DOAB, or Duab, or Dooab, a name, like the Greek Mesopotamia, applicable, according to its derivation {do, two, and ab, river), to the stretch of country lying between any two rivers, as the Baree Doab between the Sutlej and the Ravee, or the Reechna Doab between the Ravee and the Chenab, but frequently employed, without any distinctive adjunct, as the proper name for the region between the Ganges and its great tributary the Jumna. In like manner the designation of Doab Canal is given to the artificial channel which breaks off from the Jumna near Fyzabad, and flows almost parallel with the river till it reunites with it at Delhi.

DOBELL, Sydney (1824-1874), a distinguished English poet, born on the 5th of April 1824 at Cranbrook, Kent, was sprung from an old Sussex family, noted for its staunch loyalty in the struggle between the Cavaliers and Roundheads. His father, John Dobell, who wrote a pamphlet on Government, was a wine merchant at Cheltenham; his mother was a daughter of Samuel Thompson, a famous political reformer. When Dobell was twelve years old, the family went to Gloucestershire; and the poet, ever after, with occasional breaks, kept up his connection with the district. He was educated privately, and never attended either school or university. He refers to this in some precocious lines, in imitation of Chaucer, dating from his eighteenth year. In 1844 he married Emily Fordham, a lady of an old county family in Cambridgeshire. Cheltenham was, for the most part, his home in those early years, as his father’s business had to be carried on; but the summer was often spent in the country. During this period his poetic vein flowed freely. He wrote a number of minor poems instinct with a passionate desire for political reform. The Roman was also in progress, and was written mainly among the Cots wolds. It appeared in 1850, under the nom de plume of Sydney Yendys. Next year he travelled through Switzerland with his wife; and, after his return, he formed friendships with Robert Browning, Philip Bailey, George Macdonald, Emanuel Deutsch, Lord Houghton, Ruskin, Holman Hunt, Mazzini, Tennyson, and Carlyle, and conducted an interesting correspondence with Charlotte Bronte. His second large poem, Raider, written partly at Coxhorne, partly among the Alps, and finished at Amberley Hall, appeared in 1854. The three following years were spent in Scotland—the winters in Edinburgh, the summers in the ...

DOBELN, a town of Saxony, in the circle of Leipsic, and 35 miles to the south-east of that town, standing partly on an island formed by the Mulde. It is the centre of a considerable corn trade. The manufactures are cloth, cord wain and other leather, shoes, hats, belts lacquered tin ware, agricultural and weighing machines, and cigars. Population, 10,969 in 1875.

DOBERAN, or Dobberan, a market town of Northern Germany, in the grand duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, about two miles from the shores of the Baltic, and seven west of Rostock. Besides the ruins of a Cistercian abbey founded by Pribislav II. in 1173, and secularized in 1552, it possesses a church of the 14th century, which ranks as one of the finest in Northern Germany, a grand-ducal palace, a theatre, an exchange, and a concert-room. In 1793 Duke Frederick Francis caused the first seaside watering-place in Germany to be established on the neighbouring coast, at the spot where the Heiliger Damm, a great bank of rocks about 1000 feet broad and 15 feet high, stretches out into the sea and forms an excellent bathing ground. Though no longer so popular as in the early part of the century, it is still frequented. In the immediate neighbourhood of the town three mineral springs were discovered in 1829—one sulphurous, a second saline, and the third chalybeate. Population in 1875, 3866.

DOBRIZHOFFER, Martin (1717-1791), a Roman Catholic missionary, whose fame is preserved by the historical interest and the literary character of his narrative. Born at Gratz, in Styria, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1736, and in 1749 proceeded to Paraguay, where for eighteen years, first among the Guaranis, and latterly among the Abipones, he continued with steadfast devotion and easy cheerfulness to discharge the difficult and hazardous duties of his profession. Returning to Europe on the expulsion of the Jesuits from South America, he settled at Vienna, obtained the patronage, or rather the friendship, of Maria Theresa, survived the extinction of his order, composed the history of his mission, and died on July 17, 1791. His history appeared at Vienna in 1784, in the author’s own Latin, and in a German translation by Professor Krai] of the university of Pesth. Of the contents of the work some idea may be obtained from its extended title :— Historia de Abiponibus, Equestri Bellicosaque Paraquariae Natione, locupletata Copiosis Barbararum Gentium Urbium, Fluminum, Ferarum, Amphibiorum, Insectorum, Serpentium proecipuorum, Piscium, Avium, Arborum, Plantarum aliar unique ejusdem Provincioe Proprietatum Observationibus. The “lively singularity” and garrulous quaintness of the style could only be displayed by lengthened quotation. In 1822 there appeared in London an anonymous (not altogether complete) translation, which has not unfrequently been ascribed to Southey, but was really the work of Sara Coleridge, who, while still in her teens, had undertaken the task to defray the college expenses of one of her brothers. To the youthful translator a delicate compliment was paid by Southey in the third canto of his Tale of Paraguay, the story of which was derived from ...