sauce or condiment used in Japan and China; prepared from a
bean which is extensively cultivated in those countries.

SOYER, ALEXIS, a famous cook, born at Meaux; turned aside from a
tempting career as a vocalist and took up gastronomy as a profession;
during the 1830 Revolution he narrowly escaped with his life to London,
which he henceforth made his head-quarters, rising to the position of
cook to the Reform Club; rendered important services as a culinary expert
in Ireland during the 1847 famine, and at the Crimea (1855); was the
author of various highly popular works on the art of cooking, "The Modern
Housewife," "Shilling Cookery Book," etc. (1809-1858).

SPA (7), a watering-place in Belgium, 20 m. SE. of Liege; a
favourite health and fashionable resort on account of its springs and its
picturesque surroundings, the number of visitors during the season
amounting to 12,000.

SPAHI, an Algerine cavalry soldier serving in the French army.

SPAIN (17,800), a kingdom of South-West Europe, which with Portugal
(less than one-fifth the size of Spain) occupies the entire Iberian
Peninsula, and is divided from France on the N. by the Pyrenees
Mountains, and on the E. and S. is washed by the Mediterranean; the NW.
corner fronts the Bay of Biscay (N.) and the Atlantic (W.), while
Portugal completes the western boundary; its area, three and one-third
times the size of England and Wales, is, along with the Canaries and the
Balearic Isles, divided into 49 provinces, although the more familiar
names of the 14 old kingdoms, states, and provinces (New and Old Castile,
Galicia, Aragon, etc.) are still in use; forms a compact square, with a
regular, in parts precipitous, coast-line, which is short compared with
its area; is in the main a highland country, a vast plateau (2000 to 3000
ft. high) occupying the centre, buttressed and crossed by ranges (Sierra
Nevada in the S., Sierra de Guadarrama, Sierra Morena, etc.), and
diversified by the long valleys of the Ebro, Douro, Tagus, Guadalquivir,
and other lesser rivers, all of which are rapid, and only a few
navigable; climate varies considerably according as one proceeds to the
central plains, where extremes of heat and cold are experienced, but over
all is the driest in Europe; agriculture, although less than a half of
the land is under cultivation, is by far the most important industry, and
Valencia and Catalonia the provinces where it is most successfully
carried out, wheat