pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
SAPPHIRA was the wife of a rich merchant in Gueldres, and equally distinguished for her beauty and her virtue. Rhinsauld, a German officer, and governor of the town of Gueldres, fell in love with her; and not being able, either by promises or presents, to seduce her, he imprisoned her husband, pretending that he kept up a traitorous correspondence with the enemies of the state. Sapphira yielded to the passion of the governor in order to relieve her husband from chains; but private orders had already been given to put him to death. His unhappy widow, overwhelmed with grief, complained to Charles duke of Burgundy. He ordered Rhinsauld to marry her, after having made over to her all his possessions; and as soon as the deed was signed, and the marriage over, Charles commanded him to be put to death. Thus the children of a wife whom he had seduced, and of a husband whom he had murdered, became lawful heirs to all his wealth.
SAPPHO, a celebrated poetess of antiquity, who for her excellence in the art has been called the Tenth Muse, was born at Mitylene, in the isle of Lesbos, about 610 years before Christ. She was contemporary with Stesichorus and Alcaeus.

Of her numerous poems there is nothing remaining but some small fragments, which the ancient scholiasts have cited; a hymn to Venus, preserved by Dionysius of Halicarnassus; and an ode.

Ovid introduces her as making a sacrifice to Phaon, one of her paramours. She fell desperately in love with Phaon, and did all she could to win him, but in vain; upon which she threw herself headlong from a rock, and died. The Mitylenians held her in such high esteem that they paid her sovereign honours after her death, and stamped their money with her image. The Romans erected a noble statue of porphyry to her; and the ancients as well as moderns have done honour to her memory. Vossius says that none of the Greek poets excelled Sappho for sweetness of verse; and that she made Archilochus the model of her style, but at the same time took care to soften the severity of his expression. It must be granted, from what is left us of Sappho, that Longinus had great reason to extol the admirable genius of this woman; for there is in what remains something delicate, harmonious, and impassioned to the last degree.
SAPY Straits. These are between the east end of the island Sumbawa, and the west side of Commodo or Rotten Island. The southern entrance is in long. 119. 20. E. and lat. 8. 40. S. Numerous small islands are found in this strait, which by contracting, increase the rapidity of the current, and render navigation dangerous.
SARABAND, in Spanish zarabanda, a Spanish dance

3

in - time, formerly danced with castanets. The movement is rather slow. In the music of Corelli and other old masters, sarabands are of frequent occurrence.
SARABAT, a considerable river of Asia Minor, which rises in the Morad Dag, and passing by Sart and Magnesia, falls into the Gulf of Smyrna, in latitude 38. 40. N.
SARACENS, the inhabitants of Arabia, so called from the word saru, which signifies a desert, as the greater part of Arabia is; and this being the country of Mahommed, his disciples were called Saracens.
SARAGOSSA. See Zaragoza.
SARANGPOOR, a town and district of the Mahratta territories, in the province of Malwah, situated about the twelfth degree of north latitude. It is hilly, yet being watered by numerous branches of the Sopra and Gilly Sinde rivers, it is fertile and productive. The chief towns are Sarangpoor, Rajegur, and Sher.

Sarangpoor, the capital of the above district, situated on the north side of the river Sopra, is fifty-five miles northeast from Oojain. Long. 76. 30. E. Lat. 23. 38. N.
SARANGUR, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Gundwana, possessed by independent Goand chiefs, fourteen miles south-west from Bustar. Long. 82. 26. E. Lat, 19. 40. N.[7:19:646]
SARATOV, a large province or government, partly in the south-east of Europe, and partly in Asia. Its form is that of a triangle on both sides of the Volga, having on the one side the country of the Don Cossacks, and on the other that of Astracan. It is very thinly peopled, containing an area of 91,000 square miles, and the population not exceeding 1,000,000, in consequence of the barrenness of the soil and the unpropitious climate. Great part of the soil is of a saline quality, and unfit for the growth of vegetables. There are several salt lakes, the most productive of which is that of Elton or Ulton. The country lying to the west of the Volga is less level, but has no hills of any great height. The ground is partly arable and partly pastoral. German colonists have been settled in the country, but with little success. The capital is of the same name, and is situated on the Volga. It is neatly built, and has wide, straight streets; but the houses are mostly of wood. The position of the place between Moscow and Astracan is favourable to trade, and it has, besides, the command of water-carriage on the Volga. The principal articles of its trade, which are not derived from the two cities already named, are fish, comar, and salt. The population is 5000. It is 374 miles north by west of Astracan, and 465 south-east of Moscow. Long. 46. 0. E. Lat. 51. 31. N.
