the most fultry hour, about 2 p. m. fluctuating between 82 and 85°. Mr Marfden divides the inhabitants into Malays, Achenefe, Battas, Lampoons, and R-jangs; and he takes the latter as his ftandard, with respect to the perfons, manners, and customs, of the inhabitants. They are rather below the middle ftature; their bulk in proportion; their limbs for the most part flight, but well thaped, and particularly fmall at the waifts and ancles, and, upon the whole, they are gracefully formed. Their hair is ftrong, and of a fhining black. The men are beardless, being rendered so when boys, by rubbing their chins with a kind of quicklime. Their complexion is properly yellow, wanting the red tinge that conftitutes a copper or tawny colour. They are in general lighter than the Meftees, or half-breed, of the rest of India; thofe of the fuperior clafs, and particularly their women of rank, approaching to a degree of fairness. Some of them almoft furpafs our brunettes in Europe. The major part of the females are ugly, many of them even to difguft; yet among them are fome whofe appearance is strikingly beautiful. Some of the inhabi. tants of the hill parts have the fweled neck or goitre; but they attempt no remedy for it, as thefe wens are confiftent with the highest health. The rites of marriage among the Sumatrans confift fimply in joining the hands of the parties and pronouncing them man and wife without much ceremony, excepting the entertainment which is given upon the occation by the father of the girl. The customs of the Sumatrans permit their hav. ing as many wives as they can purchase, or afford to maintain; but it is extremely rare that an inftance occurs of their having more than one, and that only among a few of the chiefs. This continence they owe, in fome meafure, to their poverty. The dictates of frugality are more powerful with them than the irregular calls of appetite, and make them decline an indulgence from which their law does not reftrain them. The children are not confined by bandages, but being fuffered to roll about the floor, foon learn to walk and hift for themselves. Cradles fwing fufpended from the cielings of the rooms. The SUMATRANS are exceedingly fond of cock fighting. The wild beats of Sumatra are tigers, elephants, rhinocerofes, bears, and monkeys. The tigers prove to the inhabitants most destructive enemies. The number of people annually flain by thofe rapa cious tyrants of the woods is incredible. Whole villages have been depopulated by them; yet from a fuperftitious prejudice, it is with difficulty they are prevailed upon by a large reward which the India Company offers, to use methods of deftroying them, till they have fuftained fo.me partientar injury in their own family or kindred. The fize and strength of the fpecies which prevails on this ifla Jis prodigious. They are faid to break with the ftroke of their fore paw the eg of a horfe or a buffalo; and the largeit prey they kill is without difficulty dragged by them into the woods. This they ufually perform on the -cond night, being fuppofed on the first to grati fy themf-ives with fucking the bico only. Time 1s by this delay afforded to prepare for their defruction, either by thooting them, or placing a

veffel of water ftrongly impregnated with atfe nic near the carcafe, which is faftened to a tree to prevent its being carried off. The tiger having fa tiated himfelf with the flesh, is prompted to affuage his thirst with the tempting liquor at hand, and perithes in the indulgence. The chief fubfiftence of the alligators is unfortunate monkeys with which the woods abound. They are defcribed as alluring them to their fate by a fascinating power, fimilar to what has been related of the fake; and, fays Mr Marfden, “I am not incredulous enough to treat the idea with contempt having myseif observed, that when an alii. gator or a crocodile, in a river, comes under an overhanging branch of a tree, the monkeys in a state of alarm and dinraction, crowd to the extremity and, chattering and trembling, approach nearer and nearer to the amphibious monster that waits to devour them as they drop, which their fright and number render almost unavoidable." Thefe alligators likewife deftroy the peo. ple as they bathe in, the river, according to their cuftom, which the perpetual risk attending it can. not deter them from. A fuperftitious idea of their fanctity also preferves them from molestation, altho' with a hook of fufficient ftrength, they may be taken without much difficulty. The other a nimal- of Sumatra are buffaloes, a fmall kind of horfes, goats, hogs, deer, builocks, and hog deer. This laft is fomewhat larger than a rabbit, the bead refembang that of a hog, and its thanks and fest thofe of the deer. The bezoar ftone found on this anima! has been valued at 10 times its weight in gold; it is of a dark brown colour, smooth on the outfide; and the coat being taken off, it appearsitul darker, with things running underneath the coat: it will fwim on the top of the water. If it be infufed in any liquid, it makes it extremely bitter: the virtues attributed to it are creating an appetite, and fweetening the blood. Or birds they have a greater variety than of beafts. The coooav, or Sumatran pheasant, is a bird of uncommen beauty. They have ftork of prodigious tize, par rots, dung-hill fowis, ducks, the largest cocks in the world, wood pigeons; doves, and a great variety of imall birds, different from ours, and diftinguished by the beauty of their colours. Of reptiles, they have lizards, flying Wizards, allú tatic. leons. The island fwarms with infects, and their varieties are no lefs extrordmary than their sum bers. Rice is the only grain that grows intle country; they have fugar canes, beaus, pras, 13difles, yams, potatoes, pumkins, fveral kids st pot herbs unknown to Europe; and most of the fruits met with in other parts of the Eaft Indies, in great perfection. Indigo, Brafii wood, two fpecies of the bread fruit tree, pepper, terjamin, coffice, and cotton, are likewife the produce of this ifland; alfo the cabbage-tice and fik cotton. tree; the foreft contains a great variety of vaidable fpecies of wood, as ebony, pint, findal, aloes, te-k, manchineel, iron-wood, and the banyan tree. Geld, tin, iron, copper, and lea 1, are found in the country; and the former is plentiu. The finest goid and gord duit are found in the country of Limong, contiguous to Fort Mar & growth, La which the merchants r par arrualy for the puichate of opium, and fuch other ant les as

