SIR 



S I K 



SIRAtJI, Giovanni Andrea, in Biography, a painter 

 of the fchool of Guido Rheni. He was born at Bologna 

 in l6io, and was a favourite difciple of his mafter, whofe 

 ftyle he imitated with great fuccefs. After the death of 

 Guido, he was employed to iinifh many of his works, left 

 incomplete in different churches, at Bologna ; particularly 

 the iarge pi£ture of St. Brunone, in the Certofiai. He 

 ufually painted upon a large Icale, and with a free pencil, 

 but in general his manner is too Urong and dark, like that of 

 Caravaggio. He died in 1670, at the age of 60. 



SiRANi, Elizabetta, was the daughter of Giovanni 

 Andrea Sirani, and born at Bologna in 1638. She learned 

 the rudiments of the art from her father, but endeavoured 

 to imitate the belt ftyle of Guido. At fo early a period 

 as her fifteenth year, (lie liad acquired confiderable renown 

 for her performances. Her firll public work was painted 

 when (he was only fevcnteen. In general (he wrought upon 

 a large fcale, and in a molt finilhed manner ; with a rich 

 and natural tone of colour. Her compolitions are taiteful, 

 and the airs of her heads graceful, and noble in charafter. 

 Her portraits have greatly the air of nature, with an un- 

 affefted character of expreflion and adtion. 



Unhappily, whilft in the enjoyment of the renown juftly 

 due to her ineftimable talents and amiable qualities, and 

 which had been acquired by unceafing affiduity, her 

 brilliant career was interrupted by poifon ; by whom ad- 

 miniitered is not exaftly known, though it is fuppofed by 

 her fervant. This melancholy event happened in 1664, 

 when fhs had only attained her twenty-fixth year; yet fuch 

 had been her indultry, that (he had produced, according to 

 Malvafia, from a regifter of her own keeping, 150 works : 

 the moll admired of which were painted for the churches 

 and palaces at Bologna. They are elfewhere fcarce. 



SIRAN-LOSA, in Geography, a lake of Thibet, about 

 18 miles in circumference, which communicates with lake 

 Tenckiri by means of a river called alfo " Siran-lofa ;" 18 

 miles W. of lake Tenckiri. 



SIRA-OULOSO, a town of Thibet ; 15 miles E. of 

 Hami. 



SIRAT, Al, in the Mahometan Theology, the name of 

 a bridge, which is fituated in the midil ot hell, finer than 

 a hair and (harper than the edge of a fword ; over which 

 thofe who are admitted into paradifc, and who take the 

 right-hand way, and thofe who are deftined to hell-fire, 

 and take the left, are fuppofed to pafs. On account of its 

 form, it is conceived to be very difficult for any one to ftand 

 upon it ; and therefore moit of the Motazalites rejeft it 

 as a fable, though the orthodox believe it on the authority 

 of their prophet, by whom it is affirmed ; and who has like- 

 wife declared, that in order to add to the difficulty of this 

 paffagc, the bridge is befet on each fide with briars and 

 hooked thorns, which will, however, be no impediment to the 

 good, for they fliall pafs with wonderful eafe and fwiftnels, 

 like lightning or the wind, Mohammed and his Moderns 

 kading the way ; whereas the wicked, obftrufled by the 

 llippperinefs and extreme narrownefs of the path, the en- 

 tangling of the thorns, and the extindtion of the light, 

 which direfted the former to paradife, will foon mifs their 

 footing, and fall down headlong into hell, which is gaping 

 beneath them. Koran, c. 18. 



SI RATI K, in Geography, one of the Foulah Hates in 

 Africa, next in order to the principal, which lies within 

 Sierra Leona, and of which Teambo is the capital. It 

 borders on the fouth of the Senegal river, and on the 

 Jaloffs. 



SIRAVAN, a town of Perfia, in the province of Chu- 

 fiftan; 48 miles N.N.E. of Sufter. 