SARAWAN, the most northerly division of Beloochistan, composed entirely of vast mountains and deserts, and divided into districts, each of which furnishes its military quota to the Mahommedan armies.
SARBATCHOU SAHA, a small island in the Sea of Japan, near the coast of Corea. Long. 131. 37. E. Lat. 42. 54. N.
SARBO, an island in the Red Sea, near the coast of Abyssinia. Lat. 15. 8. N.
SARCASM, in Rhetoric, a keen and bitter expression, which has the true point of satire, by which the orator scoffs and insults his enemy. Such was that which the Jews said to our Saviour: “He saved others, himself he cannot save.”
SARCHAD, a town of Syria, in the district beyond Jordan.
SARCOPHAGUS, in Antiquity, a sort of stone coffin or grave, in which the ancients deposited the bodies of the dead which were not intended to be burned. The word, as derived from the Greek, literally signifies flesh-eater, because originally a kind of stone was used for tombs, which quickly consumed the bodies. One of the most celebrated specimens of antiquity is the great sarcophagus, which is commonly called the tomb of Alexander the Great. It fell into the hands of the British at the capitulation of Alexandria in Egypt in 1801, and is now deposited in the British Museum.

Sarcophagus, or Lapis Assitis, in the natural history of the ancients, a stone much used amongst the Greeks in their sepultures, is recorded to have always perfectly consumed in forty days the flesh of human bodies buried in it. This property it was much famed for, and all the ancient naturalists mention it. There was also another very singular quality in it, but whether in all, or only in some peculiar pieces of the stone, is not known; that is, its turning into stone any thing that was put into vessels made of it. This is recorded only by Mutianus and Theophrastus, except that Pliny had copied it from these authors, and some of the later writers on these subjects from him. The account Mutianus gives of it is, that it converted into stone the shoes of persons buried in it, as also the utensils which it was in some places customary to bury with the dead, particularly those which the person while living most delighted in. The utensils this author mentions are such as must have been made of very different materials; and hence it appears that this stone not only had a power of consuming flesh, but its petrifying quality extended to substances of very different kinds. Whether it ever really possessed this last quality has been much doubted.
SARDANAPALUS, the last king of the Assyrians, was the thirtieth from Ninus, of whom Herodotus merely mentions that he concealed his treasure in subterranean vaults. The character usually ascribed to him is that of a luxurious and slothful prince, who spent the greater part of his time in the harem among his women. But it is difficult to reconcile this statement with the brave and obstinate resistance he made to the attack of the rebel Arbaces, prince of Media. He defeated Arbaces twice, but at last was shut up within Ninus (Nineveh), where he destroyed himself and treasures on a funeral pile. There was, however, another Sardanapalus, the son of Anacyndaraxes, who is said to have founded Tarsus and Anchialë in one day, and whose epitaph is frequently quoted, and it is not unlikely that Ctesias, from whom Diodorus quotes, has mixed up the events that happened to these two. The second is thought to be the Esarhaddon of the Scriptures, and the first to be the Saracus of Abydenus.
SARDIS, or Sardes. See Sart.
SARDONIUS Risus, Sardonian Laughter, a convulsive involuntary laughter, so named from the herba sardonia, which is a species of ranunculus, and is said to produce such convulsive motions in the cheeks as resemble those motions which are observed in the face during a fit of laughter. This complaint is sometimes speedily fatal. If the ranunculus happens to be the cause, the cure must be attempted by means of a vomit, and frequent draughts of hydromel with milk.
SARDONYX, a precious stone, consisting of a mixture of the calcedony and carnelian, sometimes in strata, but at other times blended together.
SARFEND, supposed to be the ancient Sarepta, a village of Palestine, eight miles south of Saida.
SARHAUT, a town of Bengal, in the district of Birbhoom, eighty-five miles west from Moorshedabad. Long. 86. 51. E. Lat. 24. 14. N.
