Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/876

SEBAM7X7B. 796 SERAPH. ernmeat building, ana tlie old Danish cluucli, with its memorial tablets to the early mission- aries. Population, in 1901, 44,451. Serampur was a Danish possession, known as Fredericks- nagar. until 1S45. when it was ceded to the East In.lia Company. It is noted as the centre of the Baptist missionary movement of the early years of the nineteenth century. Ward, Carey, :Mack, and Marshman, the leaders of this movement, are buried here. SEBAO, sft-ra'i, IMatilda (1856—). One of the most prominent of modern Italian novelists, I)orn at Patras, (ireece. She first wrote short sketches for the Neapolitan papers, and was for a time connected with the editorial staff of the Capilan Francassa. Later, with her husband, Kdoardo Scarfoglio, she founded the Corriere di Kama (afterwards Corriere di yopoli), and in 1S!)I founded the Mnttinn. As a novelist she sliows in her earlier work unmistakably the in- lluence of the French realists, notably Zola, whose yrntre de Paris she follows in spirit as well as title in her Ventre di ynpoU (1S85). A good many of her books deal with the various phases of Neapolitan life. In her later novels she devotes herself to psychological problems, which she handles with much subtlety and power. Among her best works are: La eoiiqiiistd di Roma (1S85); Vita e a venture di Riecardo Joanna; II paese di Cuccafina (1891) ; Addio amorc. In her more recent book, Al Paese di Gesi'i, she seems to have joined the neo-mystic school of which Fogazzaro is a leading representative in Italy. In 1901 Serao's Paese di cuecagna appeared in English translation as The Land of Cockayne, in the same year. The Ballet Dancer {La "ballerina) , and On Guard, ffcntinel {All 'crte sentinella!) , and in 1902 the La eonquista di Roma under the title The Ct)n(iurst of Rome. SER'APE'tTM ( Lat., from Gk. 'S.efMiruov, Sera- pi ion. SapaTretov, Sarapeion, from 2^pa;rir, Serapis, Papain!, Sara pis). A name signifying a temple of the god Serapis (q.v.). Several such temples existed in Egypt, the most remarkable being the Serapeum of Alexandria, said to have been one of the grandest buildings in the world. It was built by Ptolemy I. in the suburb of Racotis on the site of an older temple, and was richly adorned with sculptures and paintings. The temple was burned down in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but was soon rebuilt; it was finally destroyed, in A.D. .391, by Bishop The- ophihis of Alexandria. The Serapeum of Mem- phis ( q.v. ) , situated near the site of the modern village of Saqqara (q.v.). was the funerary temple of the sacred bull Apis. It consisted of an extensive group of buildings, with pylons, an inner and an outer court, and the usual appur- tenances of Egyptian temples, and was connected by an avenue of sphinxes with a small serapeum of the Greek period, before which stood eleven statues of Greek philosophers and poets arranged in a semicircle. Within the chambers of the Egyptian Serapeum was established a colony of hermits who lived in cells attached to the various chapels of the temple. A regularlv organized monastic s.vstem prevailed among them, and there can be no doubt that they were the prototypes of the Christian monks and ascetics of a later j)e- riod. Below the great temple were the subter- ranean tombs in which the' mummies of the Apis bulls were deposited from the time of Amenophis III., or perhaps earlier, down to the Roman pe- riod. The earlier tombs are square chambers, hewn in the rock, and they were connected by shafts with chapels standing above them. In the nineteenth year of Rameses II. a subterranean gallery, about 110 j'ards long, was hewn out and flanked by some 40 chambers, e.Tch of which was walled up after receiving the remains of a sacred bull. In the reign of Psammetiehus I. (q.v.) a new gallery was excavated upon a much more extensive scale, and additions were made to it from time to time by the Saitic and Ptolemaic monarchs. The Apis tombs were opened in 1851 by ilariette, who found some of the mummies still intact in the coflins in which they were buried. Among the many valu- able relics found, the most instructive were the Apis steles or small tablets recording the exact dates of birth, enthronement, and burial of the sacred animals. These tablets furnish chronological data of the utmost importance; the,v are dated by the regnal ,years of the kings imder whose rule the recorded events occurred, and they have thus served to determine with precision the duration of the reigns of many Pharaohs, and the order in which they succeeded each other. Consult: Mariette, Memoire sur la mere d'Apis (Paris, 1856) ; id., Lc Herapium de Memphis (ib. 1857) ; Wieiemann, Aegyptische Ge- schichte (Gotha, 1884-88); id.. Religion of the Ancient Egt/ptians, translated (New York, 1897) ; Budge, A History of Egypt (ib., 1902). SERAPH (Heb. saraph, pi. srrfiphim). An order of celestial beings mentioned only once in the Bible (Is. vi. 2-6). From the description there given it would appear that they were con- ceived as human in form, having hands, faces, and feet, but having also wings. Of these they had six, or three pairs, with one pair covering their faces, with a second their feet, and flying with the third pair. They are ranged opposite each other and proclaim the holiness of Yahweh. The.v also carry out His commands. The origin of the word as well as of the idea is still a matter of conjecture. The word is rendered by Jewish commentators 'the brilliant ones,' but other scholars propose 'the lofty ones'; still others would change the te.xt, reading sherathim for seraphim, and translate 'ministering ones.' So radical a procedure, however, is not called for, and since the underlying stem saraph signi- fies to consume with fire, it seems rea- sonable to connect with the seraphim the notion of purification b,v fire and to re- gard them as the agents who bring about such purification — which as a matter of fact is the function assigned to them in Isaiah's vision (Is. vi. 6-8). There is evidentl.v some relationship also between Isaiah's seraphim and the 'fiery serpent' {snriiph) referred to in Num. xxi. 6 and Deut. viii. 15 (ef. Is. xiv. 29; xxx. 6), which bites the Israelites in the desert. This seraph appears to have been originally a personification of the serpent-like lightning. The popular notion is transferred by the Prophet into the spiritual realm, and in this transfer all traces of the ser- pentine form disappear. A factor in bringing about this transfer may have been the Egyptian conceptions of winged griffins — called in Demotic texts Serb — who act as guardians of tombs and temples. It is to be noted that winged men and beasts appear also on the Assyrian monuments. See Cherub.