a lifetime are recorded with singular clearness, sobriety and charm.
See Sveriges historia (Stockholm, 1881, &c.), vi,; Carl Gustaf Malmström, Historiska Studier (Stockholm, 1897). (R. N. B.)
DEGGENDORF, or Deckendorf, a town of Germany, in the
kingdom of Bavaria, 25 m. N.W. of Passau, on the left bank of
the Danube, which is there crossed by two iron bridges. Pop.
(1905) 7154. It is situated at the lower end of the beautiful
valley of the Perlbach, and in itself it is a well-built and attractive
town. It possesses an old town hall dating from 1566, a hospital,
a lunatic asylum, an orphanage, and a large parish church rebuilt
in 1756; but the chief interest centres in the church of the Holy
Sepulchre, built in 1337, which attracts thousands of pilgrims
to its Porta Caeli or Gnadenpforte (Gate of Mercy) opened annually
on Michaelmas eve and closed again on the 4th of October. In
1837, on the celebration of the 500th anniversary of this
solemnity, the number of pilgrims was reckoned at nearly 100,000.
Such importance as the town possesses is now rather commercial
than religious,—it being a depôt for the timber trade of the
Bavarian forest, a station for the Danube steamboat company,
and the seat of several mills, breweries, potteries and other
industrial establishments. On the bank of the Danube outside
the town are the remains of the castle of Findelstein; and on
the Geiersberg (1243 ft.), in the immediate vicinity, stands
another old pilgrimage church. About 6 m. to the north is the
village of Metten, with a Benedictine monastery founded by
Charlemagne in 801, restored as an abbey in 1840 by Louis I. of
Bavaria, and well known as an educational institution. The first
mention of Deggendorf occurs in 868, and it appears as a town
in 1212. Henry (d. 1290) of the Landshut branch of the ruling
family of Bavaria made it the seat of a custom-house; and in 1331
it became the residence of Henry III. of Natternberg (d. 1333),
so called from a castle in the neighbourhood. In 1337 a wholesale
massacre of the Jews, who were accused of having thrown the
sacred host of the church of the Holy Sepulchre into a well, took
place in the town; and it is probably from about this date that
the pilgrimage above mentioned came into vogue. The town
was captured by the Swedish forces in 1633, and in the war of the
Austrian Succession it was more than once laid in ashes.
See Grüber and Müller, Der bayerische Wald (Regensburg, 1851); Mittermüller, Die heil. Hostien und die Jüden in Deggendorf (Landshut, 1866); and Das Kloster Metten (Straubing, 1857).
DE HAAS, MAURITZ FREDERICK HENDRICK (1832–1895), American marine painter, was born on the 12th of December 1832 in Rotterdam, Holland. He studied art in the Rotterdam Academy and at The Hague, under Bosboom and Louis Meyer, and in 1851–1852 in London, following the English water-colourists of the day. In 1857 he received an artist’s commission in the Dutch navy, but in 1859, under the patronage of August Belmont, who had recently been minister of the United States at The Hague, he resigned and removed to New York city. He became an associate of the National Academy in 1863 and an academician in 1867, and exhibited annually in the academy, and in 1866 he was one of the founders of the American Society of Painters in Water Colors. He died on the 23rd of November 1895. His “Farragut Passing the Forts at the Battle of New Orleans” and “The Rapids above Niagara,” which were exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1878, were his best known but not his most typical works, for his favourite subjects were storm and wreck, wind and heavy surf, and less often moonlight on the coasts of Holland, of Jersey, of New England, and of Long Island, and on the English Channel.
His brother, William Frederick de Haas (1830–1880), who emigrated to New York in 1854, was also a marine painter.
DEHRA, a town of British India, headquarters of the Dehra
Dun district in the United Provinces. Pop. (1901) 28,095. It
lies at an elevation of 2300 ft. Here the Hardwar-Dehra railway
terminates. Dehra is the headquarters of the Trigonometrical
Survey and of the Forest Department, besides being a cantonment
for a Gurkha force. The Forest School, which trains
subordinate forest officials for all parts of India, is a fine building.
