Chapter XVII: Act 1834: , and a purchaser of land no longer need trouble himself to (2)

DRACHMANN, HOLGER HENRIK HERBOLDT (1846-1908), Danish poet and dramatist, son of Dr A. G. Drachmann, a physician of Copenhagen, whose family was of German extraction, was born in Copenhagen on the 9th of October 1846. Owing to the early death of his mother, who was a Dane, the child was left much to his own devices. He soon developed a fondness for semi-poetical performances, and loved to organize among his companions heroic games, in which he himself took such parts as those of Tordenskjold and Niels Juul. His studies were belated, and he did not enter the university until 1865, leaving it in 1866 to become a student in the Academy of Fine Arts. From 1866 to 1870 he was learning, under Professor Sorensen, to become a marine painter, and not without success. But about the latter date he came under the influence of Georg Brandes, and, without abandoning art, he began to give himself more and more to literature. At various periods he travelled very extensively in England, Scotland, France, Spain and Italy, and his literary career began by his sending letters about his journeys to the Danish newspapers. After returning home, he settled for some time in the island of Bornholm, painting seascapes. He now issued his earliest volume of poems, _Digte_ (1872), and joined the group of young Radical writers who gathered under the banner of Brandes. Drachmann was unsettled, and still doubted whether his real strength lay in the pencil or in the pen. By this time he had enjoyed a surprising experience of life, especially among sailors, fishermen, students and artists, and the issues of the Franco-German War and the French Commune had persuaded him that a new and glorious era was at hand. His volume of lyrics, _Daempede Melodier_ ("Muffled Melodies," 1875), proved that Drachmann was a poet with a real vocation, and he began to produce books in prose and verse with great rapidity. _Ungt Blod_ ("Young Blood," 1876) contained three realistic stories of contemporary life. But he returned to his true field in his magnificent _Sange ved Havet; Venezia_ ("Songs of the Sea; Venice," 1877), and won the passionate admiration of his countrymen by his prose work, with interludes in verse, called _Derovre fra Graensen_ ("Over the Frontier there," 1877), a series of impressions made on Drachmann by a visit to the scenes of the war with Germany. During the succeeding years he was a great traveller, visiting most of the principal countries of the world, but particularly familiarizing himself, by protracted voyages, with the sea and with the life of man in maritime places. In 1879 he published _Ranker og Roser_ ("Tendrils and Roses"), amatory lyrics of a very high order of melody, in which he showed a great advance in technical art. To the same period belongs _Paa Somands Tro og Love_ ("On the Faith and Honour of a Sailor," 1878), a volume of short stories in prose. It was about this time that Drachmann broke with Brandes and the Radicals, and set himself at the head of a sort of "nationalist" or popular-Conservative party in Denmark. He continued to celebrate the life of the fishermen and sailors in books, whether in prose or verse, which were the most popular of their day. _Paul og Virginie_ and _Lars Kruse_ (both 1879); _Osten for Sol og vesten for Maone_ ("East of the Sun and Moon," 1880); _Puppe og Sommerfugl_ ("Chrysalis and Butterfly," 1882); and _Strandby Folk_ (1883) were among these. In 1882 Drachmann published his fine translation, or paraphrase, of Byron's _Don Juan_. In 1885 his romantic play called _Der var en Gang_ ("Once upon a Time") had a great success on the boards of the Royal theatre, Copenhagen; and his tragedies of _Volund Smed_ ("Wayland the Smith") and _Brav-Karl_ (1897) made him the most popular playwright of Denmark. He published in 1894 a volume of exquisitely fantastic _Melodramas_ in rhymed verse, a collection which contains some of Drachmann's most perfect work. His novel _Med den brede Pensel_ ("With a Broad Brush," 1887) was followed in 1890 by _Forskrevet_, the history of a young painter, Henrik Gerhard, and his revolt against his bourgeois surroundings. With this novel is closely connected _Den hellige Ild_ ("The Sacred Fire," 1899), in which Drachmann speaks in his own person. There is practically no story in this autobiographical volume, which abounds in lyrical passages. In 1899 he produced his romantic play called _Gurre_; in 1900 a brilliant lyrical drama, _Hallfred Vandraadeskjald_; and in 1903, _Det gronne Haab_. He died in Copenhagen on the 14th of January 1908.

See an article by K. Gjellerup in Dansk _Biografisk Lexikon_ vol. iv.
(Copenhagen, 1890). (E. G.)

DRACO (7th century B.C.), Athenian statesman, was Archon Eponymus (but see J. E. Sandys, _Constitution of Athens_, p. 12, note) in 621 B.C. His name has become proverbial as an inexorable lawgiver. Up to his time the laws of Athens were unwritten, and were administered arbitrarily by the Eupatridae. As at Rome by the twelve Tables, so at Athens it was found necessary to allay the discontent of the people by publishing these unwritten laws in a codified form, and Draco, himself a Eupatrid, carried this out. According to Plutarch (_Life of Solon_): "For nearly all crimes there was the same penalty of death. The man who was convicted of idleness, or who stole a cabbage or an apple, was liable to death no less than the robber of temples or the murderer." For the institution of the 51 Ephetae and their relation to the Areopagus in criminal jurisdiction see GREEK LAW, The orator Demades (d. c. 318 B.C.) said that Draco's laws were written in blood. Whether this implies peculiar severity, or merely reflects the attitude of a more refined age to the barbarous enactments of a primitive people, among whom the penalty of death was almost universal for all crimes, cannot be decided. According to Suidas, however, in his _Lexicon_, the people were so overjoyed at the change he made, that they accidentally suffocated him in the theatre at Aegina with the rain of caps and cloaks which they flung at him in their enthusiasm.

