70 



SAFE-CONDUCT SAGO PALM. 



children mid good morals;" and, lastly, "on the art 

 of associating with men:" 3. a work in verse, 

 railed Boston (the Orchard), containing a collec- 

 tion of histories, fables and moral instructions; 4. I 

 and, lastly, a collect ion of moral sentences, also in 

 verse, under the title of Pendnahmeh, or Molamaat. 

 The complete works of Sudi have been published 

 in Persian at Calcutta, in two large quarto volumes. 

 Gentius has also published Gulistan, the finest of 

 his poems, in Persian and Latin; and Dumoulin 

 the same poem hi Persian and English (Calcutta, 

 1823). Doctor Bernard Dorn has translated Three 

 Pleasure- Walks from Saadi's Garden of Roses 

 (Hamburg, 1827). The Pendnahmeh has been 

 published separately in the East Indies and Eng- 

 land, in the Persian and English languages. There 

 are also translations of many of his lyric poems, by 

 Ouseley and others ; and the Bostan and Gulistan 

 have been translated into a variety of languages. 

 (See Persian Literature.^ Franklin and Morier, in 

 their travels, have described his monument, which 

 is situated about nine miles to the north-east of 

 Shiraz. 



SAFE-CONDUCT; a security granted by the 

 sovereign authority, or persons delegated by it, to 

 strangers, or other persons, to enable them to re- 

 pair to, and return from a certain place undisturbed. 

 In most of these cases, passports have now taken 

 the place of special safe-conducts. Sometimes the 

 safe-conduct is given to persons accused, to secure 

 them against harm, when summoned to an exami- 

 nation. Thus the emperor Sigismund gave a safe- 

 conduct to Huss, when he was cited to appear 

 before the council at Constance (in this case, how- 

 ever, the safe-conduct was violated, and Huss was 

 burnt, because the clergy persuaded the emperor 

 that he need not keep his word towards a heretic) ; 

 and Charles V. gave a safe-conduct to Luther, to 

 induce him to appear at Worms. Judges some- 

 times give safe-conducts to delinquents, to enable 

 them to act in their affairs. In Germany, a safe- 

 ronduct is sometimes granted, to give a person ac- 

 cused an opportunity to defend himself without 

 experiencing the usual disadvantages of a prosecu- 

 tion; and a safe-conduct is granted in criminal 

 cases, ''until something penal is proved against the 

 accused ;" e. g. If the accused thinks he can make 

 out an alibi, or that the act with which he is 

 charged is not punishable, &c. 



SAFETY-LAMP. See Damps. 



SAFFRON. The true saffron (crocus sativus~) 

 is a low, ornamental plant, with grass-like leaves, 

 and large lily-shaped flowers, inhabiting the Euro- 

 pean continent, and frequently cultivated for the 

 sake of the yellow stigmas, which were formerly 

 much employed in medicine, domestic economy, 

 and the arts; now they are used by painters and 

 dyers; also in cookery and confectionary. The 

 bulbs are planted in rows six inches apart, and 

 three from bulb to bulb, in a well pulverized soil, 

 not poor, nor a very stiff clay, and in the month of 

 July. The flowers are collected in September, 

 and the yellow stigmas, and part of the style, are 

 picked out and dried on a kiln, between layers of 

 paper, and under the pressure of a thick board, to 

 form the mass into cakes. Two pounds of dried 

 cake is the average crop of an acre, after the first 

 planting, and twenty-four pounds for the two next 

 years. After the third crop, the roots are taken 

 up, divided, and transplanted. Other species of 

 crocus are often cultivated in gardens, on account 

 of the brilliancy of their flowers, and the early 



season at which they flower. The term saffron is 

 often applied to the carthamus tinctorius, a large 

 thistle-like plant, with orange-coloured flowers, 

 belonging to the family composite. The root is 

 perennial, but the stem herbaceous. It is said to 

 have been originally brought from the East, but is 

 now naturalized in many parts of Europe, and is, 

 besides, extensively cultivated. The flowers are 

 used by the Chinese, to communicate some of the 

 fine rose, scarlet, purple, and violet colours to their 

 silks ; for this purpose the flowers are thrown into 

 an infusion of some alkali, and left to macerate; 

 the colours are afterwards drawn out by the addi- 

 tion of lemon juice in various proportions, or of 

 any other vegetable acid. Great quantities of these 

 flowers are annually imported into Britain, for 

 dyeing and painting. In Spain, they are used to 

 colour soups, olives, and other dishes. The Jews 

 in Poland are remarkably fond of it, and mix it 

 with their bread and most of their viands. In 

 Germany, it is cultivated in a light soil, well 

 pulverized, and is sown in rows about eighteen 

 inches apart, and afterwards thinned, so as to leave 

 three or four inches between the plants. In Sep- 

 tember the plants begin to flower, and the field is 

 then gone over once a week for six or seven weeks, 

 to gather the expanded florets, which are dried in 

 a kiln, in the same manner as true saffron. The 

 carthamus is sometimes used for culinary purposes, 

 under the impression that it is the true saffron, but, 

 if in too great quantities, communicates a purgative 

 quality. 



SAGA. See Scandinavian Literature. 



SAGAMORE. See Sachem. 



SAGE (salvia~). This genus differs from the 

 majority of labiate plants in having but two 

 stamens, instead of four. More than two hundred 

 species are known, which are herbaceous or shrubby, 

 with opposite leaves, and flowers also opposite, or, 

 more frequently, verticillate, forming spikes at the 

 extremities of the stems and branches. The garden 

 sage (S. officinalis} was formerly in great repute as 

 a sudorific, aromatic, astringent, and antiseptic. It 

 possesses stimulant properties in a high degree, is 

 tonic and stomachic; the odour is strong, aromatic, 

 and agreeable ; the taste bitter, pungent, and some- 

 what resembling camphor, which substance, indeed, 

 is contained in the plant. The leaves are often 

 employed in seasoning dishes, especially in the 

 south of Europe. The Chinese esteem this plant 

 very highly, and use it as a tonic for strengthening 

 the stomach, often giving it the preference to their 

 own tea. 



SAGHALIEN; a large island, or peninsula, on 

 the eastern coast of Asia; Ion. 142 to 145 east; 

 lat. 45 to 54 north. The northern part belongs 

 to the Chinese, the southern to the Japanese em 

 pire. It is uncertain whether it is connected with 

 the continent by a low and narrow neck of land, or 

 is entirely separated from it. It is inhabited by a 

 few barbarous tribes. 



SAGO PALM (sagus Eumphii) ; a low species 

 of palm, found wild in the East Indies. The trunk 

 is upright, and is crowned at the summit with a 

 tuft of pinnated leaves, composed of very numerous, 

 long, narrow, pointed, smooth leaflets. The fruit 

 is about as large as a pullet's egg, covered with 

 shining scales, and is edible. The trunk contains 

 a farinaceous pith, which is a very wholesome 

 aliment : sago is made from it, as from that of most 

 other palms. For this purpose, the pith is taken 

 out, bruised in a mortar, and put into a cloth or 



