DUALLA

This article appears in Volume V08, Page 615 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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DUALLA , one of the principal negro peoples of Cameroon estuary, West Africa. When the Germans established themselves in that region, the Dualla were under many petty chiefs, whose domains were usually restricted to one

village

VILLAGE

. Over these were two greater chiefs, Bell (Mbeli) and Akwa, representing the principal families of the tribe. The Dualla are physically a fine race. They are proud of their racial purity, and it was formerly usual for all half-caste children to be strangled at birth. The Dualla

tattoo

TATTOO

themselves, the women the whole body, the men the face only. They also pull out their eyelashes, which they believe prevent

sharp

sight. The monarchical system is more developed among the Dualla than any other of the peoples of Cameroon. The kings, many of whom have grown rich through trade, retain part of their former power, subject to the German government. The Dualla, who are laborious, industrious and capable of great physical endurance, are great traders and are proportionately prosperous. The average price for a wife among the Dualla is from 90 to 120; but sometimes a great deal more is paid. Girls are usually betrothed young and may be divorced if sterile. The penalty for

adultery

ADULTERY (from Lat. adulterium)

is a fine imposed on the seducer; if he cannot pay he becomes the husband's slave. Cannibalism as a religious rite was formerly common among the Dualla. All accessioffs to power were preceded by a sacrifice, a king having no authority till his hands were stained with blood. The religion is fetish blended with ancestor-

worship

WORSHIP (i.e. " worth-ship," O. Eng. weor8scipe)

, and certain secret societies exist among them which seem to have a religious connexion. The dead are buried within the hut, which is abandoned shortly afterwards; slaves were formerly buried with men of importance. Missionary efforts have yielded many converts, and some churches have been built. Many of the natives can read. The Dualla are in possession of an interesting code, in accordance with which messages can be sent and even conversations maintained by means of drums, or rather gongs, giving two notes. (See CAMEROON.)
DU BARRY, MARIE JEANNE B$CU, COMTESSE (1746-1793), French adventuress, mistress of Louis XV., was the natural daughter of a poor woman of Vaucouleurs, and was born there on the 19th of August 1746. Placed in a convent in Paris at an early age, she received a very slight education, learning little but the catechism and drawing; and at the age of sixteen entered a milliner's shop in the rue St Honore. Subsequently she lived as a courtesan under the name of Mdlle Lange. Her great personal charms led the adventurer Jean, comte du Barry, to take her into his house in order to make it more
attractive to the dupes whose money he won by gambling. Her success surpassing his expectations, his hopes took a higher flight, and through Lebel, valet de chambre of Louis XV., and the duc de Richelieu, he succeeded in installing her as mistress of the king. In order to present her at court it was necessary to find a title for her, and as Count Jean du Barry was married himself his brother Guillaume offered himself as nominal husband. The comtesse du Barry was presented at court on the 22nd of April 1769, and became official mistress of the king. Her influence over the monarch was absolute until his death, and courtiers and ministers were in favour or disgrace with him in exact accordance with her wishes. The duc de Choiseul, who refused to acknowledge her, was disgraced in 1771; and the duc d'Aiguillon, who had the reputation of being her lover, took his place, and in concert with her governed the monarch. Louis XV. built for her the magnificent mansion of Luciennes. At his death in 1774 an order of his successor banished her to the abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, near Meaux, but, the queen interceding for her, the king in the following year gave her permission to reside at Luciennes with a pension. Here she led a retired life with the comte de Cosse-Brissac, and was visited there by Benjamin Franklin and the emperor Joseph II., among many other distinguished men. Having gone to England in 1792 to endeavour to raise money on her jewels, she was on her return accused before the Revolutionary Tribunal of having dissipated the treasures of the state, conspired against the republic, and worn, in London, " mourning for the tyrant." She was condemned to death on the 7th of December 1793, and beheaded the same evening. Her contemporaries, scorning her low birth rather than her vices, attributed to her a malicious political role of which she was at heart incapable, and have done scant justice to her

quick

QUICK

wit, her frank but gracious manners, and her seductive beauty. The volume of Lettres et Anecdotes (1779) which bears her name was not written by her.
See E. and J. de Goncourt, La du Barry (Paris, 188o) ; C. Vatel, Histoire de Madame du Barry (1882-1883), based on sources; R. Douglas, The Life and Times of Madame du Barry (London, 1896).
DU BARTAS, GUILLAUME DE SALUSTE, SEIGNEUR (15441590), French poet, was born near Auch in 1544. He was employed by Henry IV. of France in England, Denmark and Scotland; and he commanded a troop of horse in Gascony, under the marshal de Martingan. He was a convinced Huguenot, and cherished the idea of writing a great religious epic in which biblical characters and Christian sentiment were to supplant the

pagan

PAGAN
PAGAN (Lat. paganus, of or belonging to a pagus, a canton, county district,
village
- VILLAGE
, commune)

mise en scene then in fashion. His first epic, Judith, appeared in a volume entitled La Muse chretienne (Bordeaux, 1573). This was followed five years later by his principal work, La Sepmaine, a poem on the creation of the world. This work was held by admirers of du Bartas to put him on a level with Ronsard, and thirty editions of it were printed within six years after its appearance. Its religious tone and fanciful style made it a great favourite in England, where the author was called the " divine " du Bartas, and placed on an equality with Ariosto. Spenser,

Hall

and Ben Jonson, all speak in the highest terms of what seems to us a most uninteresting poem. King James VI. of Scotland tried his " prentice hand " at the translation of du Bartas's poem L' Uranie, and the compliment was returned by the French writer, who translated, as La Lepanthe, James's poem on the battle of Lepanto. Du Bartas began the publication of the Seconde Semaine in 1584. He aimed at a great epic which should stretch from the story of the creation to the coming of the Messiah. Of this great

scheme

SCHEME (Lat. schema, Gr. oxfjya, figure, form, from the root axe, seen in exeiv, to have, hold, to be of such shape, form, &c.)

he only executed a part, marked by a certain

elevation

ELEVATION

of style, but he did not succeed in acclimatizing the religious epic in France. The work is spoiled by a constant tendency to moralize, and is filled with the in-discriminate information that passed under the name of science in the 16th century. Du Bartas, perhaps more than any other writer, brought the Ronsardist tradition into dispute. He introduced many unwieldy compounds foreign to the genius of the French language, and in his borrowings from old French, from provincial dialects and from Latin, he failed to show the sure instinct and prudence of Ronsard and du Bellay. He wasalso guilty of reduplicating the first syllables of words, producing such expressions as pepetiller, sousouflantes. Du Bartas died in July 1590 in Paris from wounds received at the battle of Ivry.
Joshua Sylvester translated the Sepmaine in 1598; other English translations from du Bartas are The Historie of Judith . (1584) by Thomas Hudson; of portions of the " Weeks (1625) by William Lisle (1569-1637), the Anglo-Saxon scholar; Urania (15899, by Robert Ashley (15651641); and Sir Philip Sidney (see Florio's dedication of the second book of his translation of Montaigne to Lady Rich) wrote a translation of the first " Week," which is lost. The Euvres completes of du Bartas were printed at Paris (1579), Paris and Bordeaux (1611). See also G. Pellissier, La Vie et les oeuvres de du Bartas (1883).

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