The appearance in 1891 of Aristotle's lost treatise on the constitution of Athens gave rise to a most important controversy on the subject of Draco's work. From the statements contained in chapter iv. of this treatise, and inferences drawn from them, many scholars attributed to Draco the construction of an entirely new constitution for Athens, the main features of which were: (1) extension of franchise to all who could provide themselves with a suit of armour--or, as Gilbert (_Constitutional Antiquities_, Eng. trans. p. 121) says, to the Zeugite class, from which mainly the hoplites may be supposed to have come; (2) the institution of a property qualification for office (archon 10 minae, strategus 100 minae); (3) a council of 401 members (see BOUL[=E]); (4) magistrates and councillors to be chosen by lot; further, the four Solonian classes are said to be already in existence.

For some time, especially in Germany, this constitution was almost universally accepted; now, the majority of scholars reject it. The reasons against it, which are almost overwhelming, may be shortly summarized. (1) It is ignored by every other ancient authority, except an admittedly spurious passage in Plato[1]; whereas Aristotle says of his laws "they are laws, but he _added the laws to an existing constitution_" (Pol. ii. 9. 9). (2) It is inconsistent with other passages in the _Constitution of Athens_. According to c. vii., Solon repealed all laws of Draco except those relating to murder; yet some of the most modern features of Solon's constitution are found in Draco's constitution. (3) Its ideas are alien to the 7th century. It has been said that the qualification of the strategus was ten times that of the archon. This, reasonable in the 5th, is preposterous in the 7th century, when the archon was unquestionably the supreme executive official. Again, it is unlikely that Solon, a democratic reformer, would have reverted from a democratic wealth' qualification such as is attributed to Draco, to an aristocratic birth qualification. Thirdly, if Draco had instituted a hoplite census, Solon would not have substituted citizenship by birth. (4) The terminology of Draco's constitution is that of the 5th, not the 7th, century, whereas the chief difficulty of Solon's laws is the obsolete 6th-century phraseology. (5) Lastly, a comparison between the ideals of the oligarchs under Theramenes (end of 5th century) and this alleged constitution shows a suspicious similarity (hoplite census, nobody to hold office a second time until all duly qualified persons had been exhausted, fine of one drachma for non-attendance in Boul[=e]). It is reasonable, therefore, to conclude that the constitution of Draco was invented by the school of Theramenes, who wished to surround their revolutionary views with the halo of antiquity; hence the allusion to "the constitution of our father" ([Greek: he patrios politeia]).

This hypothesis is further corroborated by a criticism of the text. Not only is chapter iv. considered to be an interpolation in the text as originally written, but later chapters have been edited to accord with it. Thus chapter iv. breaks the connexion of thought between chapters iii. and v. Moreover, an interpolator has inserted phrases to remove what would otherwise have been obvious contradictions: thus (a) in chapter vii., where we are told that Solon divided the citizens into four classes ([Greek: timemata]), the interpolator had added the words "according to the division formerly existing" ([Greek: kathaper dieretai kai proteron]), which were necessary in view of the statement that Draco gave the franchise to the Zeugites; (b) in chapter xli., where successive constitutional changes are recorded, the words "the Draconian" ([Greek: he epi Drakontos]) are inserted, though the subsequent figures are not accommodated to the change. Solon is also here spoken of as the founder of democracy, whereas the Draconian constitution of chap. iv. contains several democratic innovations. Two further points may be added, namely, that whereas Aristotle's treatise credits Draco with establishing a money fine, Pollux definitely quotes a law of Draco in which fines are assessed at so many oxen; secondly, if chapter iv. did exist in the original text, it is more than curious that though the treatise was widely read in antiquity there is no other reference to Draco's constitution except the two quoted above. In any case, whatever were Draco's laws, we learn from Plutarch's life of Solon that Solon abolished all of them, except those dealing with homicide.

AUTHORITIES.--Beside the works of J. E. Sandys and G. Gilbert quoted
above, see those quoted in article CONSTITUTION OF ATHENS; Grote,
_Hist. of Greece_ (ed. 1907), pp. 9-11, with references; and histories
of Greece published after 1894. (J. M. M.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] A passage (long overlooked) in Cicero, _De republica_, shows
that, by the 1st century B.C. the interpolation had already been
made; the quotation is evidently taken from the list in c. xli. of
the _Constitution_, which it reproduces.

DRACO ("the Dragon"), in astronomy, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th century B.C.) and Aratus (3rd century B.C.); it was catalogued by Ptolemy, 31 stars, Tycho Brahe, 32, Hevelius, 40. The Greeks had many fables concerning this constellation; one is that when Heracles killed the dragon guarding the Hesperian fruit Hera transferred the creature to heaven as a reward for its services. The planetary nebula _H. IV. 37 Draconis_ is of a decided pale blue colour, and one of the most conspicuous objects of its class.

