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ship of Ulysses, with himself tied to the mast, is frequently represented on gems, and other works of antient art. (See Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, p. 52.) The number of the Sirens was afterwards increased to three, and various names were given to them by different writers. They were usually called the daughters of Melpomene and Achelous (Apollod., i. 3, § 4), and were represented by artists with the feathers and wings of birds (compare Ovid, Met., v. 522, &c.) They were urged by Hera to contend with the Muses, who conquered them, and tore off their wings. (Paus., ix. 34, § 2.)

SIRHIND, a district of northern Hindustan, which extends from 29° 27' to 31° N. lat., and from 73° 38' to 77° 38 E. long. The northern boundary is formed by the Sutlej, and the Jumna forms a part of the eastern boundary. The principal river is the Gagur. Most of the other rivers are affluents of the Gagur. Sirhind constitutes a portion of what are called the Hill States, and is inhabited by the Sikhs. [HINDUSTAN, p. 233.] The town of Sirhind, from which the district derives its name, though formerly a place of importance, is now little else than a heap of ruins, SIRI, VITTO'RIO, born at Parma in 1625, became a priest, and afterwards went to Paris, where he found favour with Louis XIV., who appointed him his almoner and historiographer. Siri wrote a journal in Italian, entitled Mercurio Politico,' which he continued for many years, and as Louis acted for a long period the principal part on the political stage of Europe, he was flattered at having by him a writer who contributed to spread his fame in a foreign language. Siri however was not a fulsome flatterer, and although he often praised Louis, he did not always spare his ministers and other powerful men of that and the preceding reign, and this freedom passed unheeded chiefly from the circumstance of his writing in a language foreign to France, and which was not understood by the people in general. Besides the 'Mercurio Politico,' the collection of which con sists of fifteen thick volumes, Siri wrote another journal, entitled 'Memorie Recondite,' which fills eight volumes, Le Clerc (Bibliothèque Choisie, vol. iv., p. 138) observes that both these works contain a vast number of valuable authentic documents. The general style of the writer is however prolix and heavy. Siri died at Paris, in 1685. Corniani, Secoli della Letteratura Italiana.)

about the tenth of August. This heliacal rising is a very indefinite phenomenon, and will serve any system: by it Bailly, from Bainbridge's calculations, was able to carry back the settlement of Egypt 2800 years before Christ: while Newton, by a reckoning made on the same principles, made many antient events seem later than was generally supposed.

The greatest heats of summer generally follow the summer solstice, and in the Mediterranean latitudes, and in antient times, it was observed that the unhealthy and oppressive period coincided with the heliacal rising of the dog-star. We say the dog-star, without specifying whether it was Sirius or Procyon; it is uncertain which it was, and may have been both, for the heliacal risings do not differ by many days. The star itself was in Latin canicula, which should seem to apply to the lesser dog, and Horace saysJam Procyon furit

Et stella vesani Leonis [sc, Regulus]
Sole dies referente siccos.'

Pliny supports the same meaning of canicula, and perhaps Hyginus; also the framers of the Alphonsine Tables, and Bede and Kepler, among the older moderns: while Germanicus and Julius Firmicus, with Apian, Magini, Argoli, H. Stephens, and Petavius, among the moderns, contend for Sirius, which is the more common opinion. All antiquity attributed an evil influence to the star; and though Geminus among the antients, and Petavius among the moderns, thought that the effects were to be attributed to the sun alone, they had hardly any followers until the fall of judicial astrology. Even at this day, when the heats of the latter part of the summer are excessive, we are gravely told that we are in the dog-days; and the almanacs, in which an absurdity has the lives of a cat, persist to this very year in informing us that the dog-days begin on the 3rd of July, and end on the 11th of August. Now as the heliacal rising of Sirius takes place about the very end of this period, it is clear that the cart has got before the horse, or the mischief before the dog. Moreover it is notorious that in our island the oppressive heats of the summer, during which dogs are apt to run mad (which is what many people think the name arises from, as indeed it was antiently recorded among the effects of the star), generally fall about the middle or end of August. The real classical dog-days are the twenty days preceding and the twenty days following the heliacal rising of whichever star it was, Sirius or Procyon. It is perfectly useless to retain this period: surely these dogs have had their day.

SIRICIUS, a native of Rome, succeeded Damasus I. as bishop of that city, A.D. 384, under the reign of Valentinian II. We have several letters by him written to various churches on matters both of dogma and of discipline. Some of them are in condemnation of the Priscillianists, Dona- SIRMOND, JACQUES, was born at Riom, in France, tists, and other heretics; one is directed to Anycius, bishop October 22, 1559. Having completed his studies at the of Thessalonica, on matters of jurisdiction; another to Hi-Jesuits' college at Billom, the first which that Society had merius, bishop of Tarracona, which is one of the oldest instances of a bishop of Rome sending mandates to other churches to be received as ecclesiastical laws. Siricius is also one of the first bishops of Rome who wrote concerning the celibacy of the clergy. He directed that a priest who married a second wife after the death of the first should be expelled from his office. (Platina, Lives of the Popes; Dupin, Nouvelle Bibliothèque, Vie de Sirice.) The council of Nicæa had already decreed that all clerks who had been married before they took orders, should be allowed to retain their wives according to the antient tradition of the church, but that priests and deacons should not marry after their ordination. Siricius died A.D. 398.

