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DON 401 DONATIST DON. a river of Scotland, county of Aberdeen, rising near the Banffshire bor- der. It flows tortuously E. through the whole breadth of Aberdeenshire, and falls into the North Sea a little to the N. of Aberdeen, after a total course of 82 miles. Its salmon fisheries are of considerable value. Also, a river of Yorkshire, Eng- land, which rises near Cheshire, and joins the Ouse after a course of about 70 miles. It is navigable for small craft to Sheffield. DON, or DOM (lord) , a title originally assumed by the popes, from whom it de- scended to bishops and other dignitaries, and finally to monks. In France, the title dom was conferred on the Carlo- yingian kings; in Portugal and Brazil it is now the universal title of the higher classes. The Spanish don was originally confined to the nobility, but is now be- stowed by courtesy as indiscriminately as the English Mr. or Esq. The feminine is dona (Ital. dotiTia). The Dan in "Dan Chaucer" is a form of the same word, and we still speak of "college dons.' DONA FRANCISCA. a German colony in the Brazilian state of Santa Catharina, lying between the Serra do Mar and the ocean, 14 miles inland from the port of S.I0 Francisco. Area, 550 square miles; pop. about 26,000. Chief town, Joinville. DONALD, the name borne by a line of Scotch kings who lived in the early ages of the Christian era, and whose an- nals are stained with murder, treachery, and revolting vices. Donald I. began his reign in 216; and the Vlllth, called the "Bane," was dethroned by Edgar Athel- ing in 1098. DONALDSONVILLE, a town of Louisiana, the county-seat of Ascension parish. It is on the Mississippi river, and on the Texas and Pacific railroad. It is the center of an important agricul- tural region, with extensive sugar, lum- ber, cotton, and rice interests. DONATELLO (properly, DONATO DI Betto Bardi), one of the revivers of the art of sculpture in Italy; born in Flor- ence between 1382 and 1387. His first great works in marble were statues of St. Peter and St. Mark, in the church of St. Michael in his native town, in an outside niche of which is also his famous statue of St. George. Along with his friend Brunelleschi he made a journey to Rome to study its art treasures. On his return he executed for his patrons, Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici, a marble monument to their father and mother, which is of high merit. Statues of St. John, of Ju- dith, David, and St. Cecilia are among his leading works. He died in Florence in 1466. DONATI, GIAMBATTISTA (do-na' te), an Italian astronomer; born in Pisa, in 1826; was appointed in 1852 assistant at the observatory in Florence, of which he became director in 1864. Here he dis- covered, inter alia, the brilliant comet of 1858, which is known as Donati's comet. He afterward was instrumental in erect- ing the fine observatory at Arcetri, near Florence, and constructed a spectroscope of 25 prisms. He died Sept. 20, 1873. DONATELLO DONATIST, one of a sect of schis- matics in Africa, the followers of Dona- tus. Bishop of Casa Nigra, in Numidia. The sect arose in A. D. 311, when Caecili- anus was elected Bishop of Carthage, and consecrated by the African bishops alone, without the concurrence of those of Nu- midia. The people, resenting this, re- fused to acknowledge Caecilianus, and set up Majorinus, who was then consecrated by Donatus. The Donatists held that Christ, though of the same substance with the Father, yet was less than the Father; they also denied the infallibility of the Church, which they said had fallen away in many particulars. They were condemned in a council held at Rome A. D. 313, also in another at Aries in the fol- lowing year; and a third time, in A. D. 316, at Milan, before Constantine the Great. At the end of the 4th century they had a large number of churches, but soon after began to decline, owing to a schism among themselves, occasioned