Chapter VIII: Part 8

_Physical Features._--No part of the Mediterranean shore, except the coast of Greece, is so deeply indented as the Dalmatian littoral, with its multitude of rock-bound bays and inlets. It is sheltered from the open sea by a rampart of islands which vary greatly in size; a few being large enough to support several thousand inhabitants, while others are mere reefs, swept bare by the sea, or tenanted only by rabbits and seabirds. This Dalmatian archipelago, separated from the Istrian by the Gulf of Quarnerolo, forms two island groups, the northern or Liburnian, and the southern; with open water intervening, off Point Planca. In calm weather the channels between the islands and the mainland resemble a chain of landlocked lakes, brilliantly clear to a depth of several fathoms. As a rule, the surrounding hills are rugged, bleached almost white or pale russet, and destitute of verdure; but their monotony is relieved by the half-ruined castles and monasteries clinging to the rocks, or by the beauty of such cities as Ragusa, or Arbe, with its fantastic row of steeples overlooking the beach. The principal islands, Arbe, Brazza, Curzola, Lacroma, Lesina, Lissa and Meleda, are described under separate headings. The promontory of Sabbioncello, or Punta di Stagno, which juts out for 41 m. into the sea, between Curzola and Lesina, is almost another island; for its breadth, which nowhere exceeds 5 m., dwindles to about 1 m. at the narrow isthmus which unites it with the shore. There are two small ports on this isthmus--on the south, Stagno Grande (Serbo-Croatian, _Ston Veliki_), once celebrated for its salt and shipbuilding industries, and, on the north, Stagno Piccolo (_Ston Mali_). Dalmatia possesses a magnificent anchorage in the Bocche di Cattaro, and there are numerous lesser havens, at Sebenico, Trau, Zara and elsewhere along the coast and among the islands.

The country is almost everywhere hilly or mountainous. On the Croatian border rises the lofty barrier of the Velebit, which culminates in Sveto Brdo (5751 ft.), and Vakanski Vrh (5768 ft.). The Dinaric Alps form the frontier between Dalmatia and Bosnia; Dinara (6007 ft.), which gives its name to the whole chain, and Troglav (6276 ft.), being the highest Dalmatian summits. North-west of Sinj rise the Svilaja and Mosec Planinas; the ridges of Mosor and Biokovo, with Sveto Juraj (5781 ft.), follow the windings of the coast from Spalato to Macarsca; Orjen marks the meeting-place of the Herzegovinian, Montenegrin and Dalmatian frontiers, and the Sutorman range appears in the extreme south. The barren dry limestone of the Dalmatian highlands has been aptly compared with a petrified sponge; for it is honeycombed with underground caverns and water-courses, into which the rainfall is at once filtered. Thus arises a complete system of subterranean rivers, with waterfalls, lakes and regular seasons of flood. Even the few surface rivers vanish and emerge again at intervals. The Trebinjcica, for instance, disappearing in Herzegovina, supplies both the broad and swift estuary of Ombla, near Ragusa, and the fresh-water spring of Doli, which issues from the bottom of the sea. Apart from the Ombla, and the Narenta (Serbo-Croatian, _Neretva_; Roman, _Naro_), which creates a broad marshy delta between Metkovic and the sea, Dalmatia has only three rivers more than 25 m. long; the Zermagna (_Zrmanja_, _Tedanium_), Kerka, (_Krka_, _Titius_), and Cetina (_Cetina_; _Narona_ or _Tilurus_). The Zermagna skirts the southern foothills of the Velebit and falls into the harbour of Novigrad. Better known is the Kerka, which rises in the Dinaric Alps and flows south-westward to the Adriatic. Near Scardona (_Skradin_) it spreads into a broad lake, and forms several fine waterfalls, after receiving its tributary the Cikola (_Cikola_), from the east. South of Spalato, the Cetina, which also springs from the Dinaric Alps, descends to the sea at Almissa (_Omis_), after passing between the Mosor and Biokovo ranges. There are a few small lakes near Zara, Zaravecchia and the Narenta estuary; while the fertile, but unhealthy, hollows among the mountains fill with water after heavy rain, and sometimes cause disastrous floods. But most parts of the country suffer from drought.

For an account of the chief geological formations see BALKAN PENINSULA. Small quantities of iron, lignite, asphalt and bay salt are the only minerals of commercial importance.

The climate is warm and healthy, the mean temperature at Zara being 57 deg. F., at Lesina 62 deg., and at Ragusa 63 deg. The prevailing wind is the sirocco, or S.E.; but the terrible Bora, or N.N.E., may blow at any season of the year. The average annual rainfall is about 28 in., but a dry and a wet year usually alternate.

_Fauna._--Bears, badgers and wild cats, with a larger number of wolves and foxes, find shelter in the Dinaric Alps and on the heights of Svilaja, Mosor and Biokovo; while jackals exist on Curzola and Sabbioncello, almost their last refuges in Europe. Roedeer are uncommon, and the wild boar, chamois, red-deer and beaver are extinct; but hares and rabbits abound. The game-laws are not strict, and are often evaded by the Morlachs; but moderate sport may be obtained in the fens formed by the Cetina about Sinj, and the lagoons of the Narenta estuary; both regions being frequented by wild swans, geese, duck, snipe and other aquatic birds. Among land-birds, the commonest are quails, woodcock, partridges, and especially the so-called "stone-fowl" (_Steinhuhn_, _Perdix Graeca_). Tortoises are numerous; snakes, lizards, scorpions and innumerable sand-flies infest the dry hillsides; and the limestone caverns are peopled by sightless bats, reptiles, fish, flies, beetles, spiders, crustacea and molluscs.

_Fisheries._--No region of Europe is richer in its marine fauna and flora. Sponge and coral fisheries afford a valuable source of income to the peasantry, many of whom also go northward for the sardine and tunny fisheries of the Istrian coast, while salmon, trout and eels are caught in the Dalmatian rivers.

