pnugues/EB7 huggingface dataset:
SIRVATON, a rock in the Eastern seas, near the north coast of Java. Long. 110. 49. E. Lat. 6. 36. S.
SISTRUM, or Cistrum, a kind of ancient musical instrument used by the priests of Isis and Osiris. It is described by Spon as of an oval form; in manner of a racket, with three sticks traversing it breadthwise, which playing[7:20:370] freely by the agitation of the whole instrument, yielded a kind of sound which to them seemed melodious. Mr. Malcom takes the sistrum to be no better than a kind of rattle. Oiselius observes, that the sistrum is found represented on several medals, and on talismans.

Sistrum , or Cistrum, an ancient Egyptian musical instrument of percussion. A similar instrument, consisting of moveable metal rods passing through holes in a metal plate, is used in modem military bands.
SISTERS, two small islands in the great southern ocean, lying in the strait between Van Dieman’s Land and the south-west coast of New Holland.
SISTERON, an arrondisement of the department of the Lower Alps in France, 341½ square miles in extent. It is divided into five cantons, which are subdivided into fifty communes, containing in 1836, 26,643 inhabitants. The capital is the city of the same name. It stands on the river Durance, where the Baech falls into that stream, at the foot of a rock on which is an ancient castle commanding a fine prospect. It is well built, and has a cathedral with a fine altar-piece. In 1836, it contained about 4546 inhabitants, who deal largely in wool, and cultivate almonds very extensively. Lat. 44. 11. 51. Long. 5. 51. 13. E.
SISYPHUS, in fabulous history, one of the descendants of Eolus, married Merope, one of the Pleiades, who bore him Glaucus. He resided at Epyra in Peloponnesus, and was a very crafty man. Others say, that he was a Trojan secretary, who was punished for discovering secrets of state; and others, that he was a notorious robber, who was killed by Theseus. All the poets, however, agree that he was punished in Tartarus for his crimes, by rolling a great stone to the top of a hill, which constantly recoiled, and rolling down incessantly, renewed his labour.
SITANG, a large river of the Birman empire, province of Pegu, which rises in a range of mountains about the 20th degree of north latitude, and passing the ancient city of Pegu, falls into the gulf of Murtaban.
SITAR, an Indian musical instrument resembling the European guitar. Some writers maintain that the guitar, the lute, the violin, &c., are all of oriental origin. The Indian saringee is similar to the European violin.
SITOPHYLAX, Σ ιτοφυλαξ , formed from σιτος, corn, and φυλαξ, keeper in antiquity, an Athenian magistrate, who had the superintendence of the corn, and was to take care that nobody bought more than was necessary for the provision of his family. By the Attic laws, particular persons were prohibited from buying more than fifty measures of wheat a man; and that such persons might not purchase more, the sitophylax was appointed to see the laws properly executed. It was a capital crime to prevaricate in it. There were fifteen of these sitopylaces, ten for the city, and five for the Piraeus.
SITTINGBOURNE, a town in the hundred of Milton, in the lathe of Scray, in the county of Kent, forty miles from London. It depends chiefly on the trade arising from its being on the great road from London to Dover. The inhabitants were in 1801, 1317; in 1811, 1362; in 1821, 1537; and in 1831, 2182.
SITTIVACCA, a small town in the island of Ceylon. It is separated from the king of Candy’s country by a large branch of the Malivaddy river. Long.80.13. E. Lat.7.2. N.
SITUS, in Algebra and Geometry, denotes the situation of lines, surfaces, and the like. Worfius delivers some things in geometry, which are not deduced from common analysis, particularly matters depending on the situs of lines and figures. Leibnitz has even founded a particular kind of analysis upon it, called calculus situs.