(2.) SUMP, in the British falt works. See SALT, 6 I, 7.

SUMPH, n. f. in mining, denotes a pit funk down in the bottom of the mine, to cut or prove the lode ftill deeper than before; and in order to flope and dig it away if neceflary; and alfo to drive on the lode in depth. The fumph principally ferves as a bafon or reservoir to collect the water of a mine together, that it may be cleaned out by an engine or machine.

out all Italy; and that for every tranfgrefsion, not only the matter of the feaft, but all the guefts too, fhould be liable to the penalty. The Englith have had their fhare of fumptuary laws, chiefly made in the reigns of Edw. III. Edw. IV. and Hen. VIII. against fhoes with long points, fhort doublets, and long coats; all repealed by ftat. 1 Jac. I. c. 25. As to excefs in diet, there remains ftill one law unrepealed. Under King Henry IV. Camden tells us, pride was got fo much into the foot, that it was proclaimed, that no man fhoul wear fhoes above fix inches broad at the toes. And their other garments were fo fhort, that it was enacted 25 Edw. IV. that no perfon, under the condition of a lord, fhould, from that time, wear any mantle or gown, unlefs of fuch length, that, standing upright, it might cover his privy members and buttocks.

*SUMPTER. n. f. [ sommier, French; fomaro, Italian.] A horfe that carries the cloaths or furni

ture.

Return with her!

Persuade me rather to be a flave and sumpter
To this detefted groom.

Shak.
With full force his deadly bow he bent,
And leather'd fates among the mules and sump-
ters fent.
Dryden.
Sumpter mules, bred of large Flanders mares.
Mortimer.

* SUMPTION. n. S. [fron sumptus, Lat.] The act of taking. Not in ufe.-The sumption of the myfteries does all. Taylor.

(1.) SUMPTUARY. adj. {sumptuarius, Lat.] Relating to expence; regulating the colt of life.To remove that material caufe of fedition, which is want and poverty in the eftate, ferveth the opening of trade, the banishing of idleness, the reprefling of walte and excefs by sumptuary laws. Bacon.

(2.) SUMPTUARY LAWS, [Leges Sumptuariæ,] are laws made to reftrain excefs in apparel, cotty furniture, eating, &c. Moft ages and nations have had their fumptuary laws; and fome retain then ftili. But it is obferved, that no laws are worse executed than fumptuary laws. Political writers have been much divided in opinion with respect to the utility of these laws to a state. Montefquieu obferves, that luxury is neceifary in monarchies, as in France, but ruinous to democracies, as in Holland. With regard to England, whofe government is compounded of both fpecies, it may ftill be a dubious queftion, fays judge Blackftone, how far private luxury is a public evil; and as fuch cognizable by public laws. The fumptuary laws of that ancient Locrian legiflator Zaleucus are famous: by these it was ordained, that no woman should go attended by more than one maid in the ftreet, except fhe were drunk: that the should not go out of the city in the night, unless she went to commit fornication: that she should not wear any gold or embroidered apparel, unless the propofed to be a common strumpet; and that men should not wear rings or tifflues except when they went a-whoring, &c. Among the Romans, the fumptuary laws were very numerous: By the Lex Orchia, the number of guests at feafts was limited, though without any limitation of the charges: by the Fanuian law, made 22 years afterwards, it was enacted, that more than 10 affes should not be spent at any ordinary feaft: for the folemn feafts, as the Saturnalia, &c. 100 affes were al lowed; 10 of which, Gellius informs us, was the price of a fheep, and 100 of an ox. By the Didian law, which was preferred 18 years after, it was decreed, that the former fumptuary laws hould be in force, not only in Rome, but through