SIRIUS and PRO'CYON (Ecípios and Пpokówv), the Greek names of the bright stars in the constellations of the Great and Little Dog [CANIS MAJOR and MINOR]. These are Orion's dogs, according to some, and those of minor personages, according to others: the whole of their mythic explanations form a strong proof, in addition to those already noticed, that the constellations are not Greek in their origin. In a passage of Hesiod he has been supposed to speak of the sun under the name of Sirius; and Hesychius defines the word to mean both the sun and the dog-star. Dr. Hutton informs us that the Egyptians 'called the Nile Siris, and hence their Osiris,' which he has copied from Sir John Hill, who derives Sirius from Siris, but does not say where he got his information: probably from some writer of his own calibre. The Egyptians called the dog star Sothis [SOTHIAC PERIOD], and from its HELIACAL rising had warning that the overflow of the Nile was about to commence. Now the overflow of the Nile follows the summer solstice; whereas, by the precession of the equinoxes, the heliacal rising of Sirius is now

in France, he adopted the rule of St. Ignatius, and prepared himself, by a diligent study of the antient languages, for fulfilling the duties of a teacher. When he had finished his noviciate, his superiors required him to come to Paris as professor of rhetoric, in which city he remained till 1790, when he repaired to Rome, on the invitation of the Père Aquaviva, General of the society of Jesuits, who chose Sirmond as his secretary. In this employment he continued sixteen years, during which he examined diligently the manuscripts in the Vatican library, as well as the inscriptions and other remains of antiquity, of which Rome possessed such an abundant supply.

In 1608 the Père Sirmond returned to Paris, and soon afterwards commenced a visitation of the libraries and archives of the convents, and was thereby enabled to save from destruction a great number of documents of the highest value for the history of the middle ages. Sirmond's first publication was the Opuscules' of Geoffroi, abbé de Vendôme, in 1610; from which time he continued to add to his reputation by other publications almost every year. Pope Urban VII. invited him to return to Rome, but Louis XIII. retained him in France, and in 1637 made him his confessor.

The Père Sirmond, having left the court on the death of Louis XIII. in 1643, recommenced his literary labours, which had been somewhat interrupted by attention to the duties of his late dignified office, and continued with unabated ardour to occupy himself in the same way till his death, October 7, 1651, when he was 92 years of age.

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Sirmond's Ouvrages' were collected and published in 1696, in 5 vols. folio. The first three volumes contain the Opuscules' of those Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers which had been published by Sirmond, with prefaces and

notes; the fourth volume contains his Dissertations; and the fifth volume contains the works of Théodore Studite. This edition of Sirmond's Works is by the Père La Baume, and is preceded by a Life of Sirmond by the editor, his Funeral Oration by Henri de Valois, and a list of Sirmond's Works in manuscript as well as printed. In this edition are included the Works of Ennodius bishop of Pavia, of Sidonius Apollinaris, of Eugenius bishop of Toledo, the Chronicles of Idatius and Marcellinus, the Collections of Anastasius the Librarian, the Capitularies of Charles-leChauve and his successors, the works of St. Avit, of Théodulphe bishop of Orleans, &c. Father Sirmond published other ecclesiastical writers besides those included in the above edition, among which are L'Histoire de Reims,' by Flodoard, the Lettres de Pierre de Celles,' the Œuvres' of Radbert, of Theodoret, of Hincmar archbishop of Reims, &c. Sirmond published also a Collection of the Councils of France, Concilia Antiqua Galliæ,' Paris, 1629, folio. (Biographie Universelle.) SIROCCO. [WIND.]

SISIN'NIUS, a Syrian by birth, succeeded John VII. as bishop of Rome, A.D. 707, and died twenty days after his election. He was succeeded by Constantine.

SISON, the name of a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Umbelliferæ. It possesses the following characters: calyx obsolete; petals broadly obcordate, deeply notched, and curved with an inflexed point; styles very short; fruit ovate, laterally compressed; carpels with five filiform equal ridges, of which the lateral ones are marginal; interstices with single, short, club-shaped vitta; seed gibbous, convex, plane in front; universal and partial involucre of few leaves.

Several species were formerly referred to this genus which are now placed under various genera. The only species that is now decidedly referred to Sison is the S. Amomum, hedge bastard stone parsley. It is a native of France, Sicily, Italy, Greece, and Great Britain. It is not unfrequent in this country, especially in chalk soils in rather moist ground, under hedges, &c. It is known by its erect, terete, paniculately branched stem; pinnate leaves, the lower leaflets rather toothed and lobed, upper ones cut into narrow segments. The flowers are cream-coloured. The green plant when bruised has a peculiarly nauseous smell, something like that of bugs. The seeds are pungent and aromatic, and were formerly celebrated as a diuretic, but are now little used.

