SIROCCO. 



SIVA. 



590 



The greatest heats of summer generally follow the summer solstice, 

 and in the Mediterranean latitudes, and in ancient times, it was 

 observed that the unhealthy and oppressive period coincided with the 

 heliacal rising of the dog-star. We say the dog-star, without specifying 

 whether it waa Sirius or Procyon ; it is uncertain which it was, and 

 may have been both, for the heliacal risings do not differ by many 

 days. All antiquity attributed an evil influence to the star ; and 

 though Geminus among the ancients, and Petavius among the moderns, 

 thought that the effects were to be attributed to the sun alone, they 

 had hardly any followers until the fall of judicial astrology. Even at 

 this day, when the heats of the latter part of the summer are excessive, 

 we are gravely told that we are in the dog-days ; and most of the 

 almanacs, in which an absurdity has the lives of a cat, persist to this 

 very year in informing us that the dog-days begin on the 3rd of July, 

 and end on the 1 1 th of August. Now as the heliacal rising of Siring 

 takes place about the very end of this period, it is clear that the cart 

 has got before the horse, or the mischief before the dog. Moreover, it 

 is notorious that in our island the oppressive heats of the summer, 

 during which dogs are apt to run mad (which is what many people 

 think the name arises from, as indeed it was anciently recorded among 

 the effects of the star), generally fall about the middle or end of 

 August. The real classical dog-daya are the twenty days preceding 

 and the twenty days following the heliacal rising of whichever star it 

 wan, Sinus or Procyon. It is perfectly useless to retain this period : 

 surely these dogs have had their day. 



SIROCCO is the name given to a hot and suffocating wind which 

 appears to originate with the rarefied air in the sandy deserts of 

 Arabia, about the season that the overflowing of the Nile commences ; 

 it extends eastward over Arabia, Persia, and some parts of Hindustan, 

 and it is felt, but with less inconvenience, in Italy and Spain. This 

 wind is probably only one of the modifications of that which, in 

 different countries, is called tamoom, timoom,amm or tamieli, khamein, 

 and harmaltart. [SAHIELI.] 



>00( Daibtryia Siaoo), a tree well known throughout the Bengal 

 presidency, and highly valued on account of its timber. It is common 

 chiefly in the forest* and beds of rivers which extend all along 

 the foot of the Himalayas up to 30 N. lat. The trunk is generally 

 more or less crooked, lofty, and often from three to four feet in 

 diameter. The Sissoo yields the Bengal shipbuilders their crooked 

 timbers and knees. Dr. Roxburgh describes it as being tolerably light, 

 remarkably strong, but not so durable as could be wished ; the colour 

 is light grayish-brown, with dark veins : he says that upon the whole 

 he scarcely knows any other tree more deserving of attention, from its 

 rapid growth in almost every soil, its beauty, and uses. Captain 

 Baker, in his ' Experiments on the Elasticity and Strength of Indian 

 Timbers,' describes the Sissoo in structure somewhat resembling the 

 finer species of teak, but as being tougher and more elastic, and as 

 employed by the natives for house furniture, beams, cheeks, spokes, 

 naves and felloes of wheels, keels and frames of boat*, blocks, and 

 printing-presses. It is universally employed both by Europeans and 

 natives of the north-west provinces where strength is required. X 

 Itatteryia Oiiijrim n*i, found in central India, is also highly valued for 

 timber : the pillars of Sindia's palace at Ougein are made of it 



8I8TRUM, a musical instrument of percussion, of great antiquity, 

 constructed of brass, and shaped like the frame and handle of a racket, 

 the head part of which had three, and sometimes four, horizontal ban 

 placed loosely on it, which were tuned, most probably, by some Male, 

 and allowed to play freely, so that when the instrument was shaken, 

 piercing, ringing sounds must have beeu produced. Some writers 

 have confounded the sistmm with the cymbals, though the instru- 

 ments could have had nothing in common except their harsh metallic 

 sound*. 



SIVA, the personification of the destroying principle, forms, with 

 . other gods, Brahma and Vishnu, the Trunurti, or triad, of the 

 Hindus; and although, in allusion to his office as destroyer,', he is 

 classed third, yet he is generally allowed to occupy the second place 

 among the Hindu deities, or even (according to some) the first, as his 

 iuicy appear* tn havr obtained more general assent than that 

 of Vishnu. Indeed the worship of Siva is so predominant, that Brahma, 

 who is the only one of the three mentioned by Manu, and who seems 

 to have enjoyed a larger share of adoration in ancient times, has now 

 only une temple in India, while Mahadeva (a name of Siva) and the 

 adventurous Vishnu, whose incantations attract so much of the vene- 

 ration of the Hindus, are, in fact, the only goda of the whole Hindu 

 pantheon who have numerous worshippers. The present popular form 

 i worship in all probability assumed its actual state before the 

 great Saiva reformer, Sankara Acharya, who lived in the eighth or 

 ninth century. (' Vishnu Purana,' pref., p. x.) This opinion is sup- 

 ported by the well-founded assertion that the Saiva faith was insti- 

 tuted by I'aramata Kalanala, who is described in the ' Sankara Vijaya ' 

 of Ananda Uiri as teaching at Benares, and assuming the insignia that 

 characterise the Uandia, a sect of Saivas of modern times. (' As. Res.,' 

 xvi. 'J'J.) No allusion is made in the Puranas to the original power of 

 this god as destroyer ; that power not being called into exercise till 

 after the expiration of twelve millions of years, when, according to 

 I'uranic accounts, the Kaliyiiga will come to a close together with the 

 universe ; and Mahadeva is rather the representative of regeneration 

 than of destruction. The linga is the only form under which Siva u 



now adored in most parts of India. According to Professor Wilson 

 (' Vishnu Purana,' xliv.), " There is nothing like the phallic orgies of 

 antiquity; it is all mystical and spiritual." The linga is twofold, 

 external and internal. The ignorant, who need a visible sign, worship 

 Siva through " a mark " or " type," which is the proper meaning of the 

 word " linga," of wood or stone ; but the wise look upon this outward 

 emblem as nothing, and contemplate in their minds the invisible inscru- 

 table type, which is Siva himself. But his other forms are many, and 

 they vary in so far as they attribute to him the qualities of creator, 

 preserver, destroyer, and regenerator, and represent him in his various 

 amldras (incarnations), eight of which are called by the common 

 name of Bhairava, all alluding to terrific properties of mind or body. 

