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such an original and unrivalled performance as “ Don 
Quixote,” would carry us beyond the limits assigned to the 
present biographical sketch. But a work which has not 
only become a classic throughout all Europe, but which has 
in a manner obscured the fame of all the other literature of 
his country, and has enriched every modern language with 
words and phrases to express new ideas, cannot but rank 
with the capital productions of the human invention. It 
would be an endless task to enumerate all the editions of the 
original, or versions of it, in different countries. They still 
occasionally appear, decorated with all the art of the 
engraver and typographer. The other works of the author 
meet with few readers out of Spain. His “ Novels” have 
indeed been considerable favourites, but are superseded by 
more modem productions. His poems and plays are ex¬ 
clusively accommodated to the taste of his country; nor do 
they seem there to have rankedamong master pieces.—See the 
Life of Cervantes, prefixed to Smollett’s translation of Don 
Quixote. 
SABA, an island in the West Indies, belonging to the 
Dutch. It is about 12 miles in circumference, extended in 
one delightful valley, which produces necessaries for the 
inhabitants, and materials for several manufactures; but 
being destitute of any port, its commerce is very inconsi¬ 
derable. There is abundance of fish caught on the coasts, 
particularly bonitos, which are in great request; nor is it in 
general deficient in the conveniences of life. Along the 
coast the sea is very shallow; rocks appear for some distance, 
and vessels of course cannot come close in, unless they be 
very small. There is only one small bay here, which has a 
sandy bottom, where the inhabitants now keep their canoes. 
The access to it is by a road cut out of the rock, by which 
one man only can mount at a time ; and this road is plen¬ 
tifully stored with magazines of stones, by which alone the 
inhabitants might defend it against any number of assailants. 
These were the arms with which they repulsed the desperate 
French buccaneers, who attacked them in 1688. This 
island was taken by the English in the year 1781, and again 
in 1801. The inhabitants raise some indigo and cotton, but 
their chief manufacture is shoes; and such is their economy 
and industry, that they live comfortable among themselves; 
13 miles north-west of St. Eustatius, and 24 south-west of 
St. Bartholomew. Lat. 17. 40. N. long. 63. 12. W. 
SABA, one of the smaller Virgin islands, in the West 
Indies, situated south of St. Thomas. 
SABAGAN ISLANDS, a cluster of small islands in the 
Red sea. Lat. 14. 55. N. long. 41. 54. E. 
SABAISM, s. A species of idolatry of great antiquity, 
which had numerous followers. 
Sale, in his preliminary discourse to the Koran, p. 14, &c., 
has given the following brief account of the tenets and wor¬ 
ship of this sect. They believe in the existence of one God, 
though they also pay an adoration to the stars, or the angels 
and intelligences which they suppose reside in them, and 
govern the world under the Supreme Deity. They endea¬ 
vour to perfect themselves in the four intellectual virtues, 
and believe the souls of wicked men will be punished for 
nine thousand ages, but will afterwards be received to mercy. 
They are obliged to pray three times a-day, before sun-rise, 
before noon, and before sun-set; and in praying, they turn 
their faces, as some say, to the north; according to others, 
to the south, to Mecca, or to the star to which they pay their 
devotion. They have three fasts in the year; the first lasts 
thirty days, the second nine days, and the last seven. They 
offer many sacrifices, of which they eat no part, but wholly 
bum them. They abstain from beans, garlic, and some 
other pulse and vegetables. They go on pilgrimage to a 
place near the city of Harran, or Charran, in Mesopotamia, 
where great numbers of them dwell; and they have also a 
great respect for the temple of Mecca, and the pyramids of 
Egypt; fancying these last to be the sepulchres of Seth, and 
of Enoch and Sabi, his two sons, whom they consider as the 
first propagators of their religion; and at these structures 
they sacrifice a cock and black calf, and offer up incense. 
This is one of the religions, the practice of which Mahomet 
Vol. XXII. No. 1518. 