_Flora._--The olive, almond, fig, orange, palm, aloe, myrtle, locust-tree and other characteristic members of the Mediterranean flora thrive in the sheltered valleys of the Dalmatian littoral, where almond-blossoms appear in mid-winter, and the palm occasionally bears ripe fruit. The _marasca_, or wild cherry, is abundant, and yields the celebrated liqueur called _maraschino_. But at a little distance from the rivers and on the more exposed parts of the coast the aspect of the country changes entirely. Patches of thin grass, heather, juniper, thyme, tamarisks and mountain roses hardly relieve the bareness and aridity of the seaward slopes.

_Forests._--Oaks, pines and beeches still, in a few parts, clothe the landward slopes, but, as a rule, the forests for which Dalmatia was once famous were cut down for the Venetian shipyards or burned by pirates; while every attempt at replanting is frustrated by the shallowness of the soil, the drought and the multitude of goats that browse on the young trees.

_Agriculture._--Little more than one-tenth of the whole surface is under the plough; the rest, where it is not altogether sterile, being chiefly mountain pasture, vineyards and garden land. Asses are the favourite beasts of burden; goats are strikingly numerous; and sheep are kept for the sake of their mutton, which is almost the only animal food freely consumed by the peasantry. Cattle-breeding, bee-keeping, and the cultivation of fruit and vegetables, especially potatoes and beetroot, are among the principal resources of the people, while wheat, rye, barley, oats, Indian corn, hemp and millet are also grown. Viticulture is carried on with great and increasing success (see WINE).

_Land-tenure._--Individual proprietorship of the soil is rare, for, despite the decadence of the _zadruga_ or household community, the tenure of land and the privilege of using the communal domain still appertain to the family as a whole. There are a few large estates, but most of the land is parcelled out in small holdings.

_Industries._--Besides fishing, farming and such allied trades as shipbuilding, wine and oil pressing, and the distillation of spirits, notably _maraschino_, a few other industries are practised, such as tile-burning and the manufacture of soap; but these are of minor importance. Certain crafts are also carried on by the country-folk, in their own homes; thus the peasant is sometimes his own mason, carpenter, weaver and miller. Manufactured goods and foodstuffs are imported, in return for asphalt, lignite, bay salt, wine, spirits, oil, honey, wax and hides; and there is a lucrative transit trade with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Turkey and various Adriatic and Mediterranean ports.

_Communications._--Communications are defective, some parts of the interior being only accessible by the roughest of mountain roads. The principal railway, in point of size, traverses the central districts, linking together Knin, Spalato, Sebenico and Sinj; but the southern lines, which unite Dalmatia with Herzegovina and terminate at Ragusa, Metkovic and Castlenuovo on the Bocche di Cattaro, are almost of equal importance, Cattaro being one of the chief outlets for Montenegrin commerce, while the vessels which steam up the Narenta to Metkovic carry the bulk of the sea-borne trade of Herzegovina. In 1897 Dalmatia possessed 151 post and 98 telegraph offices.

_Chief Towns._--The chief towns are Zara, the capital, with 32,506[2] inhabitants in 1900, Spalato (27,198), Sebenico (24,751), Trau (17,064), Ragusa (13,174), Macarsca (11,016), and Cattaro (5418). All these are described under separate headings.

_Population and National Characteristics._--With a constant excess of male over female children, the population increased steadily from 1869 to 1900, when it reached 591,597. Of this total 1% are foreigners and about 3% Italians, whose numbers tend slowly to diminish. The Morlachs, who constitute the remaining 96%, belong to the Serbo-Croatian branch of the Slavonic race, having absorbed the Latinized Illyrians, Albanians and other alien elements with which they have been associated. The name of _Morlachs_, _Morlaks_ or _Morlacks_ commonly bestowed by English writers on the Dalmatian Slavs, though sometimes restricted to the peasantry of the hills, is an abbreviated form of _Mavrovlachi_, meaning either "Black Vlachs," or, less probably, "Sea Vlachs." It was originally applied to the scattered remnants of the Latin or Latinized inhabitants of central Illyria, who were driven from their homes by the barbarian invaders during the 7th century, and took refuge among the mountains. Throughout the middle ages the Mavrovlachi were usually nomadic shepherds, cattle-drovers or muleteers. In the 14th century they emigrated from central Illyria into northern Dalmatia and maritime Croatia; and these regions were thenceforward known as _Morlacchia_, until the 18th century. Gradually, however, the Mavrovlachi became identified with the Slavs, whose language and manners they adopted, and to whom they gave their own name. In northern Dalmatia the Slavs of the interior are still called _Morlacchi_; in the south this name expresses contempt. Of the Vlachs, properly so called, very few are left in the country; although the name Vlachs (q.v.) is frequently used by the Slavs to designate the Italians and the town-dwellers generally. The literary languages of Dalmatia are Italian and Serbo-Croatian; the spoken language is, in each case, modified by the introduction of various dialect forms.

The Morlachs wear a picturesque and brightly-coloured costume, resembling that of the Serbs (see SERVIA). In appearance they are sometimes blond, with blue or grey eyes, like the Shumadian peasantry of Servia; more often, olive-skinned, with dark hair and eyes, like the Montenegrins, whom they rival in stature, strength and courage; while their conservative spirit, their devotion to national traditions, poetry and music, their pride, indolence and superstition, are typically Servian. Dalmatian public life is deeply affected by the jealousies which subsist between the Slavs and the Italians, whose influence, though everywhere waning, remains predominant in some of the towns; and between Orthodox "Serbs," who use the Cyrillic alphabet, and Roman Catholic "Croats," who prefer the Latin.

_Government._--Dalmatia occupies a somewhat anomalous position in the Austro-Hungarian state system. Itself a crownland of Austria, returning eleven members to the Austrian parliament, it is severed geographically from the other Austrian lands by the Hungarian kingdom of Croatia. Ethnologically it is one with Croatia, and it is included in the official title of the Croatian king, i.e. the emperor. The political system is based on a law of the 26th of February 1861. The provincial diet is composed of 43 members, comprising the Roman Catholic archbishop, the Orthodox bishop of Zara and representatives of the chief taxpayers, the towns and the communes. Benkovac, on the main road from Zara to Spalato, Cattaro, Curzola, Imotski, 21 m. N. by E. of Macarsca, Knin, Lesina, Macarsca, Ragusa, Sebenico, Sinj, Spalato and Zara, give names to the twelve administrative districts, of which they are the capitals.

