to boulders.

SIRIUS or THE DOG-STAR, the brightest star in the heavens, one
of the stars of the Southern constellation of _Canis Major_; is
calculated to have a bulk three times that of the sun, and to give 70
times as much light. See DOG-DAYS.

SIRKAR, a name used in India to designate the government.

SIROCCO. See SIMOOM.

SISMONDI, JEAN CHARLES LEONARD SIMONDE DE, celebrated Swiss
historian, born at Geneva; son of a Protestant clergyman of Italian
descent; the family fortune was lost in the troublous days of the French
Revolution, and exile in England and Italy followed, but in 1800 Sismondi
returned to Geneva, and having received a municipal appointment gave
himself to literary pursuits; the works which have established his
reputation are his great histories of "The Italian Republics in the
Middle Ages," "European Literature," and "A. History of the French";
wrote also on political economy (1773-1842).

SISTINE CHAPEL, celebrated chapel of the Vatican at Rome,
constructed by order of Pope Sixtus IV., and decorated with frescoes by
Michael Angelo, representing a succession of biblical subjects, including
among others the "Creation of the World," the "Creation of Man," the
"Creation of Woman," the "Temptation of Eve," the "Deluge," "Judith and
Holophernes," "David and Goliath," "The Last Judgment," &c.

SISTOVA (12), a town of Bulgaria, on the Danube, 33 m. above
Rustchuk; carries on trade in wine, leather, and cereals; was captured by
the Russians in 1877.

SISYPHUS, a mythical king of Corinth, who for some offence he gave
the gods was carried off to the nether world, and there doomed to roll a
huge block up a hill, which no sooner reached the top than it bounded
back again, making his toil endless.

SITKA or NEW ARCHANGEL (1), capital of Alaska, on the W. coast
of Baranof Island, overhung by snowy mountains; has a good harbour;
salmon fishing and curing the chief employment of most of the
inhabitants, mostly Indians.

SIVA or CIVA, the Destroyer in the Hindu trinity, in which
Brahma is the Creator and Vishnu the Preserver; Vishnu representing, as
it were, death issuing in life, and Siva life issuing in death, the
transition point, and Brahma, who, by means of them, "kills that he may
make alive." He is worshipped as "Mahadeva" or the great god, and his
worshippers are called Saivas or Caivas, as distinct from those of
Vishnu, which are called Vaishnavas. The LINGA (q. v.) is his
symbol