Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/67

 S I K S I L 51 SIKHS. See INDIA, vol. xii. p. 808, and PUNJAB, vol. xx. p. 110; also HINDUSTANI, vol. xi. p. 844. SIKKIM, a native state of India, in the eastern Hima- laya Mountains, between 27 9' and 27 58' N. lat., and between 88 4' and 89 E. long., and bounded on the north and north-east by Tibet, on the south-east by Bhutdn, on the south by the British district of Darjiling, and on the west by Nepal. It covers an area of 2600 square miles, with an estimated population of 7000. The Tibetan name for Sikkim is Dingjing or Demo-jong, and for the people Deunjong Maro ; the Gurkhas call them Lepchas, but Mr Clements Markham, in his work on Tibet (1879), says that their proper name is Rong. The whole of the state is situated at a considerable elevation within the Himalayan mountain zone. From the level of the sea to an elevation of 12,000 feet, Sikkim is covered with dense forests of tall umbrageous trees. The mountains in the south are gene- rally lower than those of Darjiling district, but north of Totalling the passes are of great height. Jelap-la, the most southerly of these, rises to 13,000- feet; the two next are the Guiatu-la and Yak-la, leading into the Chumbi valley of Tibet, the latter being 14,000 feet high; further north are the Cho-la (15,000 feet), on the direct road from Tumlung to Chumbi, and the Tankra-la (16,083 feet), the most snowy pass in Sikkim. The state is drained by the Tista and its affluents, and by the Am-machu which rises near Parijong, at the foot of the Chamalhari peak (23,929 feet), and flows through the Chumbi valley into the district of Jalpaiguri under the name of the Torsha. Through Sikkim lie the most promising routes for trade with Tibet. At present, however, the Tibetan passes are closed to ordinary British subjects, though an active trade is main- tained in certain articles by Bhuteas and Tibetans. The capital of Sikkim is Tumlung, where the raja resides during the winter and spring, usually going to his estates at Chumbi in Tibet in summer, in order to avoid the heavy rains. The raja receives a subsidiary allowance of 1200 a year from the British Government, in consideration of his position as former ruler of the hill territory of Darjiling and a submontane tract on the plain called the Moruug. Communication with the state is kept up through the deputy commissioner of Darjiling. Sikkim produces rice, Indian corn, millet, oranges, and two or three sorts of Lepcha cloth. Its mineral products are lime and copper. SILEXUS, a personage of Greek mythology, a drunken attendant of Bacchus and closely allied to the satyrs, of whom he appears as the leader. Elderly satyrs were called Sileni. The Sileni belong especially to the legends of Asia Minor, and particularly of Lydia and Phrygia. The stories as to the birth of Silenus were various. Some called him a son of Hermes, others of Pan and a nymph ; others said that he sprang from the drops of the blood of Sky. Sometimes he figures as the guardian of Dionysus. In spite of his dissipated habits he possessed a large stock of general information, which however, like Proteus, he only imparted on compulsion. Midas, king of Phrygia, caught him by mixing wine in the spring out of which Silenus, in a moment of weakness, had condescended to drink. The conversation which followed is fully reported by Theopompus and Aristotle (/Elian, Var. Hist., iii. 18; Plutarch, Consol. ad Apoll., 27). Prefacing his remarks with a slight sketch of terrestrial geography and a brief reference to the fauna characteristic of the different con- tinents, Silenus proceeded to draw an edifying picture of the pleasures of true piety as contrasted with the dreadful fate in store for the wicked, winding up with a gloomy reflexion on the vanity of human life and the expression of a wish that he had never been born. Another of his homilies has been preserved by Virgil (Ed., 6) : two shepherds surprise the sage drunk in a cave ; they bind him with flowery chains, and he tells them how the world was made, with stories "of remotest eld." Apart from this gift of sermonizing, the Sileni seem to have resembled the satyrs in their love of music, wine, and women. Indeed, the Greeks appear not to have sharply distinguished between them ; for Marsyas, the mythical flute-player, is called sometimes a satyr, sometimes a Silenus. In art Silenus appears as a fat, dumpy old man, with a snub nose and a bald head, riding on an ass and supported by satyrs who keep the jolly toper from tumbling off. Or he is depicted standing or lying with his inseparable companion, a wine-skin, which again he sometimes bestrides. Some- times he is sitting with his Pan's-pipe or flute in his hand. SILESIA (Germ. Schlesien), a district in the eastern part of Germany, between 49 28' and 52 7' N. lat. and 13 50' and 19 20' E. long., was formerly united with the kingdom of Bohemia in the form of a duchy (or rather group of duchies), and is now unequally shared between Prussia and Austria. Geographically it is divided into Lower and Upper Silesia, the whole of the former and part of the latter belonging to Prussia. The total area is 17,540 square miles. It is generally asserted that the original inhabitants of Silesia were the Germanic tribes of the Lygii and Quadi, who retired before the Slavonic immigrations of the 6th century, but this statement is beyond the range of posi- tive proof. The earliest form of the name, Sleenzane or Zlesane, shows a Slