DAHLGREN, JOHN ADOLPH, a U.S. naval officer and commander; invented a small heavy gun named after him; commanded the blockading squadron at Charleston (1809-1870).

DAHLMANN, FRIEDRICH CHRISTOPH, a German historian and politician, born at Wismar; was in favour of constitutional government; wrote a “History of Denmark,” “Histories of the French Revolution and of the English Revolution”; left an unfinished “History of Frederick the Great” (1785-1860).

DAHN, FELIX, a German jurist, historian, novelist, and poet, born in Hamburg; a man of versatile ability and extensive learning; became professor of German jurisprudence at Koenigsberg; b. 1834.

DAHNA DESERT, the central division of the Arabian Desert.

DAHOMEY (150), a negro kingdom of undefined limits, and under French protectorate, in W. Africa, N. of the Slave Coast; the religious rites of the natives are sanguinary, they offer human victims in sacrifice; is an agricultural country, yields palm-oil and gold dust, and once a great centre of the slave-trade.

DAIRI, the Mikado’s palace or his court, and sometimes the Mikado himself.

DAKO`TA, NORTH and SOUTH (400), three times as large as England, forming two States of the American Union; consist of prairie land, and extend N. from Nebraska as far as Canada, traversed by the Missouri; yield cereals, especially wheat, and raise cattle.

DALAI-LAMA, chief priest of Lamaism, reverenced as a living incarnation of deity, always present on earth in him.  See LAMAISM.

DALAYRAC, celebrated French composer; author of a number of comic operas (1753-1809).

DALBERG, BARON DE, an eminent member of a noble German family; trained for the Church; was a prince-bishop; a highly cultured man, held in high esteem in the Weimar Court circles, and a friend of Goethe and Schiller; an ecclesiastic, as one might suppose, only in name (1744-1817).

DALBERG, DUC DE, nephew of the preceding; contributed to political changes in France in 1814, and accompanied Talleyrand to the Congress of Vienna (1773-1833).

D’ALBRET, JEANNE, queen of Navarre, and mother of Henry IV. of France; came to Paris to treat about the marriage of her son to Charles IX.’s sister; died suddenly, not without suspicion of foul-play, after signing the treaty; she was a Protestant (1528-1572).

D’ALEMBERT, a French philosopher, devoted to science, and especially to mathematics; along with Diderot established the celebrated “Encyclopedie,” wrote the Preliminary Discourse, and contributed largely to its columns, editing the mathematical portion of it; trained to quiet and frugality, was indifferent to wealth and honour, and a very saint of science; no earthly bribe could tear him away from his chosen path of life (1717-1783).

DALGARNO, LORD, a heartless profligate in the “Fortunes of Nigel.”

DALGETTY, DUGALD, a swaggering soldier of fortune in the “Legend of Montrose,” who let out his services to the highest bidder.