SAM 
From the sap of the cocoa, nipe, and cabonegro trees, they 
obtain the materials for an excellent species of brandy. The 
last of these owes its name to the black colour of its fibres, 
which are manufactured by the natives into cables, and 
different kinds of cordage. The only instrument used by 
the Indian, either for the purposes of war or industry, is a 
kind of hunting knife, named cris or campilan; an instru¬ 
ment w'hich, after serving him against the enemy, enables 
him to cut down the largest tree in the wood, to be formed 
into a canoe, or split into deals for more ordinary uses. 
When the campilan has been so much worn as to be of little 
further service to him, it is still employed by his wife to grub 
up a light soil, in which she plants yams, potatoes, and other 
roots. Sugar-canes, cabbages, garlic, onions, melons, the 
Chinese oranges, lemons, vegetables, and though in small 
quantity, several other kinds of fruit, little knowu in Europe, 
are cultivated in this island. It abounds in figs, of which 
Mr. Pagis reckoned no fewer than thirteen or fourteen differ¬ 
ent species, with a great variety of perfumes. The natives 
are instructed to give particular attention to the culture of the 
cocoa tree, which grows here to an uncommon size. Their 
woods produce the pumplemous, a species of orange, near 
five inches in diameter, pepper, honey, and wax. Indeed, 
all these islands are eminently distinguished by the labours of 
the bee. The woods swarm with birds of almost every 
description, particularly the common fowl, which is, however, 
distinguished from ours by the shortened proportions of its 
body and legs. The colour of the hen is grey, with 
feathers spotted, like a partridge. There are three different 
species of turtle-dove. The parroquet, cockatoo, and ano¬ 
ther pretty little species of the same genus, no larger than a 
linnet, are surprisingly common. There is also found here a 
very small bird of the diminutive size of a wasp, whose 
colours, consisting in a shade of yellow, mixed with red and 
blue, are peculiarly vivid and beautiful. Many kinds of 
monkies, one of which is remarkably large, roe-bucks, wild 
buffaloes, and other quadrupeds, abound in the woods. The 
foot of a tall species of the banyan fig consists in numberless 
folds of bark, which in a certain period of putrefaction are 
separable without art or difficulty. These pieced together 
afford them a species of fine linen, harsh indeed, and 
disagreeable to the skin, in its natural state, but which they 
have learned to render sufficiently soft and pliable, by a 
preparation of lime. Besides serving them as the materials 
of linen cloth, it is likewise useful to them for the purposes 
of cordage. The deportment of the men is easy, open, and 
affable; the women are gay and lively. Among their 
productions of art, the Indian mat merits particular notice, 
which is a species of manufacture of such fineness, that a 
piece of six feet could easily be put into a pocket. It is 
executed in various handsome designs, and painted in very 
lively and elegant colours, which they have the art of extract¬ 
ing from different trees. The hair of both sexes is remark¬ 
ably fine, particularly that of the women, which they are 
accustomed to comb with great care, and to anoint frequently, 
with the oil of the cocoa-nut, in order to strengthen and 
render it of a deep black. Their noses are short and de¬ 
pressed, but their nostrils are by no means dilated, like those 
of the negro. The iron-tree, ebony, and dyeing wood, grow 
in every part of the island; and gold-dust is found, in some 
quantity, in its more interior regions. Thenatives, especially 
such as reside on the sea-coast, were formerly Mahometans; 
but the missionary Jesuits converted them to the religion and 
allegiance of Spain. Their houses are constructed of 
bamboos, and raised a few feet from the ground, to admit of 
a circulation of air underneath; and the natives generally 
are lodged, fed, and clothed, with very little trouble or expense. 
The streams are every where shaded by the bamboo, and the 
woods contain creeping plants and rattans, which supply 
the place of nails in a Bisayan’s dwelling. Cotton and the 
fibres of the banyan fig-tree furnish materials for the scanty 
apparel he requires. The priests exercise over them a 
patriarchal authority, which is in general cheerfully submitted 
to. Advice and admonition on their part is always accom¬ 
panied with some small present of wine, medicines, liquor, 
Vol. XXII. No. 1527. 