SISSOO, a tree well known throughout the Bengal presidency, and highly valued on account of its timber. It is common chiefly in the forests and beds of rivers which extend all along the foot of the Himalayas up to 30° N. lat. The trunk is generally more or less crooked, lofty, and often from three to four feet in diameter. The branches are numerous and spreading; the leaves pinnate, with 5 alternate roundish acute leaflets, which from their small size and drooping nature give the tree a very light and elegant appearance.

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The Sissoo yields the Bengal shipbuilders their crooked timbers and knees. Dr. Roxburgh describes it as being tolerably light, remarkably strong, but not so durable as could be wished; the colour is light greyish-brown, with dark veins: he says that upon the whole he scarcely knows any other tree more deserving of attention, from its rapid growth in almost every soil, its beauty, and uses. Captain Baker, in his Experiments on the Elasticity and Strength of Indian Timbers,' describes the Sissoo in structure somewhat resembling the finer species of teak, but as being tougher and more elastic, and as employed by the natives for house furniture, beams, cheeks, spokes, naves and fellies of wheels, keels and frames of boats, blocks, and printing-presses. It is universally employed both by Europeans and natives of the north-west provinces where strength is required.

The Sissoo belongs to a genus Dalbergia, which abounds in valuable timber-trees, as D. latifolia, which is usually called Blackwood-tree by the English, and of which the wood is exported as a kind of ebony sometimes also called Black Rose-wood. It is one of the largest timbertrees of India, being 15 feet in circumference, with the wood of a greenish-black colour, with lighter-coloured veins running in various directions, and admitting a fine polish, and therefore much admired as furniture-wood. Captain Baker found it, like the Sissoo, able to sustain a weight of 1300 pounds, when teak broke with 1128 lbs. S. Dalber

gia Ougeinensis, found in central India, is also highly valued for timber: the pillars of Sindia's palace at Ougein are made of it.

SISTERON, the chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Basses Alpes in France, on the right bank of the Durance, at the junction of the Buech, 437 miles from Paris by Lyon, Grenoble, and Gap. Sisteron was known to the Romans by the name of Segustero (Itinerarium Antoninini, and Peutinger Table) or the town of the Segesterii (Notitia Provinciarum), afterwards altered into Segesterium, Sistericum, and Sisteron. It is not known to what people it belonged. In the sixth century it became the seat of a bishopric, and was the object of attack in the ninth century to the Saracens and the Hungarians. The townsmen embraced the Huguenot party in the religious contests of the sixteenth century. The Catholics in consequence attacked the town and took it, A.D. 1562; but it was afterwards retaken by Lesdiguières. The town is calculated to be 479 metres, or 1570 feet, above the level of the sea. It is situated at the foot of a rock, upon which is an old citadel, and is surrounded by an embattled wall flanked with towers, but is commanded by the surrounding heights, so as to be little defensible in modert: warfare. There are two bridges, one of a single arch over the Durance, the other over the Buech. The ex-cathedral has a fine altar-piece by Vanloo; there are two other churches, an hospital, and a prison. The population in 1831 was 3937 for the town, or 4429 for the whole commune. The townsmen manufacture hats, leather, and pottery; there are lime-kilns; and trade is carried on in almonds, wool, oil, and truffles: there are ten yearly fairs. The surrounding country produces a great quantity of walnuts and almonds, and some good wine. Urns, vases, lamps, medals, and other Roman antiquities have been dug up here.

SISTRUM, a musical instrument of percussion, of the highest antiquity, constructed of brass, and shaped like the frame and handle of a racket, the head part of which had three, and sometimes four, horizontal bars placed loosely on it, which were tuned, most probably, by some scale, and allowed to play freely, so that when the instrument was shaken, piercing, ringing sounds must have been produced. Some writers have confounded the sistrum with the cymbals, though the instruments could have had nothing in common except their harsh metallic sounds.

SISY'MBRIUM (from Zovußpiov), the name of a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Cruciferæ, It possesses a roundish silique seated upon a torus; two stigmas, somewhat distinct, or connate into a head; calyx equal at the base; ovate or oblong seeds; flat, incumbent, sometimes oblique cotyledons; stamens not toothed. The species are mostly perennial or annual herbs, with yellow or white flowers, and leaves very variable on the same plant. About fifty-eight species are enumerated, but comparatively few of these are cultivated. The genus however belongs to an order that possesses no injurious plants, and a few of the species are well known on account of their

uses.

