Samothrace

“ Samothrāce, or Samothrācia, an island in the Ægean sea, opposite the mouth of the Hebrus, on the coast of Thrace, from which it is distant about 32 miles. It was known by the ancient names of Leucosia, Melitis, Electria, Leucania, and Dardani. It was afterwards called Samos, and distinguished from the Samos which lies on the coast of Ionia by the epithet of Thracian, or by the name of Samothrace. It is about 38 miles in circumference, according to Pliny, or only 20 according to modern travellers. The origin of the first inhabitants of Samothrace is unknown. ”

“ We have been expecting howitzers all the time, and speculating as to whether there would be any panic if they really get on to us. The Turks have got their indirect, or rather enfilading, fire on us, and hit our mules. One just hit a few yards away.... Imbros and Samothrace are clear and delicate between the blue sea and the hot sky. The riband of beach is crowded with transport, and Jews, Greeks, Armenians, New Zealanders, Australians, scallywag officers, and officers that still manage to keep a shadow of dandyism between their disreputable selves and immaculate past. ”

“ Fortunate during life, he could, by virtue and the favor of Heaven, promise himself after death an eternal felicity.
The Priests of the Island of Samothrace promised favorable winds and prosperous voyages to those who were initiated. It was promised them that the CABIRI, and Castor and Pollux, the DIOSCURI, should appear to them when the storm raged, and give them calms and smooth seas: and the Scholiast of Aristophanes says that those initiated in the Mysteries there were just men, who were privileged to escape from great evils and tempests. ”

“ The Turks are now expected to attack us. We suppose people realize what is happening here in London, though it isn’t easy to see how troops and reinforcements can be sent us in time—that is, before the Turks have turned all this into a fortification. A good many men hit on the beach to-day. The mules cry like lost souls.
Tuesday, May 4th. The sea like a looking-glass, not a cloud in the sky, and Samothrace looking very clear and close. The moon is like a faint shadow of light in the clear sky over the smoke of the guns. Heavy fighting between us and Helles. A landing is being attempted. ”

“ Hence Same, Samos, Samothrace, Samacon, were denominated on account of their sanctity. Strabo supposes, that the city Samos in Elis was situated in the Samian plain: it therefore could not well have this name from its high situation. It is moreover inconsistent to suppose regions called κοιλα, or cava, to have been denominated from Sama, high. In short both terms have been mistaken: and Coilus in the original acceptation certainly signified heavenly: whence we read in Hesychius, as also in Suidas, Κοιολης, ὁ Ἱερευς. By which we learn, that by Coioles was meant a sacred or heavenly person ”

“ Ionian Samos was not yet colonized (by Ionians) , which is evident from its having the same name from one of the islands earlier (called Samos) , that had it before; whence this also is clear, that those persons contradict ancient history, who assert, that colonists came from Samos after the Ionian migration, and the arrival of Tembrion, and gave the name of Samos to Samothracé. The Samians invented this story out of vanity. Those are more entitled to credit, who say, that heights are [Pg 169] called Sami,666 and that the island obtained its name from this circumstance, for from thence ”

“ According to the last writer, similar eruptions of water must have originated in the lake Copais in Bœotia [406] , in the lakes Bistonis and Aphnetis, in Thrace, and have been accompanied with huge devastation [407] . Diodorus Siculus [408] remembered a Samothracian tradition, according to which the Euxine [435] Sea was once shut up on all sides. It afterwards burst through its mighty mound of kyanischen rocks to the Hellespont, and inundated a great part of the coast of Asia, as well as Samothracia itself. ”

“ Having been disabled by an Æginetan ship, the Samothracian cleared the decks of her assailant with arrows and javelins and took possession. Although the invaders seem to have fought with the greatest courage and determination, the disadvantage of confusion at the outset of the battle, augmented by the head wind, told decisively against them. They were unable to take advantage of their superiority in ships on account of the narrowness of the channel, Page 36 and indeed found that the very multitude of their ships only added to their difficulties. ”

