480 



SISTINE CHAPEL 



SIVAS 



Warminster, formed to train women for foreign 

 missionary work. The sisters have a cottage 

 hospital and ladies' school, and a school at Murree 

 in the Punjab. 



The first Protestant sisterhood in America was 

 organised in 1852 by the Rev. W. A. Muhlenberg, 

 rector of the church of the Holy Communion, 

 New York, and author of the hymn ' I would not 

 live alway.' The sisters took charge of St Luke's 

 Hospital, which he founded in 1850. 



Of most of the Anglican sisterhoods an accurate 

 lift will be found yearly in the Kaltmiar of the Englitk 

 Church (Burleigh Street, Strand). St Margaret* Maya- 

 tine (Skeffington & -Son), published every January and 

 July, gives an account of the increasing works of the 

 East Urinstead Sisterhood ; and a monthly record is given 

 by the ' Sisters of the Church ' in Our Work ( 3 Pater- 

 noster Row ). From the Catholic Director ;i information 

 can !* obtained as to Roman Catholic muter-hoods ; and 

 see Mrs Abel Ram, The Little Sittrrt of the Poor ( 1894 ). 

 For Protestant deaconesses, see DEACON. 



Sistine Chapel. See ROME, p. 785. 



Sis' to vn. a town of Bulgaria, on the south bank 

 of the Danube, about 35 miles above Rustchuk. 

 It carries on tanning, cotton-weaving, and wine- 

 growing, and does a large trade in cereals. Here 

 j>eace l>etween Austria and Turkey was concluded 

 in 1791 ; the Russians burned the place in 1810, 

 and crossed the Danul>e into Bulgaria close by in 

 1877. Pop. (1887) 12,482 ; (1895) 13,500. 



Sistrum. See EGYPT, Vol. IV. p. 237. 



Sisyphus, in Greek Mythology, son of .K.olus, 

 father of Glaucus, and iiusband of the Pleiad 

 Merope; only in post- Homeric legends, from his 

 cunning, the father of OiKs-ru-. He is said to 

 have been founder and king of Ephyra, afterwards 

 Corinth, and both he ana his whole house were 

 notorious for their wickedness. Homer does not 

 give the reason for his punishment in the lower 

 world, hut some later accounts make it his dig- 

 closure to the river-god Asopus that it was Zeus 

 who had carried off his daughter; others, his whole- 

 sale robbery and murder of travellers. He was 

 condemned to roll an immense stone from the 

 bottom to the summit of a hill, which, whenever 

 it reached the top, rolled down again, and so the 

 task of Sisyphus had to be begun anew. 



Si laiMir. a municipality with 21,380 inhabitants 

 in Oudn, 52 miles N\V. of Lucknow. The place 

 has a cantonment, ami is the headquarters of a 

 district, and gives name also to the north-western 

 division of Oiulb. 



SilUii. the capital of Alaska, is on the west 

 coast of Baranof Island, a deep harbour dotted 

 with islands in front, and snow-clad mountains 

 rising behind. Its principal buildings are the Greek 



church nnd the old llu iaii palace, now a store- 

 house. The climate, though not severe, is cold ; 

 oat* cannot ripen here. Tint rainfall has reached 

 IO.YI1J i nrlii". |icr year, in all a \erage of srven years; 

 and 100 fair (lays mean an exceptionally fine year. 

 l'"|- (1890) 1188, mainly Indians. 



Bitten. SeeSiox. 



Sillin^ln. nriic. a brick-making market-town 

 of Kent, on Milton Creek, 11 miles ESE. of 

 Chatham and 4,> of London. In olden days it was 

 a great halting place for Canterbury pilgrims and 

 for kings and others on their way to the Continent. 

 Top. I IS.-,1)2H!I7; (1891)8302. 



Sitting-Bull (1837-90). See Sioux. 



