S C Y 



Scythopolis, or the city of the Scythians. In their return 

 to Syria, feme of them plundered the temple of Venus at 

 Afcalon, and for their facrilege were puniftied with a kind of 

 flux of blood, common to the female fex, which defcended 

 to their pofterity as a mark of infamy. Thomyris, or Ta- 

 miris, was that heroine whom, we are told by Herodotus, 

 Cyrus the Great demanded in marriage. Indathyrfus was 

 the magnanimous prince who, having received from Darius, 

 the Perfian king, tlie proud challenge imphed in the de- 

 mand of earth and water as a token of fubjeclion, fent him 

 this remarkable reply ; that as he acknowledged no lord 

 but his progenitor Jupiter, and Vefta, queen of the Scy- 

 thians, he would (liortly fend him a more fuitabie prefent, 

 fuch as might, perhaps, make him repent of his arrogance. 

 This prefent, confiding of a bird, a nioufe, a frog, and five 

 arrows, was afterwards difpatched to him, without any ap- 

 plication. Gobrias explained to Darius the meaning of this 

 prefent, which the king had underllood to be a token of 

 fubmiflion, intimating that the Perfians muft not hope to 

 avoid the effefts of Scythian valour, unlefs they could either 

 fly like birds, plunge under water like frogs, or bury thcm- 

 felves in the earth like mice. The Perfian monarch invaded 

 the Scythian territory ; but the refult of the expedition was 

 that he ivas forced to retire with the lofs of the greatell 

 part of his numerous army, and glad to efcape with his own 

 life, though at the expence of his glory. Saulius was the 

 king of Scythia, who flew /inacharfis. See his article. The 

 laft king of Scythia, according to Juftin, was Lambinus. 

 For furtiier particulars relating to the Scythians, we refer 

 to Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Juftin, Mela, Anc. 

 Univ. Hift. vol. iv. ; Gibbon's Hift. of the Decl. &c. of 

 Roman Emp. vols. i. iv. r. vi. ; and fir W. Jones's Fifth 

 Difcourfe, apud Works, vol. iii. or Af. Refearches, vol. ii. 

 See alfo Celts, GETiE, Goths, Huns, Sarmatians, 

 Saxons, Scandinavia, and Vandals. 



SCYTHICUM Lignum, in Botany, a name given by 

 the ancients to a tree called feytbar'toa by the later writers 

 of the Greeks. 



SCYTHOPOLIS, in Ancient Geography, a town of Sy- 

 ria, in a province called Decapolis. 



SCYTHRANUS Portus, a port of Africa, in Mar- 

 marica, between Antipyrgus and the Cataeonium Promon- 

 torium, according to Ptolemy. 



SCYTHROPS, in Ornithology, a genus of birds of the 

 order Pics. The generic charafter is, bill large, convex, 

 (harp-edged, channelled at the fides, hooked at the point ; 

 noftrils naked, rounded at the bafe of the bill ; the tongue 

 is cartilaginous, fplit at the point ; the feet are formed for 

 climbing. This genus, of which only a fingle fpecies is 

 known, is nearly allied to the Ramphajlos, from which it 

 principally differs in the greater itrength and ftoutnefs of 

 the bill, and in having the tongue entire at the fides, and 

 bifid at the tip. 



Species. 



Psittaceus. Tiiis bird has obtained different trivial 

 names. From the circumllance that it is found in New 

 Holland ; where, by the way, it is fometimes feen in fmall 

 flocks, but more frequently in pairs, generally in trees, and 

 uttering, during flight, a loud fcrcaming noife, not unlike 

 the crowing of a cock ; it is called by fome the Auftralafian 

 Channel-bird ; by others, tlie New Holland Channel-bird ; 