“ He should have to be careful because the Greek sentries would be men from his own regiment and his presence so far down the line might arouse suspicion.
"But if you find a caique, how are we going to get across the river to join you?" Michael asked.
"Say, give me twenty dollars," Yanni answered, after a minute's thought. "The fish-mens won't do nothing for me unless I show them the money first. I'll say two British peoples want to go Thaso. We can give them more when we're on the sea to go Samothraki. They'd be afraid to go Samothraki at first. ”

“ But the saddest chapter of our history remains to be narrated. As soon as our servant had prepared the samovar, and lighted the candles, a multitude of black creatures crept out of the chinks of the walls and ceilings, and dropped from all sides like a living rain. Imagine our consternation at the sight of that legion of black demons swarming around us, and leaving us no alternative but to put out the candles that attracted them. These insects, called in the country tarakans, though disgusting in appearance, are very inoffensive, and seldom climb on the person ”

“ Niebuhr.
The Arabs of the desert call these winds Semoum or poison, and the Turks Shamyela, or wind of Syria, from which is formed the Samiel.
Their heat is sometimes so excessive that it is difficult to form any idea of its violence without having experienced it; but it may be compared to the heat of a large oven at the moment of drawing out the bread. When these winds begin to blow, the atmosphere assumes an alarming aspect. The sky at other times so clear, in this climate, becomes dark and heavy; the sun loses his splendour and appears of a violet colour. ”

“ They looked aft to where the crew, whose imprecations were only visible, so loud was the drumming of the wind, were getting down the mainsail; and presently they were running east southeast under a small jib, with the wind roaring upon the port quarter and the waves champing at the taffrail. It did not strike either of them that there was any reason to be anxious until Yanni came forward with a frightened yellow face and said that the captain was praying to St. Nicholas in the cabin below.
"Samothraki bad place to go," Yanni told them, dismally. "Many fish-mens drowned there." ”

“ But to return to the Serpent, which moving in a direct Line, goes fast, but being of great Bulk, can’t suddenly wind about [166] : Circumvolution is the way to avoid its Menaces. ’Tis commonly found in the Island of Lemnos (the old Dipolis, and now the Stalimene of the Turks) and also in Samothracia, an Island in the Archipelago, a Province anciently famous for the Dii Cabiri, that is, certain Gods worshipped by the Samothracians and Phenicians, and had in such high Veneration, that it was a Crime to mention Names so sacred among the People [167] . ”

“ And because it stoops down terrified at the noise, or at the motion of the child, or clings more closely to its place, the children believe that it fears the name of its enemy, that it hides itself, and attempts to throw stones. The Samarmog is not a native of Mosul or Haleb, but they go to seek it in Khorasan with much ceremony. When the Locusts multiply very greatly, the government sends persons worthy of trust to a spring near the village of Samarûn, situated in a plain between four mountains, by Mesched, or Musa er ridda, in that province of Persia. ”

“ The entire number of the European and Asiatic Samoïedes is estimated at no more than about 10,000, and this number, small as it is when compared to the vast territory over which they roam, is still decreasing from year to year. Before their subjugation by the Russians, the Samoïedes were frequently at war with their neighbors, the Ostiaks, the Woguls, and the Tartars, and the rude poems which celebrate the deeds of the heroes of old are still sung in the tents of their peaceful descendants. ”

“ When she had read it she caused the sons of Onnes to be summoned, and gave strict orders that they should come in arms. Delighted that the deity favoured the undertaking, Satibaras fetched the young men. When they appeared Semiramis bade the eunuch step aside, and then she spoke to them: "You worthless sons of an honest and brave father have allowed yourselves to be persuaded by a worthless slave to throw down from this height your mother, who holds her empire from the gods, in order to obtain glory among men, and to rule after the murder of your mother and your brother Ninyas. ”

“ Now the horsemen, marveling at the strangeness of this move, drew rein upon the slope and waited till their quarry came to them. Outposts they were whom Oxyartes set beyond the mountains, to watch all roads, to cut off messengers, and to bring report of armies or of food-trains coming out from Nineveh.
"Ho, friends!" laughed Semiramis, pausing in their midst and speaking in the Bactrian tongue, a deal of which she had learned from Menon while in Syria. "For the moment I feared ye were a herd of Assyrian swine. Who leadeth here?" ”

