SIVA, MAHADEO, or RUDRA. The destroyer, in Hindoo mythology, is represented under different forms. He is usually painted of a white or silver colour, with a third eye, and the crescent (which he obtained at the churning of the ocean) in the middle of his forehead. Sometimes he is decribed with one head, and at others with five: sometimes armed with various instruments of destruction; at others riding on the bull, Nandi, with Parvati on his knee; and again, at others, as a mendicant, with inflamed eyes and besotted countenance, soliciting alms from Anna Purna, a form of Parvati.

He is

also represented under the appearance of Kal, or Time, the destroyer of all things. The bull, Nandi, the vahan of Siva, is held in great reverence by the Hindoos. This animal is one of the most sacred emblems of Siva, as the Egyptian Apis was of the soul of Osiris. The Egyptians believed that, when he ate out of the hands of those who went to consult him it was a favourable answer. The Hindoos place rice and other articles before their doors as the animal passes along in their processions, and if he stop to taste them, consider it as a fortunate event. This, at least, he is very prone to do, to the serious injury of the Hindoo shopkeepers, as he wanders, not in his most sacred capacity, through the streets of Calcutta and other towns. Siva is principally worshipped under the form of the linga (q.v.); some of these emblems, usually of basalt, are of an enormous size; and they are also made morning and evening of the clay of the Ganges, which, after worship, are thrown into the river. The linga is never carried in procession. The temples dedicated to it are square Gothic buildings, the roofs of which are round, and tapering to a point. In many parts of Hindostan they are more numerous than those dedicated to the worship of any other of the Hindoo idols; as are the numbers

of the worshippers of this symbol, beyond comparison, more extensive than the worshippers of the other deities or their emblems. The Binlang stone is also sacred to Siva. Besides the daily worship of the linga in the temples, there are several other periods in which the image of Siva is worshipped under different forms. In the month of Phulgunu he is worshipped for one day as a mendicant. On the following day the images of him, with a bloated countenance, matted locks, and inflamed eyes, are carried in procession, attended by a large concourse of people, dancing, singing, and playing on various instruments, and thrown into the river. In the month Mughul there is another festival in honour of him, called Hari Gauri, in which he is represented riding on a bull, with Parvati on his knee. But the most celebrated occasion of his worship is in the month Choitru, at the time that the ceremony of the churuka, or swinging by hooks fastened in the flesh of the back, is performed.—(See CHURUK POOJA.) Amongst the mendicants who devote themselves to this destroying demon the Charuns bear an elevated rank, and are held by the Hindoos in peculiar sanctity. According to their fabled origin, it is said that Mahadeo first created the Bhauts, or sacred minstrels, to attend his lion and bull; but the former killing the latter every day, the god was put to infinite trouble and vexation in creating new ones. therefore, formed the Charun, ¿qually devout as the Bhaut, but of bolder spirit, and gave him charge of these favourite animals. The influence of the Charun was, therefore, very great amongst a people so ignorant and superstitious as the Hindoos; and it was usual for merchants or travellers to hire one to protect them on their journies; the sanctity of their character being generally sufficient for that purpose. If robbers appeared, the Charun interposed his

He,

ghostly influence between them and his employers; but if his denunciation was not enough to deter them from plunder, he was bound in honour to stab himself, nay, even to put himself to death, at the same time dooming the marauders to eternal punishment, in the event of such a catastrophe. SIYAMBALA-GAHA, the tamarindtree of Ceylon. It grows to a great height, and is of vast extent. Its leaves are very small. The fruit hangs down like the pods of beans, each of which contains four or five seeds, surrounded with an agreeable acid pulp, full of strings, which is sometimes used in medicine. wood, which is white, hard, and close-grained, is used for making mills, called checkos, for expressing cocoa-nut oil, vast quantities of which are made, and yearly sent to England.