DRACONTIUS, BLOSSIUS AEMILIUS, of Carthage (according to the early tradition, of Spanish origin), Christian poet, flourished in the latter part of the 5th century A.D. He belonged to a family of landed proprietors, and practised as an advocate in his native place. After the conquest of the country by the Vandals, Dracontius was at first allowed to retain possession of his estates, but was subsequently deprived of his property and thrown into prison by the Vandal king, whose triumphs he had omitted to celebrate, while he had written a panegyric on a foreign and hostile ruler. He subsequently addressed an elegiac poem to the king, asking pardon and pleading for release. The result is not known, but it is supposed that Dracontius obtained his liberty and migrated to northern Italy in search of peace and quietness. This is consistent with the discovery at Bobbio of a 15th-century MS., now in the Museo Borbonico at Naples, containing a number of poems by Dracontius (the _Carmina minora_). The most important of his works is the _De laudibus Dei_ or _De Deo_ in three books, wrongly attributed by MS. tradition to St Augustine. The account of the creation, which occupies the greater part of the first book, was at an early date edited separately under the title of _Hexaemeron_, and it was not till 1791 that the three books were edited by Cardinal Arevalo. The apology (_Satisfactio_) consists of 158 elegiac couplets; it is generally supposed that the king addressed is Gunthamund (484-496). The _Carmina minora_, nearly all in hexameter verse, consist of school exercises and rhetorical declamations, amongst others the fable of Hylas, with a preface to his tutor, the grammarian Felicianus; the rape of Helen; the story of Medea; two epithalamia. It is also probable that Dracontius was the author of the _Orestis tragoedia_, a poem of some 1000 hexameters, which in language, metre and general treatment of the subject exhibits a striking resemblance to the other works of Dracontius. Opinions differ as to his poetical merits, but, when due allowance is made for rhetorical exaggeration and consequent want of lucidity, his works show considerable vigour of expression, and a remarkable knowledge of the Bible and of Roman classical literature.

EDITIONS.--_De Deo_ and _Satisfactio_, ed. Arevalo, reprinted in
Migne's _Patrologiae cursus_, lx.; _Carmina minora_, ed. F. de Duhn
(1873). On Dracontius generally, see A. Ebert, _Allgemeine Geschichte
der Lit. des Mittelalters im Abendlande_, i. (1874); C. Rossberg, _In
D. Carmina minora_ (1878); H. Mailfait, _De Dracontii poetae lingua_
(1902). On the _Orestis tragoedia_, see editions by R. Peiper (1875)
and C. Giarratino (Milan, 1906); pamphlets by C. Rossberg (1880, on
the authorship; 1888, materials for a commentary).

DRAFTED MASONRY, in architecture, the term given to large stones, on the face of which has been dressed round the edge a draft or sunken surface, leaving the centre portion as it came from the quarry. The dressing is worked with an adze of eight teeth to the inch, used in a vertical direction and to a width of 2 to 4 in. The earliest example of drafted masonry is found in the immense platform built by Cyrus 530 B.C. at Pasargadae in Persia. It occurs again in the palace of Hyrcanus, known as the Arak-el-Emir (176 B.C.), but is there inferior in execution. The finest drafted masonry is that dating from the time of Herod, in the tower of David and the walls of the Haram in Jerusalem, and at Hebron. In the castles built by the Crusaders, the adze has been worked in a diagonal direction instead of vertically. In all these examples the size of the stones employed is sometimes enormous, so that the traditional influence of the Phoenician masons seems to have lasted till the 12th century.

DRAG (from the Old Eng. _dragan_, to draw; the word preserves the _g_ which phonetically developed into _w_), that which is drawn or pulled along a surface, or is used for drawing or pulling. The term is thus applied to a harrow for breaking up clods of earth, or for an apparatus, such as a grapnel, net or dredge, used for searching water for drowned bodies or other objects. As a name of a vehicle, "drag" is sometimes used as equivalent to "break," a heavy carriage without a body used for training horses, and also a large kind of wagonette, but is more usually applied to a privately owned four-horse coach for four-in-hand driving. The word is also given to the "shoe" of wood or iron, placed under the wheel to act as a brake, and also to the "drift" or "sea-anchor," usually made of spars and sails, employed for checking the lee-way of a ship when drifting. In fox-hunting, the "drag" is the line of scent left by the fox, but more particularly the term is given to a substitute for the hunting of a fox by hounds, an artificial line of scent being laid by the dragging of a bag of aniseed or other strong smelling substance which a pack will follow.

DRAGASHANI (Rumanian _Draga[s,]ani_), a town of Rumania, near the right bank of the river Olt, and on the railway between Caracal and Ramnicu Valcea. Pop. (1900) 4398. The town is of little commercial importance, but the vineyards on the neighbouring hills produce some of the best Walachian wines. Dragashani stands on the site of the Roman Rusidava. In 1821 the Turks routed the troops of Ypsilanti near the town.

DRAGOMAN (from the Arabic [Arabic: terjuman] _terjuman_, an interpreter or translator; the same root occurs in the Hebrew word _targum_ signifying translation, the title of the Chaldaean translation of the Bible), a comprehensive designation applied to all who act as intermediaries between Europeans and Orientals, from the hotel tout or travellers' guide, hired at a few shillings a day, to the chief dragoman of a foreign embassy whose functions include the carrying on of the most important political negotiations with the Ottoman government, or the dragoman of the imperial divan (the grand master of the ceremonies).

