[1] See Victor Mahillon, _Catalogue descriptif_ (Ghent, 1880), vol.
i. pp. 19 and 20.
[2] Joannes Mauburnius, _Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium et
sacrarum meditationum_ (Paris, 1510), Alphabetum, ix.
[3] _Vier Bucher der Ritterschaft; mit manicherleyen gerusten_, &c.;
(Augsburg, 1534).
[4] Carl Engel, _The Music of the Most Ancient Nations_ (London,
1864), p. 219.
[5] _Chron._ ii. p. 737, see also Grose's _Military Antiquities_, ii.
41.
[6] See Froissart in J. A. Buchon, _Pantheon litt._ (Paris, 1837),
vol. i. cap. 322, p. 273.
[7] Sir John Smythe, _A Brief Discourse_ (London, 1594), pp. 158-159.
[8] Lieut.-Col. W. Bariffe, _Militarie Discipline, or the Young
Artilleryman_ (London, 1643).
[9] Sir James Turner, _Pallas armata_ (1685), xxi. 302.
DRUMMOND, HENRY (1786-1860), English banker, politician and writer, best
known as one of the founders of the Catholic Apostolic or "Irvingite"
Church, was born at the Grange, near Alresford, Hampshire, on the 5th of
December 1786. He was the eldest son of Henry Drummond, a prominent
London banker, by a daughter of the first Lord Melville. He was educated
at Harrow and at Christ Church, Oxford, but took no degree. His name is
permanently connected with the university through the chair of political
economy which he founded in 1825. He entered parliament in early life,
and took an active interest from the first in nearly all departments of
politics. Thoroughly independent and often eccentric in his views, he
yet acted generally with the Conservative party. His speeches were often
almost inaudible but were generally lucid and informing, and on occasion
caustic and severe. From 1847 until his death in 1860 he represented
West Surrey in parliament. Drummond took a deep interest in religious
subjects, and published numerous books and pamphlets on such questions
as the interpretation of prophecy, the circulation of the Apocrypha, the
principles of Christianity, &c., which attracted considerable attention.
In 1817 he met Robert Haldane at Geneva, and continued his movement
against the Socinian tendencies then prevalent in that city. In later
years he was intimately associated with the origin and spread of the
Catholic Apostolic Church. Meetings of those who sympathized with the
views of Edward Irving were held for the study of prophecy at Drummond's
seat, Albury Park, in Surrey; he contributed very liberally to the funds
of the new church; and he became one of its leading office-bearers,
visiting Scotland as an "apostle" and being ordained as an "angel" for
that kingdom. The numerous works he wrote in defence of its distinctive
doctrines and practice were generally clear and vigorous, if seldom
convincing. He died on the 20th of February 1860.
DRUMMOND, HENRY (1851-1897), Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer,
was born in Stirling on the 17th of August 1851. He was educated at
Edinburgh University, where he displayed a strong inclination for
physical and mathematical science. The religious element was an even
more powerful factor in his nature, and disposed him to enter the Free
Church of Scotland. While preparing for the ministry, he became for a
time deeply interested in the evangelizing mission of Moody and Sankey,
in which he actively co-operated for two years. In 1877 he became
lecturer on natural science in the Free Church College, which enabled
him to combine all the pursuits for which he felt a vocation. His
studies resulted in his writing _Natural Law in the Spiritual World_,
the argument of which was that the scientific principle of continuity
extended from the physical world to the spiritual. Before the book
issued from the press (1883), a sudden invitation from the African Lakes
Company drew Drummond away to Central Africa. Upon his return in the
following year he found himself famous. Large bodies of serious readers,
alike among the religious and the scientific classes, discovered in
_Natural Law_ the common standing-ground which they needed; and the
universality of the demand proved, if nothing more, the seasonableness
of its publication. Drummond continued to be actively interested in
missionary and other movements among the Free Church students. In 1888
he published _Tropical Africa_, a valuable digest of information. In
1890 he travelled in Australia, and in 1893 delivered the Lowell
Lectures at Boston. It had been his intention to reserve them for mature
revision, but an attempted piracy compelled him to hasten their
publication, and they appeared in 1894 under the title of _The Ascent of
Man_. Their object was to vindicate for altruism, or the disinterested
care and compassion of animals for each other, an important part in
effecting "the survival of the fittest," a thesis previously maintained
by Professor John Fiske. Drummond's health failed shortly afterwards,
and he died on the 11th of March 1897. His character was full of charm.
His writings were too nicely adapted to the needs of his own day to
justify the expectation that they would long survive it, but few men
exercised more religious influence in their own generation, especially
on young men.
DRUMMOND, THOMAS (1797-1840), British inventor and administrator, was
born at Edinburgh on the 10th of October 1797, and was educated at the
high school there. He was appointed to a cadetship at the Royal Military
Academy, Woolwich, in 1813; and in 1815 he entered the Royal Engineers.
In 1819, when meditating the renunciation of military service for the
bar, he made the acquaintance of Colonel T. F. Colby (1784-1852), from
whom in the following year he received an appointment on the
trigonometrical survey of Great Britain. During his winters in London he
attended the chemical lectures of W. T. Brande and M. Faraday at the
Royal Institution, and the mention at one of these of the brilliant
luminosity of lime when incandescent suggested to him the employment of
the lime light for making distant surveying stations visible. In 1825,
when he was assisting Colby in the Irish survey, his lime-light
apparatus ("Drummond light") was put to a practical test, and enabled
observations to be completed between Divis mountain, near Belfast, and
Slieve Snaght, a distance of 67 m. About the same time he also devised
an improved heliostat, and in 1829 he was employed in adopting his light
for lighthouse purposes. In 1831 he entered political life and was
appointed superintendent of the boundary commission. Four years later he
was made under-secretary of state for Ireland, where he proved himself a
most successful administrator, and did much to promote law and order. It
was he who in 1838 told the Irish landlords that "property has its
duties as well as its rights." In 1836 he proposed the appointment of a
commission on railways in Ireland, and took a large share in its work,
which resulted in the recommendation, not, however, carried out, that
the state should construct a system of lines throughout the island.
Drummond's health was undermined by overwork, and he died at Dublin on
the 15th of April 1840.
See _Life_ by J. F. M'Lennan (1867); _Life and Letters_ by R. Barry
O'Brien (1889); and Sir T. A. Larcom in _Papers on the Duties of the
Royal Engineers_, vol. iv. (1840).
DRUMMOND, WILLIAM (1585-1649), called "of Hawthornden," Scottish poet,
was born at Hawthornden, near Edinburgh, on the 13th of December 1585.
