Dias

The princess's shield is at the head of it, and the feet are raised entirely above the floor of the room, on a dias which projects at the lower end so as to form a seat, on which the child has laid her crown.

A wizened figure who moved slowly up the steps of the dias but who spoke in a booming voice, he seized on the occasion to read the dissident group's "last will and testament" and to tell the assembled delegates about a different vision of socialism.