Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/481

This page needs to be proofread.

D H U L I A —D I A Z assistance, making various claims based upon the alleged possession of private estates in the Punjab, and upon the surrender of the Kohinoor diamond to the English Crown. His demand was rejected, whereupon he started for India, after drawing up a proclamation to his former subjects. But as it was deemed inadvisable to allow him to visit the Punjab, he remained for some time as a guest at the residency at Aden, and was allowed to receive some of his relatives to witness his abjuration of Christianity, which actually took place within the residency itself. As the climate began to affect his health, the Maharajah at length left Aden and returned to Europe. He stayed for some time in Russia, hoping that his claim against England would be taken up by the Russians; but when that expectation proved futile he proceeded to Paris, where he lived for the rest of his life on the pension allowed him by the Indian Government. His death from an attack of apoplexy took place at Paris, 22nd October 1893. (g. f. b.) Dhulia, a town of British India, administrative headquarters of Khandesh district in Bombay, on the right bank of the Panjhra river. . The population in 1881 was 18,449; in 1891 it was 21,880. It has cantonments for the Bhil Corps and a detachment of the Poona Horse. Considerable trade is done in cotton and oil-seeds, and weaving of cotton. It contains the Garud High School, with 348 pupils in 1896-97, and five printing-presses, each issuing a vernacular newspaper. A railway to connect Dhulia with Chalisgaon, on the main line of the Great Indian Peninsula (37 miles), was commenced in 1900. Diabetes. See Pathology {Metabolic Diseases). Diamantina, a town of Brazil, in the state of Minas Geraes, with a population of 13,000, is the centre of the diamond mine district, and yields the larger part of the production of diamonds in Brazil, which is estimated at 40,000 carats a year. Diarbekr.—I. A vilayet of Asiatic Turkey through which the western arm of the Tigris flows. It extends southwards from Palu, on the Euphrates, to Mardin and Nisibin, and is divided into three sanjaks — Arghana, Diarbekr, and Mardin. Cereals, cotton, tobacco, rice, and silk are produced; but most of the fertile lands have been abandoned to the nomads and semi-nomads, who raise large quantities of live-stock. Copper, galena, mineral oil, and silicious sand are found. The population is about 480,000 (Moslems, including nomad and seminomad Kurds, 336,000; Yezidis and Gypsies, 4000; Christians, chiefly Armenians and Syrians, 139,000; Jews, 1000). II. The chief town of the vilayet and of a sanjak of the same name (the ancient Amida), seat of a Governor-General, headquarters of a military district, situated at an altitude of 1950 feet, on a high mass of basalt rock on the right bank of the Tigris, w7hich is here crossed by a stone bridge and is fordable in several places in winter. Its position at the head of raft navigation on the Tigris, and with easy roads to Alexandretta on the Mediterranean, Samsun on the Black Sea, Erzerum, Bitlis, and Mosul, has always been one of commercial and strategic importance. Old walls, pierced by four gates, and standing above cliffs from 20 to 40 feet high, surround the town, and beneath them, on the river side, are irrigated gardens. At the north-east angle, on the highest ground, are the ruins of a citadel, in which is the Serai or Government House. The streets are narrow, badly paved, and filthy. The houses are low, and built partly of black basalt—whence the ancient name of the town, Kara (black) Amid—and partly of dark coloured sun-dried bricks. In the great mosque, Ulu Jami’ and its court are the facades

437

of two Sassanian palaces, apparently built with materials from an older palace, perhaps that of Tigranes II. The churches of SS. Cosmas and Damian (Jacobite) and St James (Greek) are also of interest. The climate in -winter is good ; snow often lies, and there is sufficient ice for storage for summer use. In summer it is very hot and unhealthy. Epidemics of typhus are frequent, and ophthalmia and the “ Aleppo button are common. Scorpions, noted for the virulence of their poison, abound. There are a few small industries, silver filigree w7ork, morocco leather, cotton, and. silk. Fruit is grown near the town, but little of the adjoining land is cultivated. The principal exports are wool, mohair, copper ore, &c.; and the imports, cotton and woollen goods, indigo, coffee, sugar, petroleum, &c. The population is 25,000 (Turks, Kurds, and Arabs, 13,000 ; Armenians, Jacobites, Greeks, Protestants, and Jews, 12,000). During the massacres of 1895 the Christians successfully defended themselves against the Moslems. (c. w. w.) Diaz, Narcisse Virgin© (1808-1876), French painter, was born in Bordeaux of Spanish parents, 25th August 1808. At first a figure-painter who indulged in strong colour, in his later life Diaz became a painter of the forest and a “ tone artist ” of the first order. He spent much time at Barbizon; and although he is the least exalted of the half-dozen great artists who are usually grouped round that name, he sometimes produced works of the highest quality. At the age of ten Diaz became an orphan, and misfortune dogged his earlier years. His foot was bitten by a reptile in Meudon wood, near Sevres, where he had been taken to live with some friends of his mother. The bite was badly dressed, and ultimately it cost him his leg. Afterwards his wooden stump became famous. At fifteen he entered the studios at Sevres, where the decoration of porcelain occupied him ; but tiring of the restraint of fixed hours, he took to painting Eastern figures dressed in richly coloured garments. Turks and Oriental scenes attracted him, and many brilliant gems remain of this period. About 1831 Diaz encountered Theodore Rousseau, for whom heentertained a great veneration, although Rousseau was. four years his junior; but it was not until ten years later that the remarkable incident took place of Rousseau teaching Diaz to paint trees. At Fontainebleau Diaz found Rousseau painting his wonderful forest pictures, and determined to paint in the same way if possible. Rousseau, then in poor health, worried at home, and embittered against the world, was difficult to approach. Diaz followed him surreptitiously to the forest,—wooden leg not hindering,— and he dodged round after the painter, trying to observe his method of work. After a time Diaz, found a way to become friendly with Rousseau, and revealed his anxiety to understand his painting. Rousseau was touched with the passionate words of admiration, and finally taught Diaz all he knew. Diaz exhibited many pictures at the Paris Salon, and was decorated in 1851. During the war, twenty years later, he went to Brussels. After 1871 he became fashionable, his works gradually rose in the estimation of collectors, and he worked constantly and successfully. In 1876 he caught cold at his son’s grave, and on 18th November of that year he died at Mentone, whither he had gone to recruit his health. Diaz’s finest pictures are his forest scenes and storms, and it is on these, and not on his pretty figures, that his fame is likely to rest. There are several fairly good examples of the master in the Louvre, and three small figure pictures in the Wallace Collection, Hertford House. Perhaps the most notable of Diaz’s works are “La Fee aux Berles ’ (1857), in the Louvre; “Sunset in the Forest (1868);