Siren

“ This article is mostly original. Sirene, genitive of sirena; the title in T. is ‘De Sirenis’; classical Latin has only siren, -is, fem. In T. they are female and birds in the nether half; his account is very brief and general, and it is followed closely by that of the onocentaur, which is ‘biformis’ like the siren; the ‘significacio’ is common to both. An earlier description is found in Layamon, 1322-1347, which is based on Wace, Brut, 733-771. The author of the Bestiary was acquainted with one or both of these. Comp. also Bozon, Contes Moralisés, p. ”

“ In zoology the siren (Siren lacertina) , or “mud-eel” of the Americans, one of the perennibranchiate tailed batrachians, is the type of the family Sirenidae, chiefly distinguished from the Proteidae by the structure of the jaws, which, instead of being beset with small teeth, are covered by a horny sheath like a beak; there are, however, rasp-like teeth on the palate, and a few on the inner side of the lower jaw, inserted on the splenial bone. The body is eel-like, black or blackish, and only the fore-limbs are present, but are feeble and furnished with four fingers. ”

“ A special confirmation is given in this case, as the Siren is represented mounted on her sea-horse crossing the Styx upon the vase of Pluto and Proserpine in the collection of the Naples Museum. This vase dates about 250 B.C., and the Siren charms represent her in the same way, but usually mounted on two sea-horses. The sea-horse and the Siren alone are commonly found as charms; the Siren being sometimes in her fishtail form and sometimes in the form of a harpy. ”

“ While chiefly confined to marshy places or still waters of the South, occasional specimens of the siren families have been found as far north as Illinois, [68] and no doubt could live in any locality in the United States, if protected from their enemies. For their own part they are helpless, and fall a prey to whatever attacks them. Their teeth are far down in the throat so they cannot bite; their tails are weak so they cannot strike; they have even no nails on their toes wherewith to scratch. ”

“ The Japanese artists rightly concluded they could float their Siren in any intellectual waters where Jonah in his whale could pass, or a fish appear with its penny. Nay, even in their primitive form the Sirens find their kith and kin still haunting all the coasts of northern Europe. A type of the Irish and Scottish Siren may be found in the very complete legend of one seen by John Reid, shipmaster of Cromarty. ”

“ He looked at me as though something was on his mind, and going out to the entrance rock, gazed at the external blue. Then returning into our twilight he said "As a rule only good people see the Siren."
I made no comment. There was a pause, and he continued. "That is a very strange thing, and the priests do not know how to account for it; for she of course is wicked. Not only those who fast and go to mass are in danger, but even those who are merely good in daily life. No one in the village had seen her for two generations. ”

“ The hot sleepy silence was broken suddenly by a shrill steam whistle, followed by another and another. A strident siren joined them; then came a deep blast from some steamer on the lake; then a loud clanging of bells added their voices to the tumult. For full five minutes the deafening noise continued until Hugh’s ears beat with it and his head rang. The street had become alive with people, women with aprons over their heads, men in overalls, scores of children, as though each of the little houses had sent forth a dozen inhabitants. ”

“ Finally, the siren, or mermaid, who had a woman's face, and ended now as a bird, now as a fish; and who, according to Greek grammarians, had the form of a sparrow in its upper parts and of a woman in the lower, seems to be a lunar rather than a solar animal. The sirens allure navigators in particular, and fly after the ship of the cunning Odysseus, who stuffs his ears; for which reason they throw themselves in despair into the sea. The sirens are fairies like Circe; hence Horace [329] names them together ”

“ They reached nearly 20,000. The blasts of the horns exceeded this number, while hundreds of shots were fired from the guns. Whatever might be the state of the weather, cloudy or serene, stormy or calm, the aerial echoes, though varying in strength and duration from day to day, were never absent; and on many days, "under a perfectly clear sky," they reached, in the case of the siren, an astonishing intensity. It is to these air-echoes and not to cloud-echoes, that the rolling; of thunder is to be ascribed. ”

“ Ruskin says that "the Sirens are the great constant desires, the infinite sicknesses of heart, which, rightly placed, give life, and, wrongly placed, waste it away; so that there are two groups of Sirens, one noble and saving, as the other is fatal." ”