The original employment of dragomans by the Turkish government arose from its religious scruples to use any language save those of peoples which had adopted Islamism. The political relations between the Porte and the European states, more frequent in proportion as the Ottoman power declined, compelled the sultan's ministers to make use of interpreters, who rapidly acquired considerable influence. It soon became necessary to create the important post of chief dragoman at the Porte, and there was no choice save to appoint a Greek, as no other race in Turkey combined the requisite knowledge of languages with the tact and adroitness essential for conducting diplomatic negotiations. The first chief dragoman of the Porte was Panayot Nikousia, who held his office from 1665 to 1673. His successor, Alexander Mavrocordato, surnamed Exaporritos, was charged by the Turkish government with the delicate and arduous negotiation of the treaty of Carlowitz, and by his dexterity succeeded, in spite of his questionable fidelity to the interests of his employers, in gaining their entire confidence, and in becoming the factotum of Ottoman policy. From that time until 1821 the Greeks monopolized the management of Turkey's foreign relations, and soon established the regular system whereby the chief dragoman passed on as a matter of course to the dignity of hospodar of one of the Danubian principalities.

In the same way, the foreign representatives accredited to the Porte found it necessary, in the absence of duly qualified countrymen of their own, to engage the services of natives, Greek, Armenian, or Levantine, more or less thoroughly acquainted with the language, laws and administration of the country. Their duties were by no means confined to those of a mere translator, and they became the confidential and indispensable go-betweens of the foreign missions and the Porte. Though such dragomans enjoyed by treaty the protection of the country employing them, they were by local interests and family ties very intimately connected with the Turks, and the disadvantages of the system soon became apparent. Accordingly as early as 1669 the French government decided on the foundation of a school for French dragomans at Constantinople, for which in later years was substituted the _Ecole des langues orientales_ in Paris; most of the great powers eventually took some similar step, England also adopting in 1877 a system, since modified, for the selection and tuition of a corps of British-born dragomans.

The duties of an embassy dragoman are extensive and not easily defined. They have been described as partaking at once of those of a diplomatist, a magistrate, a legal adviser and an administrator. The functions of the first dragoman are mainly political; he accompanies the ambassador or minister at his audiences of the sultan and usually of the ministers, and it is he who is charged with the bulk of diplomatic negotiations at the palace or the Porte. The subordinate dragomans transact the less important business, comprising routine matters such as requests for the recognition of consuls, the settlement of claims or furthering of other demands of their nationals, and in general all the various matters in which the interests of foreign subjects may be concerned. An important part of the dragoman's duties is to attend during any legal proceedings to which a subject of his nationality is a party, as failing his attendance and his concurrence in the judgment delivered such proceedings are null and void. Moreover, the dragoman is frequently enabled, through the close relations which he necessarily maintains with different classes of Turkish officials, to furnish valuable and confidential information not otherwise obtainable. The high estimation in which the dragomans are held by most foreign powers is shown by the fact that they are usually and in the regular course promoted to the most important diplomatic posts. This is the case in the Russian and Austrian services (where more than one ambassador began his career as a junior dragoman) and generally in the German service; the French chief dragoman usually attains the rank of minister plenipotentiary. The value of a tactful and efficient intermediary can hardly be over-estimated, and in the East a personal interview of a few minutes often results in the conclusion of some important matter which would otherwise require the exchange of a long and laborious correspondence. The more important consulates in the provinces of Turkey are also provided with one or more dragomans, whose duties, _mutatis mutandis_, are of a similar though less important nature. In the same way banks, railway companies and financial institutions employ dragomans for facilitating their business relations with Turkish officials.

DRAGOMIROV, MICHAEL IVANOVICH (1830-1905), Russian general and military writer, was born on the 8th of November 1830. He entered the Guard infantry in 1849, becoming 2nd lieutenant in 1852 and lieutenant in 1854. In the latter year he was selected to study at the Nicholas Academy (staff college), and here he distinguished himself so much that he received a gold medal, an honour which, it is stated, was paid to a student of the academy only twice in the 19th century. In 1856 he was promoted staff-captain and in 1858 full captain, being sent in the latter year to study the military methods in vogue in other countries. He visited France, England and Belgium, and wrote voluminous reports on the instructional and manoeuvre camps of these countries at Chalons, Aldershot and Beverloo. In 1859 he was attached to the headquarters of the king of Sardinia during the campaign of Magenta and Solferino, and immediately upon his return to Russia he was sent to the Nicholas Academy as professor of tactics. Dragomirov played a leading part in the reorganization of the educational system of the army, and acted also as instructor to several princes of the imperial family. This post he held until 1863, when, as a lieutenant-colonel, he took part in the suppression of the Polish insurrection of 1863-64, returning to St Petersburg in the latter year as colonel and chief of staff to one of the Guard divisions. During the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Dragomirov was attached to the headquarters of the II. Prussian army. He was present at the battles on the upper Elbe and at Koniggratz, and his comments on the operations which he witnessed are of the greatest value to the student of tactics and of the war of 1866.

