Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

D I A
,Diamond Guillim does not approve of blazoning the coats of peers
‘Harbour by precious stones instead of metals and colours; but the
J| English practice allows it. Morgan says the diamond is
Diana. an emklem 0f fortitude.
Diamond Harbour, a harbour in the western branch of
the Ganges, on the Hooghly river, about thirty-four miles
below Calcutta in a straight line, but much more by the
windings of the river. Here the Company’s ships gene¬
rally unload, and take in great part of their homeward
bound cargoes. There are mooring chains for their ac¬
commodation, and storehouses on shore ; and in the adja¬
cent villages, consisting of a few thatched houses, with
some petty shops, provisions may be purchased. But the
place is very unhealthy, especially during the periodical
rains in July, August, and September, ow ing to the exha¬
lations from the swamps, and the heavy dews which fall at
night. The country on both sides of the river is infested
with tigers.
Diamond Island is situated on the east side of the Bay
of Bengal, twelve miles south from Cape Negrais. It is
about a mile and a half long, by one mile broad; low, co¬
vered with wood, and surrounded by shoals, which render
it dangerous for boats to land. It has fresh water, and
abounds with turtle. It belongs to the Burmese, and is
uninhabited. Long. 94. 12. E. Eat. 15. 51. N.
DIAMPER, a town of Hindustan, in the province of
Cochin, said to be inhabited chiefly by Christians. Here
a synod was held by the Portuguese'archbishop and others,
in the hopes of converting the Nestorians to the faith of
the Roman Catholic church, but without effect. Long.
76. 37. E. Eat. 9. 55. N.
DIANA, the goddess of hunting. According to Cicero,
there were three of this name ; a daughter of Jupiter and
Proserpine, who became mother of Cupid ; a daughter of
Jupiter and Latona ; and a daughter of Upis and Glauce.
The second is the most celebrated, and to her all the an¬
cients allude. She was born at the same birth as Apollo; and
the pains which she saw her mother suffer during her la¬
bour gave her such an aversion to marriage, that she ob¬
tained permission of her father to live in perpetual celi¬
bacy, and lo preside over the travails of women. In order
to shun the society of men, she devoted herself to hunt¬
ing, and was always accompanied by a number of chosen
virgins, who, like herself, abjured the use of marriage.
She is represented with a bow and quiver, and attended
by dogs, and sometimes drawn in a chariot by two white
stags. Sometimes she appears with wings, holding a lion in
one hand, and a panther in the other, with a chariot drawn
by two heifers, or two horses of different colours. She is
represented as tall; her face has something manly in it;
her legs are bare, well shaped, and strong; and her feet
are covered with a buskin worn by huntresses among the
ancients. She received many sirnames, particularly from
the places where her worship was established, and from
the functions over which she presided. She was called
Lucina, Ilythia, or Juno Pronuba, when invoked by women
in childbed; and Trivia when worshipped in the cross-
ways, where her statues were generally erected. She was
supposed to be the same as the moon and Proserpine or
Hecate, and from that circumstance she was called Tri-
formis ; and some of her statues represented her with three
heads, namely, those of a horse, a dog, and a boar. She
was also called Agrotera, Orithia, Taurita, Delia, Cynthia,
Aricia, and the like. She was supposed to be the same
as the Isis of the Egyptians, whose worship was introdu¬
ced into Greece along with that of Osiris under the name
of Apollo. When Typhon waged war against the gods,
Diana, to avoid his fury, metamorphosed herself into a cat.
She is generally known in the figures representing her,
by the crescent on her head, by the dogs which attend
D I A
her, and by her hunting habit. The most famous of her Diana’s
temples was that of Ephesus, which formed one of the Bank
seven wonders of the world. (See Ephesus.) She wasj)ja j||.a
there represented with a great number of breasts, and
other symbols, which signified the earth or Cybele.
Though she was the patroness of chastity, yet she forgot
her dignity in order to enjoy the company of Endymion;
and the favours she granted to Pan and Orion are also
recorded among the mythic scandal of antiquity. The
inhabitants of Taurica were particularly attached to the
worship of this goddess, and they cruelly offered on her
altar all the strangers who suffered shipwreck on their
coasts. Her temple in Africa was always served by a
priest who had murdered his predecessor; and the Lace¬
daemonians yearly offered her human victims till the age
of Lycurgus, who changed this barbarous custom for the
sacrifice of flagellation. The Athenians generally offered
her goats ; and others a white kid, and sometimes a boar
pig or an ox. Among plants, the poppy and the dittany
were sacred to her. Diana, as well as her brother Apollo,
had some oracles, among which those of Egypt, Cilicia, and
Ephesus, are the best known.
DIANA’S Bank, or Diana’s Shoal, a small sandy
islet in the Indian Sea, scarcely visible from the mast¬
head, its situation lying so low. Long. 151. 5. E. Lat.
15. 45. S.
DIANiE Arbor, or Arbor Lun^e, in Chemistry, the
beautiful arborescent form of silver, dissolved in nitric
acid, and precipitated by another metal; so called from its
resembling the trunk, branches, and leaves of a tree.
DIANO, a city of Italy, in the Neapolitan province
Principato Citeriore, containing 4146 inhabitants.
DIAPASON, in Music, a musical interval, which most
authors who have written on the theory of music use to
express the octave of the Greeks.
Diapason, among the musical instrument makers, a
kind of rule or scale by which they adjust the pipes of or¬
gans, and cut the holes of hautboys, flutes, and the like, in
due proportion for performing the tones, semitones, and
concords, with precision.
Diapason Diaex, in Music, a kind of compound con¬
cord, of which there are two sorts; the greater, which is
in the proportion of 10:3; and the lesser, in that of 16:5.
Diapason Diapente, in Music, a compound consonance
in a triple ratio, as 3:9. This interval, says Martianus
Capella, consists of nine tones and a semitone, nineteen
semitones, and thirty-eight dieses. It is a symphony
made when the voice proceeds from the first to the twelfth
sound.
Diapason Diatessaron, in Music, a compound concord
founded on the proportion of eight to three. To this in¬
terval Martianus Capella allows eight tones and a semi¬
tone, seventeen semitones, and thirty-four dieses. This
is when the voice proceeds from its first to its eleventh
sound. The moderns would rather call it the eleventh.
Diapason Ditone, in Music, a compound concord, whose
terms are as 10 :4, or as 5 : 2.
Diapason Semiditone, in Music, a compound concord,
whose terms are in the proportion of 12 :5.
DIAPENTE, in ancient music, an interval marking the
second of the concords, and with the diatessaron an oc¬
tave ; in modern music it is called a jifth.
DIAPER, a kind of cloth on which are formed various
figures, and which is chiefly employed for table-linen.
DIAPHANOUS, an appellation given to all transparent
bodies, or such as transmit the rays of light.
DIAPHORETICS, among physicians, all medicines
which promote perspiration.
DIAPHRAGM (DiaphragmcL), in Anatomy, a part vul¬
garly called the midriff, and by anatomists septum trans-