SIRIUS SIXTUS. 



275 



which others attribute to the nine Muses. There 

 is likewise a story of their trial of skill in singing, 

 with the Muses. The latter were victorious, and, 

 plucking the feathers from the wings of the Sirens, 

 made garlands of them. According to Hyginus, 

 the Sirens received these wings from Ceres, after 

 the rape of Proserpine, because, although in her 

 train, they had not rendered her assistance. 



SIRIUS (dogstar) ; the most brilliant of the fixed 

 stars, and the largest in the constellation of the 

 Great Dog. See Constellations, and Dogdays. 



SIROCCO ; a hot, relaxing and oppressive south- 

 east wind, which blows in Sicily and Italy. Some 

 have supposed it to be the same as the simoom, 

 tempered by its passage across the water. 



SISTINE CHAPEL (Cappella Sistina); a 

 chapel in the Vatican, so called from pope Sixtus 

 IV., who erected it, and'destined it for the religious 

 services performed during Passion Week, for which 

 it is still chiefly used. Its dimensions are very 

 large. The whole wall behind the altar is covered 

 by Michael Angelo's picture of the last judgment 

 a great poem in itself. On the vaulted ceiling, 

 the same master has painted the creation of the 

 world, and around it prophets and sibyls. The 

 other walls contain, in twelve compartments, the 

 productions of Signorelli, Filippi, Perugino, Ro- 

 selli, &c., which relieve the mind, tasked by the 

 gigantic and overpowering conceptions of the im- 

 mortal Angelo. Words are inadequate to describe 

 the effect of the celebration of the passion of the 

 Saviour by the pope and cardinals in this chapel 

 during Passion Week, when grand and appropriate 

 ceremonies, aided by incomparable music, combine 

 with the noblest productions of the pencil, to pro- 

 duce the highest effect of Catholic worship. 



SISTRA. See Indian Literature. 



SISTRUM; a musical instrument of the ancients. 

 The Egyptians used it in the worship of Isis, and 

 it is still found in Egypt and Abyssinia. It con- 

 sists of an oval hoop of metal with a handle. 

 Through this hoop are bored holes, in which are 

 metal bars, which, on agitating or beating the 

 instrument, produce the sound. The finer the 

 metal, and the more perfect the proportion of the 

 holes, the more agreeable is the tone of the instru- 

 ment. The German guitar has also been called 

 sistrum. 



SISYPHUS ; king of Corinth (which, according 

 to some, he built), and son of ^Eolus and Enarete. 

 He married Merope, the daughter of Atlas. The 

 Attic poets relate many instances of his art. The- 

 seus, whose dominions he disturbed, slew him. 

 Some impute his death to Jupiter, in revenge for 

 his having informed JEsopus of the rape of his 

 daughter. He is said to have put Death in fet- 

 ters, so that, for some time no one died. He after- 

 wards overreached Pluto, by getting leave to visit 

 the upper regions, whence he did not return till he 

 had lived out the natural term of his life. In con- 

 sequence of this, he was obliged to roll a heavy 

 stone to the top of a hill in the infernal regions. 

 The stone no sooner reached the summit than it fell 

 back, thus rendering his punishment eternal. 



SIWAH; one of the oases in the desert of Libya, 

 to the west of Egypt, interesting from the ruins 

 which it contains. It lies in lat. 29 12' N. ; Ion. 

 26 6' E. ; 120 miles W. from the Nile, and is about 

 six miles long by four or five wide. It is supposed 

 to contain 8000 inhabitants, of whom 2500 are in 

 the town of Siwah The soil is fertile, yielding 

 dates, pomegranates, figs, olives and grapes. Tepid 



springs, holding salt in solution, are numerous. 

 This oasis is supposed to be the site of the cele- 

 brated temple of Jupiter Ammon, the ruins of which 

 travellers think they have discovered at the dis- 

 tance of a league and a half from the town, covering 

 an area of 360 feet by 300. The ruins are in the 

 Egyptian style of architecture, and covered with a 

 profusion of hieroglyphical and other sculptures in 

 relief and painted. Nearly a mile from these ruins, 

 in a grove of date palms, is the celebrated Fountain 

 of the Sun, dedicated to Ammon. It is ninety 

 feet in length by sixty, and appears to be warmer 

 by night than by day. Close by this spring are 

 traces of a temple supposed to be the relics of a 

 sanctuary mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. A 

 mountain in the neighbourhood has been converted 

 into catacombs, some of the tombs of which are on 

 a magnificent scale, resembling the celebrated se- 

 pulchral chambers of Thebes in decoration, sculp- 

 ture and painting. A succession of lakes and tem- 

 ples stretches into the desert towards the west, and 

 tombs, catacombs and churches, are scattered over 

 the waste. At a short distance from the sacred 

 lake there is a temple of Roman or Greek construc- 

 tion, the architecture of which is of the Doric order 

 a singular circumstance in a country surrounded 

 by immense deserts, and 400 miles distant from the 

 ancient seats of civilization. See Browne's Travels* 

 in Africa and Syria. 



SIX NATIONS. See Iroquoi*. 



SIXTUS V., the greatest ruler and statesman 

 among the popes of the three last centuries, was 

 born in 1521, at Grotta a Mare, not far from the 

 little town of Montalto, in the mark of Ancona. 

 His proper name was Felix Peretti. He gave early 

 indications of an aspiring spirit, and was delivered 

 by his uncle, a Franciscan, at Montalto, from the 

 humble labours by which his indigent parents pro- 

 cured their bread. In the schools of this order at 

 Montalto, Pesaro, Fermo, Bologna, &c., Peretti, 

 having joined the Franciscans in 1534, received the 

 usual strict education and instruction of the monas- 

 teries. His active spirit soon made him conversant 

 with the scholastic philosophy and theology and 

 Roman literature. In 1544, he gave instruction in 

 the canon law at Rimini, and, in 1546, at Sienna. 

 In 1548, he was made priest, doctor of divinity, 

 and superintendent of the monastic school of Sien- 

 na. He made himself famous in Rome, likewise, 

 as an acute logician and preacher, where, in 1551, 

 the favour of some cardinals procured him a per- 

 manent residence. Here he gained much reputa- 

 tion, not only by his pulpit performances, but also 

 by his pious works, as the founding of a brother- 

 hood for solemnly carrying the host to the sick, 

 under the name of the society of the holy sacra- 

 ment, and an asylum for indigent young girls, ac- 

 cording to the rule of St Clara. His work on 

 mystical divinity, and his Golden Register, extracted 

 from the writings of Aristotle and his commentator 

 Averroes, were also fruits of this residence at Rome, 

 which, however, was embittered by the vexatious 

 controversies in which his unquiet spirit, and his 

 aversion to the monastic life, involved him. Car- 

 dinal Capri, the protector of his order, defended 

 him from the violence of his associates; but he was 

 continually plunged into new difficulties by his own 

 intolerance, and the jealousy of the monks, arising 

 from the reputation which he had acquired as a 

 preacher on his visits to the principal cities of Italy. 

 His situation was not improved by his removal to 

 Venice, where, in 1556, he was appointed superin- 

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