. Pop. (1872) 1,852,993; (1881) 

 2,116,350; (1891) 2,420,656 over 60 per cent. 

 Mohammedans. 



Dace, DARE, or DART (Leuciscus vulgaris), a 

 fresh-water fish in the carp family Cyprinidae ( q. v. ), 

 and of the same genus as the roach, chub, min- 

 now, &c. It chiefly inhabits the deep and clear 

 water of quiet streams. It is found in Italy ^France, 

 Germany, &c., and in some of the rivers of England, 

 but is very local. In form it is not unlike the 

 roach, but rather more elongated ; the mouth is 

 rather larger, the scales smaller. The upper parts 

 are dusky blue, becoming paler on the sides, and 



Dace (Leuciscus vnlgaris). 



passing into white on the belly, the cheeks and gill- 

 covers silvery white. It measures about 8 inches 

 in length, and never exceeds a pound in weight. 

 The dace is gregarious, and swims in shoals. It 

 spawns in early summer. Its flesh is preferred to 

 that of the roach, but is not highly esteemed. The 

 dace is perhaps the liveliest and most active of the 

 Cyprinidae, and affords the angler fair sport both 

 with fly and bait. 



Dachshund, a name adopted from the Ger- 

 man, signifying ' badger-dog.' The dachshund has 

 been common in Germany for many years, but was 

 unknown in England until introduced by the late 

 Prince Consort towards the middle of the 19th 

 century ; it then became very fashionable and 

 popular, but is not now so common. The dachs- 

 hund is a small dog, weighing about 20 lb., with 

 short crooked fore-legs, and an extremely long body, 

 its head rather resembling that of a miniature 

 bloodhound. Its strong, large paws enable it to 

 dig rapidly. Its colour should be black and tan, 

 or brown. On the Continent the dachshund is 

 extensively used for covert-shooting, but rarely so 

 in Britain, as his headstrong disposition somewhat 

 spoils his usefulness. The dachshund is closely 

 alun to the old English Turn-spit, employed to 

 drive a wheel by which roasting-spits were turned. 



Dacia, the land of the ancient Daci or Getse, 

 including the country between the Danube, the 

 Theiss, the Carpathians, and the Pruth. The 

 Dacians were the most valiant of all the tribes of 

 Thracian origin (see THRACE). In the reign of 

 Augustus they began to molest the Roman allies, 

 and indeed from this time there was almost con- 

 tinual fighting between the Romans and the Daci, 



who actually, under their brave king, Decebalus, 

 compelled their civilised enemies, in the reign of 

 Domitian, to purchase peace by paying tribute. 

 In 101 the Emperor Trajan crossed the Danube, 

 and after five years' desperate fighting, conquered 

 the whole country, and formed it into a Roman 

 province. Roman colonists were sent into the 

 country, great roads were opened up, and a bridge 

 was built over the Danube the ruins of which are 

 still extant. Under Aurelian the Danube was 

 made the boundary of the empire, and Dacia was 

 resigned to the barbarians, its Roman colonies 

 being transplanted to Moesia. 



Dacier, ANDRE, a French scholar, born of Pro- 

 testant parents at Castres, in Upper Languedoc, 

 6th April 1651, studied at Saumur under Tanneguy 

 Lefebre ; and in 1672 came to Paris, where in 1683 

 he married Anna (1654-1720), his old preceptors 

 daughter, and two years later was admitted with 

 her to the Roman Catholic Church. Dacier subse- 

 quently became royal librarian, member of the 

 Academy of Inscriptions and of the French 

 Academy, and perpetual secretary of the latter. 

 He died 18th September 1722. His works include 

 a Delphin edition of Festus and Verrius Flaccus 

 ( 1681 ), as well as indifferent translations of Horace, 

 the Poetics of Aristotle, some of the Dialogues of 

 Plato, Epictetus, and Plutarch's Lives. His wife's 

 works include Delphin editions of Floras, Aurelius 

 Victor, Eutropius, Dictys Cretensis, and Dares 

 Phrygius ; and translations of Anacreon, Sappho, 

 some plays of Plautus and Aristophanes, Terence, 

 the Iliad and the Odyssey. Her admiration of 

 Homer was more unbounded than discriminating, 

 and involved her in many controversies. 



DaooitS, a name used for brigands herding in 

 gangs in various parts of India, and living by dacoity 

 or robbery with violence. According to the report 

 of the general superintendent of the Thuggee and 

 Dacoity Department in 1887, there were over 9000 

 men practising dacoity in India, which in some 

 districts is carried on witli great ferocity. In the 

 Gwalior territory forty-six persons were killed 

 by dacoits ; and of the seventy-five villages in the 

 Chanderi district, thirty-six had been dacoited since 

 1880. Dacoity was long prevalent in Burma. See 

 THUGS ; and Hervey, Some Records of Crime ( 1892). 



Da Costa, ISAAC, a Dutch poet, born at 

 Amsterdam, the son of a Portuguese Jew, 14th 

 January 1798. He studied at Leyden ; and in 

 1822, a year after receiving the degree of doctor 

 of philosophy, he embraced Christianity. His 

 poems speedily gained him such reputation that, 

 on the death in 1831 of Bilderdijk, whose warm 

 friendship he had enjoyed, Da Costa siicceedecl 

 him in the first place among the poets of Holland, 

 which he held till his death, on 28th April 

 1860. His principal works are to be found in his 

 Poezij (2 vols. 1821-22), Politieke Poezy ( 1854), and 

 Hesperiden (1855). His Battle of Nieupoort, the 

 last of his poems, is one of his masterpieces. Da 

 Costa also made essays in the domain of history 

 and theology, the most important of Avhich, his 

 Israel and the Gentiles, has been translated into 

 English. 



Dacotahs. See Sioux, AMERICAN INDIANS. 



Dacry'dilim, a genus of coniferous trees of 

 the yew family, but more allied to Podocarpus. 

 There are twelve species Malayan, Tasmaman, 

 and of New Zealand. Dacrydium cupressinum of 

 New Zealand is best known in Britain, on account 

 of the beauty of its pendulous foliage. D. frank- 

 linii, the so-called Huon Pine, and D. taxifolium, 

 the Kakaterra tree, yield valuable timber. 



Dactyl (Gr. dactylos, 'finger'), the name of 

 a measure or 'foot' in Greek and Latin versifica- 



