SIGOURNEY
SILESIA
Sigourney (stg'gr-nt), Lydia Huntley,
an American writer, was born at Norwich, Conn., Sept. i, 1791. Her first publication was Moral Pieces (1815). She compiled books for the young, contributed to magazines and was one of the earliest women in America to enter authorship. She has been called the American Hemans. Connecticut, Pocahontas, Tales and Letters to Y^ung Ladies are some of her books. She died at Hartford, June 10, 1865. Consult her autobiographic Letters of Life.
Sigs'bee, Charles Dwight, American naval officer, was born at Albany, N. Y., Jan. 16, 1845, and graduated in 1863 from the United States Naval Academy. In the Civil War he served in the West-Gulf squadron and was at the battle of Mobile Bay; in the North Atlantic squadron; and at both attacks on Fort Fisher and the final assault on the fort. He also served on the Chinese station and at the head of various departments of the Naval Academy. He successively commanded the Kearsarge, Dale, Constellation, Portsmouth and the Blake in the deep-sea explorations undertaken by the United States coast-survey. He was in command of the battleship Maine when it was destroyed in Havana harbor, Feb. 15, 1898. Durir the Spanish-American War he commanded the Uidted States auxiliary cruiser St. P^^l '*i operations against Cuba and Porto Ri o, and later was transferred to the T:xas. In 1904 he attained the rank of rear-admiral. He published Deef-Sea Soundings and The Story of the Maine—a personal narrative.
Sigurd (ze'gffbrd) or Sigurdr is the hero of the Norse Eddas. Thus he is identical with the Siegfried of the Nibelungenlied, which is modelled on the Volsunga Saga. Sigurd is a hero, a descendant of Odin, who slays the dragon that guards the golden treasure, and, by eating the heart of the monster, is enabled to understand the songs of birds. He also succeeds in penetrating the flames which surround the house of the sleeping Brunhild, whom he awakens. They plight their troth; and Sigurd rides away. Under the spell of a love-potion he marries Gudrun; and is also persuaded tinder a spell to deliver Brunhild for Gunnar. Brunhild now seeks to slay Sigurd; but her heart breaks for love of him when he is finally slain by the half-brother of Gunnar.
Sikhs (sēks), a religious sect in northern India. The word means followers or disciples. It was founded by Baba Nanak in the 15th century, who rejected the caste-system and idolatry, and taught the worship of one God. At the end of the 16th century the holy temple was built at Amritsar, which is the headquarters of the sect. As they increased in numbers, they gradually assumed military power, and in the 18th century under Kanjit Singh (q. v.), a young warlike chief, they became a great military force in the Panjab. He kept the treaty he had made with Great Britain, but at his death his large and well-drilled army invaded British territory in India in 1845. After several battles and defeats they were at last conquered in 1849, and the Panjab was annexed. At the mutiny (1857) the Sikhs remained loyal to England. The Sikhs form about six per cent. of the population of the Panjab, and there are 15 protected Sikh states connected with the Panjab government. They number about 1,907,836. Consult Cunningham's History of the Sikhs.
Silas Marner, a story of humble life by George Eliot (1861), considered by many her finest work. To quote her own words, "the story sets forth the good influences of pure, natural, human relations." Silas, the linen-weaver of Rayeloe, wrongly accused of theft, leads an isolated, miserable life, his one treasure, the savings of years, being stolen by the squire's son. In its place a little child, Eppie, strays into his cottage and fills his life with joy. Her influence drew him into the stream of the village-life, and he became a natural man again. There is a minor theme in the life of Godfrey Cass, a type of the deterioration of character. This contrast with the regeneration of Silas Marner forms the center around which the author weaves much of the details of the simple village-life. The story is a good moral tonic aside from its specific teachings.
Silesia (si-le'shi-a), a province in southeastern Prussia, covering 15,566 square miles. It is crossed by Oder River and the Sudetic mountains, between which is a very fertile region, while on the northern and eastern sides of the Oder there are marshy and sandy tracts. One of the most productive coal-mining regions of Prussia, covering 530 square miles, is in the southeastern corner of Silesia, and there also are mines of zinc. The crops are the usual cereals and flax, beet-root, chicory and hops. The manufactures are important, including linen, cotton and woolen goods, beet-root sugar, metal manufactures, glass and tobacco. The capital is Breslau. The population, including 820,000 Poles, 55,000 Bohemians and 32,000 Wends, numbers 5,225,962. All schools are under the direction of the minister of public instruction, and elementary education is free and compulsory. Silesia in the loth century was under Polish rule; about the end of the i2th century it was divided into Upper and Lower Silesia; and by the beginning of the 14th it was separated into a number of small states under King John of Bohemia, which in 1526 fell to Austria. Austria and Prussia struggled for the country, the claim of Prussia being based upon a contract by which the duke of Leignitz in 1537 left his lands to the elector of Brandenburg in case