“ Sirena looked at her mother.
“He wants to be funny, Sirena,” said her mother, soothingly.
“Then he isn’t funny; he’s never funny,” said Sirena, drawing herself up with dignity.
“Totty Belmont says you’re the teasenest, hatefulest boy she knows! So there,” remarked Sirena.
“Oh, ho! I don’t wonder the doll is scared. Why don’t you treat that pretty creature with some consideration? Dragging her over the carpet, and spoiling her pretty dress! Now you’ll see, just as soon as she comes to me, because I’m good-looking and nice, she’ll put her eyes down and smile at me as lovely as ever.” ”

“ Siebenkäs pressed his hand, and only said, "The Fates, and Furies, too, glide with linked hands over life, as well as the Graces and Sirens." ”

“ Thy home and Thy dwelling-place, and see me, Thy servant, twisted and gnarled like the roots of a fallen tree. It will be in Thy hands to raise up or cast down, and the wicked are before Thee. Strike, God of Battle, and the raging sea, strike and spare not the wicked, for Thy servant will have waited long."
* * * * * *
Gilchrist, who was now the head of the gangers and preventives, turned on his pillow after Dol Beag had crept out.
"Ay, Mirren Stuart," said he, "Mirren Stuart that rade the Uist pony and laughed at me in my young days—maybe, Mirren, ye will come to my door yet—my back door." ”

“ Hi!" I heard voices shouting, and looking up to the cliffs I saw some people waving frantically. "Come up quickly, or you'll be cut off," they shouted.
And I hurried along the sands, only just in time, for I had been so interested in Shin Shira's story that I had not noticed how the tide had been creeping up. I shall have a good look at that jewel in Shin Shira's turban next time I see him—and as for "the Bellows," I hardly know which explanation to accept, Shin Shira's or that of the guide. ”

“ The province of Siré, properly so called, reaches from Axum to the Tacazzé. The town of Sirè is situated on the brink of a very steep, narrow valley, and through this the road lies which is almost impassable. In the midst of this valley runs a brook bordered with palm-trees, some of which are grown to a considerable size, but bear no fruit; they were the first we had seen in Abyssinia.
The town of Sirè is larger than that of Axum; it is in form of a half-moon fronting the plain, but its greatest breadth is at the west end; all the houses are of clay, and thatched ”

“ I replied, for I knew my Arabian Nights by heart.
"Very well, then," said Shin Shira. "All you've got to do is to get the Slave of the Lamp to bring us the Roc, which I happen to know is still alive; we can then fasten ourselves to his claws, and he will fly back to his home with us, and there, as you know, the ground is strewn with precious stones." ”

“ Some are spurs of the main ranges; while others form “sierras”—as the Spaniards term them—distinct in themselves. These sierras are of all shapes and of every altitude,—from the low-lying ridge scarce rising above the plain, to peaks and summits of over ten thousand feet in elevation. Their forms are as varied as their height. Some are round or dome-shaped; others shoot up little turrets or “needles;” and still others mount into the sky in shapeless masses,—as if they had been flung upon the earth, and upon one another, in some struggle of Titans, who have left them lying in chaotic confusion. ”

“ CHAPTER XV. It was a splendid morning; not a cloud dimmed the sky which spread high above desert, mountain, and oasis, like an arched tent of uniform deep-blue silk. How delicious it is to breathe the pure, light, aromatic air on the heights, before the rays of the sun acquire their mid-day power, and the shadows of the heated porphyry cliffs, growing shorter and shorter, at last wholly disappear!
With what delight did Sirona inhale this pure atmosphere, when after a long night—the fourth that she had passed in the anchorite's dismal cave-she stepped out into the air. ”

“ Monday, the third of October of the said year, at the hour of midnight, we set sail, making the course auster, which the levantine mariners call Siroc,⁠ [151] entering into the ocean sea. We passed the Cape Verd and the neighbouring islands in fourteen-and-a-half degrees, and we navigated for several days by the coast of Guinea or Ethiopia; where there is a mountain called Sierra Leona, which is in eight degrees latitude according to the art and science of cosmography and astrology. Sometimes we had the wind contrary and at other times sufficiently good, and rains without wind. ”