_Defence._--Conscription is in force, as elsewhere in Austria, and the Dalmatian coast furnishes the Austrian--as formerly the Venetian--navy with many of its best recruits.

_Religion._--Roman Catholicism is the religion of more than 80% of the population, the remainder belonging chiefly to the Orthodox Church. The Roman Catholic archbishop has his seat in Zara, while Cattaro, Lesina, Ragusa, Sebenico and Spalato are bishoprics. At the head of the Orthodox community stands the bishop of Zara.

The use of Slavonic liturgies written in the Glagolitic alphabet, a very ancient privilege of the Roman Catholics in Dalmatia and Croatia, caused much controversy during the first years of the 20th century. There was considerable danger that the Latin liturgies would be altogether superseded by the Glagolitic, especially among the northern islands and in rural communes, where the Slavonic element is all-powerful. In 1904 the Vatican forbade the use of Glagolitic at the festival of SS. Cyril and Methodius, as likely to impair the unity of Catholicism. A few years previously the Slavonic archbishop Rajcevic of Zara, in discussing the "Glagolitic controversy," had denounced the movement as "an innovation introduced by Panslavism to make it easy for the Catholic clergy, after any great revolution in the Balkan States, to break with Latin Rome." This view is shared by very many, perhaps by the majority, of the Roman Catholics in Dalmatia.

_Education._--Education progressed slowly between 1860 and 1900, attendance at school being often a hardship in the poor and widely scattered hamlets of the interior. In 1890 more than 80% of the population could neither read nor write, although schools are maintained by every commune. In 1893 the country possessed 5 intermediate and 337 elementary schools, 6 theological seminaries, 6 gymnasia, and about 40 continuation and technical schools.

_Antiquities._--To the foreign visitor Dalmatia is chiefly interesting as a treasury of art and antiquities. The grave-mounds of Curzola, Lesina and Sabbioncello have yielded a few relics of prehistoric man, and the memory of the early Celtic conquerors and Greek settlers is preserved only in a few place-names; but the monuments left by the Romans are numerous and precious. They are chiefly confined to the cities; for the civilization of the country was always urban, just as its history is a record of isolated city-states rather than of a united nation. Beyond the walls of its larger towns, little was spared by the barbarian Goths, Avars and Slavs; and the battered fragments of Roman work which mark the sites of Salona, near Spalato, and of many other ancient cities, are of slight antiquarian interest and slighter artistic value. Among the monuments of the Roman period, by far the most noteworthy in Dalmatia, and, indeed, in the whole Balkan Peninsula, is the Palace of Diocletian at Spalato (q.v.). Dalmatian architecture was Byzantine in its general character from the 6th century until the close of the 10th. The oldest memorials of this period are the vestiges of three basilicas, excavated in Salona, and dating from the first half of the 7th century at latest. Byzantine art, in the latter half of this period and the two succeeding centuries, continued to flourish in those cities which, like Zara, gave their allegiance to Venice; just as, in the architecture of Trau and other cities dominated by Hungary, there are distinct traces of German influence. The belfry of S. Maria, at Zara, erected in 1105, is first in a long list of Romanesque buildings. At Arbe there is a beautiful Romanesque campanile which also belongs to the 12th century; but the finest example in this style is the cathedral of Trau. The 14th century Dominican and Franciscan convents in Ragusa are also noteworthy. Romanesque lingered on in Dalmatia until it was displaced by Venetian Gothic in the early years of the 15th century. The influence of Venice was then at its height. Even in the hostile republic of Ragusa the Romanesque of the custom-house and Rectors' palace is combined with Venetian Gothic, while the graceful balconies and ogee windows of the Prijeki closely follow their Venetian models. Gothic, however, which had been adopted very late, was abandoned very early; for in 1441 Giorgio Orsini of Zara, summoned from Venice to design the cathedral of Sebenico, brought with him the influence of the Italian Renaissance. The new forms which he introduced were eagerly imitated and developed by other architects, until the period of decadence--which virtually concludes the history of Dalmatian art--set in during the latter half of the 17th century. Special mention must be made of the carved woodwork, embroideries and plate preserved in many churches. The silver statuette and the reliquary of St Biagio at Ragusa, and the silver ark of St Simeon at Zara, are fine specimens of Byzantine and Italian jewellers' work, ranging in date from the 11th or 12th to the 17th century.

