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D R A 
53 
nhn of Ezekiel too has feet; and fo, it fhould feem, 
had the leviathan of Job, xli. 30. The feet of the cro¬ 
codile refemble thofe of the imaginary dragon ; but whales 
have no feet. Again, the tannim of Ezekiel are defcribed 
as being in “ the river of Egypt,” where whales are not 
known, but crocodiles are proverbially numerous. Eve, 
Heva, Chavah, the name of the fir ft woman, fignified in 
feveral of the oriental languages, a ferpent: it alfo fig¬ 
nified life, or to caafe to live ; and fo Mofes himfelf inter¬ 
prets: “ And he called her name Eve, becaufe Ihe was 
the mother of all living.” Hence the Mofaic allegory of 
the fall. The ferpent became the fymbol of the tempter, 
or enemy of man. It had before been confidered as the 
emblem of life: but Mofes, in order to counteract fuch 
idolatry, reprelented it as the introducer or author of 
death. Thus the ferpent was confounded with the dra¬ 
gon ; and hence we find the terms tannim, nachafh, and 
leviathan, ufed often for each other (compare Gen. iii. 1 ; 
Ex. vii. 9, xo, 15, Sec.) and equally tranflated in the Sep- 
tuagint by that of Apaxovrwi/. See PJ'alm lxxiv. 13, 14 ; 
Ezek. xxxii. 2; Job , xli. 1 ; Ifaiak, xxvii. 1 ; Job, xxvi. 
13 ; Amos, ix. 3, &c.” 
The learned Dr. Bryant traces the origin of the dragon, 
and its introduction into fable and romance, from a firni- 
lar fource, and from the fame country. According to this 
author, “ towers were erected on artificial mounds, in 
Egypt and Syria, as places of lafety, and as repofitories for 
riches and treafure. Being generally royal edifices, and 
very ftrong, they were termed trachon. There were two 
hills with towers of this denomination near Damafcus, 
from whence undoubtedly the Regio Traconitis received 
its name. The Greeks, who brought their arts and my¬ 
thology out of.Egypt, fophifticated' this term by calling 
fuch places A ^ccy.av ; from whence in a great meafure arofe 
the notion of virgins and treafures being guarded by fleep- 
lefs dragons. When the Greeks underftood that in thefe 
temples idols were worfliipped under tire form of a fer¬ 
pent, they concluded that trachon was a ferpent; and 
hence came the word draco to be appropriated to fitch an 
animal : for the draco was always confidered as an ima¬ 
ginary being. Hence in romances we often read of pious 
virgins cruelly expofed to dragons and fea-monfters ; and 
of dragons which laid wafte whole countries or provinces, 
till they were encountered and (lain by fome hero of emi¬ 
nent prowefs. All the poetical accounts of knig'nts and 
heroes engaging with dragons, feem therefore to have 
arifen from fables or mifcoticeptions about thefe towers 
or temples, which thofe perfons either founded, or took, 
in war: or if they were deities, of whom fuch ftory is 
told, thefe temples were ereCted to their honour. But 
the Greeks made no diftinCtion : they were fond of he- 
roifm : and no colony could fettle any were, and ereCt 
fuch a temple, but there was fuppofed to have been a 
contention between a hero and a dragon.” See Hydra. 
DRA'GON,/ inbotany. SeeARUMand Dracontium. 
DRA'GON’s BLOOD, f. A red-coloured, inodorous, 
and infipid refin, infoluble in water, foluble in fpirit of wine 
and in oils, to both which liquors it communicates a red 
colour. By fire it is fufible, inflammable, and it emits 
an acid vapour, like that of benzoin. It is obtained prin¬ 
cipally from the calamus dioicus, or aioecous rattan, of Lin¬ 
naeus. A folution of dragon’s blood in fpirit of wine is 
ufed for ftaining marble, to which it gives a red tinge, 
which penetrates more or lefs deeply according to the 
heat of the marble during the application. But as it 
fpreads at the fame that it finks deep, for fine deligns the 
marble ihould be cold. Mr. Du Fay fays, that, by add¬ 
ing pitch to this folution, the colour may be rendered 
deeper. The Dutch often adulterate this refin with mix¬ 
tures of gum arabic, Bralil wood, alum, See. but thefe 
are difeovered by their diifolving in water, or by their 
crackling and not burning in the fire. It is not much 
ufed as a medicine, and Cullen thinks it ought to be ex¬ 
punged from the Materia Medica ; though it is recom¬ 
mended as a gentle incralfant, deiiccative, and reftringent. 