His father, John Drummond, was the first laird of Hawthornden; and his
mother was Susannah Fowler, sister of William Fowler (q.v.), poet and
courtier. Drummond received his early education at the high school of
Edinburgh, and graduated in July 1605 as M.A. of the recently founded
university of Edinburgh. His father was a gentleman usher at the English
court (as he had been at the Scottish court from 1590) and William, in a
visit to London in 1606, describes the festivities in connexion with the
visit of the king of Denmark. Drummond spent two years at Bourges and
Paris in the study of law; and, in 1609, he was again in Scotland,
where, by the death of his father in the following year, he became laird
of Hawthornden at the early age of twenty-four. The list of books he
read up to this time is preserved in his own handwriting. It indicates a
strong preference for imaginative literature, and shows that he was
keenly interested in contemporary verse. His collection (now in the
library of the university of Edinburgh) contains many first editions of
the most famous productions of the age. On finding himself his own
master, Drummond naturally abandoned law for the muses; "for," says his
biographer in 1711, "the delicacy of his wit always run on the
pleasantness and usefulness of history, and on the fame and softness of
poetry." In 1612 began his correspondence with Sir William Alexander of
Menstrie, afterwards earl of Stirling (q.v.), which ripened into a
life-long friendship after Drummond's visit to Menstrie in 1614.
Drummond's first publication appeared in 1613, an elegy on the death of
Henry, prince of Wales, called _Teares on the Death of Meliades_
(_Moeliades_, 3rd edit. 1614). The poem shows the influence of Spenser's
and Sidney's pastoralism. In the same year he published an anthology of
the elegies of Chapman, Wither and others, entitled _Mausoleum_, or _The
Choisest Flowres of the Epitaphs_. In 1616, the year of Shakespeare's
death, appeared _Poems: Amorous, Funerall, Divine, Pastorall: in
Sonnets, Songs, Sextains, Madrigals_, being substantially the story of
his love for Mary Cunningham of Barns, who was about to become his wife
when she died in 1615. The poems bear marks of a close study of Sidney,
and of the Italian poets. He sometimes translates direct from the
Italian, especially from Marini. _Forth Feasting: A Panegyricke to the
King's Most Excellent Majestie_ (1617), a poem written in heroic
couplets of remarkable facility, celebrates James's visit to Scotland in
that year. In 1618 Drummond began a correspondence with Michael Drayton.
The two poets continued to write at intervals for thirteen years, the
last letter being dated in the year of Drayton's death. The latter had
almost been persuaded by his "dear Drummond" to print the later books of
_Poly-Olbion_ at Hart's Edinburgh press. In the winter of 1618-1619,
Drummond had included Ben Jonson in his circle of literary friends, and
at Christmas 1618 was honoured with a visit of a fortnight or more from
the dramatist. The account of their conversations, long supposed to be
lost, was discovered in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, by David
Laing, and was edited for the Shakespeare Society in 1842 and printed by
Gifford & Cunningham. The conversations are full of literary gossip, and
embody Ben's opinion of himself and of his host, whom he frankly told
that "his verses were too much of the schooles, and were not after the
fancie of the time," and again that he "was too good and simple, and
that oft a man's modestie made a fool of his witt." But the publication
of what was obviously intended merely for a private journal has given
Jonson an undeserved reputation for harsh judgments, and has cast blame
on Drummond for blackening his guest's memory.
In 1623 appeared the poet's fourth publication, entitled _Flowers of
Sion: By William Drummond of Hawthornedenne: to which is adjoyned his
Cypresse Grove_. From 1625 till 1630 Drummond was probably for the most
part engaged in travelling on the Continent. In 1627, however, he seems
to have been home for a short time, as, in that year, he appears in the
entirely new character of the holder of a patent for the construction of
military machines, entitled "Litera Magistri Gulielmi Drummond de
Fabrica Machinarum Militarium, Anno 1627." The same year, 1627, is the
date of Drummond's munificent gift (referred to above) of about 500
volumes to the library of the university of Edinburgh.
In 1630 Drummond again began to reside permanently at Hawthornden, and
in 1632 he married Elizabeth Logan, by whom he had five sons and four
daughters. In 1633 Charles made his coronation-visit to Scotland; and
Drummond's pen was employed in writing congratulatory speeches and
verses. As Drummond preferred Episcopacy to Presbytery, and was an
extremely loyal subject, he supported Charles's general policy, though
he protested against the methods employed to enforce it. When Lord
Balmerino was put on his trial on the capital charge of retaining in his
possession a petition regarded as a libel on the king's government,
Drummond in an energetic "Letter" (1635) urged the injustice and folly
of the proceedings. About this time a claim by the earl of Menteith to
the earldom of Strathearn, which was based on the assertion that Robert
III., husband of Annabella Drummond, was illegitimate, roused the poet's
pride of blood and prompted him to prepare an historical defence of his
house. Partly to please his kinsman the earl of Perth, and partly to
satisfy his own curiosity, the poet made researches in the genealogy of
the family. This investigation was the real secret of Drummond's
interest in Scottish history; and so we find that he now began his
_History of Scotland during the Reigns of the Five Jameses_, a work
which did not appear till 1655, and is remarkable only for its good
literary style. His next work was called forth by the king's enforced
submission to the opposition of his Scottish subjects. It is entitled
_Irene: or a Remonstrance for Concord, Amity, and Love amongst His
Majesty's Subjects_ (1638), and embodies Drummond's political creed of
submission to authority as the only logical refuge from democracy, which
he hated. In 1639 Drummond had to sign the Covenant in self-protection,
but was uneasy under the burden, as several political squibs by him
testify. In 1643 he published [Greek: Skiamachia]: _or a Defence of a
Petition tendered to the Lords of the Council of Scotland by certain
Noblemen and Gentlemen_, a political pamphlet in support of those
royalists in Scotland who wished to espouse the king's cause against the
English parliament. Its burden is an invective on the intolerance of the
then dominant Presbyterian clergy.
His later works may be described briefly as royalist pamphlets, written
with more or less caution, as the times required. Drummond took the part
of Montrose; and a letter from the Royalist leader in 1646 acknowledged
his services. He also wrote a pamphlet, "A Vindication of the
Hamiltons," supporting the claims of the duke of Hamilton to lead the
Scottish army which was to release Charles I. It is said that Drummond's
health received a severe shock when news was brought of the king's
execution. He died on the 4th of December 1649. He was buried in his
parish church of Lasswade.
Drummond's most important works are the _Cypresse Grove_ and the poems.
The _Cypresse Grove_ exhibits great wealth of illustration, and an
extraordinary command of musical English. It is an essay on the folly of
the fear of death. "This globe of the earth," says he, "which seemeth
huge to us, in respect of the universe, and compared with that wide
pavilion of heaven, is less than little, of no sensible quantity, and
but as a point." This is one of Drummond's favourite moods; and he uses
constantly in his poems such phrases as "the All," "this great All."
