SIKHS 



5380 



SILESIA 



Finally he reached the land of the Niblungs, 

 where the queen, who was a sorceress, brewed 

 for Sigurd a potion which caused him to forget 

 Brunhilde and fall in love with her own daugh- 

 ter, Gudrun, whom he married. Later, after 

 he had aided Gudrun's brother, Gunther, to 

 win Brunhilde as his wife, Sigurd's memory re- 

 turned and he was filled with remorse. Brun- 

 hilde, unable to forgive his apparent faithless- 

 ness, had him put to death and then in remorse 

 killed herself on his funeral pyre. An extract 

 from William Morris' Sigurd the Volsung de- 

 . scribes the death of the hero: 



"It is Brynhild's deed," he murmured, "and the 



woman that loves me well ; 

 Naught now is left to repent of, and the tale 



abides to tell. 

 I have done many deeds in my life-days ; and all 



these, and my love, they lie 



In the hollow hand of Odin till the day of the 

 world go by." 



SIKHS , seeks, meaning disciples, is the name 

 of a religious sect in Northwestern India, which 

 worships one invisible god. The sect was 

 founded by Nanak Shah (1469-1539), who tried 

 to unify the Hindu castes and unite them with 

 the Mohammedans into one great brotherhood. 



The political state of the Sikhs was estab- 

 lished by Guru Govind. He developed their 

 military power that they might defend them- 

 selves from the Mohammedans and other re- 

 ligious classes, but after his death in 1708 his 

 followers were overcome by the Moslems. A few 

 of the Sikhs, however, escaped to the moun- 

 tains, and in a few years returned and subdued 

 Lahore. They established independent com- 

 munities which were united in 1792 by Ranjit 

 Singh, a despot who assumed the title of ma- 

 harajah and governed a territory including all 

 of the Punjab and Mill tan and other adjoining 

 regions with a total area of 70,000 square miles. 

 After his death, the Sikhs came into conflict 

 with the British government in India. In the 

 First Sikh War (1845-1846) they were defeated 

 and forced to give up Lahore. In 1848, during 

 the Second Sikh War, they were completely 

 conquered and their possessions were added to 

 British India. 



In the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, the Sikhs 

 supported the English, chiefly through fear that 

 the Mohammedan' power might be restored in 

 India. Numbering over 3,000,000, this sect 

 forms the larger part of the inhabitants of the 

 Punjab. They are a strong, courageous people, 

 and are chiefly engaged in agriculture. 



Consult Gough and Inness's The Sikhs and the 

 Sikh Wars; Cunningham's History of the Sikhs. 



SI-KIANG's or HONG-KIANG', the most 

 important river of Southwestern China, has its 

 source in the province of Yunnan and flows in 

 a southeasterly direction for 1,650 miles, dis- 

 charging through its delta into the South China 

 Sea. Canton, one of the largest cities in China, 

 is situated on one of the arms of the Si-kiang. 

 The river is of considerable commercial impor- 

 tance through its tributaries and a network of 

 canals. It is navigable for the largest vessels 

 as far as Wuchow, and from Wuchow to Sam- 

 shui for lighter craft. Rapids interrupt navi- 

 gation in the upper course. 



SILENUS, sile'nus, in Greek mythology, a 

 demigod, the most distinguished of the satyrs. 

 He was the nurse, teacher and follower of Bac- 

 chus. He is represented as very fat, bald and 

 pug-nosed, riding on a broad-backed ass. He is 

 usually pictured as intoxicated, swaying about, 

 and brandishing his drinking cup. See SATYR. 



SILESIA, sile'shia, formerly a province in 

 Prussia and economically one of the important 

 states of the old German Empire. It con- 

 tained the richest coal deposits in Germany, and 

 ranked next to Saxony, among the Prussian 



LOCATION OF SILESIA 



provinces, in value of agricultural products. At 

 the conclusion of the War of the Nations the 

 province was claimed both by Poland and the 

 Ukraine, on the basis of "self-determination of 

 peoples." The peace conference of 1919 felt it 

 proper to divide the province between the two 

 new states, but promised that the people might 

 decide the matter by vote. 



The province was in the extreme southeast- 

 ern part of Prussia. It had an area of 15,569 

 square miles and was drained by the Oder 

 River system. In the southern part there are 

 several mountain ranges, and here lie the coal 

 fields. The greater part of the agricultural dis- 

 trict lies between the Oder and the southwest- 