SARI, a town of Persia, and capital of the province of Mazanderan, once the seat of Aga Mahommed Khan, and still the residence of one of the Persian princes. It is a very ancient city, and frequently alluded to by Ferdousi. It is small, but well fortified, being surrounded by a good wall and a deep ditch. It is crowded with inhabitants, and a society of Armenians is established in the vicinity of the town. Here are many merchants of credit, who carry on a considerable trade with Astracan and with the interior parts of Persia. The palace, though small, is neat and commodious. When this place was visited by Hanway, it contained four or five temples of the ancient Persians, built of solid materials, and in the shape of rotundas, about thirty feet in diameter, and raised to the height of 120 feet. The surrounding country is flat, woody, and interspersed with streams, and bounded on the north-east and south-west by a low range of hills. Long. 52. 58. E. Lat. 35. 35. N.
SARLAT, an arrondissement of the department of the Dordogne, in France. It extends over 683 square miles, and comprehends ten cantons, divided into 133 communes, with 110,447 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name. It stands in a low situation, on every side surrounded with naked rocks. In the neighbourhood a great quantity of oil is expressed from nuts. It contained, in 1836, 5569 inhabitants. Long. 1. 9. E. Lat 45. 3. N.
SARMATTA Isle, a small island in the Eastern Seas, about thirty miles in circumference. Long. 129. 15. E. Lat. 8. 10. S.
SARNO, a city of Italy, in the Neapolitan province of Principato Citeriore. It is situated on a river of the same name, is the see of a bishop, with a cathedral, three parish and five conventual churches, and contains 11,930 inhabitants, who grow much good wine and oil, and make paper of various kinds.
SAROS, in chronology, a period of 223 lunar months. The etymology of the word is said to be Chaldaean, signifying restitution or return of eclipses; that is, conjunctions of the sun and moon in nearly the same place of the ecliptic. The Saros was a cycle like that of Meto.
SAROS-PATAK, a city of Hungary, in the province of the Hither Theiss, and the circle of Tokay. It stands on the river Bodrog, and is well built, being the seat of a Calvinist university, which has nine professors and 1240 students, with a library of 20,000 volumes, a museum, and physical laboratory. It has manufactures of woollen cloths, and contains 1630 houses, with 9l50 inhabitants. Long. 21. 29. 57. E. Lat 48. 18. 50. N.
SAROWY, a Rajpoot town and district of Hindustan, in the province of Ajmeer. The district is situated principally between the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth degrees of north latitude. The country, which is occupied by Rajpoot chiefs, is hilly and unproductive, although watered by the Bah and Banass rivers. The town is forty-four miles west of Odeypoor. Long. 73. 20. E. Lat. 25. 32. N.
SARRASIN, a city of the department of the Tarn and Garonne, and in the arrondissement of the same name, of which it is the capital. It is sometimes distinguished as Castel-Sarrasin. The arrondissement in extent is 267,723 acres, or 418 square miles, and contains seven cantons and eighty communes, with 72,650 inhabitants. The city stands on the river Sanguire, has some manufactories of serges and linen goods, and contains 7408 inhabitants.
SARREBOURG, an arrondissement of the department of the Meurthe, in France, extending over 418 square miles. It is divided into five cantons, and these into 116 communes, which have a population of 75,499 persons. The capital is the city of the same name situated on the river Saar; but it contained only 2340 inhabitants. There is a military bakehouse with eight ovens, which can make bread each day sufficient for an army of 40,000 men.
SARREGUEMINES, an arrondissement of the department of the Moselle, in France, 524 square miles in extent. It is divided into eight cantons, and these into 143 communes, containing, in 1836, 125,973 inhabitants. The capital is a city of the same name, situated at the junction of the river Bise with the Saar. There is some excellent china made, and it has manufactures of lacquered ware of various kinds, and some extensive tanneries. It contained, in 1836, 4113 inhabitants. Long. 7. 5. E. Lat. 46. 8. N.
SART, a village of Asia Minor, small and insignificant; now chiefly distinguished by the ruins of Sardis, once the splendid capital of Lydia. These ruins are found confusedly scattered over a verdant plain, and consist of bricks so strongly cemented together that it is scarcely possible for any violence to disjoin them.