Even in such of his poems as may be called more distinctively Christian,
this philosophic conception is at work.
A noteworthy feature in Drummond's poetry, as in that of his courtier
contemporaries Ayton (q.v.), Lord Stirling and others, is that it
manifests no characteristic Scottish element, but owes its birth and
inspiration rather to the English and Italian masters. Drummond was
essentially a follower of Spenser, but, amid all his sensuousness, and
even in those lines most conspicuously beautiful, there is a dash of
melancholy thoughtfulness--a tendency deepened by the death of his first
love, Mary Cunningham. Drummond was called "the Scottish Petrarch"; and
his sonnets, which are the expression of a genuine passion, stand far
above most of the contemporary Petrarcan imitations. A remarkable
burlesque poem _Polemo-Middinia inter Vitarvam et Nebernam_ (printed
anonymously in 1684) has been persistently, and with good reason,
ascribed to him. It is a mock-heroic tale, in dog-Latin, of a country
feud on the Fifeshire lands of his old friends the Cunninghams.
Drummond's _Poems_, with _Cypresse Grove_, the _History_, and a few of
the minor tracts, were collected in 1656 and edited by Edward
Phillips, Milton's nephew. _The Works of William Drummond, of
Hawthornden_ (1711), edited by Bishop Sage and Thomas Ruddiman,
contains a life by the former, and some of the poet's letters. A
handsome edition of the _Poems_ was printed by the Maitland Club in
1832. Later editions are by Peter Cunningham (1833), by William R.
Turnbull in "The Library of Old Authors" (1856), and by W. C. Ward
(1894) for "The Muses' Library." The standard biography of Drummond is
by David Masson (1873). Extracts from the Hawthornden MSS. preserved
in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland were printed
by David Laing in _Archaeologia Scotica_, vol. iv.
DRUNKENNESS, a term signifying generally a state resulting from
excessive drinking, and usually associated with alcoholic intoxication,
or alcohol poisoning. It may represent either an _act_ or a _habit_, the
latter consisting in frequent repetitions of the former. As an act it
may be an accident, most usually arising from the incautious use of one
or other of the commonly employed intoxicating agents; as a habit (as in
the form of chronic alcoholism) it is one of the most degrading forms of
vice which can result from the enfeeblement of the moral principle by
persistent self-indulgence.
What appears to be "intoxication" may arise from many different causes
(e.g. epilepsy, fractured skull, intracranial haemorrhage, and the
toxaemic coma of diabetes and uraemia), and the close resemblance
between the pathological and the toxic phenomena has been the cause of
many untoward accidents. Cold alone may produce such peculiar effects
that Captain Parry said in his _Journal_, "I cannot help thinking that
many a man may have been punished for intoxication who was only
suffering from the benumbing effects of frost; for I have more than once
seen our people in a state so exactly resembling that of the most
stupid intoxication, that I should certainly have charged them with the
offence had I not been quite sure that no possible means were afforded
them on Melville Island to procure anything stronger than snow water."
The same confusion is frequently found in cases which come before the
police-courts, people being arrested as "drunk and disorderly" who can
prove that the symptoms were not due to over-indulgence in drink at all.
Some individuals have, moreover, a special idiosyncrasy or
susceptibility to alcohol, due to heredity or to one of the sequelae of
sunstroke or cranial injury. The children of drunkards are usually very
susceptible to the poison, becoming intoxicated by a far smaller
quantity than is needed by a normal person.
But, as a rule, the phenomena of drunkenness are actually due to
excessive consumption of some intoxicating liquid. The physiological
action of all such agents may be described as a cumulative production of
paralysis of various parts of the nervous system, but this effect
results only in doses of a certain amount--a dose which varies with the
agent, the race and the individual. Even the cup so often said to
"cheer, but not inebriate," cannot be regarded as altogether free from
the last-named effect. Tea-sots are well known to be affected with
palpitation and irregularity of the heart, as well as with more or less
sleeplessness, mental irritability and muscular tremors, which in some
culminate in paralysis; while positive intoxication has been known to be
the result of the excessive use of strong tea. In short, from tea to
haschisch we have, through hops, alcohol, tobacco and opium, a sort of
graduated scale of intoxicants, which stimulate in small doses and
narcotize in larger,--the narcotic dose having no stimulating properties
whatever, and only appearing to possess them from the fact that the
agent can only be gradually taken up by the blood, and the system thus
comes primarily under the influence of a stimulant dose. In certain
circumstances and with certain agents--as in the production of
chloroform narcosis--this precursory stage is capable of being much
abbreviated, if not altogether annihilated; while with other agents--as
tea--the narcotic stage is by no means always or readily produced.
No subject in modern times has led to more extreme opinions than this of
indulgence in "intoxicants" to any degree whatever. It is well to
remember that (in spite of apparently authoritative modern views to the
contrary) there is not a shadow of proof that the moderate use of any
one of these agents as a stimulant has any definite tendency to lead to
its abuse; it is otherwise with their employment as narcotics, which,
once indulged in, is almost certain to lead to repetition, and to a more
or less rapid process of degradation, though there are many exceptions
to this latter statement. It is interesting to know that a former
English judge, who lived to nearly ninety years of age, believed he had
prolonged his life and added greatly to his comfort by the moderate use
of ether, which he was led to employ because neither wine nor tobacco
agreed with him; while the immoderate use of the same agent has given
rise to a most deleterious form of drunkenness, both in parts of Ireland
and in some of the large industrial centres in Great Britain.
Various modern biologists have discussed, with more or less acceptance
in certain circles, the historical conditions in various races and in
different countries as to the use and abuse of intoxicants, and have
drawn varying conclusions from their theories. It has even been
contended, with much show of learned authority, that since drunkenness
leads to disease and early death, the proneness to strong drink in the
long run causes the elimination of the unfit, and results in a general
sobering of the community, a race being therefore temperate in
proportion to its past sufferings through alcohol. But on this subject
it may be said that, at least, no agreement has been reached.
The effects of intoxicants are variously modified by the temperament of
the individual and the nature of the inebriant. When that is alcohol,
its action on an average individual is first to fill him with a serene
and perfect self-complacency. His feelings and faculties are exalted
into a state of great activity and buoyancy, so that his language
becomes enthusiastic, and his conversation vivacious if not brilliant.
