The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 405

SIMSON, ROBERT, mathematician, born in Ayrs.h.i.+re; abandoned his intention of entering the Church and devoted himself to the congenial study of mathematics, of which he became professor in the old university at Glasgow (1711), a position he held for 50 years; was the author of the well-known "Elements of Euclid," but is most celebrated as the first restorer of Euclid's lost treatise on "Porisms" (1687-1768).

SINAI, MOUNT, one of a range of three mountains on the peninsula between the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Akaba, at the head of the Red Sea, and from the summit or slopes of which Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments at the hands of Jehovah.

SINCERITY, in Carlyle's ethics the one test of all worth in a human being, that he really with his whole soul means what he is saying and doing, and is courageously ready to front time and eternity on the stake.

SINCLAIR, name of a Scottish family of Norman origin whose founder obtained from David I. the grant of Roslin, near Edinburgh.

SINCLAIR, SIR JOHN, philanthropist and statistician, born at Thurso Castle, bred to the bar; succeeding to the family estate devoted himself to his duties as a landed proprietor; sat for different const.i.tuencies in Parliament; published in 1784 "History of the Revenue of the British Empire," and in 1791-99, in 21 vols., "Statistical Account of Scotland"

(1754-1835).

SIND, SINDH, or SCINDE (2,903), a province of North-West India, in the Presidency of Bombay; extends from Beluchistan and Punjab (N.) to the Indian Ocean and Runn of Cutch (S.); traversed by the Indus, whose delta it includes, and whose broad alluvial valley-tracts yield abundant crops of wheat, barley, hemp, rice, cotton, etc., which are exported, and give employment to the majority of the people; N. and E. are wide stretches of desert-land, and in the S. are the Hala Mountains; was annexed to the British possessions after the victories of Sir Charles Napier in 1843; chief city and port is Kurrachee.

SINDIA, the hereditary t.i.tle of the Mahratta dynasty in Gwalior, Central India, founded in 1738 by Ranojee Sindia, who rose from being slipper-bearer to the position of hereditary prime minister of the Mahrattas; these princes, both singly and in combination with other Mahratta powers, offered determined resistance to the British, but in 1803 the confederated Mahratta power was broken by Sir Arthur Wellesley, and a large portion of their territory pa.s.sed into British hands. Gwalior having been restored (1805), and retaken in 1844, the Sindia dynasty was reinstated under a more stringent treaty, and Boji Rao Sindia proved faithful during the Mutiny, receiving various marks of good-will from the British; was succeeded by his adopted son, a child of six, in 1886.

SINGAPORE, 1, (185, chiefly Chinese), the most important of the BRITISH STRAITS SETTLEMENTS (q. v.); consists of the island of Singapore and upwards of 50 islets, off the southern extremity of the Malay Peninsula, from which it is separated by a narrow strait (2 to m.

broad); is hot, humid, and low-lying, yet healthy, and possessing a fertile soil which grows all kinds of spices, fruits, sugar-cane, coffee, etc.; purchased by the British in 1824. 2, Capital (160) and port, on the Strait of Singapore, close to the equator; the chief emporium of trade with the East Indies and South-Eastern Asia generally; is a picturesque and handsome town, strongly fortified, and an important naval coaling station and depot, with s.p.a.cious harbour, docks, etc.

SINOLOGY, the science treating of the language, literature, laws, and history of the Chinese.

SINON, a wily Greek who beguiled the Trojans and persuaded them to admit the Wooden Horse into the city, to its ruin.

SINOPE (8), a seaport of Turkey in Asia, situated on a narrow isthmus connecting with the mainland the rocky headland of Cape Sinope which projects into the Black Sea, 350 m. NE. of Constantinople; possesses two fine harbours, naval a.r.s.enal, Byzantine ruins, etc.; an ancient Greek town, the birthplace of Diogenes, and capital of Mithridates; it was captured by the Turks in 1461, who themselves in 1853 suffered a disastrous naval defeat in the Bay of Sinope at the hands of the Russians.

SION, capital of the Swiss canton of Valais, on the Rhine, 42 m. E.

of Lausanne; is a mediaeval town, with an old Gothic cathedral, and in the neighbourhood ruined castles.

SIOUT or ASIOOT (32), capital of Upper Egypt; commands a fine view near the Nile, 200 m. S. of Cairo; has a few imposing mosques and a government palace; is a caravan station, and noted for its red and black pottery; occupies the site of the ancient city of Lycopolis.

SIOUX or DAKOTA INDIANS, a North American Indian tribe, once spread over the territory lying between Lake Winnipeg (N.) and the Arkansas River (S.), but now confined chiefly to South Dakota and Nebraska. Failure on the part of the United States Government to observe certain treaty conditions led to a great uprising of the Sioux in 1862, which was only put down at a great cost of blood and treasure; conflicts also took place in 1876 and 1890, the Indians finding in their chief, Sitting Bull, a determined and skilful leader.