*SUMPTUOSITY. n. f. [from sumptuous.] ExNot ufed.-He added penfivenefs; coftlines. sumptuofity, invented jewels of gold and ftone. Raleigh.

* SUMPTUOUS. adj. [sumptuosus, from sump. tus, Lat.] Coftly; expenfive; fplendid.-We fee how joyful they were to behold the sumptuous ftatelinefs of houfes built unto God's glory. Hook. -We are too sumptuous in our tables. Atterb.

* SUMPTUOUSLY. adv. [from sumptuous.] 1. Expenfively; with great coft.

Shak.

This monument five hundred years hath flood, Which I have sumptuously re-edified. Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester, in a famine, fold all the rich veffels and ornaments of the church, to relieve the poor with bread: and faid, there was no reafon that the dead temples of God thould be sumptuously furnished, and the living temples fuffer penury. Bacon. 2. Splendidly.A good employment will make you live tolerably in Londen, or sumptuously here. Swift.

* SUMPTUOUSNESS. n.f. [from sumptuous.] Expentivenets; conlinefs.-I will not fall out with thofe that can reconcile sumptuousness an i charity. Boyle.

SUMRA, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Tripoli; 13 miles NE. of Tripoli.

SUMSKOI, a town of Ruffia, in Olonetz. (1.) *SUN. n. f. (sunno, Gothick; sunna, sunne, Saxon; son, Dutch.) 1. The luminary that makes the day.

Doth beauty keep which never sun can burn, Nor ftorms do turn?

Sidney.

Shak.

Honeyfuckles, ripen'd by the sun, Forbid the sun to enter. Though there be but one sun exifting in the world, yet it is as much a fort as if there were as many suns as there are ftars. Locke.

From the fetting feek the rifing fun.. Harte. 2. A funny place; a piace eminently warmed by the fon.

This place has choice of fun and fhade. Milt. 3. Any thing eminently fpiendid.-I will never confent to put out the fun of fovereignty. King Charles. 4. Under the SUN. In this world. A proverbial expreffion.-There is no new thing under the fun. Eccl. i. 9.

(2.) SUN, SOL, O. See ASTRONOMY, Index. The SUN is certainly that celestial body which, of all others, fhould most attract our attention. Cccc 2

It

we do not recur to earthquakes and volcanoes for its origin. An atmosphere, with its naturai changes, will explain fuch belts. Our spot on the fun may be accounted for on the fame principles. The earth is furrounded by an atmosphere compofed of various elaftic fluids. The fun alfo has its atmosphere; and if some of the fluids which enter into its compofition fhould be of a fining brilliancy, in the manner that will be explained hereafter, while others are merely tranfparent, any temporary 'caufe which may remove the lucid fluid will permit us to fee the body of the fun through the tranfparent ones. It an obferver were placed on the moon, he would fee the fold body of the earth only in thofe places where the tran.parent fluids of our atmosphere would permit him. In others, the opaque vapours would reflect the light of the fun without permitting his view to penetrate to the furface of our globe. Ile would probably aifo find, that our planet had occafionally fome fhining fluids in its atmosphere; as, not unlikely, fome of our northern lights might not escape his notice, if they happened in the unenlightened part of the earth, and were feen by him in his long dark night. Nay, we have pretty good reafon to believe, that probably all the planets emit light in fome degree; for the illumination which remains on the moon in a total eciiple cannot be entirely afcribed to the light which may reach it by the refraction of the earth's atmosphere. For instance, in the eclipse of the moon Oct. 22, 1790, the rays of the fun refracted by the atmosphere of the earth towards the moon, admitting the mean horizontal refraction to be 30' 50" 8, would meet in a focus 189,000 miles beyond the moon; fo that consequently there could be no illumination from rays refracted by our atmosphere. It is, however, not improbable, that about the polar regions of the earth there may be refraction enough to bring fome of the folar rays to a fhorter focus. The distance of the moon at the time of the eclipfe would require a refraction of 54′ 6′′, equal to its horizontai paral lax at that time, to bring them to a focus fo as to throw light on the moon. The unenlightened part of the planet Venus has also been seen by dif ferent perfons; and not having a fatellite, thofe regions that are turned from the fun cannot pethbly thine by a borrowed light; fo that this faint illumination must denote fome phosphoric quality of the atmosphere of Venus.

