SEMAPHORE 



SEMITES 



309 



Semaphore (fromsema, 'asign.'and^Aero, 'I 

 bear ' ) was the name applied to the system of tele- 

 graphy in use before the application of the electric 

 current. Semaphores were invented by Richard 

 Lovell Edgeworth in 1767 (cf. p. 91 of his Memoirs, 

 ed. 1854 ), Tint were first regularly established by the 

 French in 1794 as a plan for conveying intelligence 

 from the capital to tne armies on the frontier. In 

 the following year Lord George Murray introduced 

 them in England ; and by their means the Board 

 of Admiralty were placed within a few minutes of 

 Deal, Portsmouth, or Plymouth. These sema- 

 phores consisted of towere built at intervals of from 

 5 to 10 miles on commanding sites. On the top of 

 each tower was the telegrapli apparatus, which at 

 first comprised six shutters arranged in two frames, 

 by the opening ami shutting of which in various 

 combinations sixty-three distinct signals could be 

 formed. In 1816 Sir Home Popham substituted a 

 mast with two arms similar to many of the present 

 railway signals. The arms were worked from 

 within the tower by winches in the lookout room, 

 where a powerful telescope in either direction con- 

 stantly commanded the mast of the next station. 

 If a tog set in at any point on the route the 

 message was delayed ; otherwise when a sharp 

 lookout was kept the transmission was very rapid. 

 For instance, the hour of one by Greenwich time 

 was always communicated to Portsmouth when the 

 ball fell at Greenwich ; the semaphores were ready 

 for the message, and it commonly passed from 

 London to Portsmouth and the acknowledgment 

 back to London within three-quarters of a minute. 

 Each station was in the charge of a naval officer 

 usually a lieutenant with one or two men under 

 him. To save the cost of this establishment the 

 Deal and Plymouth lines fell into disuse soon after 

 the peace of 1815 ; and the superior advantages of 

 the electric telegraph being incontestable, the 

 Portsmouth line sent its last message on the 31st 

 December 1847, and in this capacity the sema- 

 phore closed its career of usefulness for ever. Kail- 

 way signals are, however, a form of semaphore. 

 See RAILWAYS, p. 558, and, for the semaphore 

 used for communicating with ships, SIGNALLING. 



Kemecarpus a genus of rjolypetalous trees, of 

 which the 5. Anacardium is the Marking-nut 

 Tree of India, a deciduous tree growing in the 

 sub-Himalayan tract. An ink much used in that 

 country for marking cotton cloths is obtained from 

 the acrid juice of the pericarp of the fruit. Lime- 

 water is added to improve the ink. The fleshy 

 cup of the ripe fruit is eaten raw, but it is better 

 when roasted. Bird-lime is made of the fruit in 

 its green state. The wood also contains an acrid 

 juice which causes swelling and irritation, in conse- 

 quence of which the timl>er is not put to any use. 



Semele. See DIONYSUS. 



Srmciulria. a fortress of Servia, stands on the 

 riylit lunik of the Danube, 26 miles SE. of Belgrade. 

 Here the Turks defeated the Hungarians in 1411. 

 The place was taken by storm by Prince Eugene 

 in 1717. Pop. 6578. 



Seniinolcs, a tribe of American Indians, 

 original I y ( IT-iO) a vagrant branch of the Creeks, 

 whose name Seminole signifies 'wild' or 'wanderer.' 

