DER 
miles S.of Rennes. t reckone 1553 inhabitants, and isthe 
chief place of a canton, which upon a territorial extent of 
235 kiliometres, comprifes fix communes, and a population 
of 7078 individuals. 
DERVENTIO, Derwent, a 
of Albion, belonging to the 
eee erin 
Treland, in the county of W. 
remarkable or its fom, an ot 
river Inny, and fome fmaller ftreams, and its fi 
water is difcharged by the Inny which falls into the 
Shannon. Qa its banks was Fahatty, to which Mortimer, 
earl of March, who was the intended fucceflor of Ri- 
chard IL, retired on the depofition of that prince. Ona 
{mall river, near this lake, was the celebrated abby of Mul~ 
tifernan, at which feveral meetings were held previous to 
the infurreétion of 1641. 
DE , or Dervicu, a name given to a fort of monks 
fortified town of the ifland 
arach, a lake - 
, or 
ig! ous Ae par- 
tto aa 
pe o has 
ticularly - followers of Mevelava, profefs n 
and the Meve- 
thing, they call both the religious in general 
lavites in particular, Dervifes, or Derviches 
The Dervifes, called alfo Mevelavites, are a Mahometan 
order of religious; the chief, or founder whereof, was one 
Mevelava, ‘They are now very numerous. Their chief mo- 
naftery is that near Cogna in Natolia, where the general 
makes his refidence, and where all the affemblies of the order 
are held; the other ee being all Se on ones by a 
privilege granted this monaltery unde E 
efe Mevelvie or  Meslevis are cloiftere d, and ie Gone. 
they have liberty to go 
= 
out during es 
The Dervifes affect a a great deal of modefty, patience, 
eg and charity. They always go bare legged, and 
open-breafted, and frequently burn So aaa with hot 
irons, to inure themfelves to patience. They always faft on 
Wednefdays, eating nothing on thofe days till ae fun-fet. 
they hold the 
m 
them to fuch a habitude, that it d 
at all. This pradtice they obferve with great ftri€tnefs, in 
mory of Me their patriarch’ ing miraculoufly 
me 
round, as they pretend, for the {pace of four days without 
any food or refrefhment, his comoanion Hamfa playing all 
the while on the flute: after which he fell into an extafy, and 
therein received wonderful revelations for the eftablifhment 
of his order. They believe the flute an inftrument confe- 
erated by Jacob, and the fhepherds of the Old Teftament, 
that there are 
aron . 
two kinds of thefe monks in Turkey, very dt tin from each 
other, and ae ar remarkable. The difference betweeu them 
arifes from the difference of the rules impofed upon them by 
their refpedtive founders. ‘That of the ** Mewliach or Mev- 
levi dervifes’® is to turn round, as we have already obferved, 
like whirligigs, to the fousd of foft mufic, and feek a holy 
intoxication in the giddinefs which muft naturally refult 
— this abfurd exercife, if the habit of thus turning round 
ue XL. 
DER 
did not preferve them from dizzinefs and drunkennefs, 
which they have recourfe to the tavern to accomplifh 
ia rule of the other monks, named ‘* T'aGta- epen (beaters 
boards, which perhaps at firft were their on'y inftru- 
Sfe 
3 
ing 
1O 
wm 
a 
3 
° 
tad 
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3 
ea 
ry 
too) 
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2. 
my 
es 
go] 
[os 
a 
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oO 
co 
st) 
“t 
oo 
rt) 
aL 
zd 
i= 
b for that rowing 
gradually quicker, cone. nee orapid, that thefe wretches 
are forced to undergo a violent labour of the lungs, and the 
moft devout never clofe the proceffion without fpitting 
blood. Their appearance is always fad and furly ; and thefe 
monks are fo perfuaded of the fanGtity of their pradtice, an 
fo certain of pleafing eens by their howling, that they never 
look on the reft of mankind but with the moft profound con- 
empt. All the Vurkith monks, fays eyffonnel, in his 
ftritures on Tott’s Memoirs (Mem, vol. ii, ps 192.) are di- 
vided into two order 
c 
pachas in their travels : 
aud obtaining great confidence and influence. 
thefe bektachis follow the army, when it takes the field ; 
es in oaks 
up prayers fe the 
others give into forcery and magic; but all of them, con- 
trary to Mahomet’s precept, are faid to drink wine, brandy, 
and other ftrong oe to give them the degree of gaiety 
their order require 
T cle ‘who have affurance fufficient to avail 
ols e 
Nothing can refitt their eed the impofition 
they practife on the fuperiitious multitud fe. The fa naticifn 
of the dee obliges the mot enlightened perfons to fubmit 
and the moft eminent Turks can only get rid of this apie 
by giving them money, ea ferves.to make them more 
troublefome and more infole 
Befides their great faint ides: there are other faints 
honoured in fome particular monafteries ; as Kiderle, greatly 
revered in the monatteries of Egypt, and held by fome to be 
St. vg ; and by others, with more probability, the 
i ae as 
The Der nes are great travellers ; and, under pretence of 
__ preaching and ieee aie faith h, are continually paffing 
from one place other; on which account they have 
been eqn cia as {pi 
TI aifo Dervifes i in n Perfia, called in that country 
Abdals, g 7. fervants of God. 
auftere hfe, and ‘age the Alcoran in the ftreets, coffees 
houfes, and whe can mect with auditors. The 
Perfian Dervifes retail little but fables to the people, and are 
in the utmo contempt among t the men of fenfe and letters. 
There are in Egypt two or x ehree kinds: thofe that are 
$ i 
They lead a very penurious, 
ma 