SIUT, or Siout, a large town of Upper Egypt, situated on the western bank of the Nile, about half a mile from the river, with which it communicates by a canal, crossed by a bridge of three arches. The inhabitants are chiefly Copts, who are extensively employed in the manufacture of blue cloth, with which they carry on a considerable trade, and likewise in earthenware, natoon, and opium. The surrounding country is very fertile, producing abundance of fruits; great quantities of wheat, barley, dhourra, and hemp, are likewise raised. Siut is the rendezvous of the caravans which proceed from Egypt southwards into the interior of Africa, to Sennaar and Darfur, from which countries they bring slaves and gold. This town is supposed to be the ancient Lycopolis; but the only remarkable antiquity which it presents, consists in the excavations made in the neighbouring mountains. These are numerous, consisting of chambers, many of which are thirty feet in height, covered with hieroglyphics, and exhibiting symbolical figures. They were most probably formed for sepulchral purposes. The town is large and populous, and the extensive district attached is likewise thickly inhabited. The united population amounts to 200,000. The taxes are reckoned at L.40,000. Lat. 27. 13. 14. N. Long. 31. 13. 32. E.
SIVA, a name given by the Hindus to the Supreme Being, when considered as the avenger or destroyer. Sir William Jones has shown that in several respects the character of Jupiter and Siva are the same. As Jupiter overthrew the Titans and giants, so did Siva overthrow the Daityas, or children of Ditti, who frequently rebelled against heaven; and as during the contest the god of Olympus was furnished with lightning and thunderbolts by an eagle, so Brahma, who is sometimes represented riding on the Garuda, or eagle, presented the god of destruction with fiery shafts. Siva also corresponds with the Stygian Jove, or Pluto; for, if we can rely on the Persian translation of the Bhagavat, the sovereign of Pstala, or the infernal regions, is the king of serpents, named Seshanaga, who is exhibited in painting and sculpture, with a diadem and sceptre, in the same manner as Pluto. There is yet another attribute of Siva, or Mahadéva, by which he is visibly distinguished in the drawings and temples of Bengal. To destroy, according to the Vedantis of India, the Sufis of Persia, and many philosophers of our European schools, is only to generate and reproduce in another form. Hence the god of destruction is holden in this country to preside over generation, as a symbol of which he rides on a white bull. Can we doubt that the loves and feats of Jupiter Genitor, not forgetting the white bull of Europa, and his extraordinary title of Lapis, for which no satisfactory reason is commonly given, have a connection with the Indian philosophy and mythology?
SIVANA Samudra, an island formed by the river Ca-veny, in the province of north Coimbetoor, about nine miles in length, by one in breadth. It is remarkable for an uncommon grand cataract near it; and it communicates with the continent by a bridge formerly magnificent, and three hundred yards in length, but is now in ruins.
SIX Islands, small islands in the eastern seas, near the north coast of Java. Long. 110. 49. E. Lat. 6. 36. S.
SIXTH, in Music. (See Interval. and Music .)
SIZAR, or SIZER, in Latin Sizator, an appellation by which the lowest order of students in some universities are distinguished, is derived from the word size, which has a peculiar meaning. To size, in the language of the university, is to get any sort of victuals from the kitchens, which the students may want in their own rooms, or in addition to their commons in the hall, and for which they pay the cooks or butchers at the end of each quarter. A size of any thing is the smallest quantity of that thing which can be thus bought; two sizes, or a part of beef, being nearly equal to what a young person will eat of that dish to his dinner, and a size of ale or beer being equal to half an English pint. In Oxford, the order similar to that of sizar is denominated servitor, a name evidently derived from the menial duties which they perform. The sizars are not upon the foundation, and therefore whilst they continue sizars, are not capable of being elected fellows; but they may at any time, if they choose, become pensioners, and they generally sit for scholarships immediately before they take their first degrees. If successful, they are then on the foundation, and are entitled to become candidates for fellowships when they have got their degree. In the mean time, whilst they continue sizars, besides free commons they enjoy many benefactions, which have been made at different times, under the name of sizar’s praetor, exhibitions, and the like, and the rate of tuition, the rent of rooms, and other things of that sort within their respective colleges, is less than to the other orders. But though their education is thus obtained at a less expence, they are not now considered as a menial order; for sizars, pensioner-scholars, and even sometimes fellow-commoners, mix together with the utmost cordiality.