In 1868 he was made a major-general, and in the following year became chief of the staff in the Kiev military circumscription. In 1873 he was appointed to command the 14th division, and in this command he distinguished himself very greatly in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. The 14th division led the way at the crossing of the Danube at Zimnitza, Dragomirov being in charge of the delicate and difficult operation of crossing and landing under fire, and fulfilling his mission with complete success. Later, after the reverses before Plevna, he, with the cesarevich and Generals Todleben and Milutine, strenuously opposed the suggestion of the Grand-duke Nicholas that the Russian army should retreat into Rumania, and the demoralization of the greater part of the army was not permitted to spread to Dragomirov's division, which retained its discipline unimpaired and gave a splendid example to the rest.

He was wounded at the Shipka Pass, and, though promoted lieutenant-general soon after this, was not able to see further active service. He was also made adjutant-general to the tsar and chief of the 53rd Volhynia regiment of his old division. For eleven years thereafter General Dragomirov was chief of the Nicholas Academy, and it was during this period that he collated and introduced into the Russian army all the best military literature of Europe, and in many other ways was active in improving the moral and technical efficiency of the Russian officer-corps, especially of the staff officer. In 1889 Dragomirov became commander-in-chief of the Kiev military district, and governor-general of Kiev, Podolsk and Volhynia, retaining this post until 1903. He was promoted to the rank of general of infantry in 1891. His advanced age and failing health prevented his employment at the front during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5, but his advice was continually solicited by the general headquarters at St Petersburg, and while he disagreed with General Kuropatkin in many important questions of strategy and military policy, they both recommended a repetition of the strategy of 1812, even though the total abandonment of Port Arthur was involved therein. General Dragomirov died at Konotop on the 28th of October 1905. In addition to the orders which he already possessed, he received in 1901 the order of St Andrew.

His larger military works were mostly translated into French, and his occasional papers, extending over a period of nearly fifty years, appeared chiefly in the _Voienni Svornik_ and the _Razoiedschik_; his later articles in the last-named paper were, like the general orders he issued to his own troops, attentively studied throughout the Russian army. His critique of Tolstoy's _War and Peace_ attracted even wider attention. Dragomirov was, in formal tactics, the head of the "orthodox" school. His conservatism was not, however, the result of habit and early training, but of deliberate reasoning and choice. His model was, as he admitted in the war of 1866, the British infantry of the Peninsular War, but he sought to reach the ideal, not through the methods of repression against which the "advanced" tacticians revolted, but by means of thorough efficiency in the individual soldier and in the smaller units. He inculcated the "offensive at all costs," and the combination of crushing short-range fire and the bayonet charge. He carried out the ideas of Suvarov to the fullest extent, and many thought that he pressed them to a theoretical extreme unattainable in practice. His critics, however, did not always realize that Dragomirov depended, for the efficiency his unit required, on the capacity of the leader, and that an essential part of the self-sacrificing discipline he exacted from his officers was the power of assuming responsibility. The details of his brilliant achievement of Zimnitza suffice to give a clear idea of Dragomirov's personality and of the way in which his methods of training conduced to success.

DRAGON (Fr. _dragon_, through Lat. _draco_, from the Greek; connected with [Greek: derkomai], "see," and interpreted as "sharp-sighted"; O.H. Ger. _tracho_, _dracho_, M.H.G. _trache_, Mod. Ger. _Drachen_; A.S. _draca_, hence the equivalent English form "drake," "fire-drake," cf. Low Ger. and Swed. _drake_, Dan. _drage_), a fabulous monster, usually conceived as a huge winged fire-breathing lizard or snake. In Greece the word [Greek: drakon] was used originally of any large serpent, and the dragon of mythology, whatever shape it may have assumed, remains essentially a snake. For the part it has played in the myths and cults of various peoples and ages see the article SERPENT-WORSHIP. Here it may be said, in general, that in the East, where snakes are large and deadly (Chaldea, Assyria, Phoenicia, to a less degree in Egypt), the serpent or dragon was symbolic of the principle of evil. Thus Apophis, in the Egyptian religion, was the great serpent of the world of darkness vanquished by Ra, while in Chaldaea the goddess Ti[=a]mat, the female principle of primeval Chaos, took the form of a dragon. Thus, too, in the Hebrew sacred books the serpent or dragon is the source of death and sin, a conception which was adopted in the New Testament and so passed into Christian mythology. In Greece and Rome, on the other hand, while the oriental idea of the serpent as an evil power found an entrance and gave birth to a plentiful brood of terrors (the serpents of the Gorgons, Hydra, Chimaera and the like), the _dracontes_ were also at times conceived as beneficent powers, sharp-eyed dwellers in the inner parts of the earth, wise to discover its secrets and utter them in oracles, or powerful to invoke as guardian genii. Such were the sacred snakes in the temples of Aesculapius and the _sacri dracontes_ in that of the Bona Dea at Rome; or, as guardians, the Python at Delphi and the dragon of the Hesperides.

