traphyllous; petals four: CAPS. unilocular, quadrivalved, and polyspermous. Species five, four common in our own country.

SAGITTA, in astronomy, the arrow or dart, a constellation of the northern hemisphere, near the eagle. See ASTRONOMY. SAGITTAL, adj. & n. s. Į Lat. sagitta, an SAGITTARY, n. s. arrow. Belonging to an arrow in anatomy, a suture so called from its resemblance to an arrow: sagittary is the fabled CENTAUR, which see.

His wound was between the sagittal and coronal sutures to the bone. Wiseman's Surgery.

The dreadful sagittary
Appals our numbers.

Shakspeare. Troilus and Cressida. SAGITTARIA, arrow head, a genus of the polyandria order, and monocia class of plants; natural order fifth, tripetaloidea: MALE CAL. triphyllous: COR. tripetalous; the filaments generally about fourteen: FEMALE CAL. triphyllous: COR. tripetalous; pistils many: SEEDS many and naked. Species five, of which the most remarkable is the

S. sagittifolia, growing naturally in many parts of England. The root is composed of many strong fibres, which strike into the mud; the foot-stalks of the leaves are in length proportionable to the depth of the water in which they grow; sometimes almost a yard long; they are thick and fungous; the leaves, which float upon the water, are shaped like the point of an arrow, the two ears at their base spreading wide asunder. The flowers are produced upon long stalks which rise above the leaves, standing in whorls round them at the joints. They consist of three broad white petals, with a cluster of stamina in the middle, which have purple summits. There is always a bulb at the lower part of the root, growing in the solid earth beneath the mud. This bulb constitutes a considerable part of the food of the Chinese; and upon that account they cultivate it. Horses, goats, and swine, eat it; cows are not fond of it.

SAGITTARIUS, the archer, in astronomy, the ninth sign in the zodiac, marked thus . The stars in this constellation are in the Britannic Catalogue fifty-two, in Tycho Brahe's sixteen, and in Ptolemy's thirty-two.

SAGO is a simple brought from the East Indies, of considerable use as a restorative diet. It is produced from a species of palm tree, growing in the East Indies. The progress of its vegetation in the early stages is very slow. At first it is a mere shrub, thick set with thorns; but, as soon as its stem is once formed, it rises in a short time to thirty feet, is about six feet in circumference, and imperceptibly loses its thorns. Its ligneous bark is about an inch in thickness, and covers a multitude of long fibres; which, being interwoven one with another, envelope a mass of a gummy kind of meal. As soon as this tree is ripe, a whitish dust, which transpires through the pores of the leaves, and adheres to their extremities, proclaims its maturity. The Malays then cut it down near the root, divide it into several sections, and then scoop out the mass of mealy substance, which is enveloped by, and adheres to the fibres; they dilute it in water, and

then pass it through a straining bag of fine cloth, to separate it from the fibres. When this paste has lost part of its moisture, by evaporation, the Malays throw it into earthen vessels, of different shapes, where they allow it to dry and harden. This paste is wholesome nourishing food; the Indians eat it diluted with water, and sometimes baked or boiled. A jelly is sometimes made of it, which is white and of a delicious flavor. An inferior kind of sago is made in the West Indies from the pith of the areca.

SAGOR, an island of Bengal, from time immemorial a celebrated place of Hipdoo pilgrimage. It is situated at the junction of the Bhagurutty River, the most sacred branch of the Ganges, with the ocean. Till recently many persons annually devoted themselves, and sacrificed their children at this place, to the sharks and alligators. The island is not inhabited, but the Brahmins repair at the appointed season to the temple, followed by the pilgrims. A society in Calcutta has lately taken a lease of this island from the East India Company, and engaged to clear and bring it into a state of cultivation. Its south point is is in long. 88° 20′ E., lat. 21° 34' N.

SAGREDO (John), a noble Venetian, of an ancient family, who flourished in the seventeenth century. He became procurator of St. Mark, and was elected doge of Venice in 1675; but resigned because his election was not approved by the people. He was sent ambassador to several European courts. In 1677 he published a History of the Ottoman Empire; which is esteemed a very faithful compilation.

SAGUENAY, a river of Canada, tributary to the St. Lawrence, into which it flows, on the west bank, at the town and harbour of Tadousac. It draws its source from Lake St. John, receiving many large rivers that flow from the north and north-west, from an immense distance in the interior.

