SIRIUS 



5395 



SITKA 



from the Sirens,' and he stopped the ears of his 

 companions with wax. He himself wished to hear 

 the music, but he had himself strapped to the 

 mast of his vessel so that he could not yield to 

 the charm if he wished to. See ULYSSES. 



SIRIUS, seer 'i us, THE DOG-STAR, the bright- 

 est star in the heavens and one of those near- 

 est to the earth. It is still so distant, however, 

 that its light takes more than eight years to 

 reach the earth. A line drawn eastward through 

 Orion's belt points at the dog-star, the head of 

 Canis Major. It is a star of first magnitude, 

 and radiates forty-eight times as much light 

 as the sun. A companion star to Sirius was 

 discovered in 1862, accounting for the apparent 

 motion of Sirius in a small orbit. The com- 

 panion gives out one ten-thousandth part of 

 the light of Sirius, but has a mass of two-fifths 

 its size. 



SIROCCO, sirok' o, the Italian name given 

 to two distinct types of southeast winds, com- 

 mon to countries bordering the Mediterranean 

 on the north. Both winds are warm because 

 they come from warm regions, but one is a 

 damp wind that usually heralds rain, while the 

 other is dry and laden with dust from the Sa- 

 hara Desert far to the south. When this type 

 of sirocco blows the sky is dark with fine sand 

 which burns the skin and parches the throat. 

 It is the scourge of Sicily, and is similar to, 

 though less violent than, the simoom (which 

 see) of the desert. 



Related Subjects. The reader is directed to 

 the article WIND and to the list of related articles 

 there given. 



SISAL, se'sahl, or si' sal, also called GRASS 

 HEMP, is a tall, tropical plant whose swordlike 

 leaves yield a valuable fiber. The plant is a 

 native of Yucatan, Mexico, and is also culti- 

 vated to some extent in Florida, the Bahamas, 

 the West Indies and parts of Central America. 

 It belongs to the same family as the century 

 plant (which see) . From Progreso, the chief port 

 of Yucatan, a town which exports more sisal 

 than any other city in the world, the United 

 States receives yearly 200,000,000 pounds of 

 fiber, utilized for making binding cord, cord- 

 age, coarse cloth, hammocks and bags. 



The process of fiber gathering begins with 

 cutting the leaves at the base and removing 

 the spine from the top. They are then fed to 

 machines which strip off the pulp, leaving the 

 yellowish-white, straight fiber. The leaves, 

 which are four or five feet long and about one- 

 third of a foot wide, yield not over four per 

 cent of their weight in fiber, and it takes about 



1,000 leaves to produce fifty pounds. The av- 

 erage yield of fiber per acre is about one-half 

 ton. 



SISTERS OF CHARITY. See CHARITY, SIS- 

 TERS OF. 



SISTERS OF MERCY. See MERCY, SISTERS 

 OF. 



SISTINE, sis' tin or sixteen', MADON'NA. 

 See MADONNA AND HER BABE; RAPHAEL SANTI. 



SISYPHUS, sis' i jus, a mythical king of 

 Corinth, in ancient Greece. He was one of the 

 most crafty of men, and his schemes puzzled 

 even the gods. When Jupiter carried off Aegina, 

 Sisyphus told her father who had done the 

 deed, and in consequence Jupiter sent Death 

 to punish the informer. But Sisyphus outwit- 

 ted Death and bound him in fetters, so that 

 there was great rejoicing all over the earth, for 

 no man died. Pluto set Death at liberty, and 

 Sisyphus was given into the hands of Death. 

 With his dying breath Sisyphus begged his wife 

 not to bury his body, and when he had gone to 

 Hades he complained to Pluto of the mistreat- 

 ment, and begged permission to go back to 

 earth and punish his wife for her neglect. Pluto 

 consented, and as soon as Sisyphus was again in 

 his own house, he refused to return. Mercury, 

 however, led him back, and when Pluto had 

 him once more in Hades, he condemned him 

 thereafter to the task of rolling up a high hill 

 a large stone that ever rolled down again. 



SIT'KA, a town in Alaska, originally the 

 seat of government under the Russian regime, 

 and until 1906 the capital of the territory, un- 

 der the United States. It is situated on the 

 western coast of Baranof Island (see map, page 

 136), in a mountainous region. Juneau, the 

 present capital, is 160 miles northeast, and Seat- 

 tle is 1,130 miles south. The place is the out- 

 growth of a Russo-American trading station es- 

 tablished in 1799, which was then called Arch- 

 angel; its history as a permanent settlement 

 dates from 1804. Sitka has an agreeable cli- 

 mate, and the winters are not severe. The chief 

 industries of the place are lumbering, mining 

 and the canning of salmon. It is the seat of 

 the Alaskan Agricultural Experiment Station 

 and of the Coast Survey Magnetic "Base Sta- 

 tion, and the headquarters of the Episcopal 

 bishop of Alaska. Among the notable features 

 are the Sheldon Jackson Museum, maintained 

 by the Presbyterian Mission, the Russo-Greek 

 Church, built in 1816, government public 

 schools and an industrial school for natives 

 (Presbyterian). Population, 900 natives and 

 160 whites. 



