770 



DERELICT 



DERVISH 



and the grave of the poet Cowper. Bonner was a 

 vicar, and Borrow a native. Dereham has manu- 

 factures of agricultural implements. Pop. ( 1851 ) 

 3372 ; ( 1881 ) 5640 ; ( 1891 ) 5524. 



Derelict, a term in English law, signifying 

 anything forsaken or left unoccupied, or Wilfully 

 cast away. So where the sea has receded from 

 the shore, the land thus left uncovered is styled 

 derelict. If the sea has in such case receded sud- 

 denly, the land becomes the property of the crown, 

 but if gradually and imperceptibly, the gain goes 

 to the owner of the adjacent lands. 



A ship which has been wrecked is styled derelict, 

 and this is the common use of the term. But it is 

 necessary that the master and crew shall have 

 abandoned the ship, without hope of recovery. 

 The mere quitting of a ship for the purpose of 

 procuring assistance from the shore, or other 

 temporary cause, with the intention of returning 

 to her again, does not make her derelict. When 

 abandonment has occurred, the first-comers are 

 entitled to take temporary possession of the ship, 

 and to claim salvage, either from the owners, the 

 lord of the manor, or other person having right 

 to wrecks unclaimed by the owners, or in the 

 event of no claim from the crown. See SALVAGE, 

 WRECKS. 



Derg, LOUGH, the largest lake expansion of the 

 river Shannon, between Tipperary and Galway and 

 Clare, is 24 miles long, with an average width of 2 

 miles ; greatest depth, 80 feet. Its surface is about 

 100 feet above the sea. Another Lough Derg, in 

 the south of Donegal county, is 3 miles by 2, 

 has many small isles and rocks, and wild dreary 

 shores. Saint's Isle contains the remains of a 

 priory. Station Island, the reputed entrance to 

 St Patrick's Purgatory, was long the most cele- 

 brated place of pilgrimage in Ireland. 



Dermatogen, the embryonic epidermis-layer 

 of a plant embryo. See EMBRYO. 



Dermatology (Gr. derma, 'the skin,' and 

 logos, 'a discourse'), the science of the manage- 

 ment of the skin and of its diseases. See SKIN. 



Dermatopliytes (Gr. derma, 'the skin,' and 

 phyton, ' a growth' or 'plant'), vegetable growths, 

 chiefly of the lowest Fungi moulds, &c., inhabit- 

 ing the cuticle or epidermis, and giving rise to some 

 forms of skin-disease, as Favus (q.v.), Pityriasis 

 (q.v.), Ringworm (q.v.), &c. 



Dermestes, a common genus of beetles in the 

 section Pentamera, including several species of 

 formidable voracity. The most familiar of these is 

 D. lardarius, often called the 

 Bacon Beetle. In the open air 

 it lives on dead animals, and 

 is thus useful enough ; but 

 within doors it attacks bacon, 

 cheese, dried meats, furs, 

 cabinet collections, &c. The 

 brown larvae are- equally vora- 

 cious. The insect itself is 

 small, covered above with 

 close, fine, black hairs, with 

 the exception of the root of 

 the wing-covers, which form a 

 yellowish-brown band with 

 three dark spots on each side. Both adults and 

 larv;e simulate death. Many other species are 

 known on hides and the like. The larvae of some 

 forms are occasionally utilised to clean small skele- 

 tons. The neighbouring genera Attagenus and 

 Anthrenus also work great mischief. 

 Dennis See SKIN. 



Derrick, a kind of Crane (q.v.), so named 

 after Derrick, an English 17th-century hangman. 

 Derry. See LONDONDERRY. 



Dermestes lardarius. 



Dervish, signifying 'poor,' is a Persian word 

 (derived from a root connected with 'door,' indi- 

 cating the door-to-door mendicancy of the dervish) 

 of which the Arabic equivalent is Fakir (q.v.). It 

 designates, in Mohammedan countries, a class of 

 devotees who correspond in their various aspects 

 with the monks, the mendicant friars, and the free- 

 masons of medieval Europe. Some are wanderers, 

 depending upon alms, and often demanding charity 

 with insolence ; others are settled for the most 

 part in convents, called Tekyas or Kharikas, where 

 they observe special rites, or devote themselves to 

 solitary meditation and penance ; others, again, are 

 more like freemasons ordinary tradesmen and 

 labourers for most of the year, and exercising their 

 special ceremonies only on stated occasions ; whilst 

 some, again, form a class of religious entertainers, 

 who are hired out to chant their monotonous dirge 

 or Zikr at public and private festivals. They 

 belong to an infinity of orders or brotherhoods, 

 among which the best known are the Kadiris ( com- 

 monly known in Europe as the ' howling dervishes,' 

 on account of their peculiar chant), founded 1165 

 A.D. ; the Rlfa'is (1182), formerly famous for their 

 feats of eating glass and live coals and swallow- 

 ing swords, and also for the ceremony, recently 

 abolished, of the Doseh, where the sheikh of one 

 of their sub-orders (the Sa'dis) rode over the pros- 

 trate bodies of the faithful in the streets of Cairo ; 

 the Mevlevis (1273), or 'dancing' i.e. whirling 

 dervishes; the Nakhshibendis (1319); Bektashis 

 ( 1357 ), whose founder blessed and named the famous 

 corps of Janizaries (q.v.) ; the Jemalis ( 1750) ; and 

 the Kalenderis, the ' calendars ' of the Arabian 

 Nights, who are under a vow of perpetual tramping : 

 the names are taken from those of their founders. 



Mevlevis, or Dancing Dervishes. 



The various orders have distinctive dresses, and the 

 sheikh or pir who commands them is also dis- 

 tinguished from his followers by his robes. The 

 conical cap of the Mevlevi is well known. The 

 rites of the different orders when they meet to- 

 gether vary, but consist chiefly in prayers, religious 

 dances, monotonous recitations of the name of God 

 and of certain pious formulas. Frequently the devo- 

 tees work themselves into a state of spiritual frenzy 

 which is accompanied by extravagant, and, to the 

 vulgar, miraculous, feats of strength and endurance, 

 and not unfrequently terminates in an epileptic 

 seizure. The dervishes and their performances are 

 held in the deepest veneration by the people, and 

 sultans have often held them in high respect, and 

 bestowed large endowments upon their tekyas. 



It is difficult to say when these religious orders 

 took their rise. From the earliest times, pious 

 persons in the East have held it to be meritorious 

 to renounce earthly joys, to free themselves from 

 the trammels of domestic and social life, and to 