SAM 617 
or animal food, which influences the Indian to an industry 
he would not otherwise exert. When punishment is necessary, 
it is promptly inflicted, which the priest is enabled to do by 
acting in a military as well as sacerdotal capacity. In his 
own parish it is competent to each missionary to issue orders 
for building or repairing the fort, for providing it with 
cannon and ammunition, and for the construction of war 
canoes, which he frequently commands in person. The 
instrument mostly used, both for the purposes of war and 
industry, is a species of creese, somewhat different from that 
of the Malays. The galleon always touches here on the 
passage from Acapulco to Manilla, which attracts the Indians 
from the neighbouring islands. Lat. 11. 15. to 12. 45. N. 
long. 124. 15. to 125. 52. E. 
SAMARA, a small town in the south-east of European 
Russia, government of Simbirsk, on the Wolga. It has 
some trade by means of Tartar caravans, and large tanneries. 
Population 2600; 105 miles south-east of Simbirsk. 
SAMARA, a river in the south of European Russia, in 
the government of * Ekaterinoslav, which falls into the 
Dnieper.—There is another in the government of Simbirk, 
which joins the Wolga at the town of Samara. 
SAMARA, a town of Irak Arabi, on the Tigris. It was 
krtown in antiquity, and in the ninth century became con¬ 
siderable as the residence of several caliphs of the house of 
Abbas. It is revered by Mussulmen as containing the tomb 
of Mahomet al Mahudi, the twelfth Imam. It is now much 
declined, and contains only about four hundred houses; 60 
miles north of Bagdad. 
SAMARA, in Botany, a genus of the class tetandria, or¬ 
der monogynia, natural order of rhamni (Juss.) —Generic 
Character. Calyx : perianth very small, four-parted, acute, 
permanent. Corolla: petals four, ovate, sessile, with a lon¬ 
gitudinal pit at the base. Stamina: filaments four, awl- 
shaped, long, opposite to the petals, immersed in the pit. 
Anthers subcordate. Pistil: germ ovate, shorter by half 
than the corolla, superior, ending in a style that is superior 
and longer: stigma funnel-form. Pericarp: drupe round¬ 
ish. Seed solitary.— Essential Character. Calyx four- 
parted. Corolla four-petalled. Stamina immersed in the 
base of the petal. Drupe one-seeded. 
1. Samara laeta.—Flowers clustered, pedicelled, yellow, 
leaves ovate, obtuse. Branches purplish, even. It differs 
from Cornus not only in having a superior germ, but the 
filaments opposite to, not alternate with the petals. It is a 
shrub, and native of the East Indies. 
2. Samara coriacea.—This is a tree, with a trunk from 
twenty to thirty feet in height, and upright branches. Branch- 
lets alternate. Leaves alternate, entire, somewhat rigid, very 
smooth, membranaceous, dark-green; on short petioles. 
Flowers lateral and axillary, small, whitish. Native of Jamaica, 
3. Samara pentandra.—Flowers pentandrous, leaves el¬ 
liptic.—Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
4. Samara floribunda.—Flowers pentandrous, leaves obo- 
vate. It is a shrub, with the trunk five feet high, branched 
at top. Flowers in bundles, sub-sessile, scattered over the 
bark of the branches and branchlets. Corolla white.—Na¬ 
tive of Cayenne and Guiana, on the margins of meadows or 
savannas. 
SAMARA, according to Pliny, the proper appellation of 
the fruit of the Elm; (see his Natural History, book 16, 
chap. 17.) Gsertner therefore uses this term for a com¬ 
pressed, somewhat membranous, capsule, of one or two cells, 
never spontaneously bursting, and dilated at the sides or 
extremity into a leafy form. The word is liable to the same 
exception as Cotyledon, being used for a generic name. 
SAMARAIN, or Sermin, a small town of Syria, in the 
pachalic of Aleppo. 
SAMARANG, a town of the island of Java, on the 
north coast, and the principal central station in the island. 
It is a large town, with a considerable European population. 
It is defended by a stone parapet and rampart, with bastions 
and a wet ditch, but only calulated for defence against a 
native power. The line of fortification along the coast has 
been destroyed. Between the town and sea-coast is an im- 
7 S passable 