HISTORY

_Dalmatia under Roman Rule_, A.D. 9-1102.--The history of Dalmatia may be said to begin with the year 180 B.C., when the tribe from which the country derives its name declared itself independent of Gentius, the Illyrian king, and established a republic. Its capital was Delminium[3]; its territory stretched northwards from the Narenta to the Cetina, and later to the Kerka, where it met the confines of Liburnia. In 156 B.C. the Dalmatians were for the first time attacked by a Roman army and compelled to pay tribute; but only in the time of Augustus (31 B.C.-A.D. 14) was their land finally annexed, after the last of many formidable revolts had been crushed by Tiberius in A.D. 9. This event was followed by total submission and a ready acceptance of the Latin civilization which overspread Illyria (q.v.). The downfall of the Western Empire left this region subject to Gothic rulers, Odoacer and Theodoric, from 476 to 535, when it was added by Justinian to the Eastern Empire. The great Slavonic migration into Illyria, which wrought a complete change in the fortunes of Dalmatia, took place in the first half of the 7th century. In other parts of the Balkan Peninsula these invaders--Serbs, Croats or Bulgars--found little difficulty in expelling or absorbing the native population. But here they were baffled when confronted by the powerful maritime city-states, highly civilized, and able to rely on the moral if not the material support of their kinsfolk in Italy. Consequently, while the country districts were settled by the Slavs, the Latin or Italian population flocked for safety to Ragusa, Zara and other large towns, and the whole country was thus divided between two frequently hostile communities. This opposition was intensified by the schism between Eastern and Western Christianity (1054), the Slavs as a rule preferring the Orthodox or sometimes the Bogomil creed, while the Italians were firmly attached to the Papacy. Not until the 15th century did the rival races contribute to a common civilization in the literature of Ragusa. To such a division of population may be attributed the two dominant characteristics of local history--the total absence of national as distinguished from civic life, and the remarkable development of art, science and literature. Bosnia, Servia and Bulgaria had each its period of national greatness, but remained intellectually backward; Dalmatia failed ever to attain political or racial unity, but the Dalmatian city-states, isolated and compelled to look to Italy for support, shared perforce in the march of Italian civilization. Their geographical position suffices to explain the relatively small influence exercised by Byzantine culture throughout the six centuries (535-1102) during which Dalmatia was part of the Eastern empire. Towards the close of this period Byzantine rule tended more and more to become merely nominal. In 806 Dalmatia was added to the Holy Roman empire, but was soon restored; in 829 the coast was ravaged by Saracens. A strange republic of Servian pirates arose at the mouth of the Narenta. In the 10th century description of Dalmatia by Constantine Porphyrogenitus (_De Administrando Imperio_, 29-37), this region is called _Pagania_, from the fact that its inhabitants had only accepted Christianity about 890, or 250 years later than the other Slavs. These _Pagani_, or _Arentani_ (Narentines), utterly defeated a Venetian fleet despatched against them in 887, and for more than a century exacted tribute from Venice itself. In 998 they were finally crushed by the doge Pietro Orseolo II., who assumed the title duke of Dalmatia, though without prejudice to Byzantine suzerainty. Meanwhile the Croatian kings had extended their rule over northern and central Dalmatia, exacting tribute from the Italian cities, Trau, Zara and others, and consolidating their own power in the purely Slavonic towns, such as Nona or Belgrad (Zaravecchia). The Church was involved in the general confusion; for the synod of Spalato, in 1059, had forbidden the use of any but Greek or Latin liturgies, and so had accentuated the differences between Latin and Slav. A raid of Norman corsairs in 1073 was hardly defeated with the help of a Venetian fleet.

_Rivalry of Venice and Hungary in Dalmatia_, 1102-1420.--Unable amid such dissensions to stand alone, unprotected by the Eastern empire and hindered by their internal dissensions from uniting in a defensive league, the city-states turned to Venice and Hungary for support. The Venetians, to whom they were already bound by race, language and culture, could afford to concede liberal terms because their own principal aims was not the territorial aggrandizement sought by Hungary, but only such a supremacy as might prevent the development of any dangerous political or commercial competitor on the eastern Adriatic. Hungary had also its partisans; for in the Dalmatian city-states, like those of Greece and Italy, there were almost invariably two jealous political factions, each ready to oppose any measure advocated by its antagonist. The origin of this division seems here to have been economic. The farmers and the merchants who traded in the interior naturally favoured Hungary, their most powerful neighbour on land; while the seafaring community looked to Venice as mistress of the Adriatic. In return for protection, the cities often furnished a contingent to the army or navy of their suzerain, and sometimes paid tribute either in money or in kind. Arbe, for example, annually paid ten pounds of silk or five pounds of gold to Venice. The citizens clung to their municipal privileges, which were reaffirmed after the conquest of Dalmatia in 1102-1105 by Coloman of Hungary. Subject to the royal assent they might elect their own chief magistrate, bishop and judges. Their Roman law remained valid. They were even permitted to conclude separate alliances. No alien, not even a Hungarian, could reside in a city where he was unwelcome; and the man who disliked Hungarian dominion could emigrate with all his household and property. In lieu of tribute, the revenue from customs was in some cases shared equally by the king, chief magistrate, bishop and municipality. These rights and the analogous privileges granted by Venice were, however, too frequently infringed, Hungarian garrisons being quartered on unwilling towns, while Venice interfered with trade, with the appointment of bishops, or with the tenure of communal domains. Consequently the Dalmatians remained loyal only while it suited their interests, and insurrections frequently occurred. Even in Zara four outbreaks are recorded between 1180 and 1345, although Zara was treated with special consideration by its Venetian masters, who regarded its possession as essential to their maritime ascendancy. The doubtful allegiance of the Dalmatians tended to protract the struggle between Venice and Hungary, which was further complicated by internal discord due largely to the spread of the Bogomil heresy; and by many outside influences, such as the vague suzerainty still enjoyed by the Eastern emperors during the 12th century; the assistance rendered to Venice by the armies of the Fourth Crusade in 1202; and the Tartar invasion of Dalmatia forty years later (see Trau). The Slavs were no longer regarded as a hostile race, but the power of certain Croatian magnates, notably the counts of Bribir, was from time to time supreme in the northern districts (see CROATIA-SLAVONIA); and Stephen Tvrtko, the founder of the Bosnian kingdom, was able in 1389 to annex the whole Adriatic littoral between Cattaro and Fiume, except Venetian Zara and his own independent ally, Ragusa (see BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA). Finally, the rapid decline of Bosnia, and of Hungary itself when assailed by the Turks, rendered easy the success of Venice; and in 1420 the whole of Dalmatia, except Almissa, which yielded in 1444, and Ragusa, which preserved its freedom, either submitted or was conquered. Many cities welcomed the change with its promise of tranquillity.