The

SOHTA, a Turkish student of Mahomedan law. SOLAPORE, or SHOLAPORE, a town in India, in the province of Bejapore, is large and flourishing, with a strongly-built fort, in Lat. 17 deg. 40 min. N., Long. 76 deg. 3 min. E. It is an important English military station, and is also a place of considerable inland com

merce.

SOLEE, a fish of the Ganges, not unlike the pike of English rivers, and equally ravenous.

SONAH WALLAH. The sonah wallah

is a fellow, who, for one shilling a day, will come to your house, in India, and in the verandah, with a few rude tools, will make trinkets and ornaments of any gold which may be given him for the purpose, except English jewellery, which is so hard, from the quantity of alloy mixed with it, that the native cannot work it. He uses a pair of long tongs, or rather forceps, to arrange his charcoal fire; at the same time, a tin tube placed to his mouth, assisted by his lungs, performs the duty of bellows. In spite of the tools used, these people

work with considerable accuracy and taste, and with great ingenuity The native female servants, who are charmed with trinkets, are delighted when they receive their mistress's instructions to send for a sonah wallah. Wallah, in Hindostanee, means fellow; and without intentional disrespect, is used for all ranks and classes of people; the general commanding a division, is called a burrah topee wallah (great hat fellow), the infantry soldiers are always called loll coatee wallahs (red coated fellows), and there are many bhote acha wallahs (good fellows), and more burrah carab wallahs (very bad fellows).

SONAR, a worker in gold (in India); a goldsmith.

66

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SOOCUNNY, from SOOCUN, rudder;" the quartermaster or steersman of an Indian or Arab vessel. The word is often written and pronounced seacunny. SOOJEE, Hindostanee. The heart of the wheat, which is very fine ground; a kind of meal, so far from being pulverised as to bear a strong resemblance to rather coarse sand. Soojee is kneaded in the same manner as flour, but there being no yeast in the country, it is leavened by means of toddy; which is the juice obtained by making incisions into the taul (or palm-tree). many parts of India taul trees are very scarce, and are carefully preserved for the sake of the toddy, which is sold to the nonbaies (or bakers) at a high price.

In

SOOLOO ISLES, in Asia. These are a chain of numerous small islands in the Eastern Archipelago, situated between the western extremity of Mindanao, the southermost of the Manillas, and the north-eastern extremity of Borneo, and lying between the fourth and seventh degrees north latitude. Sooloo, which is the principal, and gives its name to the group, is situated about Lat. 6 deg. N., and Long. 121 deg. E., and is about forty miles in length,

by seven, the average breadth. This island is fertile and well cultivated. It produces rice, and the usual tropical fruits, and possesses the common domestic animals. It is believed to be free from the large sorts of wild beasts. The shoals round and between the islands yield abundance of pearls, and mother-of-pearl, which are disposed of chiefly to the Chinese. The inhabitants, who are termed Sooloos, are of the Malay race. They are an exceedingly savage and treacherous people, and have always been noted as pirates. They are under the government of a Malay chief, who has the title of sultaun. Their religion is Mahomedanism of the Soonnee sect, and their language a mixture of Malay, Javanese, and Tagala, written in the Malay character. SOONDERBUNDS,

or SUNDER

BUNDS, an immense wilderness, full fifty miles in depth, and in length about a hundred and eighty miles, in the south of Bengal. This wilderness, which borders the coast to the water's edge, forming a strong natural barrier in that quarter, occupies the whole of what is called the Delta of the Ganges, everywhere intersected by great rivers, and innumerable creeks, in which the tides are so intermixed, that a pilot is absolutely necessary, both to thread the intricacies of the passage, and to point out at what particular parts the currents will, at certain times, be favourable in proceeding either to the eastward, or to the westward. In many places there is scarcely breadth for the passing of a single boat, and even then the boughs of the immense trees, and of the subordinate jungle, frequently are found so to hang over, as nearly to debar the progress of ordinary tradingvessels. Fortunately, these narrow creeks are short, or, at least, have in various parts such little bays as enable boats to pass. The water being brackish, or rather absolutely

