DBSCANT. 





renounce the enjoyment of temporal tbiug and the tie* ->f domestic 

 and social relations, anil t.. live in j-.vi-rtj ami nulitude fur the j>urpre 

 of turning their thought* altogether towards spiritual mUor. Oriental 

 tradition makes the order of hermits w uncloit uut only as St. John 

 the lUpUst or Elias, but even u the time of S-th. In the 

 poverty U recommended u meritorious ; "* Mohammed u rc|x>rUxi 

 " said, " See that ye oome poor before (jod, for tin- poor shall 

 hare the fin* place in hia mansion." Jiuii. the well known Persian 

 poet, u the author of an estermed work on the live, of the Sijt*, or 

 Mohammedan mystics. Among the Turk* several order* of faktn or 

 dervishes ezift. The principal one U that of the Jf.iJurf, founded 

 by the oelebrated IVniau poet JeUleddtn Bornl, who died in 1262. 

 Tfte denruhe* of thi> order have a great inonaatery at Galata.and 

 another at Iconium. Their demeanour u very humble, and their robe* 

 are extremely coarae ; beaidea the fast during the mouth of liaiuazan, 

 they keep a weekly fact on every Thursday. It is part of their re- 

 Bnous practices to turn round with great velocity to the aound of a 

 pipe, repeating loudly and slowly the words " La Ulan illahloh," dwelling 

 on each syllable; and, when the mimic ceases, to stop at once, without 

 allowing symptoms of giddiness. They may leave their order, and ore 

 then released from their vow of chastity, and permitted to marry. 

 Some amuse the common people by tricks of legerdemain, or apply 

 themselves to the practice of sorcery and conjurations. They are no- 

 torious for their fim for intoxicating liquors and for opium. They 

 have convent* in nearly all Mohammedan countries, which serve the 

 travelling pilgrims of this order as inns. The order of the liufais, or 

 howling dervishes, founded 1182, by Sheikh Ahmed Huiai, is distin- 

 guished by the strange excesses of self-mortification to which its 

 lurrnWrs are carried by their fanaticism. In their weekly assemblies 

 in the hall of their convents, some are always selected to bold a red-hot 

 piece of iron between their teeth till it becomes cool, while the others 

 make deep incisions in their bodies with sharp-edged instruments. 

 Another class of dervUbes is that of the Calewlert. They are distin- 

 guished by the singularity of their dress, which is sometimes made of 

 party-coloured cloth, and sometimes consists of a tiger's or sheep's 

 hide, or is made of iron. Frequently the Calenders go about half- 

 naked, with their skin painted red or black. They wear feathers in 

 their ears, and have their heads covered with hats or turbans of a 

 fanciful shape. In their girdles they carry a plate or bowl, which they 

 hold out to receive charities. They often visit coffee-houses and other 

 places of public resort to preach, and act as if they were inspired. In 

 their religious opinions, the greatest variety prevails. There are other 

 orders, distinguished by certain peculiarities, some of which are of 

 older origin than the above, but none are of equal importance. The 

 dervishes do not seem to be much respected by the public ; they are 

 considered as hypocrites, who have assumed a sanctimonious appear- 

 ance in order to have a pretext for idleness, and who clandestinely 

 indulge in the grossest licentiousness. All dervishes, with the excep- 

 tion of the Maulavl, are allowed to marry ; but they are obliged to 

 aleep one or two nights in the convent of their order. 



(Paul Rycaut, The Promt State of the Ottoman Empire, 1668 ; Von 

 Hammer, HneAichtc drr (Jn>ianitdun Retcht.) 



DESCANT, in Music (the etymology U doubtful) signifies, in strict 

 language, a melody or air, extemporised on a canto-feme [PLAIN 

 CHANT], or, in other words, on enlarging alfinprwrito, that is, unpre- 

 meditatedly, on a given subject, which subject, sung by another voice, 

 or other voices, forms the accompaniment of the descant. Thus the 

 term was understood in the llth and 12th centuries, both by Fran- 

 chinus and John de Muris ; but afterwards it became synonymous with 

 counterpoint. [CotxTKHi-oixT.] It has now, however, fallen into 

 disuse, and is seldom met with, except in dictionaries. 



DESCENT, in English law (from diteent, Norman French and so 

 written in our older law books), may be defined the act of law by 

 which on the death of the owner of an inheritance, without making 

 any disposition thereof, it is cost upon another as an heir. I nhe.ritance 

 is sometimes used in the same sense, though it rather signifies that 

 which is, or may be, inherited, or taken by descent. (Littleton, sect. 9.) 



1. The law of inheritance with respect to descents which have taken 

 place since, or shall take place after the 1st of January, 1884, is now 

 regulated by the Act 8 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 106, but some notice of what 

 the law was before that time is necessary ; since it is the constant 

 practice, in the investigation of titles to property, to inquire what 

 happened fifty or sixty years ago. 



2. The death of the owner of the inheritance is the occasion of the 

 descent of it. In his lifetime, there con be no descent, and tl 



no heir, though there may be an " heir apparent," or h. ir presump- 

 tive f an heir apparent being he who must be the heir, if he lives till 

 the inheritance descends ; an heir presumptive, he who may be fore- 

 stalled by the birth of a nearer heir. 



3. The person who dies must be at his death owner of the in- 

 heritance, or no descent of it will then take place. 