 He is sometimes seen with two hands, at others with four, eight, or 

 ten, and with five faces ; he has a third eye in his forehead, the corners 

 of which are perpendicular, which is peculiar to him ; a crescent in his 

 hair, or on his forehead, encircling the third eye ; he wears ear-rings of 

 snakes, and a collar of skulls. Mahadeva, when represented thus, but 

 with one head, has four hands, in 'one of which he holds a pasa, the 

 use of which is to extract the souls out of the bodies of men, when 

 their time is come, and is a common attribute of Yama, the god of 

 death (' S. Savitryupakhyana,' ed. Bopp.), a tris'ula is upheld by the 

 other, and the two other hands are in a position of benediction. As 

 Bhairava (the lord of dread) he is frightful to behold; great tusks 

 burst through his thick lips ; the hair, which is stiff and erect, gives 

 Ilia face a dreadful aspect ; the fall of the necklace is impeded by 

 numerous snakes which twine round his body. This is also the idol 

 which shows him as Maha-kala, or god of time. It is in this character 

 that he is supposed to delight in bloody sacrifices, and that the Saiva 

 Sannyasis (followers of Siva who practice the yoga to the highest 

 degree) inflict on themselves the cruelties which have rendered so con- 

 spicuous the temple of Jaggernaut (Jagannatha, the lord of the world). 

 [YoGA.] A very minute account of the fortitude and self-denial of 

 the deluded Yogis is given in Ward's ' View of the Religion of the 

 Hindus." His consort Sakti, who in her corresponding character is 

 celebrated as the goddess Durga or Kali, participates in these horrible 

 sacrifices, and has of late years become more notorious by the exposure 

 of the homicidal practices of the Thugs, who recognise in her their 

 tutelary divinity. Siva is also the god of justice. In that character 

 he rides a white bull, the symbol of divine justice (Manu, viii. 16), and 

 is often seen with the paratlui (battle-axe) in his hand, and the sacred 

 string. On pictures he is often represented as if rubbed over with 

 ashes, and with a blue neck ; the epithet of Nilakauta (blue-necked) 

 was given to him in commemoration of his having drunk the poison 

 which arose from the sea, and threatened to destroy mankind. But 

 the character in which he is more generally known, and which his 

 followers imitate, is that of the Kapala-bhrit (skull-bearer). Skanda- 

 Purona makes him describe himself in the following words : " Parvatl 

 (his bride) must be foolish to practise so severe a penance in order to 

 obtain me, Rudra (one of his 1000 names), a wandering mendicant, a 

 bearer of a human skull, a delighter in cemeteries, one ornamented 

 with bones and serpents, covered with ashes and with no garments but 

 an elephant's skin, riding on a bull, and accompanied by ghosts and 

 goblins." Now this, except that the unearthly beings who follow him 

 are represented by a crowd of dirty people, is exactly the description 

 of a Saiva digambara (sky-clad, that is, naked a kind of religious 

 mendicants), if, instead of the god's third eye, we add a round dot on 

 the nose, made of clay or cow-dung, and a mark on the forehead, com- 

 posed of three curved lines, instead of the Chandra (half moon) which 

 Rudra obtained at the churning of the ocean. 



To continue the account of his adventures : Siva marries Parvatl, 

 and lives with her in the midst of the eternal snows of Mount Kailasa. 

 His heaven is however one of the most splendid in Hindu mythology, 

 and a description of it may be found in Ward's ' View ; ' it is a 

 translation from the Kritya Tatwa. There also are his two sons ; 

 Qanesa, the leader of the heavenly choristers, and, as Vigneswara, the 

 god of difficulties, whose head is that of an elephant ; and Kartikeya, 

 the six-faced god of war. It is there that he was thus addressed by 

 Brahma and the other gods : " I know that thou, <) Lord, art the 

 eternal Brahni, that seed which, being received in the womb of thy 

 Sakti (aptitude to conceive), produced this universe ; that thou, united 

 with thy Sakti, dost in sport; create the universe from thy own 

 substance, like the web from the spider." Here it was that he 

 reduced to ashes the " flowery-bowed mind-bewitcher " Kama (the god 

 of love), pierced by whose arrows he had neglected to avenge the 

 wrong done to him and his consort by his father-in-law Daksha. On 

 the top of KaUasa it is that the worshippers of Siva will be admitted 

 to the sports of the inhabitants, where Mahadeva invented for the 

 amusement of his bride the heavenly dance, to which his faithful 

 attendant Nandi plays the musical accompaniment. There lie before 

 the door his vehicle, the white bull, and the tiger on which his consort 

 rides. Though wanting all the splendours of the Swarga (Indra's 

 heaven), the abode of Siva, when drawn in the glowing colours of the 

 East, is no less gratifying. From thence he is supposed to bless his 

 worshippers, " when, with Pdrvatl on his knees, he, the lord of the 

 world, on whose brow shines the moon throwing its beams over the 

 mountain of the north, deigns to allow the Suras and Asuras (gods and 

 daemons) to wear for their frontal ornament the reflection of the 

 radiance of the nails of his feet, and the Qanga, rushing from the top 