S. officinarum, Common Hedge-Mustard, has muricate pilose leaves, a pilose stem, and subolate pods pressed to the rachis. It is a native of Europe, and grows in waste places and way-sides, among rubbish, and along the sides of walls. It is plentiful in Britain, and also the north of Africa. The whole plant is warm and acrid, and is often cultivated for use as a pot-herb. It is eaten by sheep and goats; but cows, horses, and swine refuse it. In medicine it was formerly much used as an expectorant in chronic coughs and asthma. It was also recommended in ulcerations of the mouth and throat. The stimulant properties of this and other plants belonging to the order would make them undoubtedly valuable remedies in many diseases in the absence of other means, but in modern medicine more powerful and certain remedies have thrown into disuse many agents formerly highly valued.

S. Irio, London Rocket or Broad-leaved Hedge-Mustard; stem and leaves smooth; leaves runcinate; lobes toothed; pod erect. It is a native of waste places throughout Europe, but especially about London. It is said to have entirely covered the ground in the following spring of the great fire of London in 1666. The former species is also remarkable for appearing on the ground where fires have existed. In such cases the ashes of the fires constitute a nutriment peculiarly adapted for the growth and development of these plants. The whole of this plant possesses the hot biting

character of the mustard. Several varieties have been recorded.

S. Sophia, Five-leaved Hedge-Mustard, or Flixweed: leaves doubly pinnatifid, slightly hairy; lobes linear or oval; pedicels four times longer than the calyx; petals shorter. It grows on dry banks, waste ground, dunghills, and among rubbish in most parts of Europe. It is frequent in Great Britain. It has derived its name of flixweed and that of wisdom of surgeons' from its supposed power of controlling diarrhoea, dysentery, &c. Whatever may have been its former reputation, it is now almost entirely fallen into disuse.

S. millefolium, Millfoil-leaved Flixweed: leaves somewhat tripinnate, hoary; lobules blunt, small; stems shrubby; petals larger than the calyx. A native of Teneriffe, on the rocks in the lower parts of the island. It is a small branched shrub, with corymbose flowers. It is a greenhouse species, growing well in a rich light soil; and young cuttings will readily root under a hand-glass when placed in a sheltered

situation.

S. strictissimum, Spear-leaved Hedge-Mustard: leaves lanceolate, stalked, toothed, pubescent. It has intensely yellow flowers, with pods two inches long; the stem is erect, and branching at the top. It is a hardy perennial, adapted for shrubberies, and may be easily increased by division of the root.

This genus at one time included that now known under the name of Nasturtium. The latter was originally separated by Brown, and is principally distinguished by the position of the cotyledons, a point of primary importance in the whole order of Brassicaceae. In Sisymbrium the cotyledons are folded with their back upon the radicle, whilst in Nasturtium their edges are presented to it; in the former the cotyledons are said to be incumbent, in the latter accumbent.

A well known species of Nasturtium is the N. officinale, formerly Sisymbrium Nasturtium, the common water-cress. In addition to the characters of the genus, this plant is known principally by the form of its leaves. The leaf is composed of from 5 to 7 leaflets, which are arranged opposite each other on a common petiole with a terminal leaflet. The leaflets are somewhat heart-shaped and slightly waved and toothed; they are succulent, and their surface is smooth. The terminal leaflet is always largest. The upper leaves do not separate into distinct leaflets, being pinnatifid with narrow segments. The petiole of the leaf does not in any manner embrace the stem. The flowers are white, and the pods, when ripe, are about an inch long. This plant is a native of rivulets throughout the world, and is very plentiful in Great Britain. It has a warm agreeable flavour, and has long been one of the most popular plants as a salad. It was formerly much used in medicine as a diuretic and antiscorbutic, but its great consumption now is as an article of diet. As it frequently grows amongst plants that are not wholesome, and that bear to it a general resemblance, it would be well for every one to be acquainted with its characters. The plant most frequently mistaken for it, especially when out of flower, is the fool's water-cress. Stuz. From this it may be always distinguished, and in fact from all other Umbelliferæ, by the petioles of the leaves not forming a sheath round the stem.

The water-cress is cultivated to a very great extent in the neighbourhood of London. The plants are placed out in rows in the bed of a clear stream in the direction of the current, and all that is required for their successful growth is replanting occasionally and keeping the plants clear of mud and weeds; sandy and gravelly bottoms are best. Some market-gardeners who can command only a small stream of water, grow the water-cress in beds sunk about two feet in a retentive soil, with a very gentle slope from one end to the other. Then, according to the slope and length of the bed, dams are made six inches high across it, at intervals, so that when these dams are full, the water may rise not less than three inches on all the plants inluded in each. The water, being turned on, will circulate from dam to dam, and the plants, if not allowed to run to flower, will afford abundance of young tops in all but the winter months.' (G. Don.) Water-cresses grown in this way have not so fine a flavour as those from natural streams.