Vol. VI, No, 330, 
DRA'GON-FLY,/ See LibelluAa. 
DRA'GON’s HEAD, f.Jttx botany. See Dracoce- 
PHAI UM. 
DRA'GON’s HEAD and TAIL,/ [caput, & cauda 
draconis .] The nodes of the planets; or the two points 
wherein the ecliptic is interfedted by the orbits of the 
planets, and particularly that of the moon ; making with 
it angles of five degrees and eighteen minutes. One of 
thefe points looks northward ; the moon beginning then 
to have north latitude, and the other fouthward, where 
fife commences fouth. Thus her deviation from the 
ecliptic feems (according to the fancy of fome) to de- 
feribe a figure like that of a dragon, whofe belly is where 
Ihe has the greateft latitude; the interfedtion reprefent- 
ing the head and tail, front which imaginary refemblance 
this denomination has arifen, to fignify the moon’s nodes. 
See Astronomy, vol. ii. p. 326. 
DRA'GON-TREE,/ in botany. See Ds.ac.ena. 
DRAGO'NERA, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of 
Naples, and province of Capitanata : fifteen miles north 
of Volturara. 
DRAGO'NERA, a fmall uncultivated ifland in the 
Mediterranean, not above a mile from the weft coaft of 
the ifland of Majorca. Lat. 39. 35. N. Ion. 19. E. Peak 
of Teneriffe. 
DRA'GONET, or Dragon-Fish, in ichthyology. 
See Callionymus, vol. iii. p. 627. 
DRA'GONISH, adj. Having the form of a dragon; 
dragonlike. An arbitrary word: 
Sometimes we fee a cloud that’s dragonfi ; 
A vapour fometimes like a bear or lion. Shahcfpeare. 
DRA'GONLIKE, adj. Furious; fiery: 
He fights dragonlike, and does achieve 
As foon as draw his fword. Shaltefpeare. 
DRAGOON', /. [from clragen, Germ, to carry.] A 
foldier that ferves indifferently either on foot or horfe- 
back.—Two regiments of dragoons fuffered much in the 
late aCtion. Tatler. 
To DRAGOON', v. a. To perfecute by abandoning a 
place to the rage of foldiers ; to harrafs: 
In politics I hear you’re haunch, 
'Directly bent againft the French ; 
Deny to have your free-born foe 
Dragoon'd into a wooden Ihoe. Prior. 
DRAGO'T, a town of European Turkey, in Albania, 
on the Crevafta: thirty-fix miles fouth-louth-eaft of Du- 
razzo. 
DRAGUIGNAN', a town of France, and principal 
place of a diftrict, in the department of the Var, contain¬ 
ing about 9Qoo.inhabitants: four leagues and a half north- 
weft of Frejus, and nine and a half weft of Antibes. Lat. 
44. 34. N. Ion. 24. S. E. Ferro. 
DRAGUSZA'Ni, n town of European Turkey, in 
Moldavia : forty-eight miles eaft of Jafli. 
DRA'HEIM, a town of Germany, in the circle of Up¬ 
per Saxony, and duchy of Pomerania : twenty miles fouth- 
weft of New Stettin. 
To DRAIN, v. a. ['trainer, Fr.] To draw off gradually. 
—The fountains drain the water from the ground adja¬ 
cent, and leave but fufficient moifture to breed mofs.— 
Whilft a foreign war devoured our ftrength, and drained 
our treafures, luxury and expences increafed at home. 
Atterbury. —To empty, by drawing gradually away what 
it contains : 
Sinking waters, the firft land to drain, 
Fill’d the capacious deep, and form’d the main. Jlofcom. 
To make quite dry.—When wine is to be bottled, walk 
your bottles, but do not drain them. Swift. 
DRAIN,/. The channel through which liquids are 
gradually drawn ; a watercourfe ; a fink.—II your drains 
be deep, that you fear ca.tle falling into them, cover 
them. Mortimer. 
Why 
P 