SIZE, the name of an instrument used for finding the bigness of fine round pearls. It consists of thin pieces or leaves, about two inches in length, and half an inch in breadth, fastened together at one end by a rivet. In each of these are round holes drilled of different diameters. Those in the first leaf serve for measuring pearls from half a grain to seven grains; those of the second for pearls from eight grains or two carats to five carats; and those of the third, for pearls from six carats and a half to eight carats and a half.

Size , is also a sort of paint, varnish, or glue, used by painters and others. The shreds and parings of leather, parchment, or vellum, being boiled in water and strained, make size. This substance is much used in many trades. The manner of using size is to melt some of it over a gentle fire, and scraping as much whiting into it as will just colour it, let them be well incorporated together. After it[7:20:373] dries, melt the size again, and put more whiting and whiten the frames seven or eight times, letting it dry between each time; but before it be quite dry, between each washing with size, you must smooth and wet it over with a clean brush-pencil in fair water.
SKATING, an exercise on ice, both graceful and healthy. Although the ancients were remarkable for their dexterity in most, of the athletic sports, yet skating seems to have been unknown to them. It may therefore be considered as a modern invention; and probably it derived its origin in Holland, where it was practised not only as a graceful and elegant amusement, but as an expeditious mode of travelling when the lakes and canals were frozen up during winter. In Holland long journeys are made upon skates, with ease and expedition; but in general less attention is there paid to graceful and elegant movements, than to the expedition and celerity of what is called journey skating. It is only in those countries where it is considered as an amusement, that its graceful attitudes and movements can be studied; and there is no exercise whatever better calculated to set off the human figure to advantage. The acquirement of most exercises may be attained at an advanced period of life; but to become an expert skater, it is necessary to begin the practice of the art at a very early age. It is difficult to reduce the art of skating to a system. It is principally by the imitation of a good skater that a young practitioner can form his own practice. The English, though often remarkable for feats of agility upon skates, are very deficient in gracefulness, which is partly owing to the construction of the skates. They are too much curved in the surface which embraces the ice; consequently they involuntarily bring the users of them round on the outside upon a quick and small circle; whereas the skater, by using skates of a different construction, viz. less curved, has the command of his stroke, and can enlarge or diminish the circle according to his own wish and desire. The metropolis of Scotland has produced more instances of elegant skaters than perhaps any other country whatever; and the institution of a skating club has contributed not a little to the improvement of this elegant amusement.
SKELETON, in Anatomy, the dried bones of any animal joined together by wires, or by the natural ligament dried, in such a manner as to show their position when the creature was alive.

In the Philosophical Transactions we have an account of a human skeleton, all the bones of which were so united as to make but one articulation from the back to the os sacrum, and downwards a little way. On sawing some of them where they were unnaturally joined, they were found not to cohere throughout their whole substance, but only about a sixth of an inch deep all round. The figure of the trunk was crooked, the spins making the convex, and the inside of the vertebrae the concave part of the segment. The whole had been found in a charnel-house, and was of the size of a full-grown person.
SKIPTON, commonly called Skipton in Craven. It is in the wapentake of Staincliffe, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, 216 miles from London. It stands on the river Aire, in a wild and romantic district near two lofty mountains. Being on the canal from Leeds to Liverpool it has some trade with both these places, and of late years it has become the seat of some manufactures of glass, of silk, and of cotton goods. The ancient castle has been preserved, and is now a mansion of the Earl of Thanet. The quarter sessions for the West Riding are held here. It has a well supplied market on Saturdays, and several fairs for the sale of cattle. The inhabitants were, in 1801, 2305; in 1811, 2868; in 1821, 3411; and in 1831, 4181.
SKIROS, an island of Turkey, on the western side of the Archipelago, about twenty-three miles from the mainland. It is sixty-three square miles in extent, and contains 1800 Greek inhabitants, who grow oil and cotton, and feed cattle in the valleys between the rocky hills which cover the greater part of the surface. The chief town is of the same name, and has a small harbour.