_Venetian and Turkish Rule_, 1420-1797.--An interval of peace ensued, but meanwhile the Turkish advance continued. Constantinople fell in 1453, Servia in 1459, Bosnia in 1463 and Herzegovina in 1483. Thus the Venetian and Ottoman frontiers met; border wars were incessant; Ragusa sought safety in friendship with the invaders. In 1508 the hostile league of Cambrai compelled Venice to withdraw its garrison for home service, and after the overthrow of Hungary at Mohacs in 1526 the Turks were able easily to conquer the greater part of Dalmatia. The peace of 1540 left only the maritime cities to Venice, the interior forming a Turkish province, governed from the fortress of Clissa by a _Sanjakbeg_, or administrator with military powers. Christian Slavs from the neighbouring lands now thronged to the towns, outnumbering the Italian population and introducing their own language, but falling under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church. The pirate community of the Uskoks (q.v.) had originally been a band of these fugitives; its exploits contributed to a renewal of war between Venice and Turkey (1571-1573). An extremely curious picture of contemporary manners is presented by the Venetian agents,[4] whose reports on this war resemble some knightly chronicle of the middle ages, full of single combats, tournaments and other chivalrous adventures. They also show clearly that the Dalmatian levies far surpassed the Italian mercenaries in skill and courage. Many of these troops served abroad; at Lepanto, for example, in 1571, a Dalmatian squadron assisted the allied fleets of Spain, Venice, Austria and the Papal States to crush the Turkish navy. A fresh war broke out in 1645, lasting intermittently until 1699, when the peace of Carlowitz gave the whole of Dalmatia to Venice, including the coast of Herzegovina, but excluding the domains of Ragusa and the protecting band of Ottoman territory which surrounded them. After further fighting this delimitation was confirmed in 1718 by the treaty of Passarowitz; and it remains valid, though modified by the destruction of Ragusan liberty and the substitution of Austria-Hungary for Venice and Turkey.

The intellectual life of Dalmatia during the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries reached a higher level than any attained by the purely Slavonic peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. Its chief monuments are described elsewhere,--the work of the Ragusan poets and historians as a part of Servian literature, the scientific achievements of R. G. Boscovich and Marcantonio de Dominis in separate biographies. Architecture and art generally have been discussed above. But this intellectual development was the work of a small and opulent minority in all the cities except Ragusa. Popular education was neglected; Zara had no printing-press until 1796; Venetian Dalmatia possessed only one public school, and that an ecclesiastical seminary; and even the sons of the rich, though free to visit the universities of Italy, France, Holland and England, ran the risk of exile or worse punishment if they brought home too liberal a culture. Poorer students learned what they could from the clergy, and the peasantry were wholly illiterate. Although the secular power of the Church was strictly limited, the country was overrun by ecclesiastics. When Fortis visited the island of Arbe in the 18th century, he found a population of 3000, mostly fishermen, contributing to the stipends of sixty priests. There were also three monasteries and three nunneries. Heavy taxes, the salt monopoly, reckless destruction of timber, and a deliberate attempt to ruin the oil and silk industries, were among the means by which Venice prevented competition with its own trade. Although justice was fairly well administered and some show of municipal autonomy conceded, the right of electing a chief magistrate had been withheld after 1420; and the Grand Council or Senate of each city, losing its original democratic character, had degenerated into a mere tool of the resident Venetian agents (_provveditori_), officials who held their post for thirty-two months and were subject to little effective control. Nevertheless, 150 years of war against the common Turkish enemy had drawn the Venetians and their subjects closely together, and the loyalty of the Dalmatian soldiers and sailors abroad, if not of their fellow-citizens at home, rests beyond doubt.

_Dalmatia after 1797._--After the fall of the Venetian republic in 1797, the treaty of Campo Formio gave Dalmatia to Austria. The republics of Ragusa and Poglizza retained their independence, and Ragusa grew rich by its neutrality during the earlier Napoleonic wars. By the peace of Pressburg in 1805 the country was handed over to France, but its occupation was ineffectually contested by a Russian force which seized the Bocche di Cattaro and induced the Montenegrins to render aid. Poglizza was deprived of its independence by Napoleon in 1807, Ragusa in 1808. In 1809 the French troops were withdrawn, but in the same year Dalmatia was restored to France and united to the Illyrian kingdom by the treaty of Vienna. A British naval force under Captain Hoste, after a successful engagement with a small French squadron off Lissa, occupied the islands of Curzola, Lesina and Lagosta from 1812 to 1815, and established a considerable overland trade through Dalmatia, Austria and Germany. The allied British and Austrian forces drove out the last French garrison in 1814, and in 1815 Dalmatia was finally incorporated in the Austro-Hungarian empire, with which its history has since been identified. Its subsequent tranquillity has only been disturbed by the ineffectual risings of 1869 and 1881-1882, which took place near Cattaro (q.v.). For an account of the development of Croatian nationalism among the Dalmatians, during the 19th and 20th centuries, see CROATIA-SLAVONIA.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--A minute and accurate account of Dalmatian history, art
(especially architecture), antiquities and topography, is given by T.
G. Jackson, in _Dalmatia, the Quarnero and Istria_ (Oxford, 1887), (3
vols. illustrated). E. A. Freeman, _Subject and Neighbour Lands of
Venice_ (London, 1881), and G. Modrich, _La Dalmazia_ (Turin, 1892),
describe the chief towns, their history and antiquities. Much
miscellaneous information is contained in the following mainly
topographical works:--P. Bauron, _Les Rives illyriennes_ (Paris,
1888); Sir A. A. Paton, _Highlands and Islands of the Adriatic_
(London, 1849); Sir J. G. Wilkinson, _Dalmatia and Montenegro_
(London, 1840); A. Fortis, _Travels into Dalmatia_ (London, 1778); and
the periodicals, _Rivista Dalmatica_ (Zara, 1899, &c.), and _Annuario
Dalmatico_ (Zara, 1884, &c.). The best maps are those of the Austrian
General Staff and Vincenzo de Haardt's _Zemljovid Kraljevine
Dalmacije_ (Zara, 1892). See also for trade, the Annual British
Consular Reports; for sport, "Snaffle," _In the Land of the Bora_
(London, 1897); for Roman and pre-Roman antiquities, R. Munro,
_Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia_ (Edinburgh, 1904). Besides the works
mentioned above, and those by Farlatus, Makushev, Miklosich, Theiner,
Shafarik, Orbini and du Cange, which are quoted under BOSNIA AND
HERZEGOVINA, the chief authority for Dalmatian history is G. Lucio
(Lucius of Trau), _De regno Dalmatiae et Croatiae, a gentis origine ad
annum 1480_ (Amsterdam, 1666). To this edition are appended the works
of the Presbyter Diocleas, Thomas of Spalato and other native
chroniclers from the 12th century onwards. An Italian translation,
omitting the appendix, was published at Trieste in 1892, entitled
_Storia del Regno di Dalmatia e di Croazia_, and edited by Luigi
Cesare. Lucio's work is singularly trustworthy and scientific. See
also P. Pisani, _La Dalmatie de 1797 a 1815_ (Paris, 1893).
(K. G. J.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This arrangement is based on the terms of the peace of Carlowitz
1699 (articles IX. and XI. of the Turco-Venetian Treaty). It is due
to the commercial and maritime rivalry between Venice and Ragusa. The
Ragusans bribed the Turkish envoys at Carlowitz to stipulate for a
double extension of the Ottoman dominions down to the Adriatic; and
thus the Ragusan lands, which otherwise would have bordered upon the
Dalmatian possessions of Venice, were surrounded by neutral
territory.

