aratus,
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 _Draga[s,]ani_), a town of Rumania, near the right
bank of the river Olt, and on the railway between Caracal and Ramnicu
Valcea. 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.

DRAGOMAN (from the Arabic [Arabic: terjuman] _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 ap