SARTENE, one of the arrondissements into which the island of Corsica has been divided. It extends over 648 square miles, and comprehends eight cantons, divided into forty-three communes, with 25,739 inhabitants. The chief place is the city of the same name, with 2682 inhabitants.
SARTHE, a department of the north-west of France, formed out of parts of the ancient province of the Upper Maine, of Anjou, and Perche-Gouet. It is bounded on the north by the department of the Ome, on the east by those of the Eure-Loire and the Loire-Cher, on the south by the Indre-Loire and Maine-Loire, and on the west by the Maine. It is nearly of a circular form, and extends to 1,398,600 acres, equal to 2185 square miles; and it is divided into four arrondissements, thirty-three cantons, and[7:19:652] 394 communes. The population amounted, in 1836, to 466,888 persons. They are industrious, averse to changes, and seldom leave the places of their birth, or alter the fashion of their dress. The surface is generally level, but on the north-eastern side there is a range of hills of very moderate height. The soil varies excessively, the department comprehending some of the best as well as some of the worst land in France. The north-west part consists of good cornland, and the north-east of valuable meadows; but the south and south-west divisions are for the most part mere sandy heaths, yielding little or no corn, but in certain districts producing good wine. The chief river is that which gives its name to the department. It is navigable in the lower part, and before it joins the Loire receives the waters of thirty-six rivers and brooks. The products are the common domestic animals, with buck-wheat, maize, wheat, barley, hemp, flax, wine, honey, and various fruits. Nearly one tenth of the surface is covered with woods, which are commonly used as fuel. There are some mines of iron, and although none of them are very extensive, yet their great number enables the department to extract a sufficient quantity of that metal for its own consumption. The manufacturing industry is not considerable, being confined to hardware, paper, woollen cloths, leather, and the spinning of linen yarn. The capital is Le Mans, in the centre of the department, with a population, in the year 1836, of 23,164. It contains scarcely any other large towns.
SARTINE Islands, a cluster of small islands in the

Northern Pacific Ocean, so named by Pérouse. Long. 129. 18. W. Lat. 50. 56. N.
SARUM, Old, a place in the county of Wilts, only remarkable from the proprietor of it having retained the ancient right of returning two members to the House of Commons till 1832. Some of the most distinguished statesmen have sat for this place, among the rest Lord Chatham. There is at present but one house in it, though the remains of ancient walls and the foundation of a cathedral may still be traced.
SARUN, an extensive and valuable district in the province of Bahar, situated about the twenty-sixth degree of north latitude. Its boundaries on the north are Gorakpoor and Bettiah, on the south it has the Ganges, on the east Bettiah and Hajypoor, and on the west the Dewah or the Goggrah River. It contained, according to Major Rennell’s mensuration, in 1784, 5106 square miles. For its size it is one of the most prosperous districts in the Company’s dominions, being well watered by the Ganges and the Gunduck, besides numerous smaller streams. Its soil furnishes abundantly all the richest productions of the East. It is also an excellent pastoral country, producing fine cattle and horses. The saltpetre exported to Europe, and used in Bengal, is principally manufactured in this district and in that of Hajypoor. In 1801, the population of this district was, in reply to various questions circulated by the board of revenue, stated at 1,204,000, in the proportion of one Mahommedan to four Hindus. The chief town is Chuprach.
SARZEAU, a city of France, in the department of Morbihan, and the arrondissement of Vannes. It depends chiefly on the fishery, and contains, including the parish, 6126 inhabitants.
SASERAM, a town of Hindustan, in the province of Bahar, and district of Rhotas. This was the favourite residence of Shere Khan, the Afghan, who, after having defeated the Moguls, and expelled the Emperor Humayoon, the father of Akbar, from Hindustan, mounted the throne and reigned five years. He was killed at the siege of Callinger in 1545, and lies buried here in a magnificent mausoleum, built in the middle of a great reservoir of water. The monument rises from the centre of the tank. Long. 84. 5. E. Lat. 25. N.
SASHES, in military dress, are badges of distinction, worn by the officers of most nations, either round their waist or over their shoulders. Those for the British army are made of crimson silk; for the imperial army, of crimson and gold; for the Prussian army, of black silk and silver; for the Hanoverians, of yellow silk; and for the Portuguese, of crimson silk with blue tassels.