SAB 509 
tolerated (on paying tribute), and the professors of it are 
often included in that expression of the Koran, “ Those to 
whom the Scriptures have been given,” or, literally, “ People 
of the Book.” 
SAB AKA, a town of Niphon, in Japan; 130 miles south¬ 
west of Meaco. 
SABANAS, a river of the province and government of 
Darine, which rises in the mountains of the south coast, and 
enters the Pacific ocean in the gulf of St. Miguel. 
SABANDIJAS, a river of the New Kingdom of Granada, 
in the province of Carthagena, which runs east, and enters 
the Rio Grande de la Magdalena. 
SABANJA. See Soubandie. 
SABAOTH, s. A Hebrew term for hosts or multitude. 
SABARA, a river of Brazil, which falls into the Galera, 
one of the head branches of the river Guapore. 
SABARACUS, the River of Ava, a large river of India, 
on the other side of the Ganges. It is said to have its source 
in the same mountain with the Ganges, but to the east of it. 
Its course is directed towards the south-east for about 18 
degrees, but then turns towards the south, and discharges 
itself into a gulf of the same name. Ptolemy gives the name 
of Sahara (Bragu) to its principal mouth. 
SABARiE, a people of India, on this side of the Ganges, 
who, according to Ptolemy, inhabited the territory at the foot 
of the mountains towards one of the sources of the Adamas, 
corresponding to the Mahanuddy. This district, situated 
on the banks of this river, is said by Ptolemy to abound in 
diamonds. 
SABARIA, a town of Pannonia, which had the title of a 
Roman colony, according to Ammianus Marcellinus. The 
emperor Valentinian wintered at this place. 
SAB ART, a village of Tripoli, in Africa; 36 miles west 
of Tripoli. 
SABAT, a town of Great Bukharia; 65 miles north-north¬ 
east of Samarcand. 
SABATEI-SEVI, a famous pretended Messiah of the Jews, 
in the 17th century, was the son of a broker to the English 
factory at Smyrna, where he was born in the year 1726. He 
received as good an education as his native place afforded* 
and made a considerable progress in various branches of 
learning. With the scriptures he became intimately con¬ 
versant, and from the study of the prophecies was either led 
to believe, or, from the superstitious credulity of the Jewish 
populace, was encouraged to pretend, that he was selected by 
God to be that redeemer of Israel who had been expected for 
so many ages. Whether he was a fanatic, or an impostor, or, 
as his subsequent history may perhaps lead us to surmise, a 
compound of both characters, he possessed qualifications 
which were highly favourable to his pretensions, being of a 
personable figure, and endowed with persuasive powers of elo¬ 
quence. He began to preach in the fields about Smyrna, 
but excited only the derision of the Turks, while many of the 
lower orders of his Dation became his admiring and zealous 
disciples. To impress their minds with a high idea of his 
chastity, at twenty-four years of age he married a young 
Jewess, whom he soon afterwards divorced without having 
cohabited with her; and he then married a second, with 
whom he lived in abstinence from the connubial enjoyments. 
He now began to boast of miraculous powers; and one day, 
either influenced by the deceptions of an heated imagination, 
or, confident that he had sufficient authority to impose upon 
his disciples,” he asked them whether they had not seen him 
carried through the air ? upbraiding those of them with blind¬ 
ness who would not confess that they had witnessed such a 
vision. At length the heads of the synagogue at Smyrna, 
alarmed at his pretensions, cited him before them, and con¬ 
demned him to banishment. He then went to Thessalonica, 
Athens, and other cities in Greece, and, according to some 
accounts, to Constantinople; from all which places he was 
expelled by the influence of the Rabbis. Afterwards he 
went to Jerusalem, where his learning and abilities secured 
him an honourable reception, and he gained many disciples. 
At their request he departed on a journey to Egypt, that he 
might collect the alms of their brethren. On his coming to 
6 0 Gaza, 