“ The Greek colony of Sinope west of the mouth of the Halys is said to have been founded in the land of the Syrians [Pg 540] of noble stock. [758] A promontory running into the sea to the north of Sinope is called Syrias. [759] The Greeks derived the people in this district from Syrus, a son of Apollo. [760] Scylax of Caryanda names the coast of the Black Sea, from the Chalybians to Armene, westward of the promontory of Syrias, Assyria. [761] Strabo states that these Syrians, who extended from the Taurus northwards as far as the Pontus, were named Leuco-Syrians, i. e. ”

“ Having remained independent and retained their bravery, they have lost nothing of their good qualities. At the sight of a stranger they leave their work and run forward, offering him refreshment and food. The Shir have little of the Negro type, their lips being thin and the nose shapely. They daub the body with oil and red ochre, which gives them a resemblance to their namesakes, the Shirs of the Nile Valley. Like the Madi and so many other peoples of the Upper Nile region, they pass a great part of their life in dressing their hair. ”

“ There may or may not be any grounds for the belief that the sire has a greater influence in the external form of the joint produce than does the dam, but this belief has also had its influence in determining breeders of cross breds to use the pure bred sire on the ordinary stock of the country, rather than the reverse way. ”

“ Begging her to listen, Pan followed; and Syrinx, more and more frightened by the patter of his hoofs, never heeded him, but went as fast as light till she came to the brink of the river. Only then she paused, praying her friends, the water-nymphs, for some way of escape. The gentle, bewildered creatures, looking up through the water, could think of but one device.
Just as the god overtook Syrinx and stretched out his arms to her, she vanished like a mist, and he found himself grasping a cluster of tall reeds. Poor Pan! ”

“ Because of the shorter days, a Sirian year about equalled an Earth year, and I found it difficult to believe that these wonderful little animals lived only two or three years. He persisted until I believed him.
He was strangely vague when I tried to determine the common manner of death. Indeed, personal death was a concept either so hazy or distasteful to him that he refused to dwell on it. The most he would convey was that there were always new faces in the tribe, and the old faces rarely remained more than three years. ”

“ The origin of the name would seem to be a term Sien, or Siam, identical with Shan (q.v.) . "The kingdom of Siam is known to the Chinese by the name Sien-lo.... The supplement to Matwanlin's Encyclopædia describes Sien-lo as on the seaboard, to the extreme south of Chen-ching (or Cochin China) . 'It originally consisted of two kingdoms, Sien and Lo-hoh. The Sien people are the remains of a tribe which in the year (A.D. 1341) began to come down upon the Lo-hoh and united with the latter into one nation.'" See Marco Polo, 2nd ed., Bk. ”

“ In the evening we anchored at the turn of the tide, [330] and at twelve o’clock next day we passed Sindree, which is about thirty miles from Lucput, and dependent on it, with a small garrison of sepoys: it is a small fort, with a few huts outside, and one well: the creek here is about a mile and a quarter broad, and has a ferry across. The travellers who take this route to Sinde are not numerous, and leave no vestige of a road in the light sand, of which the dry part of the Run is composed. The heat of the meridian sun is said to be so intense, that they generally travel in the night. ”

“ It is quite possible that this idea has gained ground to a large extent from the fact that the use of a pure bred sire on ordinary or grade females has been very much more common than the crossing of pure bred females by the ordinary or non-pedigree sire; as also from the far greater numbers of young which each pure bred [Pg 55] sire would improve, than would be improved by each pure bred female which might be crossed. ”

“ Richardson thinks that Syria had its name from Suri, a beautiful and delicate species of rose, for which that country has always been famous;—hence, Suristan, the Land of Roses.
[168] "The number of lizards I saw one day in the great court of the Temple of the Sun at Balbec amounted to many thousands; the ground, the walls, and stones of the ruined buildings, were covered with them."—Bruce.
[169] "The Syrinx or Pan's pipes is still a pastoral instrument in Syria."—Russel.
[170] "Wild bees, frequent in Palestine, in hollow trunks or branches of trees, and the clefts of rocks. ”