The senses gradually become hazy, a soft humming seems to fill the
pauses of the conversation, and modify the tones of the speaker, a filmy
haze obscures the vision, the head seems lighter than usual, the
equilibrium unstable. By-and-by objects appear double, or flit
confusedly before the eyes; judgment is abolished, secretiveness
annihilated, and the drunkard pours forth all that is within him with
unrestrained communicativeness; he becomes boisterous, ridiculous, and
sinks at length into a mere animal. Every one around him, the very
houses, trees, even the earth itself, seem drunken and unstable, he
alone sober, till at last the final stage is reached, and he falls on
the ground insensible--_dead drunk_ (alcoholic coma)--a state from
which, after profound slumber, he at last awakes feverish, exhausted,
sick and giddy, with ringing ears, a throbbing heart and a violent
headache.
The poison primarily affects the cerebral lobes, and the other parts of
the cerebro-spinal system are consecutively involved, till in the state
of _dead-drunkenness_ the only parts not invaded by a benumbing
paralysis are those automatic centres in the medulla oblongata which
regulate and maintain the circulation and respiration. But even these
centres are not unaffected; the paralysis of these as of the other
sections of the cerebro-spinal system varies in its incompleteness, and
at times becomes complete, the coma of drunkenness terminating in death.
More usually the intoxicant is gradually eliminated, and the individual
restored to consciousness, a consciousness disturbed by the secondary
results of the agent he has abused, which vary with the nature of that
agent. Whether, however, directly or indirectly through the nervous
system, the stomach suffers in every case; thus nutrition is interfered
with by the defective ingestion of food, as well as by the
mal-assimilation of that which is ingested; and from this cause, as well
as by the peculiar local action of the various poisons, the various
organic degenerations are induced (cirrhosis of the liver, &c.) which in
most cases shorten the drunkard's days.
The primary discomforts of an act of drunkenness are readily removed for
the time by a repetition of the cause. Thus what has been an act may
readily become a habit, all the more readily that each repetition more
and more enfeebles both the will and the judgment, till they become
utterly unfit to resist the temptation to indulgence supplied by the
knowledge of the temporary relief to suffering which is sure to follow,
and in spite of the consciousness that each repetition of the act only
forges their chains more tightly. From this condition there is no hope
of relief but in enforced abstinence; any one in this condition must be
regarded as temporarily insane (see INSANITY and NEUROPATHOLOGY), and
ought to be placed in an inebriate asylum till he regain sufficient
self-control to enable him to overcome his love for drink. Numerous
"cures" have been started in recent years, which have often succeeded in
individual cases. An anti-alcoholic serum obtained from alcoholized
horses has been advocated by Dr Sapelier.
For the law concerning drunkenness the reader is referred to INEBRIETY,
LAW OF. Its prevalence as a vice has varied considerably according to
the state of education or comfort in different classes of society. In
considering the extent to which intemperance has prevailed, the
statistics of prosecutions upon which such comparisons are usually based
are far from being completely satisfactory, but, inasmuch as they
constitute the only possible data for such comparisons, we are compelled
to accept them. The following table gives the average number of persons
per 1000 of the population proceeded against for drunkenness in England
and Wales for quinquennial periods, dating from 1857, the first year of
the Judicial Statistics:--
1857-1861 4.28
1862-1866 4.78
1867-1871 5.47
1872-1876 7.83
1877-1881 7.25
1882-1886 6.90
1887-1891 6.19
1892-1896 5.84
1897-1901 6.42
1902-1906 6.51
The figures, it will be seen, show a steady decline from 1872-1876 (when
the consumption of alcohol was quite abnormal) to 1892-1896. After that
year, however, the figures again rose. The increase was especially
marked in 1899, when a tide of exceptional prosperity was again
accompanied by great drunkenness. It is also disquieting to discover
that the average number of prosecutions for drunkenness in the three
years 1897-1899 was 51% higher than the average for 1857-1861, and 35%
higher than the average for 1862-1866. That the increase was partly due
to more efficient police administration is probable, but that this is
not a complete explanation of the figures is made evident by an analysis
of the general statistics of crime during the same period, from which it
may be seen that, while crime generally (excluding drunkenness)
decreased 28% in England and Wales since 1857-1861, drunkenness
increased 51%. Speaking generally, it may be said that in the United
Kingdom drunkenness appears chiefly prevalent in the seaport and mining
districts. If a line be drawn from the mouth of the Severn to the Wash,
it will be found that the "black" counties, without exception, lie to
the north-west of this line. The worst counties in England and Wales in
the matter of drunkenness are Northumberland, Durham and Glamorganshire,
while Pembrokeshire and Lancashire follow close behind. The most sober
counties, on the other hand, are Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Oxfordshire
and Wiltshire. Averages based upon the returns of entire counties do
not, however, afford a complete guide to the distribution of
drunkenness, inasmuch as offences are not equally distributed over the
whole area of a county. A heavy ratio of drunkenness in a small district
may often give a county an unfavourable position in the general
averages, notwithstanding favourable conditions in the rest of its area.
Analysis of the prosecutions for drunkenness shows that about 24% of the
total number of offences are committed by women. In the larger towns the
proportion, as a rule, is higher. In London, 38% of the drunkenness is
attributable to women; in Manchester, 36%; in Belfast and Glasgow, 32%.
In Liverpool, on the other hand, the proportion is only 24%. The
much-controverted question as to whether intemperance is increasing
among women can hardly, however, be decided by an appeal to the criminal
statistics. So far as these statistics throw any light at all upon the
question, they suggest important local differences. A more direct clue
is afforded by the registrar-general's annual returns of deaths directly
attributed to intemperance. The figures are given below. In order to
eliminate accidental variations, the comparison is based upon the
average mortality during consecutive periods:--
+---------------+----------------------+----------+----------+
| Years. | Average No. of deaths| Males | Females |
| | (England and Wales). | per cent.| per cent.|
+---------------+----------------------+----------+----------+
| 1877-1881 | 1071 | 69 | 31 |
| 1882-1886 | 1320 | 66 | 34 |
| 1887-1891 | 1710 | 64 | 36 |
| 1892-1896 | 2044 | 61 | 39 |
| 1897-1899 | 2577 | 61 | 39 |
| 1899 | 2871 | 60 | 40 |
+---------------+----------------------+----------+----------+
For the ten years ending 1904, out of 26,426 deaths from alcoholism,
59.34% were males and 40.66% females.
The figures are certainly striking. They show, it will be noticed, that
out of every 100 deaths from alcoholic excess in England and Wales women
contributed nine more at the end of the century then they did in 1880.
