(1755); E. Egger,
L’Hellénisme en France, ii. (1869); Mémoires de Saint-Simon, iii.; R. Rigault,
Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modernes (1856).
DACITE (from Dacia, mod. Transylvania), in petrology, volcanic rocks which may be considered a quartz-bearing variety of andesite. Like the latter they consist for the most part of plagioclase felspar with biotite, hornblende, augite or enstatite, and have generally a porphyritic structure, but they contain also quartz as rounded, corroded phenocrysts, or as an element of the ground-mass. Their felspar ranges from oligoclase to andesite and labradorite, and is often very zonal; sanidine occurs also in some dacites, and when abundant gives rise to rocks which form transitions to the rhyolites. The biotite is brown; the hornblende brown or greenish brown; the augite usually green. The ground-mass of these rocks is often micro-crystalline, with a web of minute felspars mixed with interstitial grains of quartz; but in many dacites it is largely vitreous, while in others it is felsitic or cryptocrystalline. In the hand specimen many of the hornblende and biotite dacites are grey or pale brown and yellow rocks with white felspars, and black crystals of biotite and hornblende. Other dacites, especially augite- and enstatite-dacites, are darker coloured. The rocks of this group occur in Hungary, Almería (Spain), Argyllshire and other parts of Scotland, New Zealand, the Andes, Martinique, Nevada and other districts of western North America, Greece, &c. They are mostly associated with andesites and trachytes, and form lava flows, dikes, and in some cases massive intrusions in the centres of old volcanoes. Among continental petrographers the older dacites (Carboniferous, &c.) are often known as “porphyrites.” (J. S. F.)
DACOIT, a term used in India for a robber belonging to an
armed gang. The word is derived from the Hindustani dakait,
and being current in Bengal got into the Indian penal code.
By law, to constitute dacoity, there must be five or more in the
gang committing the crime. In the time of the Thugs (q.v.) a
special police department was created in India to deal with
thuggy and dacoity (thagi and dakaiti), which exists down to the
present day. In Burma also the word dacoit came to be applied
in a special sense to the armed gangs, which maintained a state
of guerilla warfare for several years after the defeat of the king
and his army. (See Burmese Wars.)
DA COSTA, ISAAK (1798–1860), Dutch poet and theologian, was born at Amsterdam on the 14th of January 1798. His
father was a Jew of Portuguese descent, and claimed kindred
with the celebrated Uriel D’Acosta. An early acquaintance
with Bilderdijk had a strong influence over the boy both in
poetry and in theology. He studied at Amsterdam, and afterwards
at Leiden, where he took his doctor’s degree in law in
1818, and in literature in 1821. In 1814 he wrote De Verlossing van Nederland, a patriotic poem, which placed him in line with
the contemporary national romantic poets in Germany and in
France. His Poëzy (2 vols., 1821–1822) revealed his emancipation
from the Bilderdijk tradition, and the oriental colouring of
his poems, his hymn to Lamartine, and his translation of part of
Byron’s Cain, establish his claim to be considered as the earliest
of the Dutch romantic poets. In 1822 he became a convert to
Christianity, and immediately afterwards asserted himself as a
champion of orthodoxy and an assailant of latitudinarianism in
his Bezwaren tegen den Geest der Eeuw (1823). He took a lively
interest in missions to the Jews, and towards the close of his
life was a director of the seminary established in Amsterdam in
connexion with the mission of the Free Church of Scotland. He
died at Amsterdam on the 28th of April 1860. Da Costa ranked
first among the poets of Holland after the death of Bilderdijk.
His principal poetical works were: Alphonsus I. (1818), a
tragedy; Poëzy (Leiden, 1821); God metons (1826); Festliedern
(1828); Vijf-en-twintig jaren (1840); Hagar (1852);
De Slag bij Nieupoort (1857). He also translated The Persians (1816)
and the Prometheus (1818) of Aeschylus, and edited the poetical
works of Bilderdijk in sixteen volumes, the last volume being an
account of the poet. He was the author of a number of theological
works, chiefly in connexion with the criticism of the gospels.