[2] These figures, taken from the Austrian official returns, include
the population of the entire commune, not merely the urban residents.
Only in Zara, Spalato, Sebenico and Ragusa, do the actual townsfolk
number more than 1000.

[3] Also written _Dalminium_, _Deminium_, and _Delmis_. Thomas of
Spalato (c. 1200-1250) mentions that the site of Delminium had been
forgotten in his time, although certain ancient walls among the
mountains were believed to be its ruins. It has been variously
identified, by modern archaeologists, with Almissa, on the coast,
Dalen, in the Herzegovina, Duvno, near Sinj, and Gardun, in the same
locality. It was evidently a stronghold of considerable size and
importance, and Appian (_De bellis Illyricis_) alludes to its almost
impregnable fortifications.

[4] Long extracts from these reports or diaries are published by
Wilkinson, _Dalmatia and Montenegro_ (London, 1840), ii. 297-350.

DALMATIC (Lat. _dalmatica_, _tunica dalmatica_), a liturgical vestment of the Western Church, proper to deacons, as the tunicle (_tunicella_) is to subdeacons. Dalmatic and tunicle are now, however, practically identical in shape and size; though, strictly, the latter should be somewhat smaller and with narrower arms. In most countries, e.g. England, France, Spain and Germany, dalmatic and tunicle are now no longer tunics, but scapular-like cloaks, with an opening for the head to pass through and square lappets falling from the shoulder over the upper part of the arm; in Italy, on the other hand, though open up the side, they still have regular sleeves and are essentially tunics. The most characteristic ornament of the dalmatic and tunicle is the vertical stripes running from the shoulder to the lower hem, these being connected by a cross-band, the position of which differs in various countries (see figs. 3, 4). Less essential are the orphreys on the hem of the arms and the fringes along the slits at the sides and the lower hem. The tassels hanging from either shoulder at the back (see fig. 6), formerly very much favoured, have now largely gone out of use.

The _dalmatica_, which originated--as its name implies--in Dalmatia, came into fashion in the Roman world in the 2nd century A.D. It was a loose tunic with very wide sleeves, and was worn over the _tunica alba_ by the better class of citizens (see. fig. 2). According to the _Liber pontificalis_ (ed. Duchesne, l. 171) the dalmatic was first introduced as a vestment in public worship by Pope Silvester I. (314-335), who ordered it to be worn by the deacons; but Braun (_Liturg. Gewandung_, p. 250) thinks that it was probably in use by the popes themselves so early as the 3rd century, since St Cyprian (d. 258) is mentioned as wearing it when he went to his death. If this be so, it was probably given to the Roman deacons to distinguish them from the other clergy and to mark their special relations to the pope. However this may be, the dalmatic remained for centuries the vestment distinctive of the pope and his deacons, and--according at least to the view held at Rome--could be worn by other clergy only by special concession of the pope. Thus Pope Symmachus (498-514) granted the right to wear it to the deacons of Bishop Caesarius of Arles; and so late as 757 Pope Stephen II. gave permission to Fulrad, abbot of St Denis, to be assisted by six deacons at mass, and these are empowered to wear "the robe of honour of the dalmatic." How far, however, this rule was strictly observed, and what was the relation of the Roman dalmatic to the diaconal alba and subdiaconal tunica, which were in liturgical use in Gaul and Spain so early as the 6th century, are moot points (see Braun, p. 252). The dalmatic was in general use at the beginning of the 9th century, partly as a result of the Carolingian reforms, which established the Roman model in western Europe; but it continued to be granted by the popes to distinguished ecclesiastics not otherwise entitled to wear it, e.g. to abbots or to the cardinal priests of important cathedrals. So far as the records show, Pope John XIII. (965-972) was the first to bestow the right to wear the dalmatic on an abbot, and Pope Benedict VII. the first to grant it to a cardinal priest of a foreign cathedral (975). The present rule was firmly established by the 11th century. According to the actual use of the Roman Catholic Church dalmatic and tunicle are worn by deacon and subdeacon when assisting at High Mass, and at solemn processions and benedictions. They are, however, traditionally vestments symbolical of joy (the bishop in placing the dalmatic on the newly ordained deacon says:--"May the Lord clothe thee in the tunic of joy and the garment of rejoicing"), and they are therefore not worn during seasons of fasting and penitence or functions connected with these, the folded chasuble (_paenula plicata_) being substituted (see CHASUBLE). Dalmatic and tunicle are never worn by priests, as priests, but both are worn by bishops under the chasuble (never under the cope) and also by those prelates, not being bishops, to whom the pope has conceded the right to wear the episcopal vestments.

In England at the Reformation the dalmatic ultimately shared the fate of the chasuble and other mass vestments. It was, however, certainly one of the "ornaments of the minister" in the second year of Edward VI., the rubric in the office for Holy Communion directing the priest's "helpers" to wear "albes with tunacles." In many Anglican churches it has therefore been restored, as a result of the ritual revival of the 19th century, it being claimed that its use is obligatory under the "ornaments rubric" of the Book of Common Prayer (see VESTMENTS).