In general, however, the evil reputation of dragons was the stronger, and in Europe it outlived the other. Christianity, of course, confused the benevolent and malevolent serpent-deities of the ancient cults in a common condemnation. The very "wisdom of the serpent" made him suspect; the devil, said St Augustine, "leo et draco est; leo propter impetum, draco propter insidias." The dragon myths of the pagan East took new shapes in the legends of the victories of St Michael and St George; and the kindly snakes of the "good goddess" lived on in the _immanissimus draco_ whose baneful activity in a cave of the Capitol was cut short by the intervention of the saintly pope Silvester I. (Duchesne, _Liber pontificalis_, i. 109 seq.). In this respect indeed Christian mythology found itself in harmony with that of the pagan North. The similarity of the Northern and Oriental snake myths seems to point to some common origin in an antiquity too remote to be explored. Whatever be the origin of the Northern dragon, the myths, when they first become articulate for us, show him to be in all essentials the same as that of the South and East. He is a power of evil, guardian of hoards, the greedy withholder of good things from men; and the slaying of a dragon is the crowning achievement of heroes--of Siegmund, of Beowulf, of Sigurd, of Arthur, of Tristram--even of Lancelot, the beau ideal of medieval chivalry. Nor were these dragons anything but very real terrors, even in the imaginations of the learned, until comparatively modern times. As the waste places were cleared, indeed, they withdrew farther from the haunts of men, and in Europe their last lurking-places were the inaccessible heights of the Alps, where they lingered till Jacques Balmain set the fashion which has finally relegated them to the realm of myth. In the works of the older naturalists, even in the great _Historia animalium_ of so critical a spirit as Conrad Gesner (d. 1564), they still figure as part of the fauna known to science.

As to their form, this varied from the beginning. The Chaldaean dragon Ti[=a]mat had four legs, a scaly body, and wings. The Egyptian Apophis was a monstrous snake, as were also, originally at least, the Greek _dracontes_. The dragon of the Apocalypse (Rev. xii. 3), "the old serpent," is many-headed, like the Greek Hydra. The dragon slain by Beowulf is a snake (worm), for it "buckles like a bow "; but that done to death by Sigurd, though its motions are heavy and snake-like, has legs, for he wounds it "behind the shoulder." On the other hand, the dragon seen by King Arthur in his dreams is, according to Malory, winged and active, for it "swoughs" down from the sky. The belief in dragons and the conceptions of their shape were undoubtedly often determined, in Europe as in China, by the discovery of the remains of the gigantic extinct saurians.

The qualities of dragons being protective and terror-inspiring, and their effigies highly decorative, it is natural that they should have been early used as warlike emblems. Thus, in Homer (_Iliad_ xi. 36 seq.), Agamemnon has on his shield, besides the Gorgon's head, a blue three-headed snake ([Greek: drakon]), just as ages afterwards the Norse warriors painted dragons on their shields and carved dragons' heads on the prows of their ships. From the conquered Dacians, too, the Romans in Trajan's time borrowed the dragon ensign which became the standard of the cohort as the eagle was that of the legion; whence, by a long descent, the modern dragoon. Under the later East Roman emperors the purple dragon ensign became the ceremonial standard of the emperors, under the name of the [Greek: drakonteion]. The imperial fashion spread; or similar causes elsewhere produced similar results. In England before the Conquest the dragon was chief among the royal ensigns in war. Its origin, according to the legend preserved in the _Flores historiarum_, was as follows. Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur, had a vision of a flaming dragon in the sky, which his seers interpreted as meaning that he should come to the kingdom. When this happened, after the death of his brother Aurelius, "he ordered two golden dragons to be fashioned, like to those he had seen in the circle of the star, one of which he dedicated in the cathedral of Winchester, the other he kept by him to be carried into battle." From Uther Dragonhead, as the English called him, the Anglo-Saxon kings borrowed the ensign, their custom being, according to the _Flores_, to stand in battle _inter draconem et standardum_. The dragon ensign, which was borne before Richard I. in 1191 when on crusade "to the terror of the heathen beyond the sea," was that of the dukes of Normandy; but even after the loss of Normandy the dragon was the battle standard of English kings (_signum regium quod Draconem vocant_), and was displayed, e.g. by Henry III. in 1245 when he went to war against the Welsh. Not till the 20th century, under King Edward VII., was the dragon officially restored as proper only to the British race of Uther Pendragon, by its incorporation in the armorial bearings of the prince of Wales. As a matter of fact, however, the dragon ensign was common to nearly all nations, the reason for its popularity being naively stated in the romance of _Athis_ (quoted by Du Cange),

"Ce souloient Romains porter,
Ce nous fait moult a redouter:"

"This the Romans used to carry, This makes us very much to be feared." Thus the dragon and wyvern (i.e. a two-legged snake, M.E. _wivere_, viper) took their place as heraldic symbols (see HERALDRY).

As an ecclesiastical symbol it has remained consistent to the present day. Wherever it is represented it means the principle of evil, the devil and his works. In the middle ages the chief of these works was heresy, and the dragon of the medieval church legends and mystery plays was usually heresy. Thus the knightly order of the vanquished dragon, instituted by the emperor Sigismund in 1418, celebrated the victory of orthodoxy over John Huss. Hell, too, is represented in medieval art as a dragon with gaping jaws belching fire. Of the dragons carried in effigy in religious processions some have become famous, e.g. the Gargouille (gargoyle) at Rouen, the Graully at Metz, and the Tarasque at Tarascon. Their popularity tended to disguise their evil significance and to restore to them something of the beneficent qualities of the ancient _dracontes_ as local tutelary genii.

In the East, at the present day, the dragon is the national symbol of China and the badge of the imperial family, and as such it plays a large part in Chinese art. Chinese and Japanese dragons, though regarded as powers of the air, are wingless. They are among the deified forces of nature of the Taoist religion, and the shrines of the dragon-kings, who dwell partly in water and partly on land, are set along the banks of rivers.

