es in the early church--mystical tablets,
anniversary books, ecclesiastical matriculation registers or books of
the living. According to the names inscribed, bishops, the dead or the
living, a diptych might be a _diptycha episcoporum_, _diptycha
mortuorum_ or _diptycha vivorum_.

In course of time the list of the names swelled to such proportions that
the space afforded by the diptych was insufficient. A third fold was
consequently provided, and the tablet became a _triptych_ (though the
name _diptych_ was retained as a general term for the object). Further
room was afforded by the insertion of leaves of parchment or wood
between the folds. The custom of reading names from the diptychs died
out about the 8th century. The diptychs, however, were retained as altar
ornaments. From the original consular documents onwards, the outsides of
the folds had always been richly ornamented, and when they ceased to be
of immediate practical use they became merely decorative. Instead of the
list of names the inside was ornamented like the outer, and in the
middle ages the best painters of the day would often paint them. When
folded, the portraits of the donor and his wife might be shown; when
open there would be three paintings, one on each fold, of a religious
character. (R. A. S. M.)

DIR, an independent state in the North-West Frontier Province of India,
lying to the north-east of Swat. Its importance chiefly arises from the
fact that it commands the greater part of the route between Chitral and
the Peshawar frontier. The quarrels and intrigues between the khan of
Dir and Umra Khan of Jandol were among the chief events that led up to
the Chitral Campaign of 1895. During that expedition the khan made an
agreement with the British Government to keep the road to Chitral open
in return for a subsidy. Including the Bashkars, an aboriginal tribe
allied to the Torwals and Garhuis, who inhabit Panjkora Kohistan, the
population is estimated at about 100,000.

DIRCE, in Greek legend, daughter of Helios the sun-god, the second wife
of Lycus, king of Thebes. She sorely persecuted Antiope, his first wife,
who escaped to Mount Cithaeron, where her twin sons Amphion and Zethus
were being brought up by a herdsman who was ignorant of their parentage.
Having recognized their mother, the sons avenged her by tying Dirce to
the horns of a wild bull, which dragged her about till she died. Her
body was cast into a spring near Thebes, wh