SIRE, a title of honour in France, now given to the 

 king only, as a mark of fovereignty. In all placets and 

 petitions, epiftles, difcourfes, &c. to the king, he is ad- 

 dreffed under the title of Jlre. 



Some derive the word from the Latin herus, majlir : of 

 which opinion feems Budxus, who, in fpeaking to king 

 Francis I., always called him here, q. d. majler, ox Jire ; 

 others derive it from the Greek xufioc, lord; of which 

 opinion is Pafquier, who adds, that the ancient Franks gave 

 the fame title to God, calling him beau fire Dieu : other* 

 fetch the word from the Syriac, and maiiit.iin it was firft 

 given to the merchants who traded in Syria : Menage will 

 have it come from fenior, elder; whence feigneur, the* 

 feignor, znd Jire. 



Sire was likewife anciently ufed in the fame fenfe w-ith 

 feur and feigneur, and applied to barons, gentlemen, and 

 citizens. 



Sire, in Geography, a province of Abyllinia, about 

 25 miles broad, and not much more in length, reckoned as 

 part of Tigre. It loft the rank of a province, and was 

 united to Tigre, on account of the milbehaviour of its go- 

 vernor Kafmeti Claudius, in an expedition againft the Shan- 

 galla, in the reign of Yafous the Great. It is feparated 

 from Samen by the river Tacazze, and reaches from Axum 

 to this river. — Alfo, a town fituated on the brink of a very 

 deep, narrow valley, through which a road lies that is aU 

 mort impalTable. In the midft of the valley runs a brook, 

 bordered with palm-trees. The town of Sir6 is larger than 

 that of Axum ; it is in form of a half-crown fronting the 

 plain, but its greateft breadth is at the weft end. All the 

 houfes are of clay, and thatched ; the roofs are in form of 

 cones, as indeed are all in Abyffinia. Sire is famous for a 

 manufafture of coarfe cotton cloths, which pafs for current 

 money through all the province of Tigre, and are valued at 

 a drachm, the tenth part of a wakea of gold, or near the 

 value of an imperial dollar each ; their breadth is i^ yard. 

 Befides thefe, beads, needles, cohol, and incenfe, at times 

 only, are confidered as money. Although Sire is fituated 

 in one of the fineft countries in the world, it is very fubjeft. 

 to putrid fevers of the worft kind, which fweep away a 

 number of people daily. N. lat. 14° 4' 35". E. long. 38*' 

 o' 15". Bruce's Travels, vol. iii. 



SIREN, 3-EifDv, in Antiquity, Mermaid, a name given to 

 a kind of fabulous beings, reprefented by the moderns as 

 fea-monfters, with women's faces and filhcs' tails ; but by 

 the ancient poets, &c. as having the upper part human, and 

 the lower like birds ; and decked with a plumage of various 

 colours. There are antique rcprcfentations of them ftijl 

 fubfifting, under both thefe forms. They are faid to have 

 been the daughters of Ocean and Amphitrite, and to form 

 a beautiful part of Homer's machinery in the Odyifey. 

 Hyginus places their birth among the confoquences of the 

 rape of Proferpiiie. And Ovid makes them daughters of 

 the river Achclous, and one of the Mufes. 



The three firens are called Parthenopc, I.ygea, and I.eu- 

 cofta. Homer only makes mention of two firens, aud loinc 

 others reckon five. Virgil places them on rocks, where 

 veflels are in danger of fplittiiig. Pliny makes them inhabit 

 the promontory of Minerva, near the ifland Caprex. OthcM 

 fix them in Sicily, near Cape Pelorus. 



Claudian fays, they inhabited harmonious rocks ; that 

 they were charming monftcrs ; and that lailors were wrecked 

 on their rocks without regret, and even expired in raptures ; 

 Duke malum in pelago firen. 



Paufanias tells us, that the firens, by the pcrfuafion of 



.Tuno, challenged the Mufei to a trial of flnll in fingingr^ 



and thefe, having vanqui(hed them, plucked the golden 



H 2 feathers 