SLACKEN, in Metallurgy, a term used by miners to express a spongy and semivitrified substance which is mixed with the ores of metals, to prevent their fusion. It is the scoria or scum separated from the surface of the former fusions of metals. To this is frequently added limestone, and sometimes a kind of coarse iron ore, in the running of the poorer gold ores.
SLEAFORD, a town in the hundred of Fleswell, part of Kesleven of the county of Lincoln, 116 miles from London. It was once the residence of the bishops of Lincoln. It has a fine ancient Gothic church, adorned with many monuments. It has a good market on Fridays. The inhabitants were, in 1801, 1596; in 1811, 1904; in 1821, 2220; and in 1831, 2587.
SLEBEZE, a small island in the straits of Sunda. Long. 105. 24. E. Lat. 5.54. S.
SLEDGE, a kind of carriage without wheels, for the conveyance of weighty things, as stones, bells, and the like. The sledge for carrying criminals, condemned for high treason, to execution, is called a hurdle. The Dutch have a kind of sledge on which they can carry a vessel of any burden by land. It consists of a plank of the length of the keel of a moderate ship, raised a little behind, and hollow in the middle; so that the sides go a little aslope, and are furnished with holes to receive pins. The rest is quite even.

Sledge is a large smith’s hammer, to be used with both hands. Of this there are two sorts, the up-hand sledge, which is used by under workmen, when the work is not of the largest sort. The other, which is called the about sledge, and which is used for battering or drawing out the largest work, is held by the handle with both hands, and swung round over their heads, at their arm’s end, to strike as hard a blow as they can.
SLEEP, that state of the body, in which, though the vital functions continue, the senses are not affected by the ordinary impressions of external objects. See Dreams, Phisiology, and Somnambulism.
SLEEPERS, in Natural History, a name given to those animals which sleep all winter, such as bears, marmots, dormice, bats, hedgehogs, swallows, and the like. These do not feed in winter, have no sensible evacuations, breathe little or none at all, and most of the viscera cease from their functions. Some of these animals seem to be dead, and others return to a state like that of the foetus before birth. In this state they continue, till, by an increase of heat, the animal is restored to its former functions.
SLEIDAN, John, an excellent German historian, born of obscure parents, in 1506, at Sleidan, a small town on the confines of the duchy of Juliers. After studying some time in his own country, together with his townsman, the learned John Sturmius, he went to France, and in[7:20:391] 1525 entered into the service of the cardinal and archbishop John du Bellay. He retired to Strasburg in 1542, where he acquired the esteem and friendship of the most considerable persons, particularly of James Sturmius, by whose advice and assistance he was enabled to write the history of his own time. He was employed in some public negociations; but the death of his wife, in 1555, plunged him into so deep a melancholy, that he entirely lost his memory, and died the year following. In 1555 came out, in folio, De Statu Religionis et Reipublicae sub Carolo Quinto, in fifteen books, from the year 1517, when Luther began to preach, to the year of its publication, and this history was ]>resently translated into most of the languages of Europe. Besides this great work, he wrote, De quatuor summis Imperiis, libri tres; with some other historical and political pieces.
SLESWICK, or Schleswig, a province in the kingdom of Denmark, in that division usually denominated the Duchies, including, with this province, Holstein and Lauenberg, all of which are inhabited by people of German origin, who speak that language, and are regulated by different laws from the rest of Denmark. This province is bounded on the north by Jutland; on the north-east by the Little Belt, wherein the Island of Aroe, which is a part of it, lies; on the east by the Baltic sea, wherein are the Islands Alsen and Fernem; on the south by Holstein, from which it is divided by the river Eyder and the Sleswick canal; and on the west by the German Ocean, in which are the islands of Nordstrand, Pellworm, and some other smaller ones. The whole extent is 3515 square miles. It comprehends thirteen cities, fourteen market-towns, and 1500 hamlets or villages, divided into 257 parishes, which contained 36,000 inhabitants in 1832. it is in general a level district, having on the western side many tracts of rich meadow land; while, on the eastern side, its agricultural produce are corn, butter, cheese, and meal; but through the middle of the province runs a ridge of sandy hills, which scarcely repay the cost of cultivation. There are many lakes and marshes, and on the eastern side, fiorden or bays, formed by projecting woody headlands, which have a picturesque appearance. The climate is cold in winter, but remarkably variable. There are few manufactures, and the trade chiefly consists of the export of the products of the soil, or of the fisheries; which last forms an important part of the occupation of a great number of the inhabitants. The principal towns, besides the capital, are Hadersleben, Apenrade, Tondern, Bredsted, Husum, Nordstrand, Toning, Fred-richstadt, Flensburg, and Eckenfiorde.