If, instead of taking the total number of deaths, we take the ratio per
million persons living, the increase is seen even more clearly:--
+------------------+----------------+----------------+
| Years. | Males per | Females per |
| | million living.| million living.|
+------------------+----------------+----------------+
| 1877-1881 | 60 | 25 |
| 1882-1886 | 67 | 32 |
| 1887-1891 | 79 | 42 |
| 1892-1896 | 86 | 51 |
| 1897-1899 | 103 | 63 |
| 1899 | 112 | 70 |
+------------------+----------------+----------------+
It appears that, while the ratio of mortality from alcoholic excess
increased 87% among males during the last two decades of the century,
among females it increased by no less than 180%.
See also LIQUOR LAWS and TEMPERANCE.
DRURY, SIR WILLIAM (1527-1579), English statesman and soldier, was a son
of Sir Robert Drury of Hedgerley in Buckinghamshire, and grandson of
another Sir Robert Drury (d. 1536), who was speaker of the House of
Commons in 1495. He was born at Hawstead in Suffolk on the 2nd of
October 1527, and was educated at Gonville Hall, Cambridge. Fighting in
France, Drury was taken prisoner in 1544; then after his release he
helped Lord Russell, afterwards earl of Bedford, to quell a rising in
Devonshire in 1549, but he did not come to the front until the reign of
Elizabeth. In 1559 he was sent to Edinburgh to report on the condition
of Scottish politics, and five years later he became marshal and
deputy-governor of Berwick. Again in Scotland in January 1570, it is
interesting to note that the regent James Stewart, earl of Murray, was
proceeding to keep an appointment with Drury in Linlithgow when he was
mortally wounded, and it was probably intended to murder the English
envoy also. After this event Drury led two raids into Scotland; at least
thrice he went to that country on more peaceable errands, during which,
however, his life was continually in danger from assassins; and he
commanded the force which compelled Edinburgh Castle to surrender in May
1573. In 1576 he was sent to Ireland as president of Munster, where his
stern rule was very successful, and in 1578 he became lord justice to
the Irish council, taking the chief control of affairs after the
departure of Sir Henry Sidney. The rising of the earl of Desmond had
just broken out when Sir William died in October 1579.
Drury's letters to Lord Burghley and others are invaluable for the
story of the relations between England and Scotland at this time.
DRUSES, or DRUZES (Arab. _Druz_), a people of mid-Syria (for the
derivation of the name see HISTORY section below), distributed nowadays
into three isolated groups, of which the most numerous inhabits Jebel
Hauran (Jebel Druz), E. of Jordan (about 55,000); the second, the
_cazas_ of Shuf and Metn in Lebanon (about 50,000); the third, the
_cazas_ of Hasbeya, Rasheya, W. al Ajem, Homs, Hamadiyeh and Selimiyeh
in Anti-Lebanon and Hermon (about 45,000). The first group, which has
been greatly increased by migrants from the second, since the
establishment of the privileged Lebanon province (1861) under Christian
auspices, lives apart from other peoples in semi-independence. The
second is now confined to the southern Lebanon, and even there is
greatly outnumbered by Maronites, who, in the whole "Mountain," stand to
Druses as 9 to 2. The third is counterbalanced everywhere by a large
population of Moslem and Orthodox Syrians. The Hauran, therefore, has
become the stronghold of the Druses, offering nowadays the best field
for studying their peculiar customs and religion; and the group there
still increases at the expense of the other groups, despite efforts on
the part of the Ottoman government to check Druse migration by both
conciliatory and repressive measures. The actual distinction of the
Druses, as a racial unity, despite their dispersion, depends so
exclusively on the peculiarity of their common religion, that it will be
well at once to give an account of Druse creed and practice as they are
understood to stand at the present day. How this religion may have grown
up and come to be theirs will be considered later.
_Religion._--Druse religion is a secret faith, and the following account
is given with all reserves. There are many indications that a more
primitive cult, containing elements of Nature worship, preceded it, and
still survives in the popular practices of the more remote Druse
districts, e.g. in the eastern Hauran. The _Muwahhidin_ (Unitarians), as
the Druses call themselves, believe that there is one and only one God,
indefinable, incomprehensible, ineffable, passionless. He has made
himself known to men by successive incarnations, of which the last was
Hakim, the sixth Fatimite caliph. How many these incarnations have been
is stated variously; but seventy, one for each period of the world,
seems the best-attested number. Jesus appears to be accepted as one
such incarnation, but not Mahomet, although it is agreed that, in his
time, the "Universal Intelligence" (see later) was made flesh, in the
person of Mikdad al-Aswad. No further incarnation can now take place: in
Hakim a final appeal was made to mankind, and after the door of mercy
had stood open to all for twenty-six years, it was finally and for ever
closed. When the tribulation of the faithful has reached its height,
Hakim will reappear to conquer the world and render his religion
supreme. Druses, believed to be dispersed in China, will return to
Syria. The combined body of the Faithful will take Mecca, and finally
Jerusalem, and all the world will accept the Faith. The first of the
creatures of God is the Universal Intelligence or Spirit, impersonated
in Hamza, Hakim's vizier. This Spirit was the creator of all subordinate
beings, and alone has immediate communion with the Deity. Next in rank,
and equally supporting the throne of the Almighty, are four Ministering
Spirits, the Soul, the Word, the Right Wing and the Left Wing, who, in
Hakim's time, were embodied respectively in Ismael Darazi, Mahommed ibn
Wahab, Selama ibn Abd al-Wahal and Baha ud-Din; and beneath these again
are spiritual agents of various ranks. The material world is an
emanation from, and a "mirror" of, the Divine Intelligence. The number
of human beings admits neither of increase nor of decrease, and a
regular process of metempsychosis goes on continually. The souls of the
virtuous pass after death into ever new incarnations of greater
perfection, till at last they reach a point at which they can be
re-absorbed into the Deity itself; those of the wicked may be degraded
to the level of camels or dogs. All previous religions are mere types of
the true, and their sacred books and observances are to be interpreted
allegorically. The Gospel and the Koran are both regarded as inspired
books, but not as religious guides. The latter function is performed
solely by the Druse Scriptures. As the admission of converts is no
longer permitted, the faithful are enjoined to keep their doctrine
secret from the profane; and in order that their allegiance may not
bring them into danger, they are allowed (like Persian mystics) to make
outward profession of whatever religion is dominant around them. To this
latter indulgence is to be attributed the apparent indifferentism which
leads to their joining Moslems in prayers and ablutions, or sprinkling
themselves with holy water in Maronite churches. Obedience is required
to the seven commandments of Hamza, the first and greatest of which
enjoins truth in words (but only those of Druse speaking with Druse);
the second, watchfulness over the safety of the brethren; the third,
absolute renunciation of every other religion; the fourth, complete
separation from all who are in error; the fifth, recognition of the
unity of "Our Lord" in all ages; the sixth, complete resignation to his
will; and the seventh, complete obedience to his orders. Prayer,
however, is regarded as an impertinent interference with the Creator;
while, at the same time, instead of the fatalistic predestination of
Mahommedanism, the freedom of the human will is distinctly maintained.