name of the sect of Mahomedans, who insist on the supremacy of Mahomed, and revere equally his first four successors, and acknowledge the authority of various traditions. The Turks are Soonnees. SOONTAH-BURDAR, a staff-bearer in the cortège of an exalted official, or opulent native of India. He bears a baton of about thirty inches in length, generally curved at its upper extremity, so as to resemble the ordinary form of bludgeons. These batons are made of the same materials as the chobe, or pole, but while the latter are borne, when their bearers are proceeding with a palankeen, by a suitable balance near their centres, like trailed arms, the former are held by their lower extremities, which, since they never are rested on the ground, as the chobes are, require no ferules, the crooked end of the soontah being carried over the shoulder. Soontah-burdars are frequently employed by persons in a second or third rate office, or of opulence, where no jemmadar or chobdar is kept.

SOOPAREE, the betel-nut. As it is generally used with the paun-leaf, the more frequent word is paunsooparee.

SOOR, SOOR-KA-BUTCHA, abusive terms, of which the Hindostanee language is fertile. Soor is a pig, and soor-ka-butcha the offspring of a pig. As the disciples of Mahomed abominate the unclean animal, these epithets are highly offensive when applied to the Moslem.

To pound soorky is a labour corresponding with the beating hemp in English Houses of Correction. SOORMA, a preparation of antimony, with which the gay Hindoos, especially the women of pleasure, nautch girls, &c., anoint the eye-lids. SOUCAR, an Indian merchant or banker, a money-lender. SPAHIS, Turkish cavalry. SRAD'HA, or SHRADDA, obsequies paid by the Hindoos to the manes of deceased ancestors, to effect, by means of oblations, the re-embodying of the soul of the deceased after burning his corpse, and to raise his shade from this world (where it would else, according to the notions of the Hindoos, continue to roam among demons and evil spirits,) up to heaven, and then deify him, as it were, among the manes of departed ancestors.

SREENUGGUR, the former capital of the province of Gurwal, or Sreenuggur, in India, situated in Lat. 30 deg. 11 min. N., Long. 78 deg. 44 min. E. In the mountains, on the north-eastern side of the Deyra Doon, are the stations of Landour and Mussoorie; these have been formed by the English, who resort to them for change of air, the climate being cold and healthful. SUBAH, or SOOBAH, the term applied by the Mogul Government to a province such as Bengal. A grand division of a country, which is again divided into circars, chucklahs, pergunnahs, and villages. N.B. The term, though Arabic, is in this sense peculiar to India. Europeans are apt to confound this term with subahdar (q. v.)

SUBAHDAR, the viceroy or governor of a province. (See SUBAH.) The title is also used to designate a native military officer, whose rank corresponds with that of a captain. SUBAH KAUZIB, Persian. The lying or false dawn, a phenomenon common in the East, consisting of a brightness which appears for an hour before the true dawn com

mences. "It may be," says Fraser, "some optical deception, depending upon refraction of the sun's rays, even when he is considerably below the visible horizon." SUCH-BAT, Hindostanee. True words; truth. A common expression among the natives to signify assent. SUDDER, Hindostanee. The breast; the fore court of a house. The chief seat of government, contradistinguished from mofussil, or interior of the country. The presidency. SUDDER AUMEEN, literally, "chief arbitrator;" an officer in the local courts of British India.

SUDDER DEWANNY ADAWLUT, the chief civil court of justice under the East India Company's government held at the Presidencies of India. SUDDOOZYE, the chief division of the whole of the Dooranee tribe of Afghans.