The constellation Draco (_anguis_, _serpens_) was probably so called from its fanciful likeness to a snake. Numerous myths, in various countries, are however connected with it. The general character of these may be illustrated by the Greek story which explains the constellation as being the dragon of the Hesperides slain by Heracles and translated by Hera or Zeus to the heavens.

See C. V. Daremberg and E. Saglio, _Dictionnaire des antiquites
grecques et romaines_ (Paris, 1886, &c.), s.v. "Draco"; Pauly-Wissowa,
_Realencyclopadie_, s.v. "Drakon"; Du Cange, _Glossarium_, s.v.
"Draco"; _La Grande Encyclopedie_ s.v. "Dragon"; J. B. Panthot,
_Histoire des dragons et des escarboucles_ (Lyons, 1691). See also the
articles EGYPT: _Religion_, and BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN RELIGION.
(W. A. P.)

In zoology the name "dragon" is now applied to a highly interesting, but very harmless, group of small flying lizards forming the genus _Draco_, belonging to the _Agamidae_, a family of Saurian reptiles. About 20 species of "flying dragons" inhabit the various Indo-Malayan countries; one, _D. dussumieri_, occurs in Madras. They are small creatures, measuring about 10 in. long, including the tail, which in some cases is more than half of the entire length. The head is small, and the throat is provided with three pouches which are spread out when they lie on the trunks of trees. They are, however, chiefly remarkable for the wing-like cutaneous processes with which their sides are provided, and which are extended and supported by greatly elongated ribs. These form a sort of parachute by which the animals are enabled to glide from branch to branch of the trees on which they live, but, being altogether independent of the fore limbs, they cannot be regarded as true wings, nor do they enable the lizard to fly, but merely to make extensive leaps. But they have the habit of opening and folding these prettily coloured organs, when resting upon a branch, which gives them the appearance of butterflies. When not in use they are folded by the side after the manner of a fan, and the dragon can then walk or run with considerable agility. Its food consists of insects.

DRAGONETTI, DOMENICO (1763-1846), Italian double-bass player, was born in Venice on the 7th of April 1763. Having become famous as a performer on his instrument, he went to London in 1794, where his playing created a furore. He was the friend of Haydn and of Beethoven, and a well-known character in his day. He died in London on the 16th of April 1846.

DRAGON-FLY (Ger. _Wasserjungfer_; Swed. _trollslanda_; Dan. _guldsmed_; Dutch, _scherpstekendevlieg_; Fr. _demoiselle_), the popular English name applied to the members of a remarkable group of insects which formed the genus _Libellula_ of Linnaeus and the ancient authors. In some parts of the United States they appear to be known as "devil's darning needles," and in many parts of England are termed "horse-stingers." It is almost needless to say that (excepting to other insects upon which they prey) they are perfectly innocuous, though some of the larger species can inflict a momentarily painful bite with their powerful jaws. Their true systematic position is still contested and somewhat uncertain. By most of the older systematists they were placed as forming part of the heterogeneous order _Neuroptera_. J. C. Fabricius, however, elevated them to the rank of a distinct order, which he termed _Odonata_; and whatever may be the difference of opinion amongst authors at the present day, that term is almost universally employed for the group. W. F. Erichson transferred all the groups of so-called _Neuroptera_ with incomplete metamorphoses, hence including the dragon-flies, as a division of _Orthoptera_, which he termed _Pseudo-Neuroptera_. K. E. A. Gerstacker more recently also retains them in the _Orthoptera_, terming those groups in which the earlier states are subaquatic _Orthoptera amphibotica_. All entomologists are agreed in maintaining the insects as forming a group marked by characters at once extraordinary and isolated in their nature, and in most modern classifications they are treated as a distinct order.

The group _Odonata_ is divided into three families, and each of these again into two subfamilies. The families are the _Agrionidae_, _Aeschnidae_ and _Libellulidae_--the first including the subfamilies _Calopterygina_ and _Agrionina_, the second _Gomphina_ and _Aeschnina_, and the third _Cordulina_ and _Libellulina_.

_Anatomy._--The structure of a dragon-fly being so very remarkable, it
is necessary to enter somewhat extensively into details. The head is
comparatively small, and excavated posteriorly, connected very
slightly with the prothorax, on which it turns almost as on a pivot.
The eyes are, as a rule, enormous, often contiguous, and occupying
nearly the whole of the upper surface of the head, but sometimes
(_Agrionidae_ and _Gomphina_) widely distant; occupied by innumerable
facets, which are often larger on the upper portion. The antennae,
which are smaller in proportion than in almost any other insects,
consist only of two short swollen basal joints and a 5 or 6-jointed
bristle-like thread. The large labrum conceals the jaws and inner
mouth parts. The lower lip, or labium (formed by the conjoined second
maxillae), is attached to a very small chin piece (or mentum), and is
generally very large, often (_Agrionidae_) divided almost to its base
into two portions, or more frequently entire or nearly so; on each
side of it are two usually enormous hypertrophied pieces, which form
the "palpi," and which are often furnished at the tips with an
articulated spine (or terminal joint), the whole structure serving to
retain the prey. Considerable diversity of opinion exists with respect
to the composition of the mouth parts, and by some authors the "palpi"
have been termed the side pieces of the lower lip. The prothorax is
extremely small, consisting of only a narrow ring. The rest of the
thorax is very large, and consolidated into a single piece with
oblique sutures on the sides beneath the wings.

