orated with beautiful mosaics in imitation of early Christian work. The walls and ceiling are without adornment excepting the frescoes, which form the chief attraction of the chapel. The walls are a museum of the works of the best Tuscan and Umbrian painters of the later fifteenth century, and they contain works by Botticelli, Roselli, Ghirlandajo, Signorelli, Perugino, and Pinturicchio. (See these titles.) On the left wall are incidents from the “History of Moses,” while on the right are six corresponding scenes from the “Life of Christ.” Under these formerly hung, on great occasions, the famous tapestries of Raphael (q.v.). On the ceiling are the wonderful frescoes of Michelangelo, representing the “Creation,” the “History of Noah,” and other biblical scenes, together with the celebrated “Prophets” and “Sibyls”—one of the greatest creations of modern art. The entire altar wall is covered by his rather mannered “Last Judgment,” the largest fresco in the world. (See Michelangelo.) All these paintings have been greatly damaged by time and incense. The Sistine Chapel is the scene of most of the great functions at which the Pope personally assists, and here the Papal elections are held. Its choir was founded by Gregory the Great, and is composed of about thirty priests and Papal chaplains. They sing without accompaniment, and their style, the messa di voce, is of world-wide celebrity.
SISTINE MADONNA. See Madonna and Plate with article Raphael Santi.
SISTOVA, sĭs′tō̇vȧ. A town of Bulgaria, about 40 miles above Rustchuk (Map: Balkan Peninsula, E 3). It has a considerable trade in grain and wine. Population, in 1893, 13,212. Sistova is noted for the treaty of peace concluded here between Austria and Turkey in 1791.
ŚIŚUPĀLA, shĭsh′o͞o-pä′lȧ. In Hindu legend, the sovereign of Chedi, a country situated in Central India. Although he was the cousin of Krishna (q.v.), he was his enemy, and ultimately was slain by him. The history of this enmity and the death of Siśupala form the subject of the Ṡiśupālabadha of Magha. This is a highly artificial Sanskrit epic in twenty cantos, and it dates probably from the ninth century. It has been edited several times in India, notably, with Mallinatha's commentary, by Durgaprasad and Sivadatta (3d ed., Bombay, 1902), and was translated by Fauche in the third volume of his Tétrade (Paris, 1863).
SIS′YPHUS (Lat., from Gk. Σίσυφος). In Greek legend, the son of Æolus and Enarete. According to the earlier myth he was married to Merope, but later tradition made him the father of Odysseus by Anticlea. From this the patronymic Sisyphides was applied to the hero of the Odyssey. He is said to have been the founder and King of Ephyra, afterwards Corinth, and became notorious as a fraudulent, avaricious, and wicked ruler. For this wickedness during life he was punished in the lower world by being condemned to roll from the bottom to the summit of a hill an immense boulder which, whenever it reached the top, rolled down again, and compelled him to begin his task anew.
SĪTĀ, sē′tȧ (Skt., furrow). In the Sanskrit epic of the Rāmāyana (q.v.), the daughter of Janaka, a king of Mithila, and the wife of Rama. She seems to have been originally an earth goddess, as Sita, ‘the furrow,’ is besought in the Rig and Atharva Vedas (see Vedas) to yield fertility to the worshiper. In the later Hindu accounts she is said to have arisen from a furrow when her father was plowing the ground.
SITATUNGA, sĭt′ȧ-to͞oṉ′gȧ. A ‘harnessed’ antelope. See Nakong.
SIT′KA. The largest tribe of Kolushan (Tlinkit) stock, occupying Chichagof, Baranov, Kupreanof, Kuiu, and a part of the Prince of Wales islands, Southern Alaska, and numbering with subtribes more than 2,000. The town of Sitka derives its name from them. From the enormous wooden labrets worn by their women the Russians called the tribe Kalush, from the Russian kalushka, ‘a wooden trough, or bowl,’ hence the name Kolushan now applied to the stock. They were formerly a fierce and independent people, but are now greatly demoralized and wasted by liquor, which they have even learned to distill for themselves from molasses. Their general culture is that common to the Tlinkit (q.v.).
SITKA. The capital of the Territory of Alaska, 160 miles south by west of Juneau, and 1200 miles north of Tacoma, Washington; latitude 57° 3′ N., longitude 135° 20′ W. (Map: Alaska, H 4). It is picturesquely situated on the western coast of Baranov Island, facing Sitka Sound, in close proximity to several snow-clad mountain peaks. The climate of Sitka, in spite of its northern latitude, is comparatively mild, owing to the influence of the warm Japan Current. Among the noteworthy features of the city are the Russo-Greek church, dating from 1816, the Church of Saint Peter's by the Sea, erected in 1899, and the Sheldon Jackson Museum, connected with the Presbyterian Mission. The educational institutions include public schools founded by the United States Government, a Russo-Greek parochial school, and the Presbyterian Industrial Training School for natives. There are also to be mentioned the Marine Hospital, marine barracks, an agricultural experiment station, the Governor's residence, a United States land office, and the chief customs office for Alaska. Salmon fishing and canning, mining, and lumbering are the most important industries. In 1799 the Russian-American Company established a trading post at Sitka, which, under the name of New Archangel, was permanently occupied by the Russians in 1804. It became later the seat of the Russian Territorial Government. After the cession of Alaska to the United States in 1867, Sitka was made the capital of the unorganized Territory. A military post was maintained here until 1877. Population, in 1890, 1190; in 1900, 1396.
SI′TOPHO′BIA (Neo-Lat., from Gk. σῖτος, sitos, food + -φοβία, -phobia, fear, from φοβεῖσθαί, phobeisthni, to fear). A dread or fear of food, experienced by insane people, which leads them to refuse to eat. As it is a serious matter to a melancholiac or a patient suffering from exhausting mania to miss a single meal, such a patient requires to be fed. Others may be coaxed and permitted to skip a few meals. Some sitophobiacs will eat if led to table, seated, and provided with spoon and fork. If this suggestion fails, the patient should be fed through a soft rubber stomach tube, passed through the mouth, or, preferably, through a