Not only is the charge of secrecy rigidly obeyed in regard to the alien
world, but full initiation into the deeper mysteries of the creed is
permitted only to a special class designated _Akils_, (Arabic _'Akl_,
intelligence), in contradistinction from whom all other members of the
Druse community, whatever may be their position or attainments, are
called _Jahel_, the Ignorant. About 15% of the adult population belong
to the order of Akils. Admission is granted to any Druse of either sex
who expresses willingness to conform to the laws of the society, and
during a year of probation gives sufficient proof of sincerity and
stability of purpose. There appears to be no formal distinction of rank
among the various members; and though the amir, Beshir Shehab, used to
appoint a sheikh of the Akils, the person thus distinguished obtained no
primacy over his fellows. Exceptional influence depends upon exceptional
sanctity or ability. All are required to abstain from tobacco and wine;
the women used not to be allowed to wear gold or silver, or silk or
brocade, but this rule is commonly broken now; and although neither
celibacy nor retirement from the affairs of the world is either
imperative or customary, unusual respect is shown to those who
voluntarily submit themselves to ascetic discipline. While the Akils
mingle frankly with the common people, and are remarkably free from
clerical pretension, they are none the less careful to maintain their
privileges. They are distinguished by the wearing of a white turban,
emblematic of the purity of their life. Their food must be purchased
with money lawfully acquired; and lest they should unwittingly partake
of any that is ceremonially unclean, they require those Jahels, whose
hospitality they share, to supply their wants from a store set apart for
their exclusive use. The ideal Akil is grave, calm and dignified, with
an infinite capacity of keeping a secret, and a devotion that knows no
limits to the interests of his creed. On Thursday evening, the
commencement of the weekly day of rest, the members of the order meet
together in the various districts, probably for the reading of their
sacred books and consultation on matters of ecclesiastical or political
importance. Their meeting-houses, _khalwas_, are plain, unornamented
edifices. These have property attached to them, the revenues of which
are consecrated to the relief of the poor and the demands of
hospitality. In the eastern Hauran, there are hill-top shrines
containing each a black stone, on which rugs, &c., are hung, and these
seem to perpetuate features of pre-Islamic Arabian cult, including the
sacrifice of animals, e.g. goats. They are held in reverence by the
Bedouins. The women assemble in the _khalwas_ at the same time as the
men, a part of the space being fenced off for them by a semi-transparent
black veil. Even while the Akils are assembled, strangers are readily
enough admitted to the _khalwas_; but as long as these are present the
ordinary ceremonies are neglected, and the Koran takes the place of the
Druse Scriptures. It has been frequently asserted that the image of a
calf is kept in a niche, and traces of phallic and gynaecocratic worship
have been vaguely suspected; but there is no authentic information in
support of either statement. The calf, if calf there be, is probably a
symbol of the execrable heresy of Darazi, who is frequently styled the
calf by his Orthodox opponents. Ignorance is the mother of suspicion as
well as of superstition; and accordingly the Christian inhabitants of
the Lebanon have long been persuaded that the Druses in their secret
assemblies are guilty of the most nefarious practices. For this
allegation, so frequently repeated by European writers, there seems to
be little evidence; and it is certain that the sacred books of the
religion contain moral teaching of a high order on the whole.
As a formulated creed, the Druse system is not a thousand years old. In
the year A.D. 996 (386 A.H.) Hakim Biamrillahi (i.e. he who judges by
the command of God), sixth of the Fatimite caliphs (third in Egypt),
began to reign; and during the next twenty-five years he indulged in a
tyranny at once so terrible and so fantastic that little doubt can be
entertained of his insanity. He believed that he held direct intercourse
with the deity, or even that he was an incarnation of the divine
intelligence; and in A.D. 1016 (407 A.H.) his claims were made known in
the mosque at Cairo, and supported by the testimony of Ismael Darazi.
The people showed such bitter hostility to the new gospel that Darazi
was compelled to seek safety in flight; but even in absence he was
faithful to his god, and succeeded in winning over certain ignorant
inhabitants of Lebanon. According to the Druses, this great conversion
took place in A.D. 1019 (410 A.H.). Meanwhile the endeavours of the
caliph to get his divinity acknowledged by the people of Cairo
continued. The advocacy of Hasan ibn Haidara Fergani was without avail;
but in 1017 (408 A.H.) the new religion found a more successful apostle
in the person of Hamza ibn Ali ibn Ahmed, a Persian mystic, felt-maker
by trade, who became Hakim's vizier, gave form and substance to his
creed, and by an ingenious adaptation of its various dogmas to the
prejudices of existing sects, finally enlisted an extensive body of
adherents. In 1020 (411 A.H.) the caliph was assassinated by contrivance
of his sister Sitt ul-Mulk; but it was given out by Hamza that he had
only withdrawn for a season, and his followers were encouraged to look
forward with confidence to his triumphant return. Darazi, who had acted
independently in his apostolate, was branded by Hamza as a heretic, and
thus, by a curious anomaly, he is actually held in detestation by the
very sect which perhaps bears his name. The propagation of the faith in
accordance with Hamza's initiation was undertaken by Ismael ibn Mahommed
Tamimi, Mahommed ibn Wahab, Abul-Khair Selama ibn Abd al-Wahal ibn
Samurri, and Moktana Baha ud-Din, the last of whom became known by his
writings from Constantinople to the borders of India. In two letters
addressed to the emperors Constantine VIII. and Michael the Paphlagonian
he endeavoured to prove that the Christian Messiah reappeared in the
person of Hamza.
It is possible, even probable, that the segregation of the Druses as a
people dates only from the adoption of Hamza's creed. But when it is
recalled that other inhabitants of the same mountain system, e.g. the
Maronites, the Ansarieh, the Metawali and the "Isma'ilites," also
profess creeds which, like the Druse system, differ from Sunni Islam in
the important feature of admitting incarnations of the Deity, it is
impossible not to suspect that Hamza's emissaries only gave definition
and form to beliefs long established in this part of the world. Many of
the fundamental ideas of Druse theology belong to a common West Asiatic
stock; but the peculiar history of the Mountain is no doubt responsible
for beliefs, held elsewhere by different peoples, being combined there
in a single creed. Some allowance, too, must be made for the probability
that Hamza's system owed something to doctrines Christian and other,
with which the metropolitan position of Cairo brought Fatimite society
into contact.