Attached to it is an institution for the scientific study of sylviculture
and the exploitation and administration of forests. The
town of Dehra grew up round the temple built in 1699 by the
heretical Sikh Guru, Ram Rai, the founder of the Udasi sect of
Ascetics. This temple is a remarkable building in Mahommedan
style. The central block, in imitation of the emperor Jahangir’s
tomb, contains the bed on which the Guru, after dying at will
and coming back to life several times, ultimately died outright;
it is an object of great veneration. At the corners of the central
block are smaller monuments commemorating the Guru’s wives.
DEHRA DUN, a district of British India, in the Meerut division of the United Provinces. Its area is 1209 sq. m. The district is bounded on the N. by the native state of Tehri or Garhwal, on the E. by British Garhwal, on the S. by the Siwálik hills, which separate it from Saharanpur district, and on the W. by the hill states of Sirmur, Jubbal and Taroch. The valley (the Dun) has an area of about 673 sq. m., and forms a parallelogram 45 m. from N.W. to S.E. and 15 m. broad. It is well wooded, undulating and intersected by streams. On the N.E. the horizon is bounded by the Mussoorie or lower range of the Himalayas, and on the S. by the Siwálik hills. The Himalayas in the north of the district attain a height between 7000 and 8000 ft., one peak reaching an elevation of 8565 ft.; the highest point of the Siwálik range is 3041 ft. above sea-level. The principal passes through the Siwálik hills are the Timli pass, leading to the military station of Chakráta, and the Mohand pass leading to the sanatoriums of Mussoorie and Landaur. The Ganges bounds the Dehra valley on the E.; the Jumna bounds it on the W. From a point about midway between the two rivers, and near the town of Dehra, runs a ridge which forms the watershed of the valley. To the west of this ridge the water collects to form the Asan, a tributary of the Jumna; whilst to the east the Suswa receives the drainage and flows into the Ganges. To the east the valley is characterized by swamps and forests, but to the west the natural depressions freely carry off the surface drainage. Along the central ridge, the water-level lies at a great depth from the surface (228 ft.), but it rises gradually as the country declines towards the great rivers. In 1901 the population was 178,195, showing an increase of 6% in the decade. A railway to Dehra from Hardwar, on the Oudh and Rohilkhand line (32 m.), was completed in 1900. The district is served by the Dun canals. Tea gardens cover a considerable area, and the valley contains a colony of European tea planters.
History.—Dehra Dun only emerges from the mists of legend into authentic history in the 17th century A.D., when it formed part of the Garhwal kingdom. Towards the end of the century the heretical Sikh Guru, Ram Rai, expelled from the Punjab, sought refuge in the Dun and gathered round him a crowd of devotees. Fateh Sah, raja of Garhwal, endowed the temple which he built, round which grew up the town of Gurudwara or Dehra (q.v.). In the 18th century the fertility of the valley attracted the attention of Najib-ud-daula, governor of Saharanpur, who invaded it with an army of Rohillas in 1757 and annexed it to his dominion. His rule, which lasted till 1770, brought great prosperity to the Dun; but on his death it became a prey to the surrounding tribes, its desolation being completed after its conquest by the Gurkhas in 1803. In 1814 it was taken possession of by the British, and in the following year was annexed to Saharanpur. Under British administration the Dun rapidly recovered its prosperity.
DEIOCES (Δηιόκης), according to Herodotus (i. 96 ff.) the first king of the Medes. He narrates that, when the Medes had rebelled against the Assyrians and gained their independence about 710 B.C., according to his chronology (cf. Diodor. ii. 32), they lived in villages without any political organization, and therefore the whole country was in a state of anarchy. Then Deioces, son of Phraortes, an illustrious man of upright character, was chosen judge in his village, and the justness of his decisions induced the inhabitants of the other villages to throng to him. At last the Medes resolved to make an end of the intolerable state of their country by erecting a kingdom, and chose Deioces king. He now caused them to build a great capital, Ecbatana, with a royal palace, and introduced the ceremonial of oriental courts;
