SUN-BITTERN 



SUNDAY-SCHOOLS 



807 



note. They feed partly on the nectar of flowers, 

 bnt also on small cicadellse, flies, and spiders. 

 Cinnyris is a synonym of Nectarinia. 



Snii-hittoril (Eurypyga helias), so called from 

 the brilliant many-coloured markings on its plum- 

 age, a South American bird about the size of a 

 small curlew, long legged and long necked, which 

 usually struts in a solemn balanced manner, but 

 at times goes through a series of poses somewhat 

 like the Argus (q. v. ). It is found from Brazil 

 northwest into Central America. 



SmilHir}. capital of Northumberland county, 

 Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River (here, a 

 mile l>elow the junction of its branches, crossed by 

 a bridge), 53 miles by rail N. of Harrisburg. It 

 contains foundries, machine-shops, and planing- 

 mills. Pop. (1890)5930. 



Sun-cracks, superficial markings frequently 

 seen on the surfaces of thin bedded flagstones and 

 argillaceous sandstones. They are believed to have 

 been formed in the same way as the fissures which 

 are produced upon the mud-flats of tidal rivers or 

 estuaries by the drying and shrinking of the de- 

 posits during their temporary exposure at low tide. 

 The cracks are of course filled up by new deposits 

 when the mud-flats are again overflowed. Not 

 infrequently the material filling the sun-cracks is 

 of harder consistency than the rock in which they 

 occur. When the bed overlying the cracks is 

 removed a cast of these often projects from its 

 under surface, or frequently the casts remain in 

 the moulds so as to form a series of polygonal 

 riii;,'ra ramifying over the whole surface of the 

 exposed stratum. 



Siinda Islands, a name that bears in geo- 

 graphy two interpretations. ( 1 ) It is applied, but 

 not very correctly, to the long chain of islands 

 which stretches from the Malay Peninsula south-east 

 to the north coast of Australia, beginning with 

 Sumatra and ending with Timor. (2) In the more 



Kroner sense of the term it means the islands that 

 e between the east end of Java and the north side 

 of Timor, namely Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, 

 Sandalwood Island, and some smaller ones. These 

 have l>een already treated of in separate articles, 

 with the exception of Lombok. This island, with 

 an area of 2098 sq. m. and a pop. of 405,000, is 

 traversed by two chains of mountains (highest 

 summit, 11,620 feet), some of which show signs of 

 volcanic activity, and yields rice, maize, cotton, 

 tobacco, sugar, indigo, and coffee ; three-fourths of 

 the people are aborigines (Sassak); all, except 

 20,000 immigrant Balinese (Brahmans), profess 

 Kb m. The Dutch have exercised suzerainty over 

 the native chiefs since 1840. The principal town 

 on the island is Mataram on the west coast. 



Sunda Strait is a passage, from 70 to 90 miles in 

 breadth, lying between Sumatra and Java and 

 connecting the Indian Ocean with the Sunda Sea. 

 Several islands stud its waters, as Krakatoa (q.v.), 

 Princes Island, Steers, and Calmeijer. 



Snndarbans, or SUNDERBUNDS, the lower 

 portion of the delta of the Ganges in British 

 India, extending from the mouth of the Hugh on 

 the west to the mouth of the Meghna on the east, 

 a distance of 165 miles, and stretching inland for 

 half that distance. The total area is estimated at 

 7550 sq. in. The region is entirely alluvial, is inter- 

 sected by a network of anastomosing streams, and 

 contains a vast number of swamps and morasses. 

 Next the sea is a wide belt of dense jungle 

 and underwood, the haunt of the tiger, leopard, 

 rhinoceros, buffalo, wild hog, deer, monkeys, 

 python, cobra, and numerous sea-birds and birds 

 of prey. Behind this belt the land is cultivated, 

 the fields being enclosed with embankments. Rice 

 is the staple crop, though the people also grow 



pulses, vegetables, jute, and sugar-cane. Besides 

 rice the principal products of the region are timber 

 and fish. There are no villages, the population 

 being thin and scattered. The population are 

 counted in the adjoining districts of Bengal, and 

 there is no separate return for the Sundarbans 

 as a whole. Of course the chief highways are the 

 innumerable watercourses, shown in the map at the 

 article CALCUTTA. See Petermann's Mitteilungen, 

 Erganzungsheft ( 1891 ). 



Sunday. See SABBATH. 



Sunday-schools, as we know them in modern 

 times, sprang from the efforts begun in 1780 

 by Robert Raikes (q.v.), a printer in Gloucester. 

 Although systematic and wide-spread attention to 

 the religious training of children is of modern 

 date, still some attention was bestowed upon it 

 in early times. The father acted as teacher and 

 priest towards the children in patriarchal times ; 

 there was provision for the training of children in 

 the knowledge of the law in the Jewish economy. 

 Ezra read and had the law explained 'before the 

 congregation both of men and women and all that 

 could hear with understanding' (Neb. viii.). There 

 were religious schools in connection with the syna- 

 gogues in New Testament times. The Mishna 

 says, at five years of age ' let children begin the 

 Scriptures, at ten the Mishna, and at thirteen let 

 them be subjects of the Law.' In the apostolic 

 age teachers were set over the young and ignorant. 

 Mosheini says ' the Christians took all possible care 

 to accustom their children to the study of the 

 Scriptures, and to instruct them in the doctrines of 

 their holy religion.' Clement of Alexandria and 

 Origen did duty as catechists. The classes of 

 Catechumens (q.v.) were intended for the instruc- 

 tion of candidates for church fellowship ; instruc- 

 tion was given on Sundays just previous to public 

 worship, and the scholars were mostly adults. At 

 the Reformation Luther ( 1529), finding the people 

 fearfully ignorant, opened schools for children for 

 catechising. Knox ( 1560) did the same in Scotland. 

 St Charles Borromeo (q.v.), Archbishop of Milan, 

 founded Sunday-schools in his diocese, which still 

 exist, but these were chiefly secular. Sunday- 

 schools are noticed in an ordinance of Albert and 

 Isabel in 1608 as then existing in theCatholicNether- 

 lands. The magistrates were enjoined to see to their 

 establishment and support in all places where not 

 already set afoot. Both Richard Baxter and the 

 Rev. Joseph Alleine (1634-68) were in the habit of 

 gathering young people together for instruction ; and 

 there were many irregular and isolated attempts in 

 the same direction in different parts of Britain. 

 But it was Raikes who founded and consolidated 

 the modern Sunday-school system and gave the 

 subject publicity through his journal and other 

 organs of public opinion. There is no doubt that 

 his philanthropic work in Gloucester gaols had 

 impressed him with the direct connection between 

 ignorance and crime. One day, in 1780, he had 

 gone to hire a gardener in a low suburb of the 

 town near the Severn, where the people were 

 mostly employed in a pin-factory. He was grieved 

 at seeing the groups of wretched ragged children 

 at play in the streets, and on inquiry was 

 informed that on Sunday 'the street was filled 

 with a multitude of wretches, who, having no 

 employment on that day, spent their time in 

 noise and riot, playing at chuck, and cursing 

 and swearing in a manner so horrid as to convey 

 to a serious mind an idea of hell rather than 

 any other place.' To check this deplorable pro- 

 fanation of the Lord's Day he engaged four 

 women, who kept dame-schools, to instruct as 

 many children as he should send them on the 

 Sunday in reading and the church catechism, for 



