351 
SON 
a word of slight contempt.—The pretty songsters of the 
Spring with their various notes did seem to welcome him as 
lie passed. Howell. 
SO'NGSTRESS, s. A female singer. 
Through the soft silence of the listening night. 
The sober-suited songstress trills her lay. Thomson. 
SONG-TCHOUI, a town of China, of the third rank, in 
Houquang. 
SONG-TSI, a town of China, of the third rank, in 
Houquang. 
SONG-YANG, a town of China, of the third rank, in 
Tchekiang. 
SONHO, the name given by the Portuguese to the pro¬ 
vince of Congo, in Africa, situated on the southern bank of 
the Zayre, bounded on the west by the Atlantic, and reach¬ 
ing southward to the river Ambriz. It is described by them 
as governed by a count or earl, subject to the general sove¬ 
reign of Congo, and represented as populous and well culti¬ 
vated. The chief town is said to be on a creek, on the south 
side of the Zayre, and to contain 400 houses. The late 
English expedition appears to have heard nothing of this 
name, and found the country almost uncultivated, with only 
a few scattered villages. 
SON-HOIT, a port of Chinese Tartary, in the country of 
the Mongols. Lat. 42. 48. N. long. 114. 27. E. 
SONI'FEROUS, adj. [sonus, o.nAfero, Lat. Giving or 
bringing sound.—This will appear, let the subject matter of 
sounds be what it will; either the atmosphere, or the etherial 
part thereof, or soniferous particles of bodies. Derham. 
SONNA, a book, or collection of the Mahometan tra¬ 
ditions, or of the sayings and actions of their prophet, which 
all the orthodox Mussulmen are required to believe This 
is a kind of supplement to the Koran, directing the ob¬ 
servance of several things omitted in that book, and in sense, 
as well as design, corresponding to the Mishna of the Jews. 
The word signifies, in Arabic, the same with mishna in 
the Hebrew, that is, second law; or, as the Jews call it, 
oral law. 
The adherents to the Sonna are called Sonnites, or Tradi- 
tionaries ; and as, among the Jews, there is a sect of Ca- 
raites, who reject the traditions as fables invented by the 
rabbins; there are also sectaries among the Mahometans, 
called Sckiites, [see that article] who reject the traditions of 
the Somnites, as being founded on the authority of an apo¬ 
cryphal book, and not derived to them from their legislator. 
There is the same enmity between the Somnites and 
Schiites, as between the rabbinist Jews and the Caraites. 
The Schiites reproach the Somnites with obtruding the 
dreams of their doctors for the word of God ; and the Som¬ 
nites, in their turn treat the Schiites as heretics, who refuse 
to admit the divine precepts, and who have corrupted the 
Koran, &c. 
SONNEBURG, a town of the Prussian states, in the New 
Mark of Brandenburg; 11 miles east-south-east of Custrin. 
Population 1700. 
SONNENBERG, a town of Germany, in the principality 
of Saxe-Meinungen. It contains 1900 inhabitants, who 
manufacture a number of miscellaneous articles, such as 
mirror frames, wooden wares, whet stones, slates for 
writing, &c.; 12 miles north-north-east of Coburg, and 40 
south of Weimar. 
SONNENBERG, a small town of the west of Germany, 
in the duchy of Nassau; 2 miles north-east of Wisbaden. 
SONNENBERG, a town in the west of Bohemia; 58 
miles west-north-west of Prague. Population 900. 
SONNERATIA [so named by the younger Linnaaus, in 
memory of Mons Sonnerat, who travelled into New Guinea, 
the East Indies and China, and communicated many new 
plants to the botanists in Europe], in Botany, a genus of 
the class icosandria, order monogynia, natural order of 
hesperideae, myrti (Juss .)—Generic Character. Calyx : 
perianth one-leafed, bell-shaped, flat, six-cleft, permanent: 
segments ovate. Corolla: petals six, awl-shaped, spreading, 
inserted into the base of the calyx, and scarcely longer than 
SON 
it. Stamina: filaments very many, filiform, inserted into 
the base of the calyx, long. Anthers globular. Pistil: 
germ superior, globular. Style filiform. Stigma simple. 