In the Eastern churches the only vestment that has any true analogy with the dalmatic or liturgical upper tunic is the _sakkos_, the tunic worn by deacons and subdeacons over their everyday clothes being the equivalent of the Western alb (q.v.). The sakkos, which, as a liturgical vestment, first appears in the 12th century as peculiar to patriarchs, is now a scapular-like robe very similar to the modern dalmatic (see fig. 5). Its origin is almost certainly the richly embroidered dalmatic that formed part of the consular insignia, which under the name of sakkos became a robe of state special to the emperors. It is clear, then, that this vestment can only have been assumed with the emperor's permission; and Braun suggests (p. 305) that its use was granted to the patriarchs, after the completion of the schism of East and West, in order "in some sort to give them the character, in outward appearance as well, of popes of the East." Its use is confined to the Greek rite. In the Greek and Greek-Melchite churches it is confined to the patriarchs and metropolitans; in the Russian, Ruthenian and Bulgarian churches it is worn by all bishops. Unlike the practice of the Latin church, it is not worn under, but has replaced the phelonion (chasuble).

FIG. 2.--TUNIC OF LINEN, WOVEN WITH BANDS OF PURPLE WOOL EMBROIDERED
WITH WHITE FLAX.

From the tombs at Akhmim. Egypto-Roman; 1st to 4th century. (In the
Victoria and Albert Museum.)

FIG. 3.--BACK OF A DALMATIC OF STAMPED GREEN WOOLLEN VELVET: THE
ORPHREYS AND APPARELS ARE OF EMBROIDERED SILK VELVET.

The two figures on the cross-band or apparel represent St. Gregory the
Great and St. Augustine. The shields of arms are for the dukes of
Julich and Berg, counts of Ravensberg, and for the electors of
Bavaria. Said to have come from the church of St. Severin, Cologne.
German (Cologne); second half of 15th century. (In the Victoria and
Albert Museum.)]

FIG. 4.--DALMATIC OF WHITE SATIN EMRROIDERED WITH COLOURED SILKS AND
SILVER-GILT AND SILVER THREAD

Spanish; early 17th century. (In the Victoria and Albert Museum.)

FIG. 5.--GREEK SAKKOS, OF RED SATIN EMBROIDERED WITH SILVER-GILT AND
SILVER THREAD WITH SILK.

It has the names and arms of two archbishops. 18th century. (In the
Victoria and Albert Museum.)

FIG. 6.--DALMATIC OF POPE PIUS V.

An early example of the modern Roman type. Roman; 16th century.
Preserved at Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome. From a photograph taken by
Father J. Braun (in _Die liturgische Gewandung_), by permission of B.
Herder.]

A silk dalmatic forms one (the undermost) of the English coronation robes. Its use would seem to have been borrowed, not from the robes of the Eastern emperors, but from the church, and to symbolize with the other robes the quasi-sacerdotal character of the kingship (see CORONATION). The magnificent so-called dalmatic of Charlemagne, preserved at Rome (see EMBROIDERY), is really a Greek sakkos.

See Joseph Braun, S.J., _Die liturgische Gewandung_ (Freiburg im
Breisgau, 1907), pp. 247-305. For further references and illustrations
see the article VESTMENTS. (W. A. P.)

DALMELLINGTON, a village of Ayrshire, Scotland, 15 m. S.E. of Ayr by a branch line, of which it is the terminus, of the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 1448. The district is rich in minerals--coal, ironstone, sandstone and limestone. Though the place is of great antiquity, the Roman road running near it, few remains of any interest exist. It was, however, a centre of activity in the Covenanting times.

DALOU, JULES (1838-1902), French sculptor, was the pupil of Carpeaux and Duret, and combined the vivacity and richness of the one with the academic purity and scholarship of the other. He is one of the most brilliant virtuosos of the French school, admirable alike in taste, execution and arrangement. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1867, but when in 1871 the troubles of the Commune broke out in Paris, he took refuge in England, where he rapidly made a name through his appointment at South Kensington. Here he laid the foundation of that great improvement which resulted in the development of the modern British school of sculpture, and at the same time executed a remarkable series of terra-cotta statuettes and groups, such as "A French Peasant Woman" (of which a bronze version under the title of "Maternity" is erected outside the Royal Exchange), the group of two Boulogne women called "The Reader" and "A Woman of Boulogne telling her Beads." He returned to France in 1879 and produced a number of masterpieces. His great relief of "Mirabeau replying to M. de Dreux-Breze," exhibited in 1883 and now at the Palais Bourbon, and the highly decorative panel, "Triumph of the Republic," were followed in 1885 by "The Procession of Silenus." For the city of Paris he executed his most elaborate and splendid achievement, the vast monument, "The Triumph of the Republic," erected, after twenty years' work, in the Place de la Nation, showing a symbolical figure of the Republic, aloft on her car, drawn by lions led by Liberty, attended by Labour and Justice, and followed by Peace. It is somewhat in the taste of the Louis XIV. period, ornate, but exquisite in every detail. Within a few days there was also inaugurated his great "Monument to Alphand" (1899), which almost equalled in the success achieved the monument to Delacroix in the Luxembourg Gardens. Dalou, who gained the _Grand Prix_ of the International exhibition of 1889, and was an officer of the Legion of Honour, was one of the founders of the New Salon (_Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts_), and was the first president of the sculpture section. In portraiture, whether statues or busts, his work is not less remarkable.

DALRADIAN, in geology, a series of metamorphic rocks, typically developed in the high ground which lies E. and S. of the Great Glen of Scotland. This was the old Celtic region of Dalradia, and in 1891 Sir A. Geikie proposed the name Dalradian as a convenient provisional designation for the complicated set of rocks to which it is difficult to assign a definite position in the stratigraphical sequence (_Q.J.G.S._ 47, p. 75). In Sir A. Geikie's words, "they consist in large proportion of altered sedimentary strata, now found in the form of mica-schist, graphite-schist, andalusite-schist, phyllite, schistose grit, greywacke and conglomerate, quartzite, limestone and other rocks, together with epidiorites, chlorite-schists, hornblende schists and other allied varieties, which probably mark sills, lava-sheets or beds of tuff, intercalated among the sediments. The total thickness of this assemblage of rocks must be many thousand feet." The Dalradian series includes the "Eastern or Younger schists" of eastern Sutherland, Ross-shire and Inverness-shire--the Moine gneiss, &c.--as well as the metamorphosed sedimentary and eruptive rocks of the central, eastern and south-western Highlands. The series has been traced into the north-western counties of Ireland. The whole of the Dalradian complex has suffered intense crushing and thrusting.

