D A M 
the changes of the government, and other circumftances; 
but it has every where left very apparent traces of the 
opulence it produced. 'Damafcus was formerly cele¬ 
brated for the nranufadhire of fabres, which feem to have 
been conftrufted by a method now loft, of alternate thin 
layers of iron and fteel, fo as to bend even to the hilt 
without breaking, while the edge would divide the firm- 
eft coat ot mail. When Timur fubdued Syria, he or¬ 
dered all the artifts in freel to migrate into Peril a. The 
art of ornamenting the blades of fvvords, is called after 
the name of this city, at the prefent day. The pachalic 
ot Damafcus comprehends nearly the whole eaftern part 
of Syria. In this vaft extent of country, the foil and its 
productions are very various; but the plains of the Hau- 
ran, and thofe on the banks of the Orontes, are the moft 
fertile : they produce wheat, barley, doura, fefamum, 
and cotton. Some parts are of a gravelly and poor foil, 
better adapted to fruits and tobacco than any thing elfe. 
All tlie mountains are appropriated to olive, mulberry, 
and fruit-trees, and in fume places to vines, from which 
the Greeks make wine, and the Mahometans dried rai- 
fins. 'I he pacha enjoys all the privileges of his poll, 
which are more considerable than thofe of any other pa¬ 
chalic ; for, befides the farm of all tlie c.uftoms and im¬ 
ports, and an abfolute authority, he is alfo conductor 
of the facred caravan of Mecca, tinder the highly-re- 
fpefted title of Emir Hadj. The Mahometans confider 
this office as fo important, and entitled to fuch reve¬ 
rence, that the perlon of a pacha who acquits himfelf 
well of it, becomes inviolable even by the fultan : it is 
no longer permitted to fhed his blood. But the divan 
has invented a method of fatisfying its-vengeance on 
thofe who are protected by this privilege, without de¬ 
parting from the literal expreflion of the law, by order¬ 
ing them to be pounded in a mortar, or fmothered in a 
fuck, of which there have been various inrtances ; 270 
miles fouth-fouth-weft of Diarbek, and 150 north-north- 
eart of Jerufalem. 
DAMA.SEN'SA, a town of Africa, in the country of 
Jagra, fituated on a river of the fame name, which runs 
into the river Gambia. 
DA'MASK, f. [ damafquin , Fr. damafcliino, Ital. from 
D<nnajcus.~\ Linen or fiIk woven in a manner invented at 
Damafcus, by which part, by a various direction of the 
threads, exhibits flowers or other forms: 
Not any weaver which his work doth boaft 
In diaper, damajk, or in lyne. Spen/cr. 
It is 11 fed tor red colour in Fairfax, from the damatk rofe : 
And for fome deale perplexed was her fpirit, 
Her damajk late, now chang’d to pureft white. Fairfax. 
To DA'MASK, v. a. To form flowers upon fluffs. To 
variegate ; to diverfify : 
Around him dance the rofy hours, 
And dam a fang the ground with flow’rs, 
With ambient tweets perfume the morn. Fenton. 
To adorn fteel work with figures, practifed firft at Da¬ 
mafcus. 
DA'MASK-ROSE, f. The rofe of Damafcus; a red 
rote. See Rosa.— Damafi-rofcs have not been known in 
England above one hundred years, and now are fo com¬ 
mon. Bacon. 
No gradual bloom is wanting from the bud, 
Nor broad carnations, nor gay fpotted pinks, 
Nor, fhower’d from ev’ry bulb, the damajk-rofe. Thomfon. 
DA'M ASKENING, f. [from damafquiner, Fr. ] The 
art or aft of adorning iron or fteel, by making incifions, 
and filling them up with gold or filver wire : ufed in 
enriching the blades of fwords, locks of piftols, &c. 
Chambers. 
