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65 
asunder, in a bed of fresh earth, where they are designed to 
remain; thin the plants to the distance of six inches; keep 
them clear from weeds; and in the second season they will 
produce seeds. The perennial sorts should have the ground 
gently dug every spring between the rows, taking care not 
to injure their roots with the spade. These plants love a 
moist soil. 
SESEME QUIAN, a river of the United States, in In¬ 
diana, which runs into the Illinois. It is 60 yards wide at 
the mouth, and navigable for boats 60 miles. 
SESERINUS, in Ichthyology, a name given by Ronde- 
letius, and some others, to the stromateus. 
SESHA, or Seshnaga, a name of a mighty mythologi¬ 
cal serpent among the Hindoos. Images of Naga, or Sesha, 
in brass, are said to be invoked in cases of ill health, with 
appropriate ceremonies, and according to the author of the 
Hindoo Pantheon, they are very common in India, where 
the idea of the medicinal virtues of snakes appears to be of 
very old date. A Hindoo, attacked by a fever, or other 
disease, makes an image of Naga in brass, clay or wax, and 
performs appropriate ceremonies in furtherance of his re¬ 
covery. Such ceremonies are particularly efficacious when 
the moon is in the nakshatra, or asterism, called Sarpa, or 
the serpent. We have observed that the snake, in all my¬ 
thological language, is an emblem of immortality; its end¬ 
less figure, when its tail is inserted in its mouth, an astrolo- 
logical mysticism common to Asia and Europe; and the 
annual renewal of its skin and vigour afford symbols of con¬ 
tinued youth, of duration, and eternity; and its supposed 
medicinal virtues, or life-preserving qualities, may also 
have contributed to the fabled honours of the serpent tribe, 
in the mythological machinery of India, Egypt and Greece, 
these coincidences are numerous. 
SESHTI-MAT RIYA, a name of Kartikya, the mytholo¬ 
gical commander of the celestial armies of Hindoo fable. 
The name means having six mothers. 
SESIA, a river of the Sarnadian states, in the Milanese, 
which rises among the Alps on the bordess of the Valais, 
flows through an extensive valley to which it gives name, 
and dividing into two branches, falls into the Po between 
Casal and Valenza. It has a course of about 80 miles, but 
is not navigable. 
SESIAL, a town on the north-west coast of Timor. Lat. 
8. 54. S. long. 125 26, E. 
SESLERIA, in Botany, received that appellation from 
Scopoli. Linnaeus reduced the plant to Primula; which 
see. 
SESMA, a small town of the north-east of Spain, in Na¬ 
varre, between the Ebro and the Ega; 36 miles south-south¬ 
west of Pampeluna. 
SESOSTRIS, king of Egypt. See Egypt. 
SESQUI, a particle often used by old masters and theo¬ 
rists, in Music, in the composition of words to express dif¬ 
ferent kinds of measure. They called sesquialter measures 
those which contain notes equal to one-third more than 
their usual value ; that is, when equal to three notes of less 
value, instead of two. This happened in what was called 
perfect time, before the use of points or dots, when the 
breve was equal to three semibreves, the semibreve to three 
minims, &c. 
In Italian treatises by old theorists, sesqui is much used 
to express a kind of ratio, particularly in different species 
of triples; that is, when the greater term contains the less 
once, and some small quantity more; as 3 : 2, when the first 
term contains the second, and unity over, which is the half 
of 2. So that if the part remaining be just half the less 
term, as 4 : 3, the ratio is called sesqui ter.za, or tertia; 
if a fourth, or 5 : 4, the ratio is sesqui quarto, and so on 
to infinity; still adding to sesqui the ordinal number of the 
less term. 
SESQUIA'LTER, or Sesquia'lteral, adj. [sesquial- 
t.erc, Fr., sesquialter, Lat.] In Geometry, is a ratio, where 
one quantity of number contains another once and half as 
much more, as 6 and 9. 
Vol. XXIII. No. 1554. 