4. Inheritances, heredilamentt, things which may be inherited or 

 lain by dttctnt, are various. The principal of these is the crown, the 

 descent of which differs in one material respect from that of a private 

 inheritance, inasmuch as where there are no sons of the king, an 

 elder daughter takes the whole of the inheritance, in exclusion of the 

 younger sisters. Again, dignities and honours, as baronies and other 

 peerages, are descendible, according to the limitations contained in the 



patents by which they wen created. If created by summons in the 

 first instance, they are called dignities in fee, and are descendible to 

 females. (HAKUNV.] Finally, all the subjects of real property an. I 

 all annuities, offices, and whatever other things may ,be "held in 

 fee," are "descendible," and this whether they are in possession, re- 

 i, remainder, or expectancy. So are all rights and titles to 

 things that may be held in fee, and the expectancy of an heir apparent 

 or presumptive. Then are also "descendible freeholds," that is, 

 estates created by leases for lives, which, though not estates in fee, 

 may during their continuance be inherited as if they were. It has 

 been already noticed [CHATTEL] that the Urge class of things called 

 chattels are not generally the subject of descent, but that some of 

 them are. 



6. Upon the death of the owner, the law casts the inheritance 

 upon the heir, without any act done by him, or price paid for his 

 acquisition : in both these respects, the present law of descent differs 

 from the old feudal customs from which it is derived. According to 

 the old feudal customs, upon the death of the tenant of a fee, the lord 

 o- li. mi it was held was entitled to take and retain it till the heir, for 

 whom proclamation was made, appeared, and paid a sum of i 

 called a relief [RELIEF] as the consideration for his admission into 

 the tenancy ; whereupon " seisin " or possession was given him, 

 and he took the " oath of fealty" [FEALTY], and if the tenancy was 

 by "knight's sen-ice," "did homage" [HOMAUE] also to the lord. 

 All this was more like a new donation, than the present quiet succes- 

 sion of an heir. The descent of copyholds, however, is still regulated 

 much in the manner described. The heir was not however formerly, 

 to the some extent as now, subject to the charges and debts 

 deceased tenant, in respect of the property descended [ASSETS] ; and 

 he had also an advantage, which is much insisted and commented 

 upon by the old law writers, though its value is not so apparent to us. 

 The descent of an inheritance of which the rightful owner had been 

 rfusriW or unlawfully dispossessed, prevented him from making an 

 iHiry upon the heir of the disseisor, or bringing an action of eject 

 the right to maintain which is founded upon the right to make an 

 actual entry, and left him only " a writ of right," or other real action, 

 for the recovery of bis property. One whole chapter of Littleton's 

 ' Tenures' is taken up with treating of descents w hich " toll " (take 

 ntrieg, but a late Act (8 & 4 Wm. IV. c. '27) prevents descents 

 from having any longer this effect. The present law of descents 

 qualifies materially in one respect the title of the heir to the inheri- 

 tance descended. Though it makes him as completely the owner of 

 it as if he had purchased it, as to right of enjoyment and power of 

 alienation, it does not allow it at his death to descend as if he had 

 purchased it ; but, on the contrary, declares that it shall descend as if 

 ho had never had it. Such at least is the new law (s. 1, 2 of the Act). 

 Tin' heir of an inheritance must be always the heir of the last "pur- 

 chaser" of it, that is, of the last person who acquired the property 

 " otherwise than by descent, or than by an escheat partition or in- 

 closure, by the effect of which the land shall have become part of, or 

 descendible, in the some manner as other land acquired by descent." 

 The practical importance of this rule cannot be understood without 

 knowing who the person is who in any cose is designated by the law as 

 the " heir" to another. 



As to descents in fee simple, the fundamental rule is, that any 

 person of tin to another, that is, descended from the some ancestor, 

 however distant, may be his heir, but that no person connected with 

 him by marriage or affinity only [AFFINITY], can inherit to him. If 

 the son inherits to the father, his mother cannot succeed to him, for 

 though she may be heir to the son, she cannuot be heir to the tV h. .>. 

 horn, and not from the son, " the descent is to be traced." On 

 the other bond, if the father inherits to the son, the mother may 

 succeed to him, for though she cannot be the heir of the father, she 

 may be the heir of the son. The fee, fief, or feud, which may thus 

 now descend to the kindred of the purchaser 



nothing more than a life interest given to the tenant or holder of it in 

 consideration of the military services to be rendered by the hitter to 

 the donor. [Ai,LOi>rcM.} The fee was afterwards permitted to descend 

 to the issue of the original grantee, and in process of time to his 

 collateral heirs. This was only effected by means of a fiction ; for go 

 firmly settled was the notion that " the blood " (descending) alone of 

 the purchaser or original grantee could be allowed to inherit, that the 

 feudal law was never brought to allow collateral heirs, as such, to lie 

 heirs. But when a feud was granted ( antiamun, that is, to be held 

 by the donee as if it had descended to him from some remote un- 

 known ancestor, then the law permitted collateral relations In 

 distent, that is, relations descended from any common ancestor, how- 

 ever remote, to inherit. For it was not known how far distant the 

 ancestor was who was supposed to have been the purchaser, nor who he 

 was, and it was sufficient that the hir might IK; a descendant of bis. 

 n- the early history of inheritable fiefs, Robertson's ' Charles V.' 

 Sullivan's ' Lectures;' Wright's 'Tenures;' Gilbert ' on T 

 Walking; Butler's 'Coke upon Littleton," 191, n, n. where there is 

 an excellent comparison of th' H"i:i 'U nnil feudal laws uf inhe- 

 ritance.) 



While the law however went thus far, it did not, for reasons which 

 soiim writers have attempted to explain, allow the lineal wuxtton of the 

 purchaser of the quail ancient feud to inherit it, nor his relations by 