Siva ( a Sanskrit word, literally meaning ' happy,' 

 'auspicious') in the name of the third god of the 

 Hindu Tiinnirti (q.v. ) or triad, in which he repre- 

 sents the characters lioth of Destroyer and Repro- 

 ducer. The name Siva, as that of a deity, is un- 

 known in the V'edic hymns, but established as mich 



in tlie epic poems, Puranaa and Taut ran. The 

 Saivtu, or worshippers of Siva, assign to him the 

 liret place in the Trimurti ; and to them he is not 

 only the chief deity, but the deity which comprises 

 in itxelf all other deities. Thus, in the Siva 1'iirana, 

 he is addressed as Brahma, Vishnu, India, Varnna, 

 as the sun and the moon, as earth, fire, water, \\ ind, 

 v\'-. ; but even in the Puranas relating to Vishnu 

 his power is exalted in praise, and he is addressed 

 with the utmost awe. The Minimi of Siva >H the 

 Linga (cj.v.), emblematic of creation, which follows 

 destruction. From each of his numerous attributes 

 or characteristics he derives a name or epithet. He 

 has five heads (hence his name Panr/mntum, 'the 

 live faced') ; three eyes (hence bin name, 'J'ruii-lrn, 

 &c., 'the three-eyed ), one of which is on his fore- 

 head, and indicates his power of contemplation ; 

 and in the middle of his forehead he wears a 

 crescent. His hair is elm ted together, and brought 

 over the head so as to project like a born from the 

 forehead. On his head he carries the Ganges, 

 whose course he intercepted by his hair, when this 

 river descended from heaven, so as to enable the 

 earth to bear its fall. Round his neck he carries 

 a garland of human skulls. In his hands he 

 holds the trident, a club or pole, armed at the 

 upper end with transverse pieces, representing the 

 breastbone and ribs adjoining, and surmounted by 

 a skull and one or two human heads. Siva is 

 doubtless a combination of an Aryan god and a 

 non-Aryan deity his wild and terrible attributes 

 being doubtless derived from the pre-Aryan indi- 

 genous belief. Among his weapons are a bow, a 

 thunderbolt, and an axe. As the destroyer of the 

 world, he is also called Kiila ( ' Time' or Death '), 

 and represented as of black colour. One of his 

 representations is also half-male and half-female, 

 emblematic of the indissoluble unity of the creative 

 principle. He is clothed in a deer-skin ; or he also 

 holds a deer in one of his hands ; or he site on 

 a tiger-skin, or is clot bed in it. When he rides, the 

 hull Nandi is his beast of burden, whom he also 

 carries as an emblem in his banner. He resides on 

 the wonderful mount Kailrisa, the northern peak 

 of the Himalaya, where he also rules over the nm i h- 

 eost quarter. His principal wife is variously called 

 Devi, Durgii, I 'ma. and Kali, and is the great 

 goddess of modern worship. One of his chief 

 attendants is Tandn, who is one of the original 

 teachers of the arts of dancing and mimicry, whence 

 Siva is the patron of dancers. Besides Tandn, a 

 host of other attendant* and companions, together 

 with demons and other livings, surrounding him, 

 are named by the Purdnas. Amongst the prin- 

 cipal achievement* of this god is his conflict with 

 the god Brahma, who was originally possessed of 

 live heads, but lost one through exciting the anger 

 of Siva by disresj>ectfully addressing him. Siva is 

 especially worshipped under the synilml of the 

 Linga ; but there are periods at which homage is 

 paid to him also under other forms, corresponding 

 with the description given above. Siva and Vishnu 

 are nowadays in their male and female forms prac- 

 tically the gods of the Hindu population. Like 

 Vi-dinti, Siva has a thousand names by which he 

 is addressed ; some derived from his exterior attri- 

 butes have been mentioned before ; among the 

 others the principal are Isa or Iswara ('lord'); 

 Mahesa or Maheswara ('the great lord'); Siin- 

 kara ('the conferrer of happiness'); Rndra('the 

 terrible'), or Maharudia ('the very terrible'); 

 and Mahadeva ( ' the great god '). See INDIA, Vol. 

 VI. p. 106. 



Sivajl (1627-80), the founder of the Mahratta 

 power in India. See MAHRATTAS. 



SU as. a city of Asiatic Turkey, is situated on 

 the Kiy.il Irmak (anc. Uttl'jn), 170 miles S\V. of 