SASNEE, a town and fort of Hindustan, in the province of Agra, from which the zemindar was expelled, after a desperate resistance, by the British in 1803. It is thirtyeight miles north-north-east from the city of Agra. Long. 78. 4. E. Lat. 27. 45. N.
SASRAM, a small island in the Gulf of Siam, near the coast of Cambodia. Long. 103. 48. E. Lat. 10. N.
SASSARI, a city of the island of Sardinia. It stands on the plain of Fulmenaria, in the northern part, about nine miles from Porto Torres. The situation is pleasing and healthy, and the vicinity produces abundance of wine, oil, corn, fruit, and tobac∞, and is distinguished by the excellence of its cultivation. The city is well built, and, besides the cathedral, boasts of twenty-four churches, ten convents, three nunneries, and a Tridentine seminary. A university also has been formed out of a Jesuits’ college. The cathedral is a large structure, with a most elaborate façade, and an interior clean and airy. It contains 19,360 inhabitants, whose chief sources of existence arise from the agriculture around them.
SATALIA, Antalia, or, according to others, Adalia, a city of Asia Minor, in Caramania, beautifully situated at the head of a gulf to which it gives name. The site is a rising ground, on which the streets are placed above each other, and form a succession of terraces. On the level summit of the hill the city is enclosed by a ditch, a double wall, and a series of square towers, which are about fifty yards asunder. In an opening between two of the towers, now closed up, appear the remains of a splendid gateway, exhibiting fourteen columns, the upper part being of the Corinthian order. The port is enclosed by two stone piers, which once had towers at the extremities; but it is now in a ruinous condition. The surrounding country is fertile and productive, and the gardens round the town, filled with trees loaded with fruit, are beautiful. The climate is delightful, and the air is refreshed by alternate breezes from the sea and from the chain of the Taurus Mountains. The town is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Olbia. The population, two thirds Mahommedan and one third Greek, is 8000. Long. 30. 45. E. Lat. 36. 50. N.
SATANAGUR, a town of Hindustan, in the nizam’s territories, and the province of Hyderabad. It is fifty-five miles north by east from the city of Hyderabad. Long. 78. 16. E. Lat. 17. 56. N.
SATARAH, a well-known town and fortress of Hindustan, in the province of Bejapoor, and the Mahratta territories. Its foundation is on a rock, which stands on the westernmost point of a hill, rising from a base of from seven to eight miles in length from east to west. The passage to it is very narrow, only admitting one person at a time. It was taken by Sevajee, the founder of the Mahratta power, in 1673, and by Aurungzebe in 1690; but was retaken soon after the death of that monarch, in 1707. It capitulated to the British after a very short resistance in 1818; and being afterwards surveyed by British officers, they declared that it might be defended by two hundred troops against any force. This place owes its celebrity chiefly to its having been the state-prison of the legitimate sovereign of the Mahrattas, who was confined here by his chief minister the peishwa, who usurped the real power, while the deposed rajah was still honoured with the empty forms of royalty, and his name inserted in all public records. The representative of the Satarah rajah, though divested of all real power, was still recognised as the pageant of royalty; and the country adjacent to Satarah, in consequence of his residence, enjoyed an exemption from all military license.[7:19:653] The father of the late rajah was a commandant of horse; but being unfortunately of the blood of Sevajee, he was immured in the state-prison of Satarab. He died in 1808, and the Peishwa Bajerow immediately proceeded from Poonah, his residence, to superintend his obsequies, and to invest his successor with his empty dignity, and the misery of a prison thereto annexed. The Peishwa Bajerow was expelled from his throne in 1818, in consequence of joining in the coalition of the native powers against the British; and it was determined to take the Satarah rajah from his confinement as a state prisoner, and to reinstate him in a portion of his ancient dominions. The territory granted him, and which he now enjoys, is bounded by the Western Ghaut Mountains, on the south by the Warner and Krishna rivers, on the north by the Neera and Beema rivers, and on the east by the frontier of the nizam’s dominions. The whole area occupies 11,000 square miles.
SATELLITE, an island in D’Entrecasteaux Channel, Van Diemen’s Land, partly covered with an impenetrable thicket.
SATGONG, formerly a large trading city, in which the Europeans had their factories; but it is now an inconsiderable village, on a small creek of the river Hooghly, about four miles to the north-west of the town of Hooghly, in Bengal.