SITKHA is the name of the most important of the Russian settlements on the west coast of North America, 'hough its proper name is New Arkhanghelsk. This place lies in 57° 2′ 50′′ N. lat. and 135° 18′ W. long., and is built on

one of the group of islands which received from Vancouver the name of King George III.'s Archipelago. The outward coast of this extensive group had been seen before by Cook in his third voyage, who called a very elevated island, which had the appearance of a cape, Mount Edgecombe, but he afterwards suspected that it was an island. The space between this small island of Edgecombe and the larger island which lies east of it, forms the harbour of the settlement. When Vancouver surveyed this coast, he thought that the outward coast, which extends from Chatham Sound on the south (56° N. lat.) to Cross Sound (58° N. lat.) on the north, constituted one large island, which he called King George III.'s Island; but it was afterwards ascertained that it was divided by a narrow strait into two islands, and since that time the northern island has been called by the native name of Sitkha, while the southern has received the name of Baranoff Island, in honour of the founder of the Russian settlement. On the last-mentioned island Baranoff built a small fort in 1799, which was destroyed in 1802 by the natives of the tribe of the Koloshes. But in 1804 Baranoff expelled them from the strait which constitutes the harbour of New Arkhanghelsk, and founded in the vicinity of one of their villages the present town. The harbour, which Vancouver named Norfolk Sound, but which is now better known as the Bay of Sitkha, is spacious and safe, and offers excellent anchorage opposite the settlement. The place itself is surrounded by a wooden wall, and enclosed by mountains of considerable elevation, which are almost covered with forests, in which excellent timber is found. Ship-building constitutes the most important of the branches of industry, and all the vessels of the American Company are now built at this place, since ship-building has been discontinued at Okhotsk. New Arkhanghelsk is the centre of the administration of the Russian territories in America, over which the American Company exercises sovereign powers, nearly in the same way as the Hudson's Bay Company over a much more extensive portion of North America. The collecting of furs is the exclusive object of both companies, and New Arkhanghelsk may be compared with Fort York, which lies nearly under the same latitude on the eastern coast of America. But NewArkhanghelsk is larger: its population in 1833 amounted to 847 individuals, of whom 406 were Europeans, and 307 descendants of Europeans and native women, and 134 only Aleutes and Koloshes. New Arkhanghelsk has also a much greater commerce by sea, and the vessels of the Company visit California, whence they import grain and salt, and dried meat; and the Sandwich Islands, where they obtain salt for curing their fish. The number of vessels employed by the Company in this commerce and in the transport of the furs which have been collected in the different smaller settlements amounts to twelve; their tonnage is stated not to exceed (1833) 1565 tons.

Wrangell continued to make meteorological observations during his stay at New Arkhanghelsk (1833 and 1835), and Baer has taken advantage of his work to compare the climate of Nain on the coast of Labrador with that of Sitkha. The result is contained in the following table, which expresses the mean temperature of the seasons and of the year:—

Winter (Dec.-Feb.) Spring (March-May) Summer (June-Aug.) Autumn (Sept.-Nov.)

Annual mean temper.

New Arkhanghelsk. +34 74

42.28

56°30

47.89

+45 30

Nam. -1.26 +22.38

45.62

36.00

+25.50

Thus it appears that the mean annual temperature of these two places, situated respectively on the eastern and western coasts of North America, differs nearly 20 degrees of Fahrenheit; in winter the difference amounts to 36 degrees, and in summer to nearly 11 degrees. But though these observations prove the great superiority of the western coast of North America over the eastern in respect to climate, a comparison between Sitkha and Bergen in Norway shows that the western coast of the old continent is much more favoured by nature. For though Bergen is 3 degrees and 20 minutes nearer the pole, the mean temperature of the winter is +36°, of the spring +45°, of the summer +58°, and of the autumn +48°, and the mean annual temperature nearly 47°. The climate of the last-mentioned place may also in other respects be compared with that of Sitkha, especially in regard to humidity. Sitkha however is cer tainly more humid; for in 1828 there occurred 120 days

(Langsdorf's Voyages and Travels in various parts of the World; Lütke's Voyage autour du Monde; and Wrangel's Statistische und Ethnographische Nachrichten über die Russischen Besitzungen an der Nordwestküste von America.)

SITKOPF. [JAPAN.]
SITTA. [NUTHATCH.]

SITTINGBOURNE. [KENT.]

SIUM, the name of a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Umbelliferæ. The calyx possesses 5 teeth or is obsolete; petals obcordate with an inflexed point, or entire and ovate; fruit laterally compressed or contracted, and subdidymous, crowned with the reflexed styles with their depressed bases; carpels with 5 equal, filiform, rather obtuse ridges, of which the lateral ones are marginal; interstices with one or many vittæ; seed subterete. The universal involucre varies; the partial one is composed of many leaves.

S. Sisarum, Skirret, is the best-known plant of this genus. The root is composed of fascicles of fusiform tubers; stem terete; leaves pinnate, upper ones ternate, leaflets ovato-lanceolate, acute, serrated; involucre of 5 reflexed leaves; commissure, according to Koch, with 4 vittæ. It has white flowers. The tubers of the root are about the size of the finger, and were formerly greatly esteemed in cookery, but are now gone much into disuse. The French call this plant Chervis, the Germans Zucker-wurzel, and in the north of Scotland, where it is much eaten when cooked, it is called crummock. When eaten, the tubers are boiled and served up with butter, forming, according to an old writer, the sweetest, whitest, and most pleasant of roots.'

