rmination as an nation.

SAMOA, or NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS (36), a group of 14 volcanic
islands in the W. Pacific, of which three alone are of any size--Savaii,
Upolu, and Tutuila; all are mountainous and richly wooded; climate is
moist and warm; copra is the chief export, and cotton, coffee, tobacco,
&c., are grown; the natives, a vigorous Polynesian race, have been
Christianised; the islands are under the joint suzerainty of Britain,
Germany, and the United States; the chief town of the group is Apia (2),
at the head of a pretty bay in Upolu; near here R. Louis Stevenson spent
the last five years of his life.

SAMOS, a fertile island in the AEgean Sea, about 30 m. long and 8
wide, separated from the coast of Ionia, three-quarters of a mile wide;
had an extensive trade with Egypt and Crete; came through various
fortunes under the chief Powers of ancient and mediaeval Europe till it
became subject to Turkey; had a capital of the same name, which in the
fifth century B.C. was one of the finest cities in the world.

SAMOTHRACE, a mountainous, bleak island in the AEgean Sea, NW. of the
mouth of the Dardanelles; has only one village of 2000 inhabitants; was
in ancient times place of CABIRI WORSHIP (q. v.).

SAMOYEDES, a people of the Mongolian race, occupying the N. shores
of Russia and Siberia from the White Sea to the Yenisei; live by hunting
and fishing, and are idol-worshippers; they are fast disappearing.

SAMPSON, DOMINIE, a character in Scott's "Guy Mannering."

SAMSON, ranked as judge of Israel, but the story of his life is as
of a Jewish hero, distinguished for his feats of strength; employed in
the service of his country against the Philistines.

SAMSON AGONISTES, the strong man of a nation or race caught in the
net of his and their enemies, and, encompassed by them, wrestling in his
soul's agony to free himself from them; the imagery here being suggested
by the story of Samson in the hands of the Philistines.

SAMUEL, a Jewish prophet, born, of the tribe of Levi, about 1155
B.C.; consecrated by his mother from earliest years to the service of the
Lord; who became a judge when he was 40, anointed first Saul and then
David to be king over the till then disunited tribes of Israel, and thus
became the founder of the Jewish monarchy.

SAMUEL, BOOKS OF, two books of the Old Testament, originally one,
and divided in the Septuagint into two, entitled respectively the First
and Second Books of Kings