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DAMIEN 254 DAMOCLES napkins, etc. By a particular manage- ment of the warp-threads in the loom, figures, fruits, and flowers are exhibited on the surface, as in the ancient damask. DAMIEN, FATHER (da-myan'), (Joseph Damien de Veuster), a Bel- gian priest; bom in Louvain, Jan. 3, 1841; in 1873 devoted himself to the duties of spiritual guide to the lepers confined to the Hawaiian island of Molo- kai. Sent on a mission to Honolulu, where he heard from the bishop the neg- lected state of the lepers, some 700 or 800 in number, who lived on that small island, he volunteered to establish him- self among them; and from 1877 onward became physician of their souls and but it still carries on a considerable trade in exporting rice, fish (from Lake Men- zala), coffee, and dates. The existing town was erected after 1251, but, prior to that, a city of the same name (more anciently Tamiathis) stood more to the S. It was strongly fortified by the Sara- cens, and formed on that side the bul- wark of Egypt against the early crusad- ers, who, however, succeeded in captur- ing it more than once. It was razed, and rebuilt farther inland on the site it now occupies, by the Mameluke Sultan Bey- bars. Pop. about 30,000. DAMMAEIN, a resin found in various species of dammar. D. orientalis fur- nishes one kind, which, mixed with chalk DAMASCUS bodies, their magistrate, teacher, carpen- ter, gardener, cook, and even gravedigger at need. For long he worked on single- handed at his noble labors, tut was ulti- mately joined by another priest. For 12 years he escaped all contagion of the fatal disease, though in constant con- tact with the sick and dying; but in 1885 the malady appeared in him ; yet he continued uaabated his heroic labors till near his death, April 10, 1889. DAMIETTA (dam-i-et'ta) , a town of Lower Egypt, on the right bank of the chief E. mouth of the Nile, about 8 miles /rom its mouth. It is irregularly but well built, and has some handsome mosques and marble baths, and several bazaars. Its commerce has been much injured by the prosperity of Alexandria, and ijulverized bamboo-bark, is used for caulking ships. Another kind, obtained from the D. australis, or cowrie pine of New Zealand, is dissolved in turpentine and used as a colorless varnish. It is also used for mounting purposes instead of Canada balsam. The best form of varnish is to dissolve one ounce of dam- mar gum in a fluid ounce of turpentine; to dissolve one ounce of mastic in two fluid ounces of chloroform, and mix. DAMOCLES (dam'6-klez) , a sycophant at the court of Dionysius of Syracuse in the 4th century B. C When he was one day extolling the happy condition of princes, the tyrant invited him to a sumptuous entertainment, but caused a naked sword to be suspended over his head by a single hair; a sufficiently sig-