The abdomen varies excessively in form, the two extremes being the
filiform structure observable in most _Agrionidae_, and the very broad
and depressed formation seen in the familiar British _Libellula
depressa_. It consists of ten distinct segments, whereof the basal two
and those at the apex are short, the others elongate, the first being
excessively short. In a slit on the under side of the second in the
male, accompanied by external protuberances, are concealed the genital
organs: on the under side of the eighth in the female is a scale-like
formation, indicating the entrance to the oviduct. The tenth is always
provided in both sexes with prominent appendages, differing greatly in
form, and often furnishing the best specific (and even generic)
characters.

The legs vary in length and stoutness, but may, as a rule, be termed
long and slender. The anterior pair probably assist in capturing and
holding insect prey, but the greatest service all the legs render is
possibly in enabling the creature to rest lightly, so that it can quit
a position of repose in chase of passing prey in the quickest possible
manner. The coxa is short and stout, followed by a still shorter
trochanter; the femora and tibiae long and slender, almost invariably
furnished on their under surface with two series of strong spines, as
also are the tarsi, which consist of three slender joints, the last
having two long and slender claws.

The wings are always elongate, and furnished with strong longitudinal
neuration and dense transverse nervules strengthening the already
strong (although typically transparent) membrane. In the _Agrionidae_
both pairs are nearly equal, and are carried vertically and
longitudinally in repose, and the neuration and membrane are less
strong; hence the species of this family are not so powerful on the
wing as are those of the other groups in which the wings are
horizontally extended in a position ready for instant service. The
neuration is peculiar, and in many respects without precise analogy in
other groups of insects, but it is not necessary here to enter into
more than some special points. The arrangement of the nervures at the
base of the wing is very singular, and slight differences in it form
useful aids to classification. In the _Aeschnidae_ and _Libellulidae_
this arrangement results in the formation of a triangular space (known
as the "triangle"), which is either open or traversed by nervules; but
in many _Agrionidae_ this space, instead of being triangular, is
oblong or elongately quadrate, or with its upper edge partly straight
and partly oblique. This fixitude of type in neuration is not one of
the least important of the many peculiarities exhibited in these
insects.

The internal structure is comparatively simple. The existence of
salivary glands, denied by L. Duprix, has been asserted by O.
Poletajewa. The rest of the digestive apparatus consists of an
elongate canal extending from mouth to anus, comprising the
oesophagus, stomach and intestine, with certain dilatations and
constrictions; the characteristic Malpighian vessels are stated to
number about forty, placed round the posterior extremity of the
stomach. Dragon-flies eat their prey completely, and do not content
themselves by merely sucking its juices; the harder portions are
rejected as elongate, nearly dry, pellets of excrement.

_Pairing._--But the most extraordinary feature in the economy--one
which has attracted the attention of naturalists from remote times--is
the position of the genital organs, and the corresponding anomalous
manner in which the pairing of the sexes and impregnation is effected.
In the male the intromittent organ is situated in a slit on the under
surface of the second abdominal segment; it is usually very crooked or
sinuous in form, and is accompanied by sheaths, and by external hooks
or secondary appendages, and also by seminal vessels. But the ducts of
the vessels connected with the testes unite and open on the under
surface of the ninth segment; hence, before copulation can take place,
it is necessary that the vessels in the second segment be charged
from this opening, and in the majority of cases this is done by the
male previously to seeking the female. In the latter sex the entrance
to the oviduct and genital organs is on the under surface of the
eighth abdominal segment. The act of pairing may be briefly stated as
follows. The male, when flying, seizes the prothorax of the female
with the strong appendages at the extremity of the abdomen, and the
abdomen of this latter sex is then curved upward so as to bring the
under side of the eighth segment into contact with the organs of the
second segment of the male. In the more powerful _Libellulidae_, &c.,
the act is of short duration, and it is probable that polygamy and
polyandry exist, for it possibly requires more than one almost
momentary act to fertilize all the eggs in the ovaries of a female.
But in many _Agrionidae_, and in some others, the male keeps his hold
of the prothorax of the female for a lengthened period, retaining
himself in flight in an almost perpendicular manner, and it may be
that the deposition of eggs and pairing goes on alternately. There is,
however, much yet to be learned on these points. The gravid female
usually lays her eggs in masses (but perhaps sometimes singly), and
the operation may be witnessed by any one in localities frequented by
these insects. She hovers for a considerable time over nearly the same
spot, rapidly dipping the apex of her abdomen into the water, or at
any rate touching it, and often in places where there are no
water-weeds, so that in all probability the eggs fall at once to the
bottom. But in some of the _Agrionidae_ the female has been often
noticed by trustworthy observers to creep down the stems of aquatic
plants several inches below the surface, emerging after the act of
oviposition has been effected; and in the case of _Lestes sponsa_, K.
T. E. von Siebold saw the male descend with the female. The same exact
observer noticed also in this species that the female makes slight
incisions in the stems or leaves of water plants with the double
serrated apparatus (vulva) forming a prolongation of the ninth segment
beneath, depositing an egg in each incision. He has seen two pairs
thus occupied beneath the surface on one and the same stem.