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in which rain fell without interruption, and 180 days in | Trimurti, or triad, of the Hindus; and although, in allusion which showers were frequent, so that only 66 days were to his office as destroyer, he is classed third, yet he is genefree from rain. Snow is frequent during three or four rally allowed to occupy the second place among the Hindu months, but it does not lie long on the ground. It is consi- deities, or even (according to Kindersley) the first, as his dered rare if the frost continues for ten days together. supremacy appears to have obtained more general assent It is to this great degree of humidity that the failure of than that of Vishnu. Indeed the worship of Siva is so preall attempts to cultivate grain is attributed; for there are dominant, that Brahma, who is the only one of the three many other places in which it succeeds, and in which the mentioned by Manu, and who seems to have enjoyed a mean temperature of summer is from 8° to 10° lower. The larger share of adoration in antient times, has now only one prevailing winds are from the south-east and the south-west. temple in India, while Mahadeva (a name of Siva) and the Thunder-storms occur only in November and December, adventurous Vishnu, whose incarnations attract so much of and never in summer. the veneration of the Hindus, are, in fact, the only gods of the whole Hindu pantheon who have numerous worshippers. This however is no proof that Siva or Vishnu dates from a later period. The personification of the three divine attributes originates, no doubt, with the Vedas, and the names of the three gods are mentioned, though rarely, and without the least allusion to their pre-eminence over the elemental gods or over each other; but we do not find that the two great sects of India, the Vaishnavas (followers of Vishnu) and the Saivas (worshippers of Siva) came into existence before the seventh or eighth century of our æra. It is therefore to the Purânas (the scriptures of the modern Hindu religion) that we must ascribe the extension of the worship of Siva and the character which now distinguishes this god. We cannot however point out the difference between the mode of worshipping Siva now and in the time of Manu, the Vedas being too little known, and the extracts from them, which have been hitherto published, unsatisfactory. We must therefore limit ourselves to the description of the present popular form of Siva worship, which in all probability had not assumed its actual state before the great Saiva reformer, Sankara Acharya, who lived in the eighth or ninth century. (Vishnu Purana, pref., p. x.) This opinion is supported by the well-founded assertion that the Saiva faith was instituted by Paramata Kalânala, who is described in the Sankara Vijaya' of Ananda Giri as teaching at Benares, and assuming the insignia that characterize the Dandis, a sect of Saivas of modern times. (As. Res., xvi. 22.) No allusion is made in the Purânas to the original power of this god as destroyer; that power not being called into exercise till after the expiration of twelve millions of years, when according to Pauranic accounts, the Kaliyuga will come to a close together with the universe; and Mahâdeva is rather the representative of regeneration than of destruction. Indeed the worship of the type which represents him as the vivifying principle, the linga (phallus, a smooth black stone in the form of a sugar-loaf, with a projection at the base like the mouth of a spoon) is spread all over India, and the number of worshippers of this image is far greater than the worshippers of all the other gods. (Ward, i. 16.) There are however a few legends in Hindu mythology in which Siva appears as the actor without any reference to the worship of the linga. The linga is indeed the only form under which Siva is now adored in most parts of India. According to Professor Wilson (Vishnu Purana, xliv.), 'There is nothing like the phallic orgies of antiquity; it is all mystical and spiritual. The linga is twofold, external and internal. The ignorant, who need a visible sign, worship Siva through a mark' or 'type,' which is the proper meaning of the word 'linga,' of wood or stone; but the wise look upon this outward emblem as nothing, and contemplate in their minds the invisible inscrutable type, which is Siva himself. Whatever may have been the origin of this form of worship in India, the notion upon which it was founded, according to the impure fancies of European writers, is not to be read even in the Saiva Purâna.' Indeed the emblems under which the Hindus exhibit the elements and operations of nature are not indecorous, and the low cylinder of stone, which is meant for the symbol of the creative power, suggests no suspicion of its original import; and nothing whatever belongs to the worship of the linga, or to the terms in which this is mentioned, which has the slightest tendency to lead the thoughts from the contemplation of the god to an undue consideration of the object by which he is typified. The best refutation however of the injurious suppositions to which the accounts of many travellers have given rise, will be the words which Siva himself is supposed to say in the Saiva Purâna: From the supreme spirit proceed Purusha (the generating principle), Prakriti (the generative nature), and Time; and by them was produced this universe, the manifestation of the one god..... Of all organs of sense and intellect the best is mind, which proceeds from VOL. XXII.-K

The Skirret is a native of China, and is reputed to possess in that country peculiar medicinal virtues. Sir J. E. Smith observes that the Chinese have long been in the habit of sending this root to Japan as the true Ginseng of Tartary, or Panax quinquefolia of Linnæus, a plant possessing very different properties.

