SAPUCAIA NUT 



SARASATE 



161 



species of Mucar produce very similar fermenta- 

 tions in saccharine fluids ( see FERMENTATION ). A 

 destructive effect is witnessed in the reduction of 

 timber to a mass of dirt by Merulius lacrymans. 



Bacteria (q.v. ) may be classified physiologically 

 in the same terms as the Fungi. And their functions 

 vary in the same way. Many oxidise their sub- 

 stratum ; the Micrococcus of vinegar oxidises ethyl- 

 alcohol into acetic acid, and by further combus- 

 tion into carbonic acid and water. Others excite 

 characteristic fermentations, lactic acid, butyric 

 acid fermentations, &c., produced by specific 

 organisms. Others incite Putrefaction (q.v.). 



For farther information, see Goebel's Outlina of Clasri- 

 faation and Spmal Morpholoriy ; De Bary's Morphology 

 of the Fungi, tfyeeUaoa and Bacteria; Sachs's Physiology 

 of Plantt ; Vines's I'hytioloyy of Plant* ; and the litera- 

 ture referred to in these works. 



Samicaia .Nuts, the seed of Lecythis Maria 

 and L. zttliiimjij tr-cs, plentiful in the forests of the 

 north of Brazil, anil belonging to the natural order 

 Lecythidacese. The fruit is urn-shaped, as large as 

 a child's head, and opens by a lid which falls off. 

 Each fruit contains a number of seeds or nuts, as in 

 the case of the allied Brazil nut ; but the flavour 

 is finer than that of the Brazil nut. Its form is 

 oval, somewhat pointed at both ends, which are 

 slightly bent in opposite directions. 



Saraband (Fr. sarabande, Span, zarabanda 

 word and thing both derived from the Moors), 

 originally a slow dance, and hence a short piece of 

 music, of deliberate character, and with a peculiar 

 rhythm, in } time, the accent being placed on the 

 second crotchet of each measure. The saraband 

 was of frequent occurrence among the suites or 

 series of short pieces written by Handel, Sebastian 

 Bach, and others of the old masters, for the harpsi- 

 chord or clavichord. 



Saracens a name variously employed by 

 medi.'cval writers to designate the Mohammedans 

 of Syria and Palestine, the Arabs generally, or the 

 Arab-Berber races of Northern Africa, who con- 

 quered Spain and Sicily, and invaded France. At 

 a later date it was employed as a synonym for all 

 infidel nations against which crusades were preached, 

 and was thus applied to the Seliuks of Iconium, the 

 Turks, the Gypsies, and even the pagan Prussians. 

 The true derivation of the word was long a puzzle 

 to philologers ; Du Cange deduced it from Sarah, 

 the wife of Abraham, an opinion coinciding with 

 that of the media- val Christian authors ; Hottinger, 

 from the Arab, taraca, 'to steal;' Forster, from 

 sahra, 'a desert;' while others strove to see its 

 origin in the Hebrew tarak, ' poor ;' but the opinion 

 which has been most generally supported, and pre- 

 vails at the present time, is that the word was 

 originally Sharkeyn (Arab., 'eastern people' as 

 opposed to Maghribe, ' western people ' i.e. the 

 people of Morocco), corrupted by the Greeks into 

 Sarakenoi, from which the Romans derived their 

 wonl Snrareni. The epithet Sarakenoi was applied 

 by the Greek writers (from the 1st century of the 

 Christian era) to some trills of Bedouin Arabs in 

 eastern Arabia, though they do not agree among 

 themselves as to the particular tribe so denominated. 

 Pliny and Aimnianus place the Saracens in Arabia 

 Petnra and Mesopotamia, on the common frontier 

 of the Roman and Persian empires ; and the descrip- 

 tion of them by Ainminnus, a most painstaking and 

 accurate historian, coincides, in every important 

 particular, with what is known at the present day 

 of the Bedouin tribes of those regions. See ARABIA, 

 CALIFS, CRUSADES, MOHAMMEDANISM, MOORS, 

 SALADIN, SPAIN, TEMPLARS ; and for Saracenic 

 architecture, see ARABIAN ARCHITECTURE, and the 

 section nn architecture in the articles INDIA (Vol. 