“ In Persia, near the city of Cuerch there is a fountain of water, which has a wonderful property of destroying these insects; for a pitcher full of this being carried in the open air, without passing through house or vault, and being set on an high place, certain birds which follow it, and fly and cry after the men who carry it from the fountain, come to the place where it is fixed. These birds are red and black, and fly in great flocks together, like starlings; the Turks and Persians call them Musulmans. ”

“ The Man Who Knew Everything came to Samoa in November, when dark days were on the land, and the nearing Christmas time seemed likely to be as that of the preceding one, when burning villages and the crackle of musketry, and the battle cries of opposing factions, engaged in slaughtering one another, turned the once restful and beautiful Samoa into a hell of evil passions, misery and suffering. ”

“ She, too, looked down, on a caldron of murder seething in the pool of Zariaspa's walls; then she raised her round young arms, and, even as the conquering eagle screams, so screamed Semiramis, in a vaunting battle-cry.
In the streets below that cry reechoed from the thirst-parched tongues of a raging multitude that thundered at the fast-locked gates and trod on a floor of slain; then the bolts were drawn and the halls of the citadel were gorged with the inrush of a conquering horde. ”

“ Samartia fell unwept, without a crime!
Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe.
Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe!
Dropt from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear,
Closed her bright eye, and curbed her high career ”

“ They are used on the Malabar Coast in the East Indies as well as in the Red Sea, where it is called a baggala, though dhow is the more common name in the far East. They are over two hundred tons burden, and of all sizes below that. They have been used for commerce and piracy, which is also true of the felucca of the Mediterranean.
"She sails like the wind," said Captain Scott, after they had looked the craft over.
"She is bigger than the Samothraki, whose acquaintance we made in Pournea Bay," added Morris. ”

“ When the Portuguese first reached those regions Pedir was the leading State upon the coast, and certainly no State known as Samudra or Sumatra then continued to exist. Whether the city continued to exist, even in decay, is obscure. The Āīn, quoted below, refers to the "port of Sumatra," but this may have been based on old information. Valentijn seems to recognise the existence of a place called Samudra or Samotdara, though it is not entered in his map. ”

“ In this savage conflict, so unjust in its inception, so frightful in its effects on an unoffending people, the Samoans showed an extraordinary spirit in defending what all men hold most dear. Driven from the shore by our guns, they massed their warriors behind Apia, and on ground of their own choosing gave obstinate battle to the invaders. ”

“ Where the shore is flat or shelving the coast of Sumatra, as of all other tropical islands, is defended from the attacks of the sea by a reef or ledge of coral rock on which the surfs exert their violence without further effect than that of keeping its surface even, and reducing to powder those beautiful excrescences and ramifications which have been so much the object of the naturalist's curiosity, and which some ingenious men who have analysed them contend to be the work of insects. ”

“ Malay legends give trivial stories to account for the etymology of the name, and others have been suggested; but in all probability it was the Skt. Samudra, the 'sea.' [See Miscellaneous Papers relating to Indo-China, 2nd ser. ii. 50; Leyden, Malay Annals, 65.] At the very time of the alleged foundation of the town a kingdom was flourishing at Dwāra Samudra in S. India (see DOOR SUMMUND) .
The first authentic occurrence of the name is probably in the Chinese annals, which mention, among the Indian kingdoms which were prevailed on to send tribute to Kublai Khan, that of Sumutala. ”

“ There seems no doubt but that there was some ruler called Semiramis, who conquered most of Western Asia, Egypt and part of Ethiopia, and who attempted India. Her fish origin is simply due to her being a woman and to her marrying On or Ones, or probably Oanes or Ho-Anes, the Serpent Fish, or recognised God of Passion, both on the lower Euphrates and the lower Nile. Her conquests may merely signify that the race who had faith in her conquered, or that certain conquerors embraced the worship of the Sun Goddess. ”