 and by fome, Pfittaceous Hornbill. By Dr. Shaw, it is fpe- 

 cifically defcribtd as the lead-coloured channel-bill, with the 

 tail-featliers barred with black and white. It is about the 

 fize of a crow, and meafurcs in total length about feventecn 

 inches, of which the bill meafures four inches. The general 



SEA 



proportions of the bird fomewhat rcfemble thofe of the 

 cuckoo, but with a longer and more cuncated tail. The 

 colour of the upper parts of the body, wings, and tail, is 

 deep blueilh a(h-brown, the tips of the feathers fomewhat 

 more intenfe than the reft ; the head, neck, and under parts 

 of the bird, are of a pale grey, or dove-colour ; the two 

 middle tail-feathers have a black bar near the tip, which is 

 white ; all the remaining tail-feathers arc a(h-brown externally, 

 but on the inner webs are white, croffed by numerous black 

 bars, and marked, like the middle ones, by a broader black 

 bar near the end, the tips being white ; the eyes and noftrils 

 are feated in a reddifh naked Ikin ; the bill and legs are of a 

 pale yellow, tlie former are marked on the upper mandible 

 by a longitudinal duilcy ftreak or two, and on the lower by 

 three or four dufl<y bars near the bafe. Dr. Siiaw has given 

 a figure of this bird, but it may be doubted whether, with 

 refpecl to magnitude, it is calculated to convey jull ideas of 

 the bird itfelf. 



SCZEBRZESZIN, in Geography, a town of Auftrian 

 Poland, in Galicia ; j miles W. of Zamofcie. 



SCZEZEDROHORST, a town of Lithuania; 60 

 miles S.E. of Brzefc. 



SCZUCZYN, a town of Poland ; 35 miles S.W. of San- 

 domirz. 



SDUR, a town of Arabia, in the province of Hedsjas ; 

 20 miles S.S.E. of Sue/. 



SE, or TsE, a city of China, of the fecond rank, in Ho- 

 nan. N. lat. j6° 25'. E. long. 114° 14'. 



Se, Felo de. See Felo. 



Se, Per. See PERy^. 



SEA, Mare, in Geography, is frequently ufcd for that vafl 

 traft of water encompaffing the whole earth, more properly 

 called Ocean ; which fee. 



For the caufe of the faltnefs of the fea, fee Saltniss. 



Sea is more properly ufed for a particular part or divifion 

 of the ocean, denominated from the countries it wafhes, or 

 from other circumftances. 



Thus we fay the Iri/li fea, the Mediterranean fea, the Baltic 

 fea, the Red fea, &c. which fee refpeftively. 



Till the time of the emperor Juftinian, the fea was com- 

 mon and open to all men ; whence it is that the Roman laws 

 grant an adlion againit a perfon who fhall prevent or molell 

 another in the free navigation or fifhing therein. 



The emperor Leo, in his fifty-fixth novel, firft allowed 

 fuch as were in poflcflion of the lands, the fole privilege of 

 fifhing before their refpccSive territories, cxclufive ot ail 

 others ; he even gave a particular commilTion to certain per- 

 fons to divide the Thracian Bofphorus among them. 



From that time, the fovereign princes have been endea- 

 vonring to appropriate the fea, and to withdraw it from 

 the public ufe. The republic of Venice pretends to be fo 

 far miftrefs in her gulf, that there is a formal marriage every 

 year between that fignory and the Adriatic. 



To confirm this right, thofe who contend for it h.ivc al- 

 leged tlie example of Uladillaus, king of Naples, and the em- 

 peror Frederic III. and of fome of the kings of Hungary, 

 who requefted the Venetians to permit them to pafs through 

 that fea with their vcflels. That the empire belongs to tlic 

 republic to a certain diftancc from the coall, in the places 

 of which it can keep pofiefTioii, and which it is of importance 

 to hold in regard to its own fafoty, appears, fays V.ittcl, to 

 be incontcftible ; but he very much doubts, whether any 

 power is at prefent difpofed to acknowledge her fovtre ignty 

 over the whole Adriatic fea. 



In thife laft ages, the Englifli have particularly claimed the 



empire of the fea in the Chaniiel, and even that of .ill the (cas 



cncompafTing the three kingdoms of Ewglaiid, Scotland, aoj 



O 2 Ireland, 



