SABIN. 402 SABLE. Editions of the Works of Fray Bartolomi de las Casas, liishop of Cliiapa (1870), was extracted from the DUtionarp. Sabin was the editor of The Amcriani liibliopoUst (New York, lSOU-75). SA'BINE. A river which rises in the north- eastern [Kirt of Texas, and ilows southeast to the Louisiana boundary, then southward, form- infj the bouiuhiry between Texas and Louisiana, luitil it empties through Sabine Lake and Sa- bine Pass into the Gulf of Mexico (Map: Texas, H 4). It is about 500 miles long, but naviga- ble only for a short distance, and for small • vessels. The navigation of the pass has been improved by dredging and jetty-building. The Saliine is an historic stream and was involved in the sliarp boundarj- controversy between Spain and the United States. SABINE. A shrub. See Savine. SABINE, sab'in. Sir Edward (1788-1883). A British pliysicist and soldier. He was born in Dull! in. and after receiving a military edu- cation at JIarlow and Woolwich, served in the Koyal Artillery. He saw active service in the war with the United States in 1812, being captured by the United Stages privateer Yorhtoun and participating in the actions on the Niagara frontier in 1814. He accompanied Sir Jolin Ross (q.v. ) and Sir William Parry (q.v. ) in their expedition (1818-20) to the north coast of America (see Arctic Regions and Pol.r Re- .SEAKCii), making a series 'of observations of great value. He later (1821-2.3) undertook a series of voyages, visiting many places between tlu! ecpiator and the north pole, and making at each point observations on the length of the seconds pendulum, and on the dip and intensity of the magnetic needle, the results of these ob- servations being published, along with other information, in 1825. His many experiments dealt with almost every phase of terrestrial nuignetism and he extended magnetic science by causing the estaldisliment of magnetic observa- tories in different parts of the world, and by the collation of the enormous mass of facts thus acquired. In 1818 Sabine was elected a fellow of the Royal Society; in 18.56 he was raised to the rank of major-general; and in 1869 he w-as created a Knight Commander of the Bath. He was the author of a work Un the Cosmical Fea- tures of Terrestrial ilarinethm (1862), and con- tributed many papers to the Philosophical Trans- actions of the Royal Society, the Philosophical Magaxine, and other scientific journals. SABINE, saliin, Lokenzo (1803-77). An American author and politician, born in New Lisbon, N. H. After a meagre education, he be- came a merchant and bank officer, and for some time was secretary of the Boston Board of Trade. He also served three terms in the Maine Legis- l.ature. In 1852 he became secret agent of the United States Treasury Department, and served nine weeks in Congress. His best known publica- tions are a Life of Commodore Prehle (1847), in "Si)arks's American Biography;" The American
- ■ Loyalists (1847); Notes on Duels and Duelinfj
(1855) ; and an address on the Uundredth Anni- versary of the Death of Uajor-General Wolfe (1859). SABINES (Lat. Sab'tnl) . An ancient people of Central Italy, of Umbro-Sahellian stock, whose territory lay to the northeast of Rome. Their land appears to have extended from the sources of the Nar, on the borders of I'icenum, as far south as the Anio. The nations conterminous to the Sabines were the Umbrians on the north, the Umbrians and Etruscans on the west, the Latins and .Equi on the south, and tlic Marsi and Picentini on the east. The entire length of the Sabine territory did not exceed 85 miles, reckoning from the hifty and rugged group of the Apennines, anciently known as the Mons Fiscelliis (now Monte della iSihilld), to Fidenre on the Tiber, which is not more than five miles from Rome. None of their towns were of any size or political importance. The inhabitants had no inducements to congre- gate in large towns. Their country W'as an in- land region ; much of it, especially in the north, very mountainous and bleak, though the valleys were (and are) often richly productive. The Sabines were a brave, stern, religious race, whose virtues were all of an austere and honudy character. Their part in the formation of Rome is mentioned under Romulu.s. The whole terri- tory of Sabinum fell under Roman sway after the victory of M. Curius Dentatus in B.C. 290, and in B.C. 208 its inhabitants received the full Roman franchise, while about B.C. 240 they were enrolled in the newly formed tribtis Qnirina. No literature or inscriptions remain in the Sabine dialect, which has to be studied from the few words quoted by the ancients as Sabine (all with Latin terminations) and from place and per- sonal names. It 'as early driven out by the dialect of the Latin conquerors. SABIN'IANS. A school or sect of Roman jurists during the first and second centuries of the Christian Era. Its origin was ascribed to Capito, head of one of the law schools at Rome in the time of Augustus, as the origin of the rival Proculian sect was ascribed to Labeo, a distin- guished contemporary teacher and writer. Each school, however, took its name from a pupil and successor of its founder: the Sabinian school from Masurius Sabimis, second head of the school and author of a standard commentary on the civil law. His successor was Cassias Lon- ginus, who nourished in the reign of Nero and enjoyed so high a reputation that the later ad- herents of the sect sometimes termed themselves Cassians. Other distinguished members of the school were Salvius Julianus, Pomponius. Afri- eanus. and Gains. Gains was the last jurist w-ho regarded himself as an adherent of either of the two schools, and in not a few cases he accepts, in his Institutes, the doctrines of the Proculians. See Civil Law; Proculians; and for literature, con- sult Muirhead, Historical Introduction to the Prirate Laiv of Rome (2d ed., Edinburgh, 1899). SABLE (OF., Fr. sa.ble, black, from Russ. soboU, Lith. sabalas, sable, perhaps from Turk. samSr, from Ar. sanimrir. martin). A fur-bear- ing animal, noted for yielding the most valuable pelt of any of the Mustelida?, of which two species exist, one in Northern Russia and Siberia {ilustela zibellina), and one in Canada {Mus- tela Americana) ; but the latter is usually known as the pine-marten. The Siberian sable, ex- elusive of the tail, is about 18 inches long. The fur is dark brown (not black), grayish-yellow on the throat, and small grayish-yellow s]mts are scattered on the sides of the neck. The whole fur is extremely lustrous, and hence of the very