 In 1817 they joined with the Creeks ami some 

 negroes who had taken refuge with them, ravaged 

 the white settlements in Georgia, plundering planta- 

 tions, and carrying off slaves, whom they refused 

 to surrender. General Jackson was sent to punish 

 them, and his expedition hastened the negotiations 

 which ended in the cession of Florida to the United 

 States (1819). By a treaty of 1823 the Seminoles, 

 who numbered some 4000, gave up most of their 

 lands for an annuity, and agreed to return fugitive 

 laves; but in 1832, to satisfy the settlers, the 



chiefs were deluded into signing a treaty agreeing 

 to the removal of the Whole tribe west of the 

 Mississippi. This treaty was repudiated by the 

 tribe at the instigation of Osceola (q.v.), one of 

 their chiefs ; and a war commenced against a 

 handful of savages which lasted seven years, and 

 cost hundreds of lives and millions of dollars. In 

 the end the remains of the tribe were removed to 

 the Indian Territory, where (except some 200 who 

 are still left in Florida and some fe\v in Texas and 

 Mexico ) all the Seminoles are now settled ; they 

 number 3000, receive an annuity of $25,000, have 

 eight churches, besides government schools, and 

 are under the training of Presbyterian missionaries. 



Semipalatinsk, a province of Asiatic Russia, 

 stretching northwards from Lake Balkash to the 

 provinces of Tobolsk and Tomsk. It embraces 

 outliers of the great Altai and other lofty chains of 

 central Asia, rising to 10,000 feet, and enclosing 

 between them wide stretches of steppe-land. The 

 principal river is the Irtish, which flows north- 

 westwards to the Obi. The climate ranges between 

 wide extremes, and the whole region is undergoing 

 desiccation. Area, 183,145 sq. m. ; pop. (1897) 

 685,197, mostly Kirghiz. The chief town, Semi- 

 palatinsk, standing on the right bank of the Irtish, 

 is an important trading centre for that part of 

 Asia. Pop. 17,820. 



Semi-Pelagianism. See PELAGIUS. 



Sciniramis, wife of Ninus, mythical founder 

 of Nineveh according to Ctesias and the Greek his- 

 torians. A daughter of Derceto the fish-goddess, 

 she was exposed in infancy, but miraculously fed 

 by doves, then brought up by Simmas a shepherd, 

 whose name she took. Onnes, one of the King's 

 generals, charmed by her beauty, married her, 

 but ghe won the heart of the king himself by her 

 heroic capture of Bactra, whereupon her hus- 

 band had the loyalty to make away with him- 

 self. Ninus goon died, leaving Semiramis to reign 

 gloriously for forty-two years, conquering in Persia, 

 Libya, ./Ethiopia, unsuccessful in India alone. At 

 the end of this time she left the throne to her son 

 Ninyas and disappeared, thereafter to be wor- 

 shipped as a divinity. The story is most probably 

 borrowed from some Median epic. The name of 

 the mighty queen survived in place-names, and 

 was familiarly attached to the great works of 

 antiquity, as the hanging gardens of Babylon. 

 Many things in her story, and such points of 

 detail as her personal beauty and her voluptuous- 

 ness, point to an identification with the great 

 Assyrian goddess Astarte (q.v.). See Lenormant, 

 La Ltgende de Semiramis (Brussels, 1873). The 

 Semiramis of the North was a name not inappropri- 

 ately applied to Catharine II. 



SriuiiTt rliinsk. a province of Asiatic Russia, 

 having East Turkestan on the SE., Ferghana on 

 the S\V., and Lake Balkash on the N., is a 

 mountainous region, being crossed from east to 

 west by the Ala-tan and Thian-Shan Mountains, 

 whose peaks run up to 16,000 feet. Between them 

 lies the mountain-lake of Issyk-kul. In the north 

 of the province there are level tracts, partly fertile, 

 partly barren sand. The climate is temperate ; 

 earthquakes occur e.g. at Vyernyi (pop. 11,584), 

 the chief town. Area, 147,298 sq. m. ; pop. (1897) 

 758,258, of whom 595,000 are Kirghiz and 44,000 

 Russians ; they are mostly engaged in pastoral 

 pursuits, rearing large herds of horses, camels, 

 and sheep. 



Semites, ft convenient name given by J. G. 

 Eichhorn in 1787 to a group of nations closely 

 allied in language, religion, manners, and physical 

 features, who are mostly represented in Genesis x. 

 as descended from Shem, a son of Noah. Their 

 habitat is Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, Phoenicia, 



