Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/169

 minute form with two leaf-like tentacles, is found in the English Channel, (ix.) Onchnesoma, with 2 species, and (x.) Tylosoma, with 1 species, have no tentacles, only one brown tube, and only one retractor muscle. Both genera are found off the Norwegian coast. The last named is said to have numerous papillae and no introvert.

.—Selenka, “Die Sipunculiden,” Semper's Reisen (1883), and Challenger Reports, xiii. (1885); Sluiter, Natuurk. ''Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind.'' xli. and following volumes; Andrews, Stud. Johns Hopkins Univ. iv. (1887-1890); Ward, ''Bull. Mus. Harvard'', xxi. (1891); Hatschek, ''Arb. Inst. Wien, v. (1884); Shipley, Quart. J.'' ''Micr. Sci.'' xxxi. (1890), xxxii. (1891), and xxxiii. (1892); P. Zool. ''Soc. London (1898), and Willey's Zoological Results'', pt. 2 (1899); Horst, ''Niederland. Arch. Zool.'', Supplementary, vol, i.
 * (A. E. S.)

 SIQUIJOR, a town of the province of Negros Oriental, Philippine Islands, on a small island of the same name about 14 m. S.E of Dumaguete, the capital of the province. Pop. (1903) after the annexation of San Juan, 19,416. There are sixty-four barrios or villages in the town, but only one of these had in 1903 more than 1000 inhabitants. The language is Bohol-Visayan. The principal industry is the raising of coco-nuts and preparing them for market. Other industries are the cultivation of tobacco, rice, Indian corn and hemp, and the manufacture of sinamay, a coarse hemp cloth. The island is of coral formation; its highest point is about 1700 ft.  SIR (Fr. sire, like sieur a variant of seigneur, from Lat. senior, comparative of senex, “old”), a title of honour. As a definite style it is now confined in the dominions of the British crown to baronets, knights of the various orders, and knights bachelor. It is never used with the surname only, being prefixed to the Christian name of the bearer; e.g. Sir William Jones. In formal written address, in the case of baronets the abbreviation Barᵗ, Bart. or Bᵗ (baronet) is added after the surname, in the case of knights of any of the orders the letters indicating his style (K.G., K.C.B., &c.). In conversation a knight or baronet is addressed by the prefix and Christian name only (e.g. “Sir William”). The prefix Sir, like the French sire, was originally applied loosely to any person of position as a mere honorific distinction (as the equivalent of dominus, lord), as it still is in polite address, but Selden (Titles of Honor, p. 643) points out that as a distinct title “prefixed to the Christian names in compellations and expressions of knights” its use “is very ancient,” and that in the reign of Edward I. it was “so much taken to be parcel of their names” that the Jews in their documents merely transliterated it, instead of translating it by its Hebrew equivalent, as they would have done in the case of e.g. the Latin form dominus.

How much earlier this custom originated it is difficult to say, owing to the ambiguity of extant documents, which are mainly in Latin. Much light is, however, thrown upon the matter by the Norman-French poem Guillaume le Mareschal, which was written early in the 13th century. In this Sire is obviously used in the general sense mentioned above, i.e. as a title of honour applicable to all men of rank, whether royal princes or simple knights. The French king's son is “Sire Loeis” (l. 17741), the English king's son is “Sire Richard li filz le roi” (l. 17376); the marshal himself is “Sire Johan li Mareschals” (17014). We also find such notable names as “Sire Hubert de Burc” (ll. 17308, 17357) and “Sire Hue de Bigot”—

and such simple knight's as “Sire Johan d'Erlée” (Early in Berks), the originator of the poem, who was squire to William the Marshal, or “Seingnor Will, de Monceals,” who, though of very good family, was but constable of a castle. Throughout the poem, moreover, though Sire is the form commonly used it is freely interchanged with Seignor and Monseignor. Thus we have “Seingnor Hue. de Corni” (l. 10935), “Sire Hug. de Corni” (l. 10945) and “Monseingnor Huon de Corni” (l. 10955). Occasionally it is replaced by Dan (dominus), e.g. the brother of Louis VII. of France is “Dan Pierre de Cortenei” (l. 2131). Very rarely the e of Sire is dropped and we have Sir: e.g. “Sir Will.” (l. 12513). Sometimes, where the surname is not territorial, the effect is closely approximate to more modern usage: e.g. “Sire Aleins Basset,” “Sire Enris li filz Gerolt” (Sir Henry Fitz Gerald), “Sire Girard Talebot,” “Sire Robert Tresgoz.”

It is notable that in connexion with a name the title Sire in the poem usually stands by itself: sometimes mis (my) is prefixed, but never li (the). Standing alone, however, Sire denominates a class and the article is prefixed: e.g. les seirs d'Engleterre—the lords of England—(l. 15837). “Sire,” “Seignor” are used in addressing the king or a great noble.

It is thus not difficult to see how the title “Sir” came in England to be “prefixed to the expressions of knights.” Knight- hood was the necessary concomitant of rank, the ultimate proof of nobility. The title that expressed this was “Sire” or “Sir” prefixed to the Christian name. In the case of earls or barons it might be lost in that of the higher rank, though this was not