DOMINION OF CANADA 400 DON carry no weapon of offense, and to per- form stated devotions. Similar orders existed in connection with the Francis- cans and the Praemonstratensians. The members were entitled to be buried in the habit of the order. DOMINION OF CANADA. See CAN- ADA. DOMINIS (dom'e-nes), MARCO AN- TONIO, DE, a Dalmatian priest and scientist; born in the island of Arbe in 1566. He became in turn a physician, a Jesuit and Archbishop of Spalatro. He was the first to explain the rainbow. He denied the Pope's supremacy and later accepted it. He died in prison in Rome in 1624. DOMINIUM, in Roman law, the right by which any one exercised control over property, and by which he was entitled to retain or alienate it at pleasure, as op- posed to a mere life Interest, or posses- sory or equitable right. Dominium di- rection, in feudal law, is the interest or superiority vested in the superior; and dominum utile is the interest or prop- erty vested in the vassal, as distinguished from that of the lord. DOMINO, the name formerly given to the hood or cape worn in winter by priests while officiating in cold edifices. It is now used to signify a masquerade costume, consisting of an ample cloak with wide sleeves and a hood. DOMINOES, a game played with small flat rectangular pieces of ivory, about twice as long as they are broad. They are marked with spots varying in number. When one player leads by lajnng down a domino, the next must follow by placing alongside of it another which has the same number of spots on one of its sides. Thus, if the first player lays down 6-4, the second may reply with 4-8, or 6-7, etc.; m the former case he must turn in the 4, placing it beside the 4 of the first domino, so that the numbers remaining out will be 6-8 ; in the latter case he must turn in the 6 to the 6 in like manner, leaving 4-7, to which his opponent must now respond. The player who cannot follow suit loses his turn, and the object of the game is to get rid of all the dominoes in hand, or to i fewer spots than your opponent when the game is exhausted by neither being able to play. The game was in- vented in the 18th century. DOMINUS, the Latin word which we commonly render by "lord," but which more properly signifies the master of a house, and his eldest son, as opposed to slave (servus). The term is applied by Christians to God and to Jesus as Him- self God. The Scottish "dominie," in the sens- of schoolmaster, is of course taken from it, as is the same term in America, where in some places it is the title of a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and in others is applied to Protestant clergymen generally. DOMITIA (do-mish'ya), a Roman ent- press; born in Gaul about 56 A. D. She was the daughter of Domitius Corbulo, a general of Nero's reign. She was mar- ried first to ^lius Lamia, but the Em- peror Domitian took her lor his wife. Finding that her new husband intended to have her executed she caused his as- sassination in 96 A. D. Her subsequent career is uncertain, although she is said to have died in Rome about 100 A. D. DOMITIAN, TITUS FLAVIUS AU- GUSTUS (do-mish'yan), the last of the "Twelve Caesars," and youngest son of the Emperor Vespasian; born in 51 A. D. He early displayed the licentiousness and cruelty of his disposition, and was kept — both by his father and by his brother, the noble Titus, who succeeded Vespasian — entirely apart from public life. When proclaimed emperor, on the death of Titus, which he is suspected of having accelerated, if not procured, he proved the wisdom of the restraint which had been put upon him by the ferocity of his conduct. Aspiring to military fame he was unsuccessful in his undertakings, and after his defeat by the Dacians, who compelled him to make a humiliating peace, his natural disposition, suspicious, savage, gloomy and morose, manifested itself in all its naked deformity. To be honorable and virtuous was to be a mark for destruction, the mere suspicion of patriotism a warrant for death. His bloody reign furnishes some of the most thrilling pages of Tacitus; and points with its keenest shafts the withering irony of the satirist Juvenal. After escap- ing from many conspiracies, the monster fell, on Sept. 18, 96, the victim of a plot in which his wife, Domicia, bore a promi- nent part. DON (ancient, Tana'is), a river of Russia, which issues from Lake Ivan- Ozero, in the government of Tula; and flows S. E. through governments Riazan, Tambov, Voronej, and Don Cossacks, to within 37 miles of the Volga, where it turns abruptly S. W. for 236 miles, and falls into the Sea of Azof; whole course nearly 900 miles. The chief tributaries are: Right bank, the Donetz and Voronej ; left, the Khoper and Manitsch. Al- though not admitting vessels of much draught, the Don carries a large traffic especially during the spring floods, and a canal connects it with the Volga system of navigation. It has also very extensive and productive fisheries.
