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by half a tone; the hypermixolydian a minor third higher; 
and the hyperlydian a fourth higher. Plato, desirous of 
simplifying music, and of keeping the scale within moderate 
bounds, complains, in the third book of his Republic, of 
the licentiousness of these acute modes. Now if the only 
difference in the modes was the place they occupied in the 
great system, with respect to gravity or acuteness, the inven¬ 
tion, as it was called, of this mixolydian mode, may have 
been suggested to Sappho, by her having a voice of higher 
pitch than her predecessors; she was, perhaps, the Agujari 
of her time, and could transcend the limits of all former 
scales with equal facility. But though nature may have 
enabled this exquisite poetess to sing her verses in a higher 
key than any one had done before, yet, as it is allowed but 
to few to surpass the common boundaries of human faculties 
and talents, it is probable that her successors, by attempt¬ 
ing, with inferior organs, to ascend those heights, had given 
offence to Plato, and determined him to prohibit the use of 
this mode in his Republic, as indecorous, and too effeminate 
even for women. If, however, it be true, that the charac¬ 
teristic of the modes depended partly, if not principally, 
upon the rhythm or cadence, it seems not an improbable 
conjecture, that, besides the difference of pitch, the novelty 
of Sappho’s mixolydian mode might, in a great measure, 
consist in her first applying to melody the measure called 
Sapphic, from her invention of it. 
Horace adopted the Sapphic measure in many of his odes: 
among others, Jam satis terris nivis, &c. 
Besides the structure of verse called Sapphic, she invented 
the iEolic measure, composed elegies, epigrams, and nine 
books of lyric poetry. 
SA'PPINESS, s. The state or the quality of abounding in 
sap; succulence; juiciness.—Much of their brush or small 
wood I observed to be very sappy, so that when we brake a 
twig of it, there would come a substance out of some of it 
like unto milk ; and the sappiness of that underwood may, 
as I apprehend it, be ascribed in part to the fatness of that 
soil. Terry. 
SAPPO, a village of the kingdom of Yani, in Western 
Africa, on the south side of the Gambia. Lat. 13. 30. N. 
long. 14. 5. W. 
SA'PPY, adj. [pepij, Saxon.] Abounding in sap; 
juicy; succulent.—Herbs for their smell, and sappy plants to 
bear. Shakspeare. 
The sappy parts, and next resembling juice, 
Were turn’d to moisture for the body’s use, 
Supplying humours, blood, and nourishment. Dryden. 
Young; not firm; weak.—This young prince was brought 
up among mlrses, till he arrived to the age of six years; 
when he had passed this weak and sappy age, he was com¬ 
mitted to Dr. Cox. Hayward —Gr. to become 
rotten. It is written sappy in our old lexicography, but 
sapy in Lemon’s etymological dictionary.] Musty; tainted; 
reasty. Barret.—■Sapy [denotes] a moisture contracted on 
the outward surface of meats, which is the first stage of dis¬ 
solution. Lemon. 
SAPRI, a small town in the west of the kingdom of 
Naples, in the Principato Citra, situated on the sea-coast, with 
a harbour, and 1500 inhabitants. It is built on the ruins of 
the ancient Sipron. 
SAPURI, a small river of Guiana, which runs east, and 
enters the Caura. 
SAPY STRAITS. These are formed between the east end 
of the island Sumbawa and the west side of Commodo, or 
Rotten Island. The southern entrance is in Lat. 8. 40. S. 
long. 119, 20. E.; and from the facility with which wood, 
water, and refreshments are procured, it has frequently been 
preferred to the other straits east of Java. The principal place 
is Sapy bay, on the Sumbawa side. Numerous small islands 
are interspersed throughout the strait, separating it into small 
channels, which by running rapid tides, makes the navigation 
dangerous. 
SARA, a small river of Italy, in the Campagna di Roma, 
which falls into the Tuscan sea, in the kingdom of Naples. 
S A R 
SARA, a river of Quito, in the province of Moxos, which 
runs north-north-west, and enters the lake Mamore. 
