Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/200

SIGSBEE. 160 SIKHS. was assigned to the Gulf Squadron; and took part in the battle of Mobile Bay. In 1865 he was transferred to the North Atlantic Squadron, and participated in the bombardment and the capture of Fort Fisher. From 1ST4 to 1878 he was employed in exploring the bottom of the Gulf of iiexico, and because of the improve- ments which he introduced in this work re- ceived the order of the Red Eagle of Prussia and a gold medal. He was promoted to the rank of commander in 1882, and to that of cap- tain in 1897. In the latter year he was as- signed to the command of the battleship Maine, which, while still imder his command, was de- stroyed in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, on February 15, 1898. On this occasion he dis- played "great courage and coolness and was widely commended for his self-restraint in ask- ing that the American people suspend judg- ment until a careful investigation should show where the responsibility lay. During the war against Spain he commanded the auxiliary cruiser Saint Paul. From September, 1898, to January, 1900, he commanded the battleship Texas, "and was then appointed chief officer of naval intelligence, a member of the Naval Con- struction Board and of the Naval General Board. He wrote Deep Sea Sounding and Dredging, U. S. Coast Survey (1880), and Personal Narrative of the Battleship Maine (1899). SIGURD, se'gurd. The hero of the Norse Eddas, corresponding to the German Siegfried of the yihclungcnlied (q.v.). SIGTJRDSSON, se'gnrd-son, J6x (1811-79). An Icelandic scholar and politician, born at Rafn- sevri. Northwest Iceland. For several years he was archivist, and in 1851 was made president of the Icelandic Archa?ological Society. In 1845, when the Danish Government granted the rees- tablishment of the Althing, the Icelandic na- tional assembly, he was made its Speaker, and it was mainly due to his exertions that Iceland obtained practical home rule in 1874. His pub- lications include Diplomatariiim Islandicum, S7'rl2ll'i. and Lovsainmling, J0i)6-lS59, a col- lection of laws (17 vols., 1853-77). SIGWART, zeg'vart. Christoph von (1830- 1904). A German philosophical writer, born at Tiibingen. Educated in' theology and philos- o]ihv, he was professor in the seminary at Blaiibeuren from 1859 to 1863, and in 1865 was made professor of philosophy at Tiibingen. His publications include: Vlrich Zwingli: der Charakter seiner Theologie, mit hesondercr Riick- sicht aiif Picus von Mirandola dargestelU (1885); Spino^as neuentdechter Traktat i'0» Gotf. dem Mensehen vnd dessen Gliiokseligkeit (1866); the particularly well-known Logik (2d ed. 1888-93; Eng. translation 1894); Kleine Schriften (1881); Vorfragen der Ethik (1886); and Die ImpersonaJien (1888). SIKA. The small deer {Cervus sika) of Japan and Northern China, having a spotted coat in sunmier which becomes uniformly brown in win- ter. The antlers usually only have four points, as the bez-tine is lacking. These deer are natives of forested hills, and many specimens have been naturalized in European parks. The 'Jlanchu- rian' deer is probably only a larger variety; but two or three other valid species belong to the sika group, of which the best loiown is that com- mon in the mountains of Formosa {Cervus tacvauus) . Consult Lydekker, Deer of All Lands (London, 1898). SIKES, Bill. A brutal, hardened burglar in Dickens's Oliver Ttcisi, who murders his com- panion, Nancy, and is strangled in an attempt to escape pursuit. SIK'HIM. A native State of India. See SiKKIM. SIKHS, seks (Hind., from Skt. Hsya, disci- ple). The term applied to a religious com- immity of which the Punjab, in Northwestern India, is the principal seat. From the time of the tenth pontificate the sect called itself the KhuIsCi, 'the property' (of God). At first the Sikhs were merely a religious sect affected by ^lohammedan influences. Their re- ligon was a deism tinctured with superstition. From the energy which they developed under op- pression, and their proselytizing enthusiasm, the Sikhs became, by degrees, a formidable nation- ality. Their founder, Nanak, was born in 1469, in the vicinity of Lahore, and died in 1539. To him succeeded, in turn, nine pontiffs, each of whom, like himself, is popularly denominated guru, or teacher. These were Angad, Amardas. Ramdas. Arjun. Hargovind, Harray, Harkrishna, Teg Bahadar, and finally Govind. The aim of Nanak was religious and humani- tarian, and designed to combine Hindus and Mo- hammedans into one brotherhood. His three im- mediate successors held themselves aloof from political complications. Arjun, however, not content with signalizing himself as the compiler of the Adi Granth (q.v), and as the founder of Amritsar. the holy city of the Sikhs, rendered himself conspicuous as a partisan of the rebel- lious prince Khusru, son of Jahangir. Hargo- vind, who succeeded Arjun, called the Sikhs to arms, led them in person to battle, and became an active and useful, though some- times refractory, adherent of the Great Mogul, against whom his predecessor had plotted. Harray subsequent^ espoused the part of Dara Shukoh, when contending with his brothers for the throne of India. Harkrishna, son of Harray, died a child, and was only nominally a guru. Teg Bahadar was executed as a rebel in 1675. The chief motive that insti- gated his son Go- vind, the tenth of the teachers, was, with some probabil- ity, a desire to avenge the ignomin- ious death of his father. He resolved to combat both the Mohammedan power and the Mohamme- dan religion. Hin- duism likewise fell under his ban. God, he inculcated, is not to be found save in humility and sincerity. In what measure he was a man of thought is evinced by his legacy to his co-religion- ists, the second volume of the Sikh scriptures, SIEA ANTLEBB,