Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/1055

Rh stitches to a yard. Strengthening pieces or “linings” are affixed where considered necessary, in courses and top-sails such pieces as reef»bands, middle-bands, foot-bands, leech-linings, bunt-line cloths; in top-sails (only) a top-lining or brim; in other and lighter sails such pieces as mast-lining clew and head, tack and corner pieces; holes, such as head, reef, stay (luff), mast, cringle, bunt-line, &c., are also made where required, a grommet of line of suitable size being worked in them to prevent their being cut through. The next thing to be done is to secure the edges of the sail. Bolt-rope, a comparatively soft laid rope made from the finer hemp yarn (Italian) is used for this purpose; in the British navy it ranges from 1 in. (increasing in size by quarter inches) up to 8 in. inclusive; it is then neatly sewn on with roping twine specially prepared, the needle and twine passing between and clear of every two strands of the rope in roping. Where slack sail has to be taken in, it is the practice to leave it to the judgment of the sail-maker; but where possible it is better to set upthe rope by means of a tackle to a strain approximate to what it will ave to bear when in use, and whilst on the stretch mark it off in yards, as also the edge of the sail in yards, so that by bringing the marks together in roping the sail will stand flat. In the British navy the largest size of rope sewn on to a sail is 6 in; sizes above this are used for foot and clew ropes of top-sails and courses, being first wormed, parcelled (that is, wound round with strips of worn canvas), tarred and served over with spun yarn; the foot of the sail is then secured to it by being marled in. Where two sizes of bolt-rope used in roping a sail have to be connected, it is effected by a tapered splice. Cringles (similar to the handle of a maund) formed by a strand of bolt-rope, mostly having a galvanized iron thimble in them as a protection, are then stuck where necessary, as at the corners, sides or leeches, mast or luff; they are required either for making stationary or hauling “taut” by tackle or otherwise certain parts of the sail when in use. Fore-and-aft sails, such as stpankers, gaff sails and storm try-sails, are reduced in size by ree -points made of stout line (4 to ), crow-footed in the middle, a hole being pierced through every seam; one-half of the point is passed through and the crowfoot sewn firmly to the sail; the number of reefs depends upon the size of the sail, and the reefs are placed parallel to the foot. The sails-now finished in respect of making-have to be fitted, that is, such ropes have to be attached to each of them as are necessary for proper use; such ropes may be summarily stated as follows: head-earings, robands, reef-earings, reef-lines, spilling and slab lines, reef-tackle pendant, reef-points, bow-line bridles, bunt-line toggles, bunt-becket, leech-line strops and toggles, toggles in clews, sheet ropes, down-haul, lacings, head and stay, tack-rope (gaff top-sail), tack lashing, bending strops, matting and gaskets.

The tools and appliances of a sail maker are not very numerous: a bench about 7 ft. long and 15 in. high, upon which he sits; palms for seaming and roping to fit the hand, made of hide lined with leather, a plate properly tempered being fixed in it having chambers to catch the head of the needle, thus acting as a thimble; needles of various sizes, that for seaming being the smallest; and fids, splicing, serving and stretching knife, rubber, sail-hook, bobbin for twine, an sundry small articles.

SAINFOIN (Onobrychis sativa) in botany is a low-growing perennial plant with a woody rootstock whence proceed the stems, which are covered with fine hairs and bear numerous long pinnate leaves, the segments of which are elliptic. The flowers are borne in closing pyramidal or cylindrical clusters on the end of long stalks.

Sainfoin (Onobrychis sativa). 1, Fruit, nat. size.

Each flower is about half an inch in length with lanceolate calyx-teeth shorter than the corolla, which latter is papilionaceous, pink, with darker stripes of the same colour. The indehiscent pods or legumes are fattened from side to side, wrinkled, somewhat sickle-shaped and crested, and contain a single olive-brown seed shaped like a small bean. In Great Britain the plant is a native of the calcareous districts of the southern counties, but elsewhere it is considered as an escape from cultivation. It is native throughout the whole of Central Europe and Siberia; but it does not seem to have been cultivated in Great Britain till 1651, when it was introduced from France or French Flanders, its French name being retained. Alphonse de Candolle (Origin of Cultivated Plants, p. 104) considers that the cultivation of sainfoin originated in the south of France as late perhaps as the 15th century. It is grown as a forage plant, being especially well adapted for dry limestone soils. It has about the same nutritive value as lucerne, and is esteemed for milch cattle and for sheep in winter. Besides the common form, a second known as giant sainfoin is met with in cultivation, being more rapid in its growth.

SAINT (lat. sanctus, “holy”), the term originally applied, e.g. in the New Testament and in the most ancient monuments of Christian thought, to all believers. In this sense it is still used by those modern Christian sects which profess to base their polity on the Bible only (e.g. the Mormons or “Latter Day Saints”). In ancient inscriptions it often means those souls who are enjoying eternal happiness, or the martyrs. Thus we find inscriptions in the-Catacombs such as vivas inter sanctos, refrigera cum spiritu sancto, and people were buried ad sanctos. For a long time, too, sanctus was an official title, particularly reserved for bishops (v. Analecta Bollandiana, xviii. 410-411). It was not till almost the 6th century that the word became a title of honour specially given to the dead whose cult was publicly celebrated in the churches. It was to the martyrs that the Church first began to pay special honour. We find traces of this in the 2nd half of the 2nd century, in the Martyrium Polycarpi (xviii. 3) in connexion with a meeting to celebrate the anniversary of the martyr’s death. Another passage in the same document (xvii. 3) shows clearly that this was not an innovation, but 'a custom already established among the Christians. It does not follow that it was henceforth universal. The Church of Rome does not seem to have inscribed in its calendar its martyrs of an earlier date than the 3rd century. The essential form of the cult of the martyrs was that of the honours paid to the illustrious dead; and these honours were officially paid by the community. They consisted in a gathering at the martyr’s tomb on the anniversary of his death. St Cyprian, speaking of the confessors who died in prison, wrote to his priests, “Denique et dies eorum, quibus excedunt, adnotate, ut commemoration es eorum inter memorias martyrum celeb rare possimus” (Epist. xii. 2). The list of anniversaries of a church formed its (q.v.). In the early days each church confined itself to celebrating its own martyrs; but it was not long before it became customary to celebrate the anniversaries of martyrs of other churches. In the oldest Roman ferial we already find festivals of Carthaginian martyrs, and similarly, in the Carthaginian calendar, Roman festivals, while Wright’s Syrian Martyrology contains numerous traces of this exchange of festivals. From the 5th century onwards certain celebrated saints were honoured almost universally; St Augustine (Sermo, 276, § 4) says that the festival of St Vincent was celebrated throughout the whole of the Christian world. The same was the case of the festivals of St Stephen, St James and St John, and St Peter and St Paul, as is shown by the liturgical documents, but these festivals were held in Connexion with that of Christmas (26th, 27th and 28th December), and were not strictly speaking anniversaries.

The calendars at first included only martyrs, but their scope was gradually widened. The first to find a place in them were the bishops. Apparently they were at first arranged in a series of anniversaries separate from that of the martyrs, as seems to be shown by the existence at Rome of the Depositio episcoporum side by side with the Depositio martyrum; the two lists seem to have been combined, as in the calendar of Carthage, which includes the dies nataliciorum martyrum et deposition es episcoporum. Some of the most famous bisho s also ended by passing from one calendar into the other. Finally, the ascetics came to share in the honours paid to the martyrs, and we see in the Historia religiosa of Theodoret how quickly this