Pericarp : berry placed upon the permanent patulous calyx, 
subglobular, acuminate, smooth, with a bladdery pulp, 
many-celled. Seeds 6 some in each cell.— Essential Cha¬ 
racter. Calyx six-cleft. Petals six, lanceolate. Berry 
many-celled, with several seeds in each cell. 
Sonneratia acida.-—This is a tree. The leaves are opposite, 
subsessile, oblong, quite entire, like those of Hypericum. 
Flowers terminating, solitary, large. Petals red. Fruit re¬ 
sembling that of Mesembryanthemum, with an acid bladdery 
juice.—Native of the Molucca islands, and the bogs of 
New Guinea; also of Cochin-china, on the banks of rivers. 
SO'NNET, s. [sonnet , Fr.; sonnetto, Ital.] A short 
poem consisting of fourteen lines, of which the rhymes are 
adjusted by a particular rule. The sonnet owes its origin 
to the poets of Italy.—A small poem. 
Let us into the city presently, 
To sort some gentlemen well skill’d in music; 
I have a sonnet that will serve the turn. Shakspearc. 
To SO'NNET, v. n. To compose sonnets. Not in use. 
Nor lady’s wanton love, nor wandering knight, 
Legend I out in rhimes all richly dight;— 
Nor list I sonnet of my mistress’ face. 
To paint some blowesse with a borrowed grace. Bp. Hall. 
SONNETTE'ER, So'nneter, So'nnetist, or So'n- 
netwriter, s. [somietier, Fr.] A small poet in contempt. 
—Assist me, some extemporal god of rhime; for I am sure I 
shall turn sonneter. Shahspeare. 
The prophet of the heavenly lyre. 
Great Solomon sings in the heavenly quire, 
And is become a new-found sonnetist! Bp. Hall. 
There are as many kinds of gardening as of poetry: your 
makers of parterres and flower-gardens are epigrammatists 
and sonnetteers in his art. Spectator. —A suite of tales was 
published by George Whetstone, a sonnet-writer of some 
rank, and one of the most passionate among us to bewail 
the perplexities of love. Warton. 
SONNEWALD, a town of the Prussian states, province 
of Brandenburg. Population 800; 42 miles north of Dsed. 
SONNING, or Sunning-upon-Thames, a parish of Eng¬ 
land, in Berkshire ; 3j miles north-east of Reading. Popu¬ 
lation 1534. 
SONNINO, a small town of Italy, in the States of 
the Church, in the Campagua di Roma; 6 miles north of 
Terracina. 
SONNO, a town ofNiphon, in Japan; IS miles north¬ 
east of Iwatata. 
SONO, a river of Brazil, which runs north-north-west, 
and enters the Paratinga, just before it joins the Toccantides. 
SONOKI, a village of Mingrelia; 45 miles south-east of 
Anarghia. 
SONORA, an intendancy or province of Mexico, which 
is very thinly peopled, and extends along the gulf of Cali¬ 
fornia, for more than 280 leagues from the great bay of 
Bayona, or the Rio del Rosaria, to the mouth of the Rio Co¬ 
lorado. The breadth of the intendancy is by no means uni¬ 
form. From the tropic of Cancer to the 27th degree, the 
breadth scarcely extends 50 leagues; but farther north, to¬ 
wards the Rio Gila, it increases so considerably, that on the 
parallel of Arispe, it is more than 128 leagues. 
The intendancy of Sonora comprehends an extent of hilly 
country, of greater surface than the half of France ; but its 
absolute population is not equal to the fourth of the worst 
peopled department of that empire. The intendant, who 
resides in the town of Arispe, has the charge of several pro¬ 
vinces, which have retained the particular names they had 
before their union. The intendancy of Sonora comprehends 
the three provinces of Cinaloa, Ostimury, and Sonora proper. 
The first extends from the Rio del Rosaria to the Rio del 
Fuerto; the second from the Rio del Fuerto to the Rio del 
Mayo; 