SUDDYA is little more than a village in the country of Assam, in Asia, situated at the mouth of a small river named the Kondeil nulla, running into the Brahmapootra river, in about Lat. 57 deg. 52 min. N. SUKKUR, a place in India, in the province of Scinde, on the right bank of the Indus, opposite Bukkur, a fortress built upon a rock, in the middle of the river, Lat. 27 deg. 42 min. N. A few miles from Sukkur are the ruins of Alore, in early times the capital of a mighty kingdom, which extended from the ocean to Cashmere on the north, and from Candahar on the west, to Kanoje on the east, and mentioned by the Greek historians as the kingdom of Musicanus.

SUKRA, the name given in Hindoo mythology to the planet Venus ; Sukra is a Brahmun, the preceptor or gooroo of the giants, or ditis, and is held in great estimation by the Hindoos. He is by some called the son, by others the grandson, of Brigu, and is described as variously mounted. In one of the zodiacs he is seated on a camel, with a large ring or hoop

in his hands, and having the appearance of a female; in another, on an animal resembling a rat. He is of a white complexion, middle aged, and of an agreeable countenance. A person born under this planet will be gifted with the power of omniscience, and possess the gifts of fortune and the blessings of life, among which are many wives. He presides over Sukerwar, or Friday. SULTAN, or SULTAUN, the sovereign of the Turkish empire-the acknowledged head of the Mahomedan religion.

SULTANA. See ODALISQUE. SUMATRA, in Asia, a large island of the group of Sunda Islands, in the Eastern Archipelago, lying obliquely north-west and south-east, between the sixth degree of north latitude and the sixth of south, and longitude 95 deg., and 107 deg. E. In length it may be estimated at 1000 miles by 150, the average breadth. Its chief divisions are Acheen, the Batta country, Menancaboo, Palembang, and the Rejangs. It has numerous rivers, some of them large and navigable. Ranges of lofty mountains run through the whole extent of the island; many of them are volcanic, and lava is occasionally seen to flow from them. Earthquakes also are frequent, but generally slight. The highest mountain visible from the sea has been named by the Europeans Mount Ophir, and is 13,842 feet in height. In addition to all the productions of India which it possesses in remarkable abundance, this island produces camphor, cassia, nutmegs, cloves, benzoin, rattans, sago, the breadfruit, and the edible birds'-nests. The animals, wild and domestic, are the same as in India, the tiger growing to a very large size. There is also the ourang-outang. The horses are of a small and active breed, generally known in India as the Acheen ponies. In the Batta country they are used for food. Gold is abundant, and there are mines of

copper, tin, and iron. Earth, oil, and sulphur, are also plentiful. The principal towns are Acheen, Menancaboo, Palembang, Padang, and Bencoolen. By the natives this island is usually called Palo, Parichoo; and by the Javanese, Thana Palembang; the origin of its European name, Sumatra, is quite unknown. Its inhabitants consist of various tribes, of the brown race, of which the principal are the Malays and Battas. The Battas are addicted to an extraordinary system of cannibalism. According to their laws, all persons put to death for capital offences are cut up and eaten; as are also all enemies killed or taken prisoners during any general war. Notwithstanding this savage practice, the Battas are remarkable as a quiet and timid people. In appearance they resemble the Hindoo. It is a general custom throughout Sumatra for both sexes to file down their teeth, and to stain them jet black; many also casing the two front teeth in gold. All classes are inveterately given to gaming and cock-fighting, and all are great opium-smokers. Mahomedanism is the religion of the Malay tribe, but the Battas, and others, are still pagans, and without any regular form of religion, as they have no kind of worship, possessing little more than a confused notion of some superior and invisible beings, with very little idea of a future state. The principal languages are the Malay and the Batta. The Batta differs not greatly from the Malay, but is written in characters derived from the Sanscrit, from left to right, upon the inner bark of a tree, and on bamboos. SUMJOW, a Hindostanee word, literally not to be translated, but most

significant in its usage. It comes from Sumujha, to cause to understand, or to persuade; but the means of persuasion, whether argument or force, are ingeniously left to the conception of those whose interests it suits, in