DAMASO'NIUM,/. In botany, a genus of the clafs 
liexandria, order hexagynia. The generic characters are 
w— Calyx : fpathe one-lealed, oblong, five-winged; wings 
VOL. V. No, 30. 0 55 5 a 
D A M '57.3 
waved ; two running down into the petiole; mouth five¬ 
toothed ; teeth-Iharp, membranaceous at the edge ; pe¬ 
rianthium one-leafed, three.parted, fnperior; leaflets lan¬ 
ceolate, blunt, furrounded by a membranaceous edge, 
fpreading. Corolla: petals three, roundifli, waved, 
fpreadrng, longer than the perianthium. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments fix, very fliort; antherae linear, ereft, blunt, emar- 
ginate at the bate, ftiorter than the corolla. Piftillum : 
germ oblong, inferior ; ftyfes fix, linear, emarginate", 
ereft, longer than the ftamens ; ftigmas villofe hairs on 
the fide of the (tyles. Pericyrpium : berry oblong, ten- 
celled-crowned by the calyx. Seeds: very many, ob¬ 
long, fmall. The character wants to be fupplied and 
confirmed, or corrected from the living plant.— F.Jfential 
Character. Spathe one-leafed ; perianthium one-leafed, 
three-parted ; petals three ; berry ten-celled, inferior. 
Damafonium alifmoides is tlie only fpecies. Leaves 
heart-fliaped, nerved, floating, unarmed ; fcape naked, 
quadrangular, one-flowered. There are only fix ftamens 
in the flower, with fix bifid ftyles. Native of the Eaft 
Indies, Malabar, Ceylon, &c. See the articles Alisma 
and Scrafias. 
DAMA'SUS I. pope, a Spaniard by birth, obtained 
the bilhopric of Rome in 366 ; but he did not arrive at 
that dignity without a conteft. His pretenfions were ri¬ 
valled by thofe of Urfinus, who, as well as himfelf, was 
a deacon of the Roman church, and to whofe interefts a 
confiderable part of the people and clergy at Rome were 
attached. Their competition involved the city in a civil 
war, in which ftiocking feenes of violence and bloodfhed 
were committed, aiid both candidates were proclaimed! 
lawful bifhops of Rome by their refpedlive parties : but, 
in the prolongation of tlie ftruggle, Damaftis proved tri¬ 
umphant over his rival, who was banilhed, with the 
principal of his adherents, after undergoing the fame fc-, 
verities of imprifonment and confifcation, which, if fuc- 
cefsful, they would have inflifted on their opponents. 
On his being confirmed in the pontifical dignity, D.mia- 
fus difplayed all that pomp, parade, and luxury, in 
which the pofleftbrs of the fee of Rome had begun to 
vie with the emperors, and buffered the dilcipline of the 
church, as far as refuefted morals and manners, to be¬ 
come fcandaloufly relaxed : but again!! hereby he dif¬ 
played great vigilance and zeal. In different councils 
that were held at Rome, in 369, 370, 373, 377, and 381, 
he procured decrees of condemnatioh again!! the Ari.ins 
and other lefts. Pope Damafus died at Rome in the year 
38+. His name is inferted by the catholics in tlie cata¬ 
logue of their faints, with pretenfions to that honour, 
doubtlefs, of equal validity with thofe of numbers in tlie 
lift. Tlie writings attributed to him, which are partly 
in piofe and partly in verfe, and of not much import¬ 
ance, were printed at Rome in 1639, and afterwards at 
Paris in 1672. 
DAMA'SUS II. pope, in the eleventh century, a na¬ 
tive of Bavaria, of the name of Popponius, and a perfon 
of great learning for the times in which he lived. The 
firft epifcopal dignity to which his merits railed him in 
the church was that of Brixen, whence,, according to 
lome authorities, he was afterwards tranflated to the fee 
of Aquileia. Upon the death of pope Clement II. he 
was fixed upon to be his fucceflbr by the emperor Henry 
HI. and'was lent to Rome to maintain the imperial right 
of nomination to the popedom, in oppofition to the claims 
of Benedid! IX. who had feized on it for tlie third time, 
but thought it prudent to quit the chair in favour of 
one w ho had.fo powerful a protector. Popponius, upon 
his elevation to the tiara, took the name of Damaius. 
He enjoyed his new dignity only twenty-three days, dy¬ 
ing at Praenefte, fuppofed by poifon, in 1048. 
DAMAU'N, a fea-port town of Hindooftan, in tlie 
country of the Palhwah, on the coal! of the Arabian lea ; 
in polfelfion of the Portuguefe, by whom it was taken in 
1535. Aurunzebe beiieged it about the middle of the- 
lull century, with an army of 40,000 men; but the gar- 
7 G ji-fou 
