SIT 



SIT 



forls of the other two divine perfons of the Hindoo triad. 

 ylic proved to be an incarnation of Lakfhmi, as before no- 

 ticed ; anil on attaining maturity was won by Rama, in a 

 coiitelt of archery with many fovereigns, ambitious of ob- 

 taining a prize of fuch incomparable beauty. This ftory, 

 ;\s it is related in the Ramayana, reminds us of the unyield- 

 iii"- bow of Ulyfles ; as none but Rama had power to ac- 

 complifli the required and ordained feat ; which was piercing 

 1 l.e eye of a iifh whirling on a pin fixed on a high pole ; and 

 not looking at the mark, but at its refleftion in a vellel of 

 oil placed on the ground. The ten-headed twenty-handed 

 tyrant Ravena had previoufly failed. See Ravena. 



Burning with the rage of difappointed defire, the tyrant 

 I carried her off ; and having been in his power, her purity 

 might be poffibly fufpefted ; (he therefore plunged into the 

 flames, where, defended by Pavaka, the regent of tire, her 

 incombuftibility attelled her innocency. She was of courfe 

 triumphantly reftored to her overjoyed hufband. In the 

 Ramayana (he is defcribed as " endued with youth, beauty, 

 i!;oodnefs, fweetnefs, and prudence ; an infeparable attendant 

 ijii her lord, as the light on the moon ; the beloved fpoufe 

 of Rama, dear as his own foul ; formed by divine illufion, 

 amiable, and adorned with every charm ;" and always held 

 forth as an example of conjugal faith and afteftion. 



While confined on the ifland of Lanka, or Ceylon, (fee 

 thofe articles,) and perfecuted by the addreifes of its tyran- 

 nical fovereign, the anguifh and lamentation of Sita are 

 copious fubjefts of hyperbole for Hindoo poets. Travellers 

 are ilill fliewn a lake or pool, called Sita-koonda, faid to have 

 originated in the floods of tears flied by the captive beauty. 

 This extravaganza was not lolt on our early miilionaries and 

 travellers. Ceylon being with them the garden of Eden, 

 they find Adam's peak, Adam's bridge, &c. called Rama's 

 by the natives. Eve perfonates Sita, in refpeft to this pool. 

 Sir John Mandeville notices it in his quaint way. Defcribing 

 Ceylon, he has fair fcope for his poetical exuberance. " In 

 that ifle is a gret mountayne, and in mydd place of the 

 mount is a gret lake in a full fayre pleyne, and there is gret 

 plentie of watre. And thei of the contrie feyn that Adam 

 and Eve wcpten upon that mount loo zeer, when thei 

 weren dryven out of Paradys. And that watre thei feyn 

 is of here teres ; for foe much watre they wepten that 

 made the forcfede lake." Sir John died in 1372. See 

 Mandeville. 



A beautiful tree, called Afoka by Sanfcrit botamlls, bears 

 a mythological reference to the above fable of Sita. She 

 was confined in a grove of thofe trees, whofe name is derived 

 from grief, or lamentation. It is liencc, perhaps, alio fa- 

 cred to the god of tears, or the avenging Siva. (See SiVA.) 

 Afoka, indeed, rather from its privative initial, denotes the 

 abfence of grief, equivalent to grief-difpcUer ; thus named 

 pofTibly from its beauty, fo greatly admired by a poetical 

 and taileful people. 



A numerous fett of Hindoos adore Sita as Lakfhmi her- 

 felf. It is a branch of the fctt of Ramanuj. ( See that ar- 

 ticle, aad Sects of Hindoos, for an account of their pecu- 

 liarities.) Under the article Sakti will be found farther 

 thfreon. She is faid to have borne Rama two fons, Kullii 

 and Lava, who were great orators and niinllrels ; but they 

 are feldom heard of, except in legends immediately relating 

 to tiieir family. 



