Deal (United States a plank feet)
in the United States, a plank 12 feet long, 11 inches wide, and 22 inches thick. Deals are sawed of other sizes, but are reduced to that cubic dimension in computing them. In England, lumber not exceeding 3 inches in thickness and 9 inches wide. The word is applied especially to the wood of the fir. If the planks are 7 inches or less in width, they are called battens, and if less than 6 feet long, deal-ends. Fifty cubic feet of deals are a load, and 100 feet superficial are a square.
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Dealfish
a genus of deep-sea bony fishes, in the ribbon-fish sub-order of Acanthopteri. Some eight species are known, on European coasts and from the W. of South America. They rarely come to the surface. One form (T. arcticus or bogmarus, the vaagmaer of Icelanders Norwegians) is occasionally found and on North British coasts. It is a large fish, 4 to 6 feet in length, and of a silvery color. The dorsal and caudal fins are red. A smaller species (T. tænia) occurs along with others in the Mediterranean. See
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Dean
BASHFORD, an American zoölogist; born in New York City in 1867. He graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1886 and afterward took post-graduate courses at Columbia. He served as tutor of natural history at the College of the City of New York from 1886 to 1890. In 1891 he was appointed instructor of biology at Columbia University and became successively adjunct professor of zoology and professor of vertebrate zoölogy at that university. He was assistant of the New York State Fish Commission from 1886 to 1888, and served as special investigator of the United States Fish Commission. He was for a time director of the Biological Laboratory of Cold Spring Harbor, New York. From 1903 he was curator of herpetology and ichthyology at the American Museum of Natural History. He was also curator of arms and armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was a member of many learned societies. During the World War he served as major of ordnance in the United States Army, and was a member of the Mission to France, Belgium, and England in 1917. He was author of several works on biological subjects.
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Death-Coach
There is a widespread superstitious belief that death goes round in a coach picking up souls. The form of the belief varies, of course, with the locality. In some parts of England and Wales the death-coach passes silently at midnight, without sound of hoof or wheels. Both coach and horse are black, and a black hound runs in front. In some localities the horses and coachman are headless, which doubtless adds to the effectiveness of the apparition. The Breton peasant hears the approach at midnight of a cart with a creaking axle. It is the Ankon death- and when the cart stops before a dwelling someone within must die..
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Death-Head Moth
the largest species of lepidopterous insect found in Great Britain, and systematically known by the name of Acherontia atropos. The markings on the back of the thorax very closely resemble a skull, or death's-head; hence the English name. It measures from 4 to 5 inches in expanse. It emits peculiar sounds, somewhat resembling the It attacks beesqueaking of a mouse. hives, pillages the honey, and disperses the inhabitants.
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Death-Tick
a beetle of the genus Anobium, an inmate of human dwellings, which makes a ticking sound. The most common form of this very prevalent superstition is the belief that when the death-tick is heard some member of the household will die within 12 months.
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Debacle
a sudden breaking up of ice in a river; used by geologists for any sudden outbreak of water, hurling before it and dispersing stones other débris.
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Debenture
in finance, a certificate or document signed by a legally authorized officer, as an acknowledgment of a debt due to some person; a deed or bond mortgage on certain property for the repayment tain sum of money advanced by such person, together with interest thereon at a certain stated rate. In customs, a certificate entitling the person to whom it is granted to a drawback on certain goods exported, the duties on which have been paid. In public offices, in some government departments a term used to denote a bond or bill by which the government is charged to pay a creditor or his assigns the money due on auditing his account.
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Debir
a city of southern Judah, between Hebron and Beersheba, but nearer the former, often mentioned in Scripture and even there identified with Kirjathsepher and Kirjath-sannah (Joshua xv: 15, 49). It is now a poor village called Ed-Dahariyeh. It must have been very important at the time of the Judges in Israel, for it is even mentioned as "Debir with her suburbs." But there must have been another Debir, for in Joshua xiii: 26, it is mentioned as if on the borders of Gad, on the other side of the Jordan, actually in the opposite direction from Jerusalem. Elsewhere the word is used (Joshua x:3) as the name of an Amorite king of Eglon (now Ajlan or its vicinity) slain by Joshua about 1450 b. c. This Eglon is not far from Ed-Dahariyeh, and probably Debir was a capital of the Amo- , and may have been a predecessor rites, tes of Jerusalem, for they were all in the heart of later Judah.
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Deborah
a Hebrew seer or prophetess who lived in the time of the Judges, and by the aid of Barak delivered the N. tribes from the oppression of Jabin and secured a peace of 40 years' duration. The triumphal ode (Judges v) attributed to her is a remarkable specimen of Hebrew poetry.
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Debot
a village community on both banks of the Nile, Upper Egypt, about six miles above the first cataract and not far from ancient Philae. The ruins of the temple of Debot are of great interest. It was built by the Nubian king, Ezekher- Amon, of the time of the earlier Ptolemies and was enlarged by Ptolemy Philometor. The second of the three doorways at entering has a Greek inscription to this Ptolemy and his wife Cleopatra. The first hall has reliefs of Ezekher-Amon, and over the door is an inscription of his. In the sanctuary further along is a granite naos, broken in two and dating from Ptolemy Energetes, second successor of Philometor, both dating from the middle of the second century before Christ. Near by are the remains of one of the permanent Roman camps, mentioned in the Itinerarium Antonini. It was called Parembole.
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