See PRE-CAMBRIAN; also J. B. Hill, _Q.J.G.S._, 1899, 55, and G.
Barrow, loc. cit., 1901, 57, and the _Annual Reports and Summaries of
Progress of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom_ from 1893
onwards.

DALRIADA, the name of two ancient Gaelic kingdoms, one in Ireland and the other in Scotland. The name means the home of the descendants of Riada. Irish Dalriada was the district which now forms the northern part of county Antrim, and from which about A.D. 500 some emigrants crossed over to Scotland, and founded in Argyllshire the Scottish kingdom of Dalriada. For a time Scottish Dalriada appears to have been dependent upon Irish Dalriada, but about 575 King Aidan secured its independence. One of Aidan's successors, Kenneth, became king of the Picts about 843, and gradually the name Dalriada both in Ireland and Scotland fell into disuse.

See W. F. Skene, _Celtic Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1876-1880).

DALRY (Gaelic, "the field of the king"), a mining and manufacturing town of Ayrshire, Scotland, on the Garnock, 23(1/4) m. S.W. of Glasgow, by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Pop. (1901) 5316. The public buildings include the library and reading-room, the assembly rooms, Davidshill hospital, Temperance hall and night asylum. There is a public park. The industries consist of woollen factories, worsted spinning, box-, cabinet-, coke- and brick-making, machine-knitting, currying and the manufacture of aerated waters. Coal and iron are found, but mining is not extensively pursued. In the vicinity are the iron works of Blair and Glengarnock, and a curious stalactite cave, known as Elf House, 30 ft. high and about 200 ft. long, offering some resemblance to a pointed aisle. Rye Water flows into the Garnock close to the town. Captain Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill (1530-1603), the captor of Dumbarton Castle, spent the closing years of his life at Dalry, where a considerable estate had been granted to him.

DALTON, JOHN (1766-1844), English chemist and physicist, was born about the 6th of September 1766 at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth in Cumberland. His father, Joseph Dalton, was a weaver in poor circumstances, who, with his wife (Deborah Greenup), belonged to the Society of Friends; they had three children--Jonathan, John and Mary. John received his early education from his father and from John Fletcher, teacher of the Quakers' school at Eaglesfield, on whose retirement in 1778 he himself started teaching. This youthful venture was not successful, the amount he received in fees being only about five shillings a week, and after two years he took to farm work. But he had received some instruction in mathematics from a distant relative, Elihu Robinson, and in 1781 he left his native village to become assistant to his cousin George Bewley who kept a school at Kendal. There he passed the next twelve years, becoming in 1785, through the retirement of his cousin, joint manager of the school with his elder brother Jonathan. About 1790 he seems to have thought of taking up law or medicine, but his projects met with no encouragement from his relatives and he remained at Kendal till, in the spring of 1793, he moved to Manchester, where he spent the rest of his life. Mainly through John Gough (1757-1825), a blind philosopher to whose aid he owed much of his scientific knowledge, he was appointed teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at the New College in Moseley Street (in 1880 transferred to Manchester College, Oxford), and that position he retained until the removal of the college to York in 1799, when he became a "public and private teacher of mathematics and chemistry."

During his residence in Kendal, Dalton had contributed solutions of problems and questions on various subjects to the _Gentlemen's_ and _Ladies' Diaries_, and in 1787 he began to keep a meteorological diary in which during the succeeding fifty-seven years he entered more than 200,000 observations. His first separate publication was _Meteorological Observations and Essays_ (1793), which contained the germs of several of his later discoveries; but in spite of the originality of its matter, the book met with only a limited sale. Another work by him, _Elements of English Grammar_, was published in 1801. In 1794 he was elected a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, and a few weeks after election he communicated his first paper on "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours," in which he gave the earliest account of the optical peculiarity known as Daltonism or colour-blindness, and summed up its characteristics as observed in himself and others. Besides the blue and purple of the spectrum he was able to recognize only one colour, yellow, or, as he says in his paper, "that part of the image which others call red appears to me little more than a shade or defect of light; after that the orange, yellow and green seem one colour which descends pretty uniformly from an intense to a rare yellow, making what I should call different shades of yellow." This paper was followed by many others on diverse topics--on rain and dew and the origin of springs, on heat, the colour of the sky, steam, the auxiliary verbs and participles of the English language and the reflection and refraction of light. In 1800 he became a secretary of the society, and in the following year he presented the important paper or series of papers, entitled "Experimental Essays on the constitution of mixed gases; on the force of steam or vapour of water and other liquids in different temperatures, both in Torricellian vacuum and in air; on evaporation; and on the expansion of gases by heat." The second of these essays opens with the striking remark, "There can scarcely be a doubt entertained respecting the reducibility of all elastic fluids of whatever kind, into liquids; and we ought not to despair of effecting it in low temperatures and by strong pressures exerted upon the unmixed gases"; further, after describing experiments to ascertain the tension of aqueous vapour at different points between 32 deg. and 212 deg. F., he concludes, from observations on the vapour of six different liquids, "that the variation of the force of vapour from all liquids is the same for the same variation of temperature, reckoning from vapour of any given force." In the fourth essay he remarks, "I see no sufficient reason why we may not conclude that all elastic fluids under the same pressure expand equally by heat and that for any given expansion of mercury, the corresponding expansion of air is proportionally something less, the higher the temperature.... It seems, therefore, that general laws respecting the absolute quantity and the nature of heat are more likely to be derived from elastic fluids than from other substances." He thus enunciated the law of the expansion of gases, stated some months later by Gay-Lussac. In the two or three years following the reading of these essays, he published several papers on similar topics, that on the "Absorption of gases by water and other liquids" (1803), containing his "Law of partial pressures."