110 



SCALPING SCANDINAVIA. 



little inferior to his father, whose tule respecting 

 the origin of his family he endeavoured to confirm. 

 He was also remarkable for his asperity and con- 

 temptuous tone towards his adversaries. He boasted 

 that he knew thirteen languages; and he was so 

 entirely immersed in his studies, that he would pass 

 whole days in his chamber without eating. Of his 

 numerous works, the treatise De Emendatione Tem- 

 porum (Paris, 1583 ; Geneva, 1609) is one of the 

 most important. In this learned work, he gave the 

 first complete and scientific chronological system, and 

 for these labours, and his discovery of the Julian pe- 

 riod, deserves to be called the founder of this science. 

 Many errors which were exposed by Petavius and 

 others, he corrected in the Thesaurus Temporum, 

 complectens Eusebii Pamphili Chronicon (Amster- 

 dam, 1658). His annotations to Theocritus, Non- 

 nus, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Seneca (trage- 

 dies), Varro, Ausonius, Festus, are characterised by 

 an excessive subtilty, and too great freedom in re- 

 gard to the text of the authors. His Poemata have 

 little poetical merit ; his Epistolce are more valuable. 

 On the whole, Joseph Scaliger had less genius than 

 his father, but more learning and accuracy. 



SCALPING; a barbarous custom, among In- 

 dian warriors, of taking off their enemies' scalps 

 with the hair on. These are preserved as trophies 

 of victory. 



SCAMANDER ; a small stream in Asia Minor, 

 which has acquired celebrity from the songs of Ho- 

 mer, according to whom it was called by the gods, 

 Xanthus. It runs through the plains of Troy, and 

 receives the Simois, another small stream mentioned 

 by Homer. The Homeric account, that one of its 

 sources was warm and the other cold, has been con- 

 firmed by modern travellers. 



SCAMMONY is the inspissated juice of the root 

 of a species of convolvulus (C. scammonia), which 

 grows wild in Syria, and other parts of the Levant. 

 This juice is obtained, in the latter part of the 

 spring, by making incisions in the upper part of 

 the root, and placing shells or cups to receive the 

 milky fluid which exudes ; twice a day the portion 

 furnished by each root is collected and dried in the 

 sun. The purest scammony is procured in this 

 manner, but such is rarely exported. The scam- 

 mony of commerce is merely the expressed juice of 

 the entire roots, sometimes even mixed with that 

 of the stems and leaves, and evaporated to the con- 

 sistence of a solid extract. It is of two kinds the 

 Aleppo, which is the best, and the Smyrna, which 

 is inferior ; both collected respectively in the vici- 

 nity of those two cities. Scammony has been 

 known from a very ancient period ; it is mentioned 

 by Hippocrates, and many peculiar virtues were 

 attributed to it at that time ; now it is considered 

 only as an active purgative, and as such is still much 

 in use. The dose varies from two to twelve grains, 

 according to age, sex, or temperament. The root 

 of the plant is thick, fleshy and tapering, three or 

 four feet in length, by three or four inches in dia- 

 meter ; it gives out one or several slender climbing 

 stemg, provided with triangular, arrow-shaped leaves; 

 the flowers are large, white, or slightly purplish, dis- 

 posed, two or three together, upon a common axil- 

 lary peduncle. Jalap is also the root of a species of 

 convolvulus. See Jalap. 



SCANDALUM MAGNATUM, in English law, 

 denotes a wrong done to high personages of the 

 land, as prelates, dukes, marquisses, earls, barons, 

 and other nobles ; and also the chancellor, treasurer, 

 clerk of the privy seal, steward of the house, jus- 



tice of one bench or other, and other great officers 

 of the realm, by false news, or false messages, 

 whereby debates and discord between them and the 

 commons, or any scandal to their persons, might 

 arise. For slanders of this kind, though such as 

 would not be actionable in the case of common per- 

 sons, redress is provided by many old statute-. 



SCANDERBEG (i. e. Alexander Bey), prince of 

 Albania, whose proper name was George Castriotto, 

 son of John, prince of that country, was horn in 

 1404. Being given by his father as a hostage to 

 sultan Amurath II., he was educated in the Mo- 

 hammedan religion, and at the age of eighteen, was 

 placed at the head of a body of troops, with the 

 title of sangiac. After the death of his father, in 

 1432, he formed the design of possessing himself ot 

 his principality ; and, having accompanied the Tur- 

 kish army to Hungary, entered into an agreement 

 with Hunniades to desert to the Christians. This 

 design he put into execution ; and having ascended 

 the throne of his fathers, he renounced the Moham- 

 medan religion. A long warfare followed; but, 

 although frequently obliged to retire to the fast- 

 nesses of mountains, he always renewed his assaults 

 upon the first favourable occasion, until the sultan 

 proposed terms of peace to him, which were accep- 

 ted. The Venetians having entered into a war with 

 Mohammed II., induced Scanderbeg to renounce 

 his treaty with the sultan. He obtained repeated 

 victories over the Turkish generals, and saved his 

 own capital, although invested by an army com- 

 manded by Mohammed himself. He was at length 

 carried off by sickness, at Lissa, in the Venetian 

 territories, in 1467, in his sixty-third year. His 

 death was soon followed by the submission of Alba- 

 nia to the Turkish dominion. When the Turks 

 took Lissa, they dug up his bones, of which they 

 formed amulets, to transfer his courage to them- 

 selves. 



SCANDINAVIA ; the ancient name of the re- 

 gion now comprehending the three northern king- 

 doms, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The inha- 

 bitants were known to the ancient nations of the 

 south of Europe only by vague rumour. Tacitus 

 mentions the Suiones (Swedes) as a naval people. 

 Pliny notices a peninsula called Nerigon (Norway, 

 in Swedish, Norige, Danish, Norge). Many sup- 

 pose Iceland to be the Thule of the classic writers. 

 The name Danus is first found in Gregory of Tours, 

 in the sixth century of the Christian era. Sweden, 

 Norway, Denmark, and Jutland were inhabited, in 

 the earliest times, by people of the Teutonic 

 stock, and nomads of Finish descent. According to 

 Rask, Magnussen, Miinter, and others, the Scandi- 

 navians and the people of south Germany have a 

 common origin with the Indian, Persian, and Pelas- 

 gian tribes. B. C. 100, the natives of Jutland and 

 Sleswick became formidable to the Romans, under 

 the name of Cimbri. About A. D. 250, commence 

 the fabulous accounts of Odin, Othin, or Woden. 

 Till the middle of the ninth century Scandinavia 

 was little known ; but the bold expeditions of the 

 natives into the southern and western parts of Eu- 

 rope, and the diffusion of Christianity among them 

 about the year 1000, shed light on this region. At 

 this period the inhabitants of Scandinavia were di- 

 vided into hordes, like the Tartars. In the ninth 

 and tenth centuries, these tribes enjoyed a golden 

 age of piracy. By the western historians, they were 

 spoken of under the title of Danes and Normans; in 

 the English annals of that period, under the name 

 of Easterlings ; the Russians called them Varan- 