SIRDAR, a name given to a native chief in India.

SIREN, an instrument for measuring the number of aerial vibrations per second, and thereby the pitch of a given note.

SIRENS, in the Greek mythology a cla.s.s of nymphs who were fabled to lure the pa.s.sing sailor to his ruin by the fascination of their music; Ulysses, when he pa.s.sed the beach where they were sitting, had his ears stuffed with wax and himself lashed to the mast till he was at a safe distance from the influence of their charm. Orpheus, however, as he pa.s.sed them in the Argonautic expedition so surpa.s.sed their music by his melodious notes, that in very shame they flung themselves into the sea and were changed into boulders.

SIRIUS or THE DOG-STAR, the brightest star in the heavens, one of the stars of the Southern constellation of _Canis Major_; is calculated to have a bulk three times that of the sun, and to give 70 times as much light. See DOG-DAYS.

SIRKAR, a name used in India to designate the government.

SIROCCO. See SIMOOM.

SISMONDI, JEAN CHARLES LeONARD SIMONDE DE, celebrated Swiss historian, born at Geneva; son of a Protestant clergyman of Italian descent; the family fortune was lost in the troublous days of the French Revolution, and exile in England and Italy followed, but in 1800 Sismondi returned to Geneva, and having received a munic.i.p.al appointment gave himself to literary pursuits; the works which have established his reputation are his great histories of "The Italian Republics in the Middle Ages," "European Literature," and "A. History of the French"; wrote also on political economy (1773-1842).

SISTINE CHAPEL, celebrated chapel of the Vatican at Rome, constructed by order of Pope Sixtus IV., and decorated with frescoes by Michael Angelo, representing a succession of biblical subjects, including among others the "Creation of the World," the "Creation of Man," the "Creation of Woman," the "Temptation of Eve," the "Deluge," "Judith and Holophernes," "David and Goliath," "The Last Judgment," &c.

SISTOVA (12), a town of Bulgaria, on the Danube, 33 m. above Rustchuk; carries on trade in wine, leather, and cereals; was captured by the Russians in 1877.

SISYPHUS, a mythical king of Corinth, who for some offence he gave the G.o.ds was carried off to the nether world, and there doomed to roll a huge block up a hill, which no sooner reached the top than it bounded back again, making his toil endless.

SITKA or NEW ARCHANGEL (1), capital of Alaska, on the W. coast of Baranof Island, overhung by snowy mountains; has a good harbour; salmon fis.h.i.+ng and curing the chief employment of most of the inhabitants, mostly Indians.

SIVA or cIVA, the Destroyer in the Hindu trinity, in which Brahma is the Creator and Vishnu the Preserver; Vishnu representing, as it were, death issuing in life, and Siva life issuing in death, the transition point, and Brahma, who, by means of them, "kills that he may make alive." He is wors.h.i.+pped as "Mahadeva" or the great G.o.d, and his wors.h.i.+ppers are called Saivas or caivas, as distinct from those of Vishnu, which are called Vaishnavas. The LINGA (q. v.) is his symbol, in emblem of the creation which follows destruction. See Psalm xc. 3.

SIVAJI, the founder of the Mahratta power in India, a bold warrior but an unlettered, of Rajput descent, brought up at Poona; began his career at 19; on his succession a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of rajah in 1664, and was enthroned at Raigpur in 1674, and died sovereign of the whole Deccan (1627-1680).

SIX ARTICLES. See b.l.o.o.d.y STATUTE.

SIXTUS, the name of five popes. S. I., St., Pope from 116 to 125; S. II., st., pope from 257 to 259; S. III., Pope from 432 to 440; S. IV., pope from 1471 to 1484; S. V., Pope from 1585 to 1590; of whom only two are of any note.

SIXTUS IV., born near Savona, the son of a fisherman; became general of the Franciscans; succeeded Paul II. as Pope; was notorious for his nepotism; abetted Pazzi in his conspiracy against the Medici at Florence, but was a good administrator, and a man of liberal views; _b_. 1414.

SIXTUS V., born near Monalto, of poor parents, was of the Franciscan order, and famed as a preacher; was elected successor to Gregory XIII., during whose pontificate he affected infirmity, to reveal himself a vigorous pontiff as soon as he was installed; set himself at once to stamp out disorder, reform the administration, and replenish the exhausted treasury of the Church; he allowed freedom of wors.h.i.+p to the Jews, and yet was zealous to put down all heresy in the Christian States of Europe; his services to Rome were not repaid with grat.i.tude, for the citizens destroyed his statue on his death; _b_. 1521.

SIZAR, a poor student at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, so called from the size or allowance of food they were recipients of out of the college b.u.t.tery.

SKAGER-RACK, an arm of the North Sea stretching NE. between Norway and Denmark, and connecting the Cattegat with the North Sea, 140 m. long and 70 broad, the deep water being on the Norwegian coast.