The Skirret may be propagated by seeds and offshoots. The seeds should be sown in the months of March and April, in small drills eight inches apart, in an open space of lightish ground. When the plants are one or two inches high, they should be thinned, and they may be used as they attain size till August, September, or October. Plants of the last year will always afford offsets, which may be broken off the old roots and planted in rows. For procuring seed the plants should be left till the following autumn.

S. nodiflorum, Fool's Water-cress, or procumbent Waterparsnip, possesses a rooting, procumbent, striated stem; pinnate leaves, oblong equally serrated leaflets; umbels sessile, opposite the leaves. It is a native of Europe, in ditches and rivulets, and is common in Great Britain. A small and large variety are recorded, the one not attaining more than three or four inches in height, the other as many feet. It was formerly admitted into the London Pharmacopoeia,' on account of its efficacy in cutaneous diseases and scrofula. Dr. Withering has recorded his opinion in its favour, and related a remarkable case in which benefit was derived from its use. He administered three or four ounces of the juice in milk daily. This plant has often been represented as very poisonous; but if thus much of the juice can be taken with impunity, it can hardly be very active. This, with some other species of Sium, has been placed by Koch under a new genus, Helosciadium. The principal difference consists in the number of vittæ found in the interstices of the carpels; Sium having several vittæ, Helosciadium only one.

There are many other species of Sium, four of which are British, but none of them are cultivated for their beauty or applied to any particular uses.

SIVA, the personification of the destroying principle, forms, with the two other gods, Brahma and Vishnu, the P. C., No. 1367.

Ahankara;* Ahankara, from intellect; intellect, from the supreme being, who is in fact Purusha. It is the primeval ma.e, whose form constitutes this universe, and whose breath is the sky; and though incorporeal, that male am I.' This doctrine is pure enough, and the few aberrations which remind one of the orgies practised in honour of Bacchus, are not sufficient to justify us in stigmatizing it as vile and infamous.

The linga however is only the type of Siva as the god who presides over generation. His other forms are many, and they vary in so far as they attribute to him the qualities of creator, preserver, destroyer, and regenerator, and represent him in his various avataras (incarnations, eight of which are called by the common name of Bhairava, and are severally termed Asitânga, Ruru, Chandra, Krodha, Unmatta, Kûpati, Bhîshana, and Sanhara, all alluding to terrific properties of mind or body. He is sometimes seen with two hands, at others with four, eight, or ten, and with five faces; he has a third eye in his forehead, the corners of which are perpendicular, which is peculiar to him; a crescent in his hair, or on his forehead, encircling the third eye; he wears earrings of snakes, and a collar of skulls. Mahadeva, when represented thus, but with one head, has four hands, in one of which he holds a pâsa, the use of which is to extract the souls out of the bodies of men, when their time is come, and is a common attribute of Yama, the god of death (S. Savitryupakhyana, ed. Bopp., p. 25), a tris'ula is upheld by the other, and the two other hands are in a position of benediction. As Bhairava (the lord of dread) he is frightful to behold; great tusks burst through his thick lips; the hair, which is stiff and erect, gives his face a dreadful aspect; the fall of the necklace is impeded by numerous snakes which twine round his body. This is also the idol which shows him as Maha-kala, or god of time. It is in this character that he is supposed to delight in bloody sacrifices, and that the Saiva Sannyasis (followers of Siva who practise the yoga to the highest degree) inflict on themselves the cruelties which have rendered so conspicuous the temple of Jaggernaut (Jagannâtha, the lord of the world). [YOGA.] A very minute account of the fortitude and self-denial of the deluded Yogis is given in Ward's View on the Religion of the Hindus' (i. 19). His consort Sakti, who in her corresponding character is celebrated as the goddess Durgâ or Kâlî, participates in these horrible sacrifices, and has lately become more notorious by the exposure of the homicidal practices of the Thugs, who recognise in her their tutelary divinity. Siva is also the god of justice. In that character he rides a white bull, the symbol of divine justice (Manu, viii. 16), and is often seen with the parashu (battle-axe) in his hand, and the sacred string. On pictures he is often represented as if rubbed over with ashes, and with a blue neck; the epithet of Nilakanta (blue-necked) was given to him in commemoration of his having drunk the poison which arose from the sea, and threatened to destroy mankind. But the character in which he is more generally known, and which his followers imitate, is that of the Kapâla-bhrit (skullbearer). Skanda-Purâna makes him describe himself in the following words:-' Pârvatî (his bride) must be foolish to practise so severe a penance in order to obtain me, Rudra (one of his 1000 names), a wandering mendicant, a bearer of a human skull, a delighter in cemeteries, one ornamented with bones and serpents, covered with ashes and with no garments but an elephant's skin, riding on a bull, and accompanied by ghosts and goblins.' Now this, except that the unearthly beings who follow him are represented by a crowd of dirty people, is exactly the description of a Saiva | digambara (sky-clad, i.e. naked-a kind of religious mendicants), if, instead of the god's third eye, we add a round dot on the nose, made of clay or cow-dung, and a mark on the forehead, composed of three curved lines, instead of the chandra (half-moon) which Rudra obtained at the churning of the ocean. When asked for the reason why they and their god carry a human skull, they refer to the Vâmana-Purana: Formerly, when all things moveable and immoveable had been destroyed, and nought remained but one vast ocean.; while universal darkness reigned, that lord who is incomprehensible and subject to neither birth nor death reposed in slumber on the abyss of the waters for a thousand divine years; but when his night had passed, desirous of creating the three worlds, he, investing himself with the quality of Literally the I-Maker' is the Hindu term for the power of self-conscious ness, or, what is implied by, this, individuality; for further information see YOGA.

