DRAFTED MASONRY, in architecture, the term given to large stones, on the face of which has been dressed round the edge a draft or sunken surface, leaving the centre portion as it came from the quarry. The dressing is worked with an adze of eight teeth to the inch, used in a vertical direction and to a width of 2 to 4 in. The earliest example of drafted masonry is found in the immense platform built by Cyrus 530 b.c. at Pasargadae in Persia. It occurs again in the palace of Hyrcanus, known as the Arak-el-Emir (176 b.c.), but is there inferior in execution. The finest drafted masonry is that dating from the time of Herod, in the tower of David and the walls of the Haram in Jerusalem, and at Hebron. In the castles built by the Crusaders, the adze has been worked in a diagonal direction instead of vertically. In all these examples the size of the stones employed is sometimes enormous, so that the traditional influence of the Phoenician masons seems to have lasted till the 12th century.
DRAG (from the Old Eng. dragan, to draw; the word preserves the g which phonetically developed into w), that which is drawn or pulled along a surface, or is used for drawing or pulling. The term is thus applied to a harrow for breaking up clods of earth, or for an apparatus, such as a grapnel, net or dredge, used for searching water for drowned bodies or other objects. As a name of a vehicle, “drag” is sometimes used as equivalent to “break,” a heavy carriage without a body used for training horses, and also a large kind of wagonette, but is more usually applied to a privately owned four-horse coach for four-in-hand driving. The word is also given to the “shoe” of wood or iron, placed under the wheel to act as a brake, and also to the “drift” or “sea-anchor,” usually made of spars and sails, employed for checking the lee-way of a ship when drifting. In fox-hunting, the “drag” is the line of scent left by the fox, but more particularly the term is given to a substitute for the hunting of a fox by hounds, an artificial line of scent being laid by the dragging of a bag of aniseed or other strong smelling substance which a pack will follow.
DRAGASHANI (Rumanian Dragaşani), a town of Rumania, near the right bank of the river Olt, and on the railway between Caracal and Râmnicu Vâlcea. Pop. (1900) 4398. The town is of little commercial importance, but the vineyards on the neighbouring hills produce some of the best Walachian wines. Dragashani stands on the site of the Roman Rusidava. In 1821 the Turks routed the troops of Ypsilanti near the town.
terjuman, an interpreter or translator; the same root occurs in the Hebrew word targum signifying translation, the title of the Chaldaean translation of the Bible), a comprehensive designation applied to all who act as intermediaries between Europeans and Orientals, from the hotel tout or travellers’ guide, hired at a few shillings a day, to the chief dragoman of a foreign embassy whose functions include the carrying on of the most important political negotiations with the Ottoman government, or the dragoman of the imperial divan (the grand master of the ceremonies).
The original employment of dragomans by the Turkish government arose from its religious scruples to use any language save those of peoples which had adopted Islamism. The political relations between the Porte and the European states, more frequent in proportion as the Ottoman power declined, compelled the sultan’s ministers to make use of interpreters, who rapidly acquired considerable influence. It soon became necessary to create the important post of chief dragoman at the Porte, and there was no choice save to appoint a Greek, as no other race in Turkey combined the requisite knowledge of languages with the tact and adroitness essential for conducting diplomatic negotiations. The first chief dragoman of the Porte was Panayot Nikousia, who held his office from 1665 to 1673. His successor, Alexander Mavrocordato, surnamed Exaporritos, was charged by the Turkish government with the delicate and arduous negotiation of the treaty of Carlowitz, and by his dexterity succeeded, in spite of his questionable fidelity to the interests of his employers, in gaining their entire confidence, and in becoming the factotum of Ottoman policy. From that time until 1821 the Greeks monopolized the management of Turkey’s foreign relations, and soon established the regular system whereby the chief dragoman passed on as a matter of course to the dignity of hospodar of one of the Danubian principalities.