His complete poetical works were edited by J. P. Hasebroek (3 vols., Haarlem, 1861–1862). See G. Groen van Prinsterer, Brieven van, Mr I. da Costa, 1830–1849 (1872), and J. ten Brink, Geschiedenis der Noord-Nederlandsche Letteren in de XIX e Eeuw (vol. i., 1888), which contains a complete bibliography of his works.
DACTYL (from Gr. δάκτυλος, a finger), in prosody, a long syllable followed by two short (see Verse).
DAEDALUS, a mythical Greek architect and sculptor, who figures largely in the early legends of Crete and of Athens. He was said to have built the labyrinth for Minos, to have made a wooden cow for Pasiphaë and to have fashioned a bronze man who repelled the Argonauts. Falling under the displeasure of Minos, he fashioned wings for himself and his son Icarus, and escaped to Sicily. These legends seem primarily to belong to Crete; and the Athenian element in them which connected Daedalus with the royal house of Erechtheus is a later fabrication. To Daedalus the Greeks of the historic age were in the habit of attributing buildings, and statues the origin of which was lost in the past, and which had no inscription belonging to them. In a later verse in the Iliad (date, 7th or 6th century), Daedalus is mentioned as the maker of a dancing-place for Ariadne in Crete; and such a dancing-place has been discovered by A. J. Evans, in the Minoan palace of Cnossus. Diodorus Siculus says that he executed various works in Sicily for King Cocalus. In many cities of Greece there were rude wooden statues, said to be by him. Later critics, judging from their own notions of the natural course of development in art, ascribed to Daedalus such improvements as separating the legs of statues and opening their eyes. In fact the name Daedalus is a mere symbol, standing for a particular phase of early Greek art, when wood was the chief material, and other substances were let into it for variety.
This Daedalus must not be confused with Daedalus of Sicyon, a great sculptor of the early part of the 4th century B.C., none of whose works is extant. (P. G.)
DAFFODIL, the common name of a group of plants of the genus Narcissus, and natural order Amaryllidaceae. (See generally
under Narcissus.) The common daffodil,
N. Pseudo-narcissus,
is common in woods and thickets in most parts of the N. of
Europe, but is rare in Scotland. Its leaves are five or six in
number, are about a foot in length and an inch in breadth, and
have a blunt keel and flat edges. The stem is about 18 in. long,
and the spathe single-flowered. The flowers are large, yellow,
scented and a little drooping, with a corolla deeply cleft into
six lobes, and a central bell-shaped nectary, which is crisped at
the margin. They appear early in the year, or, as Shakespeare
says, “come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of
March with beauty.” The stamens are shorter than the cup,
the anthers oblong and converging; the ovary is globose, and
has three furrows; the seeds are roundish and black. Many
new varieties of the flower have recently been cultivated in
gardens. The bulbs are large and orbicular, and have a blackish
coat; they, as well as the flowers, are reputed to be emetic in
properties. The Peruvian daffodil and the sea daffodil are
species of the genus Ismene. (For derivation see Asphodel.)
DAFYDD AB GWILYM (c. 1340–c. 1400), son of Gwilym Gam and Ardudful Fychan, greatest of the medieval Welsh poets, was born at Bro Gynin, Cardiganshire, about the year 1340. Educated by a scholarly uncle, Llewelyn ab Gwilym Fychan of Emlyn, he became steward to his kinsman, Ivor Hael of Maesaleg, Monmouthshire, who also appointed him instructor to his daughter. The latter arrangement leading to an attachment between tutor and pupil, the girl was banished to a convent in Anglesey, whither the poet followed her, taking service in an adjacent monastery, but on returning to Maesaleg he was permitted to retain his stewardship. He was elected chief bard of Glamorgan and became household bard to Ivor Hael. At Rhosyr in North Wales he met Morfudd Lawgam, to whom he addressed 147 amatory odes. In consequence of attempting to elope with this lady, Dafydd ab Gwilym, being unable to pay the fine demanded by her husband, was imprisoned. Liberated by the goodwill of his friends, he went back to Maesaleg, and after the death of his patron, retired to his birthplace, Bro Gynin.
