470 



SI! WAROFF-R1MNITZKOYS WALLOW. 



to purify him from all offences, even if he had killed 

 a Brahmin. (See the Veda, &c., quoted before 

 tin- privy council, June 23, 1832, to support the 

 above-mentioned petition.) The rule is, that the 

 act of the widow must be voluntary; but we can ' 

 easily imagine that the fanaticism or cupidity of 

 relations often compels the Hindoo widow to im- 

 molate herself, just as they forced women, in the 

 middle ages, to take the veil, which also is required, 

 by the rules of the church, to be voluntary. The 

 ceremonies of a suttee are various, and last from a 

 quarter of an hour to two hours. Sometimes the 

 widow is placed in a cavity prepared under the 

 corpse of the husband ; sometimes she is laid by the 

 body, embracing it. If the husband was not a Brahmin, 

 it is not required that the corpse should be burned 

 with tlie widow ; any thing which belonged to the 

 deceased his garments, slippers, walking-staff 

 may be substituted for the corpse. There were, 

 according to official report, above forty suttees 

 in the province of Ghazepoor in 1824; and several 

 had taken place not reported to the magistrate. 



SUWAROFF-RIMN1TZKOY, PETLR ALKXIS 

 WASILIOWITSCH, count of, prince Italinski, field- 

 marshal and generalissimo of the Russian armies, 

 one of the most distinguished generals of the eigh- 

 teenth century, was born at Suskoy, a village of 

 the Ukraine, in 1730. His father, an officer, placed 

 him in the military academy at Petersburg ; and, in 

 his seventeenth year, Suwaroff entered the service 

 as a common soldier, and gave proofs of his courage 

 in the war against Sweden. In 1754, he became 

 lieutenant, and, after distinguishing himself in the 

 seven years' war (q. v.), received the command of 

 a regiment, in 1763. In 1768, he obtained the 

 rank of brigadier-general, and served several cam- 

 paigns in Poland, receiving, in reward for his courage 

 and conduct, the crosses of three Russian orders of 

 knighthood. In 1773, he was appointed to the 

 command of a division of the troops under count 

 Romanzoff, and completely defeated a portion of 

 the Turkish army at Turtukey, killing several of 

 the enemy with his own hand. Crossing the Danube, 

 he afterwards, in conjunction with the force under 

 Kamenskoy, routed the army of the rets effendi 

 with great slaughter, and the capture of all his 

 artillery. In 1783, he reduced the Budziac Tartars 

 under the Russian yoke. In 1787, being chief in 

 command, he was intrusted with the defence of 

 Kinburn, then attacked by the Turkish forces both 

 by sea and land ; and, after an obstinate siege, 

 succeeded in repulsing his assailants with consider- 

 able loss. At Oczakow and Fockzami (at the 

 former of which places he received a severe wound) 

 his daring valour was equally displayed ; and, in 

 the September of 1789, the Austrian troops, under 

 the prince of Saxe-Coburg, being surrounded, on 

 the banks of the Rimnik, by 100,000 Turks, owed 

 their preservation to his timely arrival with 10,000 

 Russians, who not only rescued themlfrom a de- 

 struction that appeared inevitable, but occasioned 

 the utter overthrow of the enemy. To this victory 

 he was indebted for the first of his above-named 

 titles, and the dignity of a count of both empires. 

 The next, and perhaps the most sanguinary of his 

 actions, was the storming of Ismail (q. v.), in 1790. 

 This strongly fortified town had resisted all at- 

 tempts to reduce it for a period of seven months, 

 when Suwaroff received peremptory orders from 

 prince Potemkin (q. v.) to take it without delay, 

 and pledged himself to execute the task assigned 

 him in three days. Of the sacking of the place on 



tin- third, and the indiscriminate massacre of 40,000 

 of its inhabitants, of every age and sex, the accounts 

 of the period give the most revolting reports. The 

 announcement of his bloody triumph was made by 

 the general, who affected a Spartan brevity in his 

 despatches, in the words " Glory to God ! Ismail is 

 ours." Peace being proclaimed with Turkey, the 

 empress (see Catharine //.) had leisure to mature 

 her designs against the devoted kingdom of Poland ; 

 and Suwaroff was selected as a fit instrument to 

 carry them into execution. He marched, accord- 

 ingly, at the head of his troops, to Warsaw, de- 

 stroying about 20,000 Poles in his way, and ended 

 a campaign of which the unprincipled partition of 

 the country was the result. (See Praga, and Po- 

 land.) On this occasion, he received a field-mar- 

 shal's baton, and an estate in the dominions which 

 he had contributed to annex to the Russian crown. 

 The last and most celebrated of his actions wa> hi* 

 campaign in Italy in 1799, when his courage and 

 genius for a while repaired the disasters of the allied 

 forces. Paul gave him the command of the Russian 

 forces destined to act with the Austrians, and the 

 emperor of Germany created him field-marshal, and 

 commander-in-chief of the Austrian troops in Italy. 

 He gained several brilliant victories at Piacenza, 

 Novi, &c.,and drove the French from all the towns 

 and fortresses of Upper Italy, and was rewarded for 

 his services with the title of prince Italinski. But, 

 in consequence of a change in the plan of operations, 

 he passed the Alps ; and the defeat of Korsakoff at 

 Ziirich (see Ma&sena}, together with the failure of 

 the expected assistance from the Austrians, obliged 

 Suwaroff to retreat from Switzerland. Paul, of- 

 fended with the Austrian court, now recalled the 

 prince, in spite of his remonstrances ; and prepara- 

 tions were made for his triumphal entry into Peters- 

 burg. Meanwhile, Suwaroff, having evaded an 

 imperial order, directing the generalissimo to name 

 each general in turn general of the day, by appoint- 

 ing prince Bagration standing general of the day, 

 was declared, by command of the emperor, to have 

 deserved censure, and the preparations for his 

 triumph were suspended. Chagrin at this disgrace 

 hastened his death, which took place May 18, 1800, 

 sixteen days after his arrival at Petersburg Su- 

 waroff was a remarkable man. Though feeble and 

 sickly in his youth, he had acquired a sound consti- 

 tution by his simple and abstemious mode of life : he 

 slept upon straw, and his whole wardrobe consisted 

 of his regimental uniform and a sheepskin. He ob- 

 served punctiliously all the ceremonies of his religion, 

 and never gave the signal for battle without crossing 

 himself, and kissing the image of St Nicholas. 



SWABIA. See Suabia. 



SWALLOW (hirundo). The air seems to be 

 truly the home of the swallows: they eat, drink, 

 sometimes even feed their young, on the wing, and 

 surpass all other birds in the untiring rapidity of 

 their flight and evolutions. The beak is short, 

 broad at base, very much flattened, and very deeply 

 cleft, forming a large mouth, well adapted to the 

 purpose of seizing winged insects, which constitute 

 their accustomed food. The feet are very short, 

 and the wings remarkably long. In winter they 

 migrate to tropical climates, a few days being suffi- 

 cient to pass from the arctic to the torrid zone. In 

 the spring they return ; and it has been found by 

 experiment that individuals always come back to 

 their former haunts. They sweep over our fields, 

 our rivers, and through our very streets, easily 

 eluding all enemies by their powers of wing. Those 