In our article RaiMA we have noticed a Peruvian felHval, 

 called Ramafitoa, which, as well as in name (Rama-Sita), 

 remind us of ufages Hill common among Hindoos. Thole 

 dilpofed to lay llrefs on etymological coincidences, may, 

 perhaps, lierc alfo find the fource of the much difputed fcnfc 

 of the word Varajui. (See Potter's Archicol. GrcKC. b. ii. 



c. iii.) This was the name of an order of men among the 

 Greeks, whofe office feems originally to have been the ga- 

 thering from the hulbandmen the corn allotted for public 

 facrifices. Para and Sita are names, in fadt, of all the three 

 principal Hindoo goddefles, Lakfhmi, Parvati, and Saraf- 

 wati (fee thofe articles, and Par A,) and maybe faid to 

 mean^/y? ^n^faireft, as well as firll held or fruits. To all 

 thefe, corn and other firtl-fruits of the field are appropriate 

 offerings ; the gathering and care of which might give the 

 pnells the name of Parafiti. The common appropriation of 

 thefe tithes to their own ufes would naturally in time degrade 

 them and their name in the eftimation of their flock, who, 

 detefting the impollures of prieftcraft, brought them to their 

 proper level in the fenfe of the thence derived word Parafite. 

 See that article. 



SITACA, or Sitace, in yinclenl Geography, a large and 

 well-peopled town of Afia, in the Perfide, near Babylon, and 

 15 iladia from the Tigris, according to Xenophon. This 

 town was fituated nearly at an equal diftance from the Tigris 

 and the Euphrates, N.W. of Seleucia. 



SITACAS, a river of Afia, in the Perfide, which runs 

 into the Perfian gulf, about 800 iladia beyond the mount 

 Areon, according to Nearchus. 



SITALA, in Geography, a river of Mexico, which runs 

 into the Pacific ocean, N. lat. 17^ 38'. W. long. 101° 40'. 



SITANG, a river of Hindoollan, one of the branches of 

 the river called Pegu, which runs into the bay of Bengal. 



SITANTA, the name of a fabulous mountain, in which is 

 defcribed the terreiirial abode of the god Indra, the Hindoo 

 regent of the firmament. (See Ikdka.) In the Hindoo Pan- 

 theon, the wonderful mountain Meru is defcribed from the Pu- 

 ranas. (See Meru.) On one of its three peaks is Kailafa, the 

 Olympus of Siva ; and on another is the Swerga, or paradife 

 of Indra. But his terreltrial abode is on Sitanta, a part 

 probably of Meru ; and it may be amufing to fee in what 

 the delights of Hindoo gods are fuppofed, by their facred 

 writers, to confifl. Sitanta is " fl^irted by a mofl delightful 

 country, well watered, and enlivened by the harmonious noife 

 of the black bee and frogs. There, among immenfe caves, 

 is the Kridavana, or place of daUiance of Mahendra ; , where 

 knowledge and the completion of our wifiies are fully acknow- 

 ledged. There is the great forell of the Pariyateka-tree of 

 the king of the gods, known through the three worlds ; and 

 the whole world fings his praife from the V'eda. Such is 

 the place of d.iUiance of him with a thoufand eyes, or Indra. 

 In this charming grove of Sakra, or Indra, the gods, the 

 danavas, the fnakes, yakfhas, rakfhas, guhyas or kuvcras, 

 gandharvas, live happy ; as well as numerous tribe« of Up- 

 !ara, fond of fport." P. 270. The Gandharvas are ce- 

 leftial female chorifters. 



The abode of Vifhnu is ufually called Faikontha ; whith 

 fee, and SwEKGA. 



SITAWACA, in Geography, a town of the ifland of 

 Ceylon ; 44 miles S.S.W. of Candy. 



SITCA, a Ruflian fettlement on the N.W. coaft of 

 America, fomcwhat S. of Cadiack, or Kadiak, in the in- 

 terior of that deep bay to whicli Vancouver gave the name 

 of Norfolk's found. The lavages in this quarter are of a 

 more lively and ferocious charadter than thofe of Cadiack. 

 Inllcad of dozing on the ridges of their houfes, they fing and 

 dance perpetually ; and are both brave and expert in the ufe 

 of fire-arms, with which they are fupplied by the American 

 traders, who occalionally refort to that coall. They killed 

 five or fix of M. Lifianilcy's men, in a gallant defence of a 

 kind of rude fort, from which that commander chofe to ex- 

 pel them, that the agents of the Ruifian Company might 

 occupy the fpot as a fadory. After cannonading it all day, 

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