SURVEY OF PUBLIC LANDS 



5642 



SUTTEE 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Coast and Geodetic Engineering 



Survey Lands, Public 



Compass 



SURVEY OF PUBLIC LANDS. See LANDS, 

 PUBLIC, subhead Ranges, Townships and Sec- 

 tions. 



SUSA, soo'sa, an ancient city of Persia, once 

 the capital of the province of Susiana, or an- 

 cient Elam. It occupied a site on a plain in 

 what is now the province of Khuzistan. During 

 the reign of Cyrus it was captured from the 

 Babylonians, and when Darius II became king 

 in 521 B. c. he made it the ruling city over the 

 whole Persian Empire. Several of the Persian 

 kings built beautiful palaces, the remains of 

 which form some of the most magnificent ruins 

 of Asia. From the time of Alexander Susa 

 gradually declined, until now the so-called 

 tomb of Daniel, which is really a Moham- 

 medan mausoleum, is the main landmark of the 

 once famous city. 



SUSQUEHANNA, sus kwe han'a, RIVER, a 

 river which flows through one of the most im- 

 portant industrial regions in Eastern United 

 States. It is formed by the union of two 

 small branches whose sources are respectively 

 Schuyler and Otsego lakes, in Central New 

 York. The main stream flows in a general 

 southwesterly direction to the Pennsylvania 

 line, traverses that state in an irregular course 

 southward, and then flows for a short distance 

 through Maryland, entering Chesapeake Bay at 

 Havre de Grace. Its total length is about 500 

 miles, and its chief tributaries are the Che- 

 mung, the West Branch and the Juniata. Con- 

 siderable timber is floated on this stream, but 

 otherwise it is useless as a commercial route 

 because of its swift current and shallowness. 

 On its banks lie the cities of Harrisburg and 

 Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Port Deposit, Md., and 

 Binghamton, N. Y. 



SUSSEX, sus'eks, a town in Kings County, 

 New Brunswick, in the south-central part of 

 the province. It is on the Intercolonial Rail- 

 way, forty-six miles southwest of Moncton 

 and forty-four miles northeast of Saint John. 

 Sussex is one of the more important of the 

 smaller towns in New Brunswick. It has an 

 agricultural college, a provincial dairy school, 

 and provincial militia drill grounds and armory. 

 The town owns its water and sewerage system, 

 but a private company owns the lighting plant. 

 The manufactures of the city include such 

 varied products as refrigerators, butter and 



cheese, paper boxes, packed pork, furniture, 

 leather and mineral water. The neighborhood 

 has many rich farms, and also supplies salt, 

 lime, plaster and lumber. Population in 1911, 

 1,906; in 1916, estimated, 2,350. 



SUT'LEJ, a river of India, the most south- 

 erly of the five rivers of the Punjab and the 

 largest tributary of the Indus (which see). 

 Rising in the lofty plateau of Tibet, nearly 

 three miles above the sea, the Sutlej winds its 

 way through the passes of the Himalayas, trav- 

 erses the hill states of Simla, and then flows in 

 a southwesterly direction through the Punjab, 

 joining the Indus near Mithankot. Its length 

 is about 950 miles. The Beas and the Chenab 

 are its most important tributaries, and below 

 its junction with the latter it is called the 

 Panjnad, or Five Rivers. The Sutlej is of lit- 

 tle importance as a navigable waterway except 

 for inland craft, but its waters are used in irri- 

 gating the arid plains of the Punjab. 



SUTTEE, suhte', a variation of the San- 

 skrit word sati, meaning "good wife," is the 

 name given to the practice formerly common 

 among all the Hindus, of burning the widow on 

 the funeral pyre of her deceased husband. If 

 the husband died away from home, she occu- 

 pied the pyre alone. The custom is not en- 

 joined in the Vedas, but it seems to be of great 

 antiquity, for when Alexander the Great visited 

 India, about 327 B. c., he encountered instances 

 of it. It seems originally to have been prac- 

 ticed only by the wives of princes, but came to 

 be widespread, particularly among those pro- 

 fessing Brahmanism. 



In theory, the widow always was willing to 

 sacrifice herself; in practice, compulsion was 

 often used, but one of the emperors in the 

 seventeenth century forbade thereafter all but 

 voluntary immolations. The exact methods by 

 which it took place were various. Sometimes 

 the widow leaped upon the burning pile from a 

 window; sometimes she lay down upon the un- 

 lighted heap, clasping in her arms the dead body 

 of her husband; and sometimes she herself was 

 required to set fire to the pile. Lest her cour- 

 age might fail, and she might try to escape, 

 attendants often held her body down with poles. 



The British always disapproved of the suttee 

 in India, but did not feel strong enough until 

 1829 actually to prevent it. Naturally it did 

 not cease all at once, and it is quite probable 

 that in rare cases the practice is still secretly 

 maintained, although those now found guilty 

 of aiding or abetting it are sentenced to a penal 

 colony. 



