422 



SHROVETIDE 



SI AM 



earlier formations, is nigged and mountainous, and 

 in the Clee Hills attains 1S05 feet. Coalltrookdale 

 i- the cliicf of five coal-fields, an<l (lie mineral 

 wealth al-o includeii iron, lead, limestone, and 

 freestone. The soil is variable, but generally 

 fertile ami well cultivated, so that only alnmt one- 

 seventh of the whole area is waste, whilst woods 

 and plantations cover 71 sq. m. and orchards 4000 

 acre*. Much attention is paid to live-stock, the 

 cattle exceeding 150,000 and the sheep 430,000. 

 The county, whose council has 68 members, is 

 divided into 14 hundreds and 253 civil parishes. 

 It contains the parliamentary borough of Shrews- 

 bun', the county town, and the municipal lioroughs 

 of Bridgnorth, "Lndlow, Oswestry, and Wenlock. 

 It returns four members for the Oswestry, New- 

 port, Wellington, and Ludlow divisions. Clive 

 was a native; and historic scenes or antiquities, 

 other than those noticed in the articles on the differ- 

 ent towns, are Acton- Bnrnell, Boscobel, Wroxeter, 

 Watling Street, and Offa's Dyke. Pop. (1801) 

 189,248" (1841) 225,820; (1871) 248,111; (1891) 

 236,331). 



See works by C. Hulbert (2 volg. 1837), E. Lloyd 

 (1844), R. W. Eyton (12 vol* 1863-60), J. C. Ander- 

 son (1864), Mrs F. C. Acton (1868), M. E. C. Waloott 

 (1879), Miss O. Jackson (DUlect, 1879-81), nd Miss 

 C. Borne ( Folklore, 188H-K5). 



Shrovetide, 'shriving-time, 1 'absolution-time,' 

 the name given to the days immediately preceding 

 Ash-Wednesday, which, as indeed the whole period 

 after Septuagesiuia Sunday appears to have been, 

 were anciently days of preparation for the peniten- 

 tial time of Lent. In tne modern discipline of the 

 Roman Catholic Church a trace of this is still lire- 

 served, as in many countries the time, of the con- 

 fession, which precedes the paschal or Easter 

 communion, commences from Shrovetide. These 

 days were sometimes called Fasting-tide, Fa>t- 

 mass, Fasten-e'en, or Fastern's-e'en, names still 

 retained in some parts of Great Britain, as t'uxt- 

 nacht is the regular German name. The name 

 of Shrovetide was retained in England after the 

 Reformation, although the practice of shriving 

 was abandoned. The duty of confession having 

 been fulfilled, the faithful, upon the eve of enter- 

 ing u|N>n the Lent, were indulged with permis- 

 sion to give themselves up to amusements and to 

 festive celebrations, of which the counterpart is 

 still seen in the continental carnival. In England 

 the pastimes of football, Book-fighting and throwing 



at cocks, hull-baiting, &c. were long r Ignited 



usages of Shrovetide ; and the festive banquets ol 

 the- day are still represented by the pancakes and 

 fritters from \vhic-li I'ancake Tuesday took its 

 name, and by the 'collops' which gave its title 

 to ('ollo)i Monday. Shrovetide cakes and ale, the 

 last surviving relic of Shrove Tuesday celebrations, 

 were discontinued by Hrasenose College in 1887. 

 The Mnn/i li'nix of 'the French, with ite merry- 

 makings, is Shrove Tuesday. It is a populai 

 festival at New Orleans. 



Shrub. See RUM. For Shrubs, see THEE. 



Sllliekford. SAMI-KI., Hector of All-Hallows 



London (died I Itli.lnlv 1754), is remembered for his 

 Sacrtdand Prophnnenittory (4 vols. 1727),intende( 

 M a continuation of the. work of I'rideaiix (q.v.). 



Sliumla. or SrnrMN.\, a city of Bulgaria. 1>\ 

 rail 56 mill's \V. by N. of Varna and 80 SE. o 

 Kustchuk. <>f exceptional strategic importance, 

 it is defended by strong detache<l forts and a 

 fortitii-d camp, aft of which were to have lieen 

 demolished according to the Berlin treaty, though 

 tile clause stipulating this has not been carried out. 

