DAMSEL OF BRITTANY. A title given to Eleanor of Brittany, sister of Arthur, Count of Brittany, and niece of King John of England, who confined her in the Castle of Bristol, where she died in 1241.
DAN (Hob.. judge). A city on the northern boundary of Israel, called originally Laish (Judges xviii. 29). but renamed Dan by the Danite invaders. Owing to its northerly loca tion (Gen. xiv. 14), it was often used in con nection with Beersheba (I. Sam. iii, 20; II. Sam. iii. 10) in the phrase "from Dan to Beer sheba," to express the whole land of Israel. The Dan it es introduced an idolatrous worship (Judges xviii.), hut this gave way to the calf worship introduced by Jeroboam (1. Kings xii. 29). At the solicitation of Asa, King of Judah. Ben Iladad, the Syrian King, invaded Israel. and, among other cities, Dan was destroyed (1. Kings xv. 20; II. Chrou. xvi. 4). The ruins of the city are identified with modern Tel-el-Kadi.
DAN. The eponymous ancestor of time tribe of Dan, the son of Jacob and his concubine Itilhah (Gen. xxx. 6). The tribe was one of the smallest and weakest of the Hebrew con federacy. Belonging to the northern group, its territory lay southwest of Ephraim. occupying the valleys of Sorek and Ajalon (Joshua xix.
40-46). Owing, however, to difficulties with the Amorites (Judges i. 34), we find them later migrating to the far north. and conquering the.city of Laish, which they rebuilt and called Dan (Joshua xix. 47; Judges xviii.). Samson (q.v.) of the tribe of Dan (Judges xiii. 2, 24. 25). The earliest reference to the tribe is in the song of Deborah (.Judges v.) : the passage in which Dan is reproached for seeking protection in ships., instead of corning forward to help its brother tribe Bilhah, is obscure; but it seems certain that at this period already Dan's settle ments were to the north and near the seacoast. Dan. though designated as a 'concubine' tribe, which generally indicates secondary rank, plays no unimportant. part in the early traditions and legends. This is in part due to the fame and antiquity of the sanctuary at Dan, which as late as the days of Amos is put on a level with Bethel and Beersheba (Amos viii. 14). In this sanctuary the older rites and practices were preserved with great fidelity, and its priests traced their origin to Moses himself (.Judges xviii. 30). The name Dan ('judge') may orig inally have been the title of a deity.