_History_--There is good reason to regard the Druses as, racially, a
mixture of refugee stocks, in which the Arab largely predominates,
grafted on to an original mountain population of Aramaic blood and
Incarnationist tendencies. The latter is represented more purely by the
Maronites (q.v.). The native tradition regards an immigration of Hira
Arabs into S. Lebanon, under Khalid ibn Walid in the 9th century, as the
beginning of Druse distinctiveness and power; but it also accepts
Turkoman and Kurdish elements in the original Druse state. About the
same time, or a little later (in the reign of Saladin), it believes that
Hermon was colonized by a population of 15,000 Hira and Yemenite Arabs,
who had sojourned awhile in Hauran. The name Druse is met with first in
Benjamin of Tudela (c. A.D. 1170), and its origin has been much
disputed. Some authorities see in it a descriptive epithet, derived from
Arabic _darasa_ (those who _read_ the Book), or _darisa_ (those in
_possession_ of Truth) or _durs_ (the _clever_ or _initiated_); but more
connect it with the name of the first missionary, Ismael _Darazi_.
As soon as we begin to know anything of the Druses they were living in a
feudal state of society, as village communities under _sheikhs_,
themselves generally subordinate to one or more amirs. In the time of
the first crusades the main power was in the hands of the Arslan family,
which, however, suffered so severely in wars with the Franks, that it
was superseded by the Tnuhs, who, holding Beirut and nearly all the
Phoenician coast, came into conflict with the sultans of Egypt. One of
these latter, Malik Ashraf, about A.D. 1300, forced outward compliance
with Sunni Islam on the Mountain, after defeating the Druses at Ain
Sofar. Meanwhile, however, the _Maan_ family, lately immigrant from N.
Arabia, was growing in power, and throwing in its lot with the Osmanli
invaders in the reign of Selim I., it was promoted to the supreme
amirate about 1517. Fakr ud-Din Maan II. increased Druse dominion until
it included all the N. Syrian region from the edge of the Antioch plain
to Acre, with part of the eastern desert, dominated by his castle at
Tadmor (Palmyra), and the important towns of Latakia, Tripoli, Beirut
and Saida; and forming further ambitious designs, he intrigued with
Christians and broke with the Turks. In 1614 the pasha of Damascus moved
against him with a large force, and compelled him to fly from Syria. He
sought the courts of Tuscany and Naples and tried to enlist Frank
sympathies, inventing (probably) the curious myth, so often credited
since, that the Druses are of crusading origin and owe their name to the
counts of Dreux.[1] He landed again at Saida in 1619 and recovered his
old position. But in 1633 Kuchuk Ahmed Pasha was sent against him with a
large army, and succeeded in capturing him with his sons. The family was
sent to Constantinople, and two years later strangled. The dynasty
struggled on till the end of the century, amid civil war, in which the
parties seem to have been divided by the earlier Arab factions of
Kaisites (Qaisites) and Yemenites, the Maan belonging to the latter.
The Shehab family, originally Hira Arabs, which had governed Hauran
under the early caliphs of Damascus, and thereafter held power in
Hermon, intermarried with the Maan; and in the latter's day of weakness
sided with the Kaisi faction and obtained the supreme amirate of the
Mountain. But it appears never to have professed the Druse creed,
remaining Sunnite. Haidar Shehab, third of the line, inflicted a notable
defeat on the pasha of Saida (capital of an Ottoman eyalet since 1688)
and the Yemenite Druses at Ain Dara, near Zahleh, in 1711, and proceeded
to consolidate Shehab power, breaking up the old feudal society and
substituting for the sheikhs _mukatajis_ (tax-contractors), who had
penal jurisdiction. The Yemenite Druses thereupon emigrated in large
numbers to the Hauran, and laid the foundation of Druse power there. The
Turks recognized the _status quo_, and made terms with the Shehab amir
in 1748; but his power was none too well secured against the opposition
of the Kurdish _Jumblat_ family, even though he was supported by the
_Talhuk_, _Abd al-Malik_ and _Yezbeki_ families; and it appears that
some members of the Shehab joined the Maronite faith in the middle of
the 18th century, causing a suspicion of secret apostasy to fall on all
the family.
It is said that the amir Beshir, who succeeded about 1786, was himself a
crypto-Christian. This remarkable man, who ruled the Mountain for
fifty-four years, maintained his power by taking the side of one rebel
pasha after another, betraying each in turn, and cultivating relations
with European admirals. His earliest ally was Ahmed "Jezzar," who
established himself in Acre in contumacious independence late in the
18th century. Beshir supported Jezzar against Napoleon in 1799 and
earned the friendship of Sir Sidney Smith. Falling out with Jezzar,
Beshir fled to Cairo in 1805, attached himself to Mehemet Ali, and
returned to take up the reins. Once more chased out by the Turks, he was
again in the Mountain in 1823, allied with Abdallah, on whom Jezzar's
mantle had ultimately fallen at Acre, and maintaining friendly relations
with the "English Princess," Lady Hester Stanhope. He now finally
worsted the Jumblat. The invasion of Syria by Mehemet Ali in 1831 caused
Beshir to desert Abdallah and throw in his lot with Ibrahim Pasha; but
he was not cordially followed by the Druses in general, and had good
excuse for revolt in 1839, and intrigue with the British admiral in
1840. Ibrahim, however, by his possession of Druse hostages, restrained
the amir, and after the bombardment of Acre, the Turks called him to
account for his record of rebellion and treachery. He fled to Malta on a
British ship, but was induced to go to Constantinople, where he died in
1851.
His successor, Beshir al-Kassim, openly joined the Maronites, and
instigating these against the malcontents of his own people, brought
enmities, which had been growing for a century, to a head, and initiated
a devastating internecine warfare which was to continue for twenty
years. The state of the Lebanon went from bad to worse, and at last, in
January 1842, the Turkish government appointed Omar Pasha as
administrator of the Druses and Maronites, with a council of four chiefs
from each party; but the pasha, attempting to effect a disarming, was
besieged in November in the castle of Beit ed-Din by the Druses under
Shibli el-Arrian. At the instigation of the European powers he was
recalled in December, and the Druses and Maronites were placed under
separate _kaimakams_ (governors), who, it was stipulated, were not to be
of the family of Shehab. Disturbances again broke out in 1845, the
native _mukatajis_ refusing to obey the _kaimakams_. The Maronites flew
to arms, but with the assistance of the Turks their opponents carried
the day. A superficial pacification effected by Shekib Effendi, the
Ottoman commissioner, lasted only till his departure; and the Porte was
obliged to despatch a force of 12,000 men to the Lebanon. Forty of the
chiefs were seized, the people was nominally disarmed, and in 1846 a new
constitution was inaugurated, by which the _kaimakam_ was to be assisted
by two Druses, two Maronites, four Greeks, two Turks and one Metawali.
