DERVISE

(From a Persian word signifying poor.) The name of certain CHH.M of religious persons among the Mohammedans of Turkey and Asia. They live partly in -tones, partly alone, either stationary or wandering; and belong to a great variety of orders, of which there are thirty -tw (it is said) within the Turkish empire only. It is imrjo Imine the period to which the origin of the dermises is to be referred. As in most other countries, there has existed in Persia from time immemorial a cla of enthusiasts, who, impre ed with the conviction that poverty is the only pa port to virtue, and that the privations of this world will be commensurately compensated in the world to come, have voluntarily renounced alt the comforts, luxuries, and charities of this life, and devoted themselves entirely to religious exercises. In most instances, however, such enthusiasts have been more famed for the theory than the practice of sanctity; and the dervises do not appear 10 form an exception to the rule. Their public are disfigured by the gro est fanaticism and buffoonery; and their private life is said to be lot.marked I Ml l»v great hypocrisy and licentiousne . (D'lhrbeDESCANT. (It. des can to.) In Music, composition in U parts. It is either plain, which consists in the orderly placing of many concords answering to simple counterpart, figurate or florid, wherein discords are employed;or double, where the parts are so contrived that the treble or any high part may be made the ba , and the contrary. [s. 345]