 Sliumla i a straggling place, and has numerous 

 miMqiit** and elinri-lies, the splendid mausoleum of 

 llv-an Pasha ( 18th century ), an arsenal, numerous 



barracks, and a military hospital. It manufactures 

 dippers, clothing, copper wares, and silks. Pop. 

 1894) 23,520. The fortified works were attacked 

 n vain by the Russians in 1774, in 1810, and in 

 1828, but were abandoned to them in 1878. 



Slmslia, a town of Russian Transcaucasia, 65 

 iiiles SSW. of KlizalH-th|>oj, occupies a strong posi- 

 tion on a mountain, which is accessible only on one 

 side, and is, moreover, defended by a citadel. Pop. 

 (1896) 26,800, who make celebrated carpets and 

 :oarse silk goods, and trade in horses that are held 

 in great repute. 



Sinister, a decayed city of Persia, stands on 

 the Karun, at the point where that river emerges 

 from the hills, 250 miles W. by S. of Ispahan. It 

 is protected by a citadel. It has been identified by 

 some with the ancient eitv of Snsa, but the site of 

 that city is Sus, 40 miles \VN W. of Shuster. Pop. 

 6000. 



Sliute. JOHN. See BABRINOTON. 



Sim, -ill-pan, the Chinese Abacus (q.v.). 



Siall-posli ( ' black -clothed '), a name given by 

 their Moslem neighbours to the pagan Kafirs of 

 Kafiristan (q.v.). 



Sialauotf lies are substances which increase the 

 secretion of saliva. They may do so by stimulating 

 the secretory nerves of the salivary glands reflexly 

 through the sensory nerves of the mouth, stomach, 

 eye, or nose. Thus, sweet or slightly irritating; 

 substances in the mouth provoke a secretion of 

 saliva, while the sight or smell of savoury eatables 

 'makes the teeth water.' These are known as 

 topical sialagogues, and include such substances 

 as mustard, ginger, pellitory-root, dilute acids, i\c. 

 Dilute acids and pellitory-root are the only ones 

 which are much used in medicine to increase the 

 How of saliva and keep the mouth moist ; a small 

 piece of the latter is chewed from time to time. 

 Siahigogues also act after absorption into the blood 

 by a direct stimulating action on the secretory 

 nerves. Jaborandi and mercurial compounds are 

 well-known examples of this class. The former, or 

 its alkaloid, pilocarpine, may cause the secretion of 

 a. pint or more of saliva within a short lime after- 

 administration. This class is known as remote or 

 general sialagogues. 



Sialkot. a town in the Punjab, near the left 

 bank of the Clienab, 72 miles N. by E. of Lahore, is 

 a rapidly growing, clean, and well built town, with 

 large manufactures of paper and a native cloth. 

 There are an old fort, gallantly held by a few 

 Europeans in 1857, but now converted into public 

 ollices, several shrines sacred to the Sikhs and the 

 Mohammedans, the Punjab military prison, a 

 public garden, &c. Pop. (1881) 45,760 :( Iv .M ; 

 ;,:,. 1 1*7, including the cantonment, one mile to the 

 north. The ili.tlrii-l has an area of I!I">.S sq. m. and 

 a pop. of I,'_>:i0,000. 



Si am ( native name, Hfuang Thai, ' the Land of 

 the Free') occupies the central portion of the Indo- 

 china Peninsula.. Its extreme length stretches 

 from 4 in the Malay Peninsula to Chiengsen (20 

 22'N.), on the river Mekhong, or a distance of nearly 

 1100 miles, and the greatest breadth from E. long. 

 98 to 106, or aliout 530 miles. It is Ixmnded on 

 the south 1'V Trench Cambodia, the Gulf of Siam, 

 and the British Malay stall's, anil on the west by 

 Mm ma. The northern frontier was laid down by 

 the Anglo Siamese Boundary Commission ( 1890-91); 

 and in 1893 the treaty of Bangkok (supplemented 

 by the Anglo-French treaty of 1896, which guar- 

 anteed the neutrality of the great central jHirtion 

 of Siam) conceded to France all the territory 

 Let ween the Mekhong and former Aa&MMM 

 frontier north to the Laos country ; M, that the 

 Mekhoug is now the Siameso boundary on the east 