SESQUIALTER, is a stop in the organ, implying a whole 
and a half. In large organs, this stop has usually five ranks 
of pipes, each note having one sound in unison with the 
diapason, one with the principal, one with the twelfth, and 
one with the fifteenth. 
SESQU1DITONE, in Music, a concord, resulting from 
the sounds of two strings, whose vibrations, in equal times, 
are to each other in the ratio of 5 to 6. 
SESQUIDUPL1CATE RATIO, is when of two terms, 
the greater contains the less twice, and half the less remains; 
as 15 and 16 ; 50 and 20.— Sesqui-Octave, is a kind of 
triple, marked C|» called by the Italians nonupla di crome, 
where there are 9 quavers in every measure or bar, in lieu of 
8.-— Sesqui-quadrate, an aspect, or position of the pla¬ 
nets, when at the distance of four signs and a half, or 135 
degrees, from each other. —Sesqui-quarta, Dupla, is a 
kind of triple, marked C», called by the Italians nonupla 
di sememinime , where there are 9 crotchets in each mea¬ 
sure, instead of 4; that is, three crotchets to each time.— 
Sesquiquintle, an aspect of the planets, when ,108 de¬ 
grees distant from each other. —Sesquitertional Pro¬ 
portion. When any number or quantity contains another 
once and one-third, they are sesquitertional proportions. 
SESQUIPE'DAL, or Sesquipedalian, adj. [stsquipe- 
dalis, Lat.] Containing a foot and a half.—As for my own 
part, I am but a sesquipedal, having only six foot and a 
half of stature. Addison. 
SE'SQUIPLICATE, adj. [In mathematics.] Is the pro¬ 
portion one quantity or number has to another, in the ratio 
of one and a half to one.—The periodical times of the pla¬ 
nets are in sesquiplicat.e proportion, and not in duplicate 
proportion of the distances irom the centre or the radii; and 
consequently the planets cannot be carried about by an har¬ 
monically circulating fluid. Cheyne. 
SESQUiTE'RTIAN. [In mathematics.] Having such a 
ratio, as that one quantity or number contains another once 
and one third part more; as between 6 and 8. 
SESQUITTE, a settlement of New Granada, in the pro¬ 
vince of Guatavita, which contains 100 housekeepers; 9 
leagues north of Santa Fe. 
SESS, s. for Assess. Rate; tax.—His army was so ill 
paid and governed, as the English suffered more damage by 
the sess ot his soldiers than they gained profit or security by 
abating the pride of their enemies. Davies. 
SESSA, an Indian philosopher and mathematician, and 
the inventor of the game of chess, which he communicated 
to his sovereign Scheram, who was so pleased with it, that 
he ordered him to demand what he pleased as a reward for 
his ingenuity. Sessa asked only for a single grain of wheat 
to be laid on the first square, two on the second, four on 
the third, and so on in progression through the sixty-four 
squares. The king,, offended that he should demand so 
mean a gift, directed that he should have just what he asked, 
and no more; but upon coming practically to the business, 
it was, in a very short time, found that all the granaries in 
the kingdom would not supply the demand. Scheram, as¬ 
tonished at the fact, crowned Sessa with very high honours. 
He lived about the eleventh century. 
SESSA, or Sezza, a town in the north-west part of the 
kingdom of Naples, in the Terra di Lavora, situated at the 
foot of Mount Massico. Though small, and indifferently 
built, it is the see of a bishop. Several vestiges of Roman 
antiquities are found in the neighbourhood. Population 
only 3800; 29 miles north-north-west of Naples, and 72 
south-east of Rome. 
SESSAY, a parish of England, North Riding of York¬ 
shire ; 5^ miles north-west of Easingwold. 
SESSE, or Sezza, a small town of Italy, in the Eccle¬ 
siastical States, situated on an eminence near the Pontine 
marshes. It was called Setia or Setinum by the ancients; 
and was celebrated by Martial and Juvenal for its wines, 
which are now, however, of very middling quality. In the 
neighbourhood are vestiges of an ancient temple of Saturn. 
The surrounding district, though, from insalubrity, ill cul- 
S tivated, 