All, however, was in vain: the conflict was continued through 1858, 1859
and 1860; and the disturbance culminated in the famous Damascus massacre
(see SYRIA). The European powers now determined to interfere; and, by a
protocol of the 3rd of May 1860, it was decided that the Lebanon should
be occupied by a force of 20,000 men, of whom half were to be French. A
body of troops was accordingly landed on the 16th of August under
General Beaufort d'Hautpoul; and Fuad Pasha, who had been appointed
Turkish commissioner with full powers, proceeded to bring the leaders of
the massacres to justice. The French occupation continued till the 5th
of June 1861, and the French and English squadrons cruised on the coast
for several months after. In accordance with the recommendation of the
European powers the Porte determined to appoint a Christian governor not
belonging to the district, and independent of the pasha of Beirut, to
hold office for three years. The choice fell on Daud Pasha, an Armenian
Catholic, who was installed on the 4th of July. In spite of many
difficulties, and especially the ambitious conduct of the Maronite
Jussuf Karam, he succeeded in restoring order; and by the formation of a
military force from the inhabitants of the Lebanon he rendered
unnecessary the presence of the Turkish soldiery.
The privileged province of Lebanon (q.v.) was finally constituted by the
Organic Statute of the 6th of September 1864, and the subsequent history
of the Lebanon Druses is one of gradual withdrawal from the jurisdiction
of that state, in which they see their ancient independence
irretrievably compromised, and their religion subordinated to Christian
supremacy. Many now emigrate, when occasion offers, to America.
Meanwhile, the Hauran, the old seat of the Shehab family and Hermon
Druses, had been steadily receiving a Druse influx, since the day of Ain
Dara (see above). Towards the close of the 18th century some 600
families left Lebanon for the Hauran, in discontent with the rule of the
Shehab dynasty, and their place and property were taken by 1500 families
driven out of Jebel Ansarieh by Topal Ali in 1811. The Hauran Druses
increased by the middle of the 19th century to 7000 souls. They had
successfully resisted Ibrahim, the Egyptian, in 1839 in the Lija, and
asserted complete independence of the Turks, living under a theocratic
government directed by the chief Akil in Suweda. A great effort, made by
Kibrisli Pasha in 1852 to subdue the Hauran, came to nothing. In 1879
the population numbered 20,000, and by a murderous raid attracted the
attention of Midhat Pasha, then vali of the province of Syria. After
experiencing one disaster he defeated their forces and imposed a
_kaimakam_, at first drawn from the Talhuks, but subsequently chosen
from the Atrash family of Kunawat. But the Druses still refused to pay
taxes, to serve in the Ottoman army, or to recognize the _kaimakam_, and
maintained their contumacy under the lead of the Jumblat, till 1896;
when, as the result of a military expedition under Tahir Pasha and a
great defeat at Ijun, a compromise was arrived at, under which the
Druses agreed to pay taxes, but to serve in their own territory only as
a frontier guard. The government was put into the hands of a mutessarif
resident at Sheikh Saad, under whom are _kaimakams_ at Suweda and
Salkhad. Since that epoch there has been comparative peace between the
Druses and the government, largely because the latter, having learned
wisdom, leaves the people very much to itself, maintaining only a small
garrison of regular troops, and enlisting Druse police for service in
Jebel Druz itself. The Druses are allowed to carry on their feuds with
the Bedouins of the E. Desert as they will, so long as they do not
disturb western districts. With the recent opening out of the W. Hauran
by railway, the Druse sheikhs are beginning to acquire commercial
ambitions, and to desire peace.
The Hauran Druses are a vigorous, independent folk, with a well-deserved
reputation for courage, very astute, and hospitable to Europeans,
especially the British, with whom they have an old tradition of
friendship. But, like most persecuted but semi-independent peoples, they
are both cruel, and, by our standards, treacherous. They are a handsome
race, the women being often beautiful. The latter no longer carry the
head-horn which used to support the veil dropped over the face out of
doors. But their dress is still black with the exception of red
slippers, and the veil is never abandoned, not even, it is said, during
sleep. An English lady, who has been much among them, states that the
Druse women of the Hauran never unveiled before her. The men wear a
_tarbush_ with white roll, a black under-robe with white girdle, a short
loose jacket, and when necessary an _aba_ or parti-coloured cloak over
all. They go habitually armed with scimitar and half-moon axe, besides
gun or rifle.
Polygamy is forbidden. Marriage retains certain traces of the original
system of capture; but Druse women enjoy much consideration, and are
comparatively well educated, dignified and free in their bearing in
spite of their close veiling. As has been stated above, they join the
men in religious functions. Divorce is easy and can be initiated by the
woman; but remarriage of the pair can only be effected by the good
offices of a proxy (as in Moslem societies, after a third divorce).
Burial takes place in family mausoleums, walled up after each interment;
but Akils are buried in their own houses. The body is laid on its side,
with its face to the south (Mecca).
Education is widely spread, and there is a considerable religious
literature, much of which is known in Europe. A copy of the _Book of the
Testimonies to the Mysteries of the Unity_, consisting of seventy
treatises in four folio volumes, was found in the house of the chief
Akil at Bakhlin, and presented in 1700 to Louis XIV. by Nusralla ibn
Gilda, a Syrian doctor. Other manuscripts are to be found at Rome in the
Vatican, at Oxford in the Bodleian, at Vienna, at Leiden, at Upsala and
at Munich; and Dr J. L. Porter got possession of seven standard works of
Druse theology while at Damascus. The Munich collection was presented to
the king of Bavaria by Clot Bey, the chief physician in the Egyptian
army during its occupation of Syria; and for a number of the other
manuscripts we are indebted to the elder Niebuhr. A history of the Druse
nation by the amir Haidar Shehab is quoted by Urquhart.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Adler, "Druze Catechism," in _Museum Cuficum Borgianum_
(1782); Silvestre de Sacy, _Expose de la religion des Druses_ (1838);
Ph. Wolff, _Reise in das gelobte Land_, and _Die Drusen und ihre
Vorlaufer_ (1842); C. H. Churchill, _Ten Years' Residence in Mount
Lebanon_ (3 vols., 1853); G. W. Chasseaud, _The Druzes of the Lebanon_
(1855); E. G. Ray, _Voyage dans le Haouran, execute pendant les annees
1857 et 1858_; C. H. Churchill, _The Druzes and Maronites under the
Turkish Rule from 1840 to 1860_ (London, 1862); H. Guys, _Le Theogonie
des Druses_ (1863), and _La Nation Druse_ (1864); M. von Oppenheim,
_Vom Mittelmeer_, &c. (1899); Gertrude L. Bell, _The Desert and the
Sown_ (1907). (D. G. H.; G. BE.)