SAGUM, in Roman antiquity, a military habit, open from top to bottom, and usually fastened on the right shoulder with a buckle or clasp. It was not different in shape from the chlamys of the Greeks and the paludamentum of the generals. The only difference between them was, that the paludamentum was made of a richer stuff, was generally of a purple color, and rather longer and fuller than the sagum. Some authors have defined the sagum as a military tunic, but several passages of Tacitus and Pliny show that it was without sleeves, and was more ample than the tunic. The emperor Caracalla had invented, or imitated from the Gauls, a particular kind of sagum, to which the emperor's name was assigned; and so fond is he represented to have been of this garment that he preferred it to any other, distributed a large number among the people and soldiers, and even required that all who approached his presence should wear this vestment.

The precise form of the Caracalla is not now to be ascertained. It has been described as a garment made of several pieces diversely embroidered, and descending to the heels, excepting in the instance of the soldiers who wore it shorter.

SAGUNTUM, or SAGUNTUS, an ancient town of Spain, now called Morvedro, where there are still the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. Saguntum is celebrated in history as having been the cause of the second Punic war, and for its attachment to the Romans. Hannibal took it after a siege of about eight months; and the inhabitants, not to fall into the enemy's hands, set fire to their houses, and all their effects, and perished in the flames. The conqueror afterwards rebuilt it, and, as some suppose, called it Spartagene.

SAHARA, a name sometimes given to the great African desert, or the immense tract of territory in Northern and Central Africa, interposed between the states of Barbary and Soudan. In its greatest length it stretches nearly across the whole of Africa, from the Atlantic to the Nile, forming a space of 45° of long., or about 3000 miles. Its breadth from Barbary to Soudan may be estimated at 15°, or 1000 miles. It forms thus by much the most extensive desert to be found in any part of the world, and has already been treated of under the article AFRICA. The only impulse by which man has been led to traverse these dreary wilds is that of commerce; and the chief means for this have been afforded by that most useful animal the camel. The ordinary trade is carried on by merchants, inured from their infancy to that train of hardship and difficulty which attends these journeys, and who, for the sake of mutual aid, proceed in caravans or large bodies, sometimes amounting to the number of 2000. Their food consists of the milk of the camel, with barley-meal or Indian corn, a few dates, or dried flesh and coffee. Water is conveyed in goat-skins covered with tar. At each of the oases, or spots affording water, which occur at distant intervals along the waste, they stop for a few days to take in a supply. The greatest evil which they have to fear is when, in consequence of a peculiarly dry season, one of these happens to fail of water. A caravan

from Morocco, consisting of 2000 men, with 1800 camels, entirely perished in this way in 1798. The caravans take their departure from every part of Northern Africa; but the three grand points of rendezvous are Cairo, Mourzouk, and the south frontier of Morocco. Cairo sends three great caravans into the interior; one to Sennaar, partly along the Nile, but chiefly across the deserts on either side; another proceeds to Darfur, through an extensive desert, by the Great Oasis, Sheb, and Selyme. It sends one also to Mourzouk, which communicates with those despatched thence in the countries on the Niger. Mourzouk sends two great caravans, one to Bornou, and one to Cassina, and holds intercourse with Tombuctoo on a smaller scale.

The sea coast of the Sahara is for the most part rocky and destitute of harbours. Hence a considerable number of European vessels suffer shipwreck, and are cast ashore here; when the crews are generally stripped of every thing, and reduced to a state of cruel bondage. Their only hope of relief is from being carried over the desert to be sold in Morocco, whence European merchants frequently send them home.

SAID, or SAID, a name applied to Upper

Egypt, comprehending the valley of the Nile, from the vicinity of Cairo to the frontier of Nubia. It consists throughout of a plain only a few miles broad, enclosed between the chains of mountains which extend parallel with the Nile, and is exceedingly fertile, particularly in grain, and in antiquities.

SAIDA, the port of Damascus, the ancient SIDON, see that article.

SAIL, n. s., v. n. & v. a. Sax. regl; Belg.
SAILER, or
seyhel, scyl, Swed
Ssegel. The canvas

SAIL'OR, n. s. sheet which catches the wind and carries on a vessel; a ship or vessel; wings; any number of ships: to sail is, to move by means of sails; put out to sea; pass by sailing: a sailer, a seaman.

they strake sail, and so were driven. Acts xxvii. 17. Fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, When sailing was now dangerous, Paul admonished them.

He cutting way

Acts.

With his broad sails about him soared round;
At last, low stooping with unwieldy sway,
Snatched up both horse and man. Faerie Queene.