impurity, assumed a corporeal form with five heads. Then also was produced from the darkness another form, with three eyes and twisted locks, and bearing a rosary and trident. Brahma next created Ahankara (self-consciousness), which immediately pervaded both Siva and himself, and under its impression Rudra thus said to Pitâ-Mahâ:-" Say, O lord! how camest thou here, and by whom wert thou created?" Brahma replied, " And whence art thou?" and instantly caused the new-made sky to reverberate with a wondrous sound. Sambhu (Siva) was thus subdued, and stood with a countenance downcast and humbled, like the moon in an eclipse, and the fifth head of Brahma thus addressed him rendered red-dark with anger at his defeat:-"I know thee well, thou form of darkness! with three eyes, clothed with the four quarters of the sky (i.e. naked), mounted on a bull, the destroyer of the universe." On hearing these words Sambhu became incensed with anger, and while he viewed the head with the terrible glances of his world-consuming eye, his five heads, from his wrath, grew white, red, golden, black, and yellow, and fearful to behold. But Brahma, on observing these heads glowing like the sun, thus said:-" Why dost thou agitate thyself and attempt to appear powerful? for, if I choose, I could this instant make thy heads become like bubbles of water." This heard, Siva, inflamed with anger, cut off with the nail of his right hand the head of Brahma which had uttered such fierce and boasting words; but when he would have thrown it on the ground, it would not, nor ever shall it, fall from his hand.' The beautiful idea which is obscured by the extravagances of this passage, namely, that the creation in itself involves subsequent destruction, need hardly be pointed out. In nearly all the representations of Siva, the Ganga (Ganges) is seen either flowing from his head or beaming on his headpiece. There is an interesting fable which makes it flow from Pârvatî's fingers, but for which we refer our readers to Moore's Hindu Pantheon' (p. 41).

The origin of the linga worship is, we find, differently accounted for in different Puranas. The 'Linga-Purâna,' which contains 11,000 verses (Mackenzie Coll., i. 39), states that the primitive linga is a pillar of radiance in which Mahadeva is present. The appearance of the great fiery linga takes place, in the interval of a creation, to separate Vishnu and Brahma, who not only dispute the place of supremacy, but fight for it, when the linga suddenly springs up, and puts them to shame; after travelling upwards and downwards for a thousand years in each direction, neither of them can approach its termination. Upon the linga, the sacred monosyllable Om is visible, and the Vedas proceed from it, by which Brahma and Vishnu become enlightened, and acknowledge the superior might and glory of Siva (VishnuPurana, xliii.). This legend, by which, in its Tamul version, the circumstance of Brahma having neither temple nor worshippers is accounted for, is given in Kindersley's' Specimen of Hindu Mythology' (p. 21). In his travels in search of the head of the column, Brahma is said to have found a Cauldairy flower which Siva had purposely dropt from his head. He entreated it to bear false witness for him, that he had actually found the top of the column. The flower rashly consenting to the fraud, both returned to Siva, and asserting the falsehood agreed on, Siva, in his just resentment, decreed that Brahma should never receive any external worship. A very fanciful story about the linga is given in the 4th volume of the As. Res., p. 368; and another, which Abbé Dubois states to be derived from the 'Lainga,' but which, in fact, is from the Padma-Purâna,' may be found in this author's 'Moeurs, &c. des Peuples de l'Inde,' vol. ii., p. 417. But the pure, original, mystical idea, which must undoubtedly have been expressed in the Vedas, is poorly preserved in the Puranas, and almost entirely lost in the daily worship of the present Hindus, who, although without any admixture of obscene thoughts, adore their stone, or the image which they make themselves from the clay of the sacred river where they perform their ablutions, in much the same way as an African venerates his fetish. Siva, who as the type of the regenerating principle is also that of fire, which quality is represented by a triangle with the apex upwards (A), is the object of a very ludicrous ceremony when the heat is great. Fearing lest he should set on fire the whole world, they put above his idol a basin full of water with a small aperture at the bottom, in order that the bois, ii., 304.) We need not wonder if the linga worship has water which drops on him may moderate his ardour. (Dugiven rise to sects whose practices are far from admitting

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