SAPAJOU 



52(M 



SAPSUCKER 



Economic Uses. Many plants yield sap of 

 economic value. The sugar of commerce is 

 made from the sap of the beet and the sugar 

 cane, and from the sap of the sugar maple 

 syrup and E obtained. Certain drugs, 



of which opium from the juice of the poppy is 

 a good example, come from the sap of plants. 

 Some plants yield fluids which are not true sap 

 from the botanical viewpoint, that are also of 

 great value. Of these the juice of the rubber 

 tree, from which most of the world's rubber is 

 made, and the gums and resins are the most 

 valuable in the arts. 



Related Subject*. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Leaves Rubber and Rubber 



Opium Manufacture 



Resins 



SAPAJOU, sap'ajoo, a group of American 

 monkeys which are among the most intelligent 

 of those inhabiting the New World. The larg- 

 est are over forty inches in length, including 

 twenty inches of tail. The monkeys that are 

 carried about the city streets by organ grind- 

 ers are usually sapajous. In South America the 

 Indians capture them by shooting poisoned ar- 

 rows, the substance used being curare. The 

 captured monkeys are then given salt, which 

 overcomes the effect of the poison. Among the 

 important kinds of sapajou are the white- 

 fronted, found in the forests near the sources 

 of the Amazon River, and known by their white 

 forehead and light brown color; the slender 

 spider monkeys, occurring in the region be- 

 tween Southern Brazil and Central Mexico, and 

 remarkable for their agility; and the weepers, 

 or capuchins, which have the hair arranged on 

 the head like a cowl, or friar's hood. In gen- 

 eral, these monkeys are tree dwellers and live 

 chiefly on insects and fruit, though eggs, young 

 birds and reptiles are sometimes eaten. South 

 American Indians hunt them both for their 

 flesh and their fur. See MONKEY. 



SAPPHIRE, saf 'ire, a beautiful, transparent 

 blue gem, ranking next to the diamond in hard- 

 ness, and approximately equal to that stone in 

 value. Sapphires vary in color from pale blue 

 to deep indigo, but the most valuable stones 

 have the tint of the cornflower. Yellow and 

 white specimens, with the blue distributed in 

 spots, are not uncommon. The sapphire is a 

 variety of corundum and is of about the same 

 composition as the ruby, though somewhat 

 harder than the latter. The chief sources of 

 the gem are Siam, Burma, Ceylon, Kashmir, 

 Australia, North Carolina and Montana. The 



latter state supplies the greater part of the 

 product for the American market, and one of 

 the richest mines in the world is near the city 

 of Great Falls. The museum of the Botanical 

 Garden of Paris contains a fine collection of 

 sapphires. The gem is the birthstone for Sep- 

 tember. Its exceeding beauty is suggested in 

 a passage from Milton's Paradise Lost, where 

 the stars are compared to sapphires: 



now glowed the firmament 



With living sapphires ; Hesperus, that led 

 The starry host, rode brightest. 



Consult Kunz's The Curious Lore of Precious 

 Stones ; or his Gems and Precious Stones of North 

 America. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Birthstones Diamond 



Corundum Gems 



SAPPHO, saf'o, a celebrated Greek lyric 

 poetess w r ho lived in the seventh and sixth cen- 

 turies B. c. She spent most of her life in Les- 

 bos, and was called the "Lesbian nightingale." 

 As head of a coterie, or school, of girls who de- 

 voted themselves to writing verse, she exercised 

 much influence on the literature of her time. 

 Indeed, the ancients admired her most extrava- 

 gantly. Aristotle placed her in the same rank 

 with Homer, and Plato called her the "tenth 

 Muse," while Solon, on hearing one of her 

 poems read, exclaimed that he would not will- 

 ingly die until he had learned it by heart. Her 

 lyrics were passionate songs of love and nature, 

 and were arranged in nine books, one for each 

 of the nine Muses. Of her poems only two 

 have come down to us entire a beautiful Ode 

 to Venus and an ode descriptive of the emo- 

 tions of love. Various fragments remain, but 

 their exquisite beauty cannot be shown in any 

 translation. 



Consult Wright's Short History of Greek Litera- 

 ture. 



SAPSUCKER, sap'suker, a group of birds 

 of the woodpecker family, found only in North 

 America. They are so called because they feed 

 on the sap of trees, which they obtain by mak- 

 ing holes in the bark. The most common spe- 

 cies is the yellow-bellied sapsucker, the male 

 of which has a bright scarlet crown and throat, 

 and black coat with white markings. This sap- 

 sucker nests in the Northern United States and 

 Canada, migrating southward in winter as far 

 as Central America. It builds its nest in holes 

 in trees, and the eggs, which are pure white, are 

 five to seven in number, The red-breasted sap- 