Sleswick, a city, the capital of the province of that name in the continental dominions of Denmark. It stands on an arm of the sea on the German Ocean, and the buildings are erected in the form of a crescent. It is an open town, most irregularly built, and is divided into four distinct parts. It is the seat of a Lutheran bishop, has a domkirche or cathedral, and four other churches, and several collegiate institutions for education. The harbour has only nine feet water, and is of small extent. The trade is inconsiderable. There are sugar refineries, tanneries, distilleries, and breweries, all for the home consumption. It contains 1320 houses, with 10,640 inhabitants. Lat. 54. 31. 15. Long. 9. 29. 25. E.
SLEUT-Hound, the ancient Scots name of the bloodhound. The word is derived from the Saxon slot, the impression that a deer leaves of its foot in the mire, and hound, a dog; so they derive their name from following the track.
SLICH, in Metallurgy, the ore of any metal, particularly of gold, when it has been pounded and prepared for further working.

The manner of preparing the slich at Chremnitz in Hungary, is this. They lay a foundation of wood three yards deep; upon this they place the ore, and over this there are twenty-four beams, armed at their bottoms with iron; these, by a continual motion, beat and grind the ore, till it is reduced to powder. During this operation, the ore is covered with water. There are four wheels used to move these beams, each wheel moving six; and the water, as it runs off, carrying some of the metalline particles with it, is received into several basons, one placed behind another; and finally, after having passed through them all, and deposited some sediment in each, it is let off into a very large pit, almost half an acre in extent; in which it is suffered to stand as long as to deposit all its sediment, of whatever kind, and after this is let out. This work is carried on day and night, and the ore is taken away and replaced by more as often as occasion requires. That ore which lies next the beams, by which it was pounded, is always the cleanest or richest.

When the slich is washed as much as they can, a hundred weight of it usually contains about an ounce, or perhaps but half an ounce of metal, which is not all gold; for there is always a mixture of gold and silver, but the gold is in a larger quantity, and is usually two-thirds of the mixture. They then put the slich into a furnace with some limestone, and slacken, or the scoria of former meltings, and run them together. The first melting produces a substance called lech, which they bum with charcoal, to make it lighter, to open its body, and render it porous, after which it is called rost; to this they add sand in such quantity as they find necessary, and then melt it over again.

At Chremnitz many other methodsare practised of reducing gold from its ore, but particularly one, in which they employ no lead during the whole operation: whereas, in general, lead is always necessary, after the before-mentioned processes.
SLICKENBURG, a small island near the north-west coast of Borneo. Long. 112. 31. E. Lat. 3. 59. N.
SLIDING-RULE, a mathematical instrument, serving to work questions in gauging, measuring, and the like, without the use of compasses; merely by the sliding of the parts of the instrument one by another, the lines and divisions of which give the answer by inspection. This instrument is variously contrived and applied by various authors, particularly Everard, Coggeshall, Gunter, Hunt, and Partridge; but the most common and useful are those of Everard and Coggeshall.
SLING, an instrument serving for casting stones with great violence. The inhabitants of the Balearic islands were famous in antiquity for the dexterous management of the sling. It is said they used three kinds of slings, some longer, and others shorter, which they used according as their enemies were either nearer or more remote. It is added, that the first served them for a head-band, the second for a girdle, and the third they constantly carried in their hand.