He came too late; the ship was under sail.

Shakspeare.

So by a roaring tempest on the flood,
A whole armado of collected sail
Is scattered.

Speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this sight, being o'er my head,
As is a winged messenger from heaven,
When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds,
And sails upon the bosom of the air.

Id.

It is written of Edgar, that he increased the fleet he found to two thousand six hundred sail.

Raleigh's Essays. They had many times men of other countries that

were no sailors.

Bacon.

A SAIL, in navigation, is an assemblage of several breadths of canvas sewed together by the lists, and edged round with cord, fastened to the yards of a ship, to make it drive before the wind. See SHIPPING. The edges of the cloths, or pieces, of which a sail is composed, are generally sewed together with a double seam; and the whole is skirted round at the edges with a cord, called the bolt-rope. Although the form of sails is extremely different, they are all nevertheless triangular or quadrilateral figures. The former of these are sometimes spread by a yard, as lateen-sails; and otherwise by a stay, as staysails; or by a mast, as shoulder-of-mutton sails; in all which cases the foremost leech or edge is attached to the said yard, mast, or stay, throughout its whole length. The latter, or those which are four-sided, are either extended by yards, as the principal sails of a ship; or by yards and booms, as the studding-sails, drivers, and ringsails; or by gaffs and booms, as the main-sails of sloops and brigantines. The principal sails are the courses, or lower sails, the top-sails, which are next in order above the courses, and the topgallant sails, which are above the top-sails. Every yard in a ship has its proper sail, except the cross-jack, which takes its name from the yard; and those which are not bent to the yard are the flying jib, fore, foretop, main, maintop, maintop-gallant, mizen, mizentop-mast, staysails, main and maintop studding sails. In this important art our law interferes minutely, enjoining by various acts of parliament that every vessel first setting out to sea from Great Britain or British America shall be furnished with one full and complete set of sails of the manufacture of Great Britain, under a penalty of fifty pounds. These acts prescribe the manner in which sailcloth shall be manufactured as to breadth and width. See SHIP-BUILDING.

To make sail is to spread an additional quantity of sail, so as to increase the ship's velocity. To set sail is to unfurl and expand the sails upon their respective yards and stays, in order to begin the action of sailing. To shorten sail, is to reduce or take in part of the sails, with an intention to diminish the ship's velocity. To strike sail is to lower it suddenly. This is particularly used in saluting or doing homage to a superior force, or to one whom the law of nations acknowledges as superior in certain regions. Thus foreign vessels strike to a British man of war in the British seas.

SAILING, the movement by which a vessel is wafted through the water, by the action of the wind upon her sails. When a ship changes her state of rest into that of motion, as in advancing out of a harbour, or from her station at anchor, she acquires her motion very gradually, as a body which arrives not at a certain velocity till after a frequent repetition of the action of its weight. The first impression of the wind greatly affects the velocity, which being but small at first, the resistance of the water which depends on it will be very feeble; but, as the ship increases her motion, the force of the wind on the sails will be diminished; whereas, on the contrary, the resistance of the water on the bow will accumulate in proportion to the velocity with which the

vessel advances. Thus the repetition of the degrees of force, which the action of the sails adds to the motion of the ship, is perpetually increasing; whilst, on the contrary, the new degrees added to the effort of resistance on the bow are always augmenting. The velocity is then accelerated in proportion as the quantity added is greater than that which is subtracted; but when the two powers become equal; when the impression of the wind on the sails has lost so much of its force, as only to act in proportion to the opposite impulse of resistance on the bow, the ship will then acquire no additional velocity, but continue to sail with a constant uniform motion. The great weight of the ship may indeed prevent her from acquiring her greatest velocity; but, when she has attained it, she will advance by her own intrinsic motion, without gaining any new degree of velocity, or lessening what she has acquired. See TACTICS, NAVAL and MILITARY, and NAVIGATION.

SAIMA, a large lake, or succession of lakes, in European Russia, in the government of Finland, to the north of Wilmanstrand. It is of very irregular form, said to be 250 miles in length, and of very various breadths. It contains a great number of islands, consisting chiefly of granite, and in general uninhabited. The lake of Lapwesi is a part of that of Saima.

So unaffected, so composed a mind; So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined, Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried; The saint sustained it, but the woman died. Pope. Thy place here; sad sister; come away : Once, like thyself, I trembled, wept, and prayed, Love's victim then, though now a sainted maid. Id. The devil was piqued such saintship to behold, And longed to tempt him.