 VI. p. 109) and PERSIA (Vol. VIII. p. 70). 

 427 



Saragossa (Span. Zaragoza), a city of Spain, 

 formerly the capital of the kingdom of Aragon, by 

 rail 212 miles NE. of Madrid and 227 W. by N. of 

 Barcelona, stands on the Ebro, which divides the 

 city into two parts, and is crossed by a noble stone 

 bridge of seven arches, built in 1437. The city has 

 an imposing appearance from a distance, being 

 adorned with numerous slender towers and spires ; 

 but inside the walls it is full of narrow winding 

 lanes, with brick bouses of most solid structure, 

 though many of them are now falling into decay. 

 The quarters that have been rebuilt since the 

 French siege are of course different ; the streets 

 wide and tne houses of better appearance. Sara- 

 gossa was the Celtiberian Saldnba, changed to 

 Ccesarea Augusta in 25 B.C., of which the present 

 name is a corruption. Although a place of import- 

 ance under the Romans, there are few remains of 

 the Roman city. One of the first cities of Spain 

 to adopt Christianity (3d century), it afterwards 

 l>ecame rich in relics, to which miraculous powers 

 were ascribed. Saragossa was taken by the Goths 

 in the 5th and by the Moors in the 8th century, and 

 was recovered from them in 1118 by Alpbonso of 

 Aragon after a siege of five years, during which 

 great part of the inhabitants died of hunger. The 

 most momentous event in its recent history was 

 the siege by the French (June to August 1808 and 

 December 1808 to February 1809), in which the 

 inhabitants, led by Palafox (q.v.), offered a most 

 determined resistance, some 60,000 in all perishing. 

 The services of the 'Maid of Saragossa,' said to 

 have assisted or fought by the side of her artillery- 

 man-lover, seem to have been greatly exaggerated 

 by Southey, Byron, and Sir David Wifkie in 

 treating the theme. Saragossa has two cathe- 

 drals, the older a Gothic edifice (1316) ; the more 

 modern (17th century) boasts of a pillar on which 

 the Virgin descended from heaven (40 A.D.), to 

 which pilgrims still flock. Its defences include 

 the citadel (Aljaferia), anciently the palace of the 

 kings of Aragon and later the headquarters of the 

 Inquisition in this part of Spain. There are also 

 a university ( 1474) with 800 students, a library of 

 18,000 vols. , an academy of sciences, and a large 

 archiepiscopal palace. The leaning Torre Nueva, 

 dating from 1504, was in 1890 deemed unsafe and 

 doomed by the authorities to demolition. The 

 leading industries turn out cloth, silks, leather, 

 soap, and chocolate. Pop. 93,500. The province 

 has an area of 6727 sq. m. and a pop. of 415,000. 



Sarajevo. See HOSXA-SERAI. 



Saraklis, a town in the extreme north-east of 

 Persia, stands on the Heri-Rud, in a position of 

 considerable strategic in>|>rtance. It was destroyed 

 by the Persians in 1832, and is now a miserable 

 place of Turkoman tents and huts ; but there is a 

 strong fort. The Russians in 1885 occupied the 

 opposite bank of the river ; and the place lias lieen 

 often mentioned in connection with the delimita- 

 tion of boundaries between Russian, Persian, and 

 Afghan territory. See the map at AFGHANISTAN. 



Saransk, a town of Russia, 65 miles N. of 

 Penza; pop. (1895) 13,921. 



Sarasate. MARTIN MELITON, violinist, was 

 born of Basque parentage at Pampluna in Spain 

 10th March 1844. Taken to Pans whilst still a 

 child, he studied at the conservatoire there from 

 18f>6, and won the first prize for the violin in 

 1857 ; then, having finished his studies, he began 

 what was to be his life's occupation, travelling 

 from town to town and from continent to continent 

 giving concerts. He first appeared at London in 

 May 1874, playing at one of the Philharmonics. 

 He always draws large audiences, his style l>eing 

 pure, easy, and graceful : he can play with fire ana 

 passion, and his taste is nearly faultless. He has 