SARABA, a river of Quito, in the province of Mainas, 
which runs north, and enters very abundantly into the an¬ 
cient Maranon. 
SARABACUS, or Sabahacus, in Ancient Geography, 
a town of India, on the other side of the Ganges. Ptolemy. 
SARABAITES, Sarabait.*, a name anciently given by 
the Egyptians to vagabond and strolling monks, who tra¬ 
velled through various cities and provinces, and gained a 
maintenance by fictitious miracles, by selling relics to the 
multitude, and other similar frauds. 
The word is derived from the Hebrew, sarab, to rebel. 
St. Benedict gives a frightful idea of these Sarabaites in 
the first chapter of his rule. Cassian does not speak a whit 
more favourably of them in his fourteenth conference; nor 
St. Jerom in his letter ad'Eustochium. 
Cassian calls them, “ Renuitte; quia jugum regularis 
discipline renuunt.” 
SA'RABAND, s. [carabancle , Spanish; sarabande, Fr.] 
A Spanish dance.—The several modifications of this tune¬ 
playing quality in a fiddle, to play preludes, sarabands, jigs, 
and gavots, are as much real qualities in the instrument as 
the thought is in the mind of the composer. Arbuthnot. 
The saraband was formerly danced with castanettes. At 
the latter end of the 17th century, and the beginning of the 
last, the saraband constantly constituted a part of every 
concerto, sonata, solo, and suite of lessons for the harp¬ 
sichord. 
The saraband is said to be derived originally from the 
Saracens, as well as the chacone. It had its name, accord¬ 
ing to some authors, from a comedian called Sarabande, 
who first danced it in France. Others derive the name from 
the Spanish sarao, a ball. 
SARABARA, among the Ancients, a Medish or Baby¬ 
lonish garment, which reached only to the knees. 
SARABAT, a considerable river of Asia Minor, which 
rises in the Morad Dag, and passing by Sart and Magnesia, 
falls into the gulf of Smyrna. Lat. 38. 40. N. 
SARABITA, a large and abundant river of New Granada, 
which rises about 22 miles south-west of the lake Fuquene, 
and runs north with a slight inclination to the east, until it 
unites itself with the Chichamocha, or Sogamoso. 
SARACA, in Botany, a genus of the class diadelphia, 
order hexandria, natural order of lomentaceee.—Generic 
Character. Calyx none. Corolla one-petalled, funnel-form; 
border five-parted; segments ovate, spreading, the upper- 
one more remote ; throat with an elevated rim. Stamina : 
filaments six, setaceous, declined, placed on the throat: three 
on each side, connate at the base. Anthers furnished with a 
keel. Pistil: germ pedicelled, oblong, compressed, length 
of the stamens. Style awl-shaped, declined, length of the 
germ. Stigma blunt. Pericarp : legume.— Essential Cha¬ 
racter. Calyx none. Corolla iunnel-form, four-cleft. Fila¬ 
ments three on each side the throat. Legume pedicelled. 
Saraca Indica.—This is a tree, with alternate, abruptly 
pinnate leaves: leaflets three or four-paired, oblong, petioled. 
Flowers in panicles, composed of alternate racemes or spikes; 
with sub-imbricate ovate-lanceolate bractes, opposite by two 
and two. It is a lomentaceous plant.—'Native of the' East 
Indies. 
SARACE, a river of New Granada, in the province of 
San Juan de los Llanos, which rises in the mountains of 
Bogota, and running east-north-east, enters the Cazanare. 
SARACEN. Much diversity of opinion exists respecting 
the etymology of the word Saracen: that from Sarah, the 
wife of Abraham, is ridiculous: that from Sarakee, a small 
village, improbable: and those from the Arabic words, sig¬ 
nifying respectively an eastern situation, and a thievish habit, 
too vague and general to be admitted. The same objection 
appears to us to apply to the Arabic word Saraini, a pas¬ 
toral people; and to Zahara, a desert. Mr. Gibbon asserts, 
that the appellation Saraceni, was imposed by strangers; 
and hence infers, that it must be found, not in the Arabic, 
but in a foreign language. On what authority he makes this 
assertion 
