Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/924

DASENT. don Times, and udileil the valualde lexicograph- ical work entitled Icehindic-English Dictionury (1874). In addition to a translation of The Younyer Edda (1842), he wrote the following: The Norsemen in Ireland (1853); The Story of Burnt Mjal (1801); and Selection of Norse Tales (1862). His fascinating narrative en- titled Annals of an Eventful Life passed through five editions (latest ed., 3 vols., 1870). DASH, diish. La Comtesse (Fr., Countess Dash). The nom-de-plume of Gabrielle Anne de Cisternes de C'ourtiras, Jlarquise de Saint-Jlars, a French novelist.

DASHKOFE, diish'kof, Ekaterina Roman- OVNA, Princess (1743-1810). A prominent fig- ure in Russian political and literary circles dur- ing the latter half of the eighteenth century. She was the daughter of Count Vorontsoff, and was born March 28, 1743. At the age of fifteen she was married to Prince Dashkotl', an officer of the Imperial Guard. As lady-in-waiting and intimate friend of the Grand Duchess Catharine, the Princess appears to have taken an extraor- dinarily active part in the conspiracy of 1762, which resulted in placing her mistress on the throne as Catharine II. (q.v.). Prince Dash- koff died in 1761, and his widow gave herself up to her children, to literature, and to politics. A coldness between herself and the Empress now ended in a quarrel and in her retirement from the Court. After an extended tour through Germany, England, France, and Italy, during which siie met almost all the gi'cat literary men of the day, the Princess returned to Russia in 1782, and was at once restored to Imperial favor. She was appointed director of the Russian Acad- emy of Science, and in 1783 became first presi- dent of the Russian Academy, which was estab- lislied through her efforts. On the death of Catharine II., in 1796, she was deprived of her offices, and ordered by Paul I. to retire to her estates at Novgorod. Later on she was allowed to reside in ^Moscow, where she died on January 16, 1810. In literature the Princess is remem- bered as the writer of several comedies, and as being mainly instrumental in inducing the Russian Academy to draw up a dictionary of the Russian language. The work was completed under her direction, and was in part written by her. Her memoirs liave been edited by Mrs. W. Bradford (London, 1840).

DASHT, daslit, or DESHT, desht. A river of Baluchistan, Asia, riuming through the south- western portion of the country and falling into the Arabian Sea near the Persian border (Map: Persia, H 7). Its northern branch, the Nihing, forms a part of the boundary between Baluchis- tan and Persia. The combined rivers are 175 miles long.

DASH'WOOD, Elinor and Maeianne. In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, two sisters typifying the two opposite qualities. DASS, das, Peter (1647-1708). The father of modern Norwegian poetry. He was born at Nord-Hero, the son of an immigrant Scotch merchant and a Norse woman of good breeding. He attained in the Church a position of dignity, responsibility, and some danger, on the north coast of Norway, where with brief intermis- sions he lived peacefully and wrote unremittingly verses and a garrulous Autohiorjrapliy. His work circulated in manuscript, but little was printed in his lifetime, and the first collection of his ll'orfcs was by Eriksen (Christiania, 1874-77). The Xorthland's Trumpet, his most famous poem, was not printed till 1739. This rhyming description of land and people, quaint, witty, fanciful, and in an unforgettable lilting measure, is known by heart throughout northern Norway. Note- worthy, too, are the ^'aUey Song (1696), and Spiritual Pastime (1711), a collection of reli- gious verse.

DAS'SIE, or DASSY (South African). A familiar diminutive in Cape Colony of the local Dutch name Klip-das for the South African hyrax (Procavia Capensis), also called rock- ral)bit by English colonists. See Hyrax.

DASTRE, das'tr', Frank Albert (1844—). A French pliysiologist, born in Paris. He studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure, of which he became fellow, and was appointed professor of natural history at the L}'cee Louis-le-Grand. In 1887 he was called to the chair of physiology at the Sorbonne. He translated S. Weir Mitchell's Injuries of Nerves, and Their Conse- quences (1872), as Des lesions des nerfs, et de leur consequence (1873), and wrote Role phy- siolopique du sucre de lait (1882); liecherches expcrimentales sur le systeme raso-moteur (with Morat, 1884), and other scientific works.

DASYP.ÆDES, das'i-pe'dez. See subtitle Plumagr, in the article Birds.

DASYURE, das'i-ur (from Gk. Sacis, dasys, shaggy + ovpd, oura, tail). A marsupial of the family Dasyurid;e, which includes various highly generalized carnivorous and insectivorous forms of Australasia allied to the opossums, and closely representative of Tertiary forms found fossil' in South America and elsewhere. Their hind and fore limbs are approximately equal,

DENTITION OF DASYTIRES. ,•?, Tasmanian wolf (Thylacinus); 6, Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus).

and the toes (of which the second and third of the hind feet are entirely free) are well devel- oped and clawed; their tails are long, hairy, curling, and not prehensile; their dentition is