SWIVEL-SYBARIS. 



495 



See, also, Wctzel's Voyage Pittorcsque aux Lacs 

 Suisses, Zurich, 1824, containing eighty-five plates. 



SWIVEL ; a small piece of artillery, carrying 

 a shot of half a pound, and fixed in a socket on the 

 top of a ship's side, stern, or bow, and also in the 

 tops. The trunnions of this piece are contained 

 in a sort of iron crotch, whose lower end termi- 

 nates in a cylindrical pivot resting in the socket, 

 so as to support the weight of the cannon. By 

 means of this swivel (which gives name to the 

 piece of artillery) and an iron handle on its cas- 

 cabel, the gun may be directed by hand to any 

 object. 



Swivel is also a strong link of iron used in moor- 

 ing-chains, &c., which permits the bridles or cables 

 to be turned as occasion requires. 



SWORD. This weapon, probably because it is 

 more constantly carried about the person than other 

 weapons, such as the arrow, spear, &c., has ac- 

 quired a peculiar connexion with the circumstances 

 of the wearer. To this day, the surrender of the 

 sword denotes submission, and the breaking of it 

 degradation. In many countries, it has become the 

 emblem of power. In Germany, the sword was 

 one of the imperial insignia. In Turkey, the sul- 

 tan is girded with the sword of Osman on ascend- 

 ing the throne. In England, the sword of state is 

 one of the regalia, and the " offering of the sword" 

 one of the ceremonies of coronation. In France, 

 the sword is also one of the royal insignia. In the 

 middle ages, knights gave names to their swords ; 

 thus Charlemagne's sword was called Joyeuse, and 

 Orlando's Durindana. The efficacy of no other 

 weapon depends so much upon the courage and skill 

 of the individual. It is the poetical representative 

 of all arms ; and, in the middle ages, the word degen 

 (sword) was used in German to denote a worthy 

 man ; later, a servant, but a servant of a dignified 

 character, and a free man. In this sense, Otfried, 

 in his translation of the Gospels, calls John the 

 Baptist Christi Thegan. In a German poem of the 

 fourteenth century, the apostle Peter is called 

 Gotes Degen, and the forste and senat of all apos- 

 tles. Thane, which is derived from the same word, 

 is also an Anglo-Saxon title of honour familiar to 

 the readers of Shakspeare. Under the emperors of 

 Rome, no one was allowed to wear a sword except 

 soldiers; hence the custom of presenting the sword 

 on investing with a military dignity. Trajan, 

 when he made Sura Licinius commander of his 

 guards, put a naked sword into his hands, with the 

 words, " Take this, and use it for me if I rule well, 

 against me if I rule ill." The secular infeoffment 

 of crown vassals, in the middle ages, was performed 

 by presenting the vassal a naked sword. To this 

 day, decapitation with the sword is considered 

 more honourable than hanging, in those countries 

 where both modes of execution are in use, as in 

 many on the continent of Europe. In England, the 

 axe is used, and only in cases of high treason. As 

 soon as the art of forging metals was invented, 

 arms of metal were probably made; and the sword 

 must have been one of the first, as the club, and 

 similar weapons, would naturally lead to it. Wooden 

 swords are found at present among many savage 

 tribes. Some historians mention Bclus, king of 

 Assyria, as the inventor of the sword. The Greeks 

 ascribed the invention, according to Diodorus, to 

 the Cretans. From the Scriptures we learn that 

 swords were used in the earliest times in Asia. 

 Abraham drew his sword to sacrifice his son Isaac. 

 The knife probably originated from the swo^d by 



degrees. The knife, in many countries, as in Spain 

 is still a formidable weapon. Swords were pro- 

 bably made at first, like other weapons, of copper, 

 as men acquired the art of forging this metal sooner 

 than any other. The heroes of antiquity never ap- 

 pear without the sword. Whether the Greeks 

 wore it on the left or right side is not determined; 

 but the Romans, as long as they used short swords, 

 wore them high on the right side, as appears from 

 the bass-reliefs of the columns of Trajan and An- 

 toninus at Rome; and Polybius explicitly states 

 this fact in his history (vi. 21). The kinds of 

 swords are too numerous to be given here. The 

 straight, long sword was used by the Christians of 

 the West in the middle ages, while the Poles, and 

 all the tribes of Sclavonic origin, employed, and 

 still prefer, the crooked sword. The Saracens 

 also had the crooked sword at that time ; and it is 

 still the common one in Asia. At present, light 

 cavalry in Europe, as hussars, lancers, &c., wear 

 the crooked sword, while the straight, long sword 

 is the weapon of the heavy cavalry. The latter is, 

 generally speaking, a better and more trustworthy 

 weapon. In the middle ages, double-handed 

 swords also were worn; and in books on the art of 

 fencing, this branch is treated, as is also the art of 

 fighting with the dagger. It was an unwieldy wea- 

 pon, and probably originated from the wearing of 

 plate armour. The sword of the executioners is, to 

 this day, a double-handed one ; but, as it requires 

 considerable skill and coolness, it has been exchang- 

 ed, in most countries, for the heavy axe. The 

 Highland claymore, a broadsword with a basket 

 hilt, has been introduced into the Highland regi- 

 ments in the British service. The blade of a sword 

 is divided into the upper, middle and lower part, 

 or the forte, middle and foible. Fencing with the 

 small sword and the broad sword are quite different 

 arts. The former is of a much nobler character. 

 (See Gymnastics.) Some places, as Toledo, Sara- 

 gossa, Damascus, are particularly celebrated for fine 

 sword blades. 



SWORD-FISH (xiphias) ; a genus of fishes, 

 remarkable for having the upper jaw prolonged, 

 somewhat in the form of a sword, and constituting 

 at least one third of the total length. It is placed 

 by Cuvier in the same family with the mackerel. 

 The body is elongated, almost destitute of scales, 

 and is carinate on each side at the base of the tail. 

 There are no proper teeth. The common sword- 

 fish (X. gladius) is sometimes more than twenty 

 feet long, the beak included. It swims with 

 greater swiftness than almost any inhabitant of the 

 deep, and is possessed of vast muscular strength. 

 It attacks, and generally puts to flight, the smaller 

 cetaceous animals, notwithstanding its food is usu- 

 ally vegetable. Its flesh is good; and, in some 

 countries, the fishery is an object of importance. 

 It is taken with the harpoon, and usually, tears the 

 net, if enclosed. The female approaches the shores 

 in the latter part of spring or beginning of summer. 

 The sword-fish is found in almost all seas. 



SYBAR1S; an ancient Greek city of Lower 

 Italy, in Lucania, on the gulf of Tarentum. It is 

 supposed to have been built by a colony of Acha>- 

 ans and Trcezenians, about 720 B. C. The Sy- 

 barites were celebrated for their luxury and volup- 

 tuousness, and had become enervated by the mild- 

 ness of the climate, the richness of the soil, and 

 their great wealth. Becoming involved in a war 

 with Crotona, the city of Sybaris brought into tht 

 field 300,000 men, while the forces of the former 