Id. SAINTS (sancti), in the Romish church, holy persons deceased, and, since their decease, canonised by the pope, after several informations and ceremonies. One of the points wherein the Roman Catholics and Protestants differ, is, that the former address, invoke, and supplicate saints, &c., to intercede for them; whereas the latter hold it sufficient to propose their good examples for our imitation. It would seem that in the first ages every bishop in his own diocese was wont to declare what persons were to be honored as saints by his people. Hence St. Cyprian, about the middle of the third century, B. 5. ep. 6, requires that he be informed of those who should die in prison for the faith, that so he might make mention of them in the holy sacrifice with the martyrs, and might honor them afterwards on the anniversary day of their happy death. It was thus that St. Laurence, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Basil, and many others appear to have been canonised by custom and universal persuasion. In those ages none were reckoned saints but the apostles, the martyrs, and very eminent confessors, whose sanctity was notorious every where. Afterwards canonisations were performed in provincial synods under the direction of the metropolitan. It was thus that St. Isidore of Seville was canonised in the seventh century, by the eighth council of Toledo, fourteen years after his death. This method of canonisation continued occasionally down to the twelfth century. The last instance of a saint canonised in that way is that of St. Walter, abbot of Pontoise, who was declared a saint by the archbishop of Rouen in 1153. In the twelfth century, to prevent mistakes in so delicate a matter, pope Alexander III. judged it proper to reserve this declaration to the holy see of Rome exclusively; and decreed that no one should for the future be honored by the church as a saint, without the express approbation of the pope. Since that time the canonisation of saints has been carried on in the form of a process; and there is at Rome a congregation of cardinals, called the congregation of holy rites, who are assisted by several divines under the name of consultors, who examine such matters, and prepare them for the decision of his holiness. When, therefore, any potentate, province, city, or religious body think fit, they apply to the pope for the canonisation of any person. The first juridical step in this business must be taken by the bishop in whose diocese the person for whom the application is made had lived and died, who by his own authority calls witnesses to attest the

holiness, the virtues, and miracles of the person in question. This is succeeded by a tedious process of enquiry into the character of the deceased. Commissioners summon witnesses, take depositions, and collect letters and other writings of the venerable man, and get all the intelligence they can concerning him, and the opinion generally entertained of him. Their report is considered by the congregation, and every part of it discussed by the consultors, when the congregation determines whether or not they can permit the process to go on. If it be allowed to proceed, a cardinal, who is called ponent, undertakes to be the principal agent in that affair. There is also a distinguished ecclesiastic called the promoter of the holy faith, who is sworn to make all reasonable objections to the proofs adduced in favor of the canonisation. If the decision be favorable, then the proofs ot miracles are permitted to be brought forward; when two miracles must be verified to the satisfaction of the congregation, both as to the reality of the facts, and as to their having been above the power of nature. If the decision on this point is likewise favorable, then the whole is laid before the pope and what divines he chooses. When the pope is resolved to give his approbation, he issues a bull, first of beatification, by which the person is declared blessed, and afterwards another of sanctification, by which the name of saint is given him. These bulls are published in St. Peter's church with great solemnity. After his canonisation, his name is inserted in the Martyrology, or catalogue of saints, of which a portion is read every day in the choir at the divine office. His name may be mentioned in the public church service, and his intercession with God besought. His relics may be enshrined, &c. Canonisation is necessarily very expensive, because so many persons must be employed about it; so many journeys must be made; so many writings for and against it must be drawn out. The expense altogether amounts to about 25,000 Roman crowns, or £6000 sterling. But it is generally contrived to canonise two or three at a time, by which means the particular expense of each is very much lessened, the solemnity being common. Several authors have written on canonisation, particularly Prosper Lambertini, afterwards pope under the name of Benedict XIV. who had held the office of promoter of the faith for many years. He published on it a large work in several volumes, folio, of which there is an abridgment in French.

ST. JOHN (Henry), lord Viscount Bolingbroke, an eminent statesman and philosopher, descended from an ancient and noble family, born about the year 1672. He had a liberal education; and when he left the university, contrary to the inclinations of his family, he cultivated Tory connexions; and gained such influence in the house of commons that in 1704 he was appointed secretary of war and of the marines. He was closely united in all political measures with Mr. Harley: when, therefore, that gentleman was removed from the seals in 1707, Mr. St. John resigned; and in 1710, when Mr. Harley was made chanceller of the exchequer, he was made