It has accordingly employed much of the time and meditation, not only of the aftronomer, but alfo of the fpeculative philofopher, in ali ages of the world; and many hypothefes have been formed, and some discoveries made, respecting the nature and the ufes of this vaft luminary. Sir Ifaac Newton has fhewn, that the fan, by its attractive power, retains the planets of our fyftem in their orbits: he has alfo pointed out the inethod whereby the quantity of matter which it contains may be accurately determined. Dr Bradley has affigned the velocity of the folar light with a degree of precilion exceeding our utmost expectation. Gaco, Scheiner, Hevelius, Caffini, and others, have afcertained the rotation of the fun upon its axis, and determined the pofition of its equator. By means of the tranfit of Venus over the difk of the fun, mathematicians have calculated its difrauce from the earth, its real diameter and mag. nitude, the denfity of the matter of which it is compofed, and the fail of heavy bodies on its furface. We have therefore a very clear notion of the vaft importance and powerful influence of the fun on its planetary fyftem; but with regard to its internal conftruction, we are yet extremely ignorant. Many ingenious conjectures have in deed been formed on the fubject ;-a few of which we fhall mention as an introduction to Dr Herfchel's, of which, as it is the latest, and perhaps the most plausible, we fhall give a pretty fuil account nearly in his own words. The dark spots in the fun, for inftance, have been supposed to be solid bodies revolving very near its furface. They have been conjectured to be the smoke of volcanoes, or the scum floating upon an ocean of fluid matter. They have allo been taken for clouds. They were explained to be opaque mafles fwiming on the fluid matter of the fun, dipping down Occasionally. It has been fuppofed that a fiery liquid furrounded the fun, and that by its ebbing and flowing the highest parts of it were occafionally uncovered, and appeared under the shape of dark spots; and that by the return of the fiery liquid, they were again covered, and in that manner fucceflively affumed different phafes. The fun itself has been fuppofed to be a globe of fire. The wafte it would undergo by a gradual confumption, on the fuppofition of its being ignited, has been ingeniously calculated; and in the fame point of view its inmenfe power of heating the bodies of fuch comets as draw very near to it has been affigned. In 1779 there was a spot on the fun which was large enough to be feen with the na. ked eye. By a view of it with a seven feet reflector, charged with a very high power, it appeared to be divided into two parts. The largett of the two, on the 19th of April, measured 1' 8"c5 in diameter, which is equal in lengti to more than 31,000 miles. Both together muft certainly have extended above 50,000. "The idea of its being occafioned by a volcanic explofion violently driving away a fiery fluid, ought to be rejected (ays Dr Herfchel) on many accounts. To mention only one, the great extent of the spot is very unfavourable to fuch a fuppofition. Indeed a much lefs violent and iefs pernicious caufe may account for all the appearances of the spot. When we fee e dark belt near the equator of the planet Jupiter,

(3.) SUN, DR HERSCHEL'S DISCOVERIES RES. PECTING THE. In the inftance of the large fpot on the fun already mentioned, Dr Herschel concludes, from appearances, that he viewed the real body of the fun itself, of which we rarely fee more than its thining atmosphere. In 1783 he obferved a fine large spot, and followed it up to the edge of the fun's humb. Here he took notice that the spot was plainly deprefied below the furtace of the fun, and that it had very broad shelving fides. He alfo fufpected fome part, at least, of the fheiving fides to be elevated above the furface of the fun; and obferved that, contrary to what ufually happens, the margin of that fide of the fpot which was farthest from the limb was the broadeft. The luminous fhelving fide of a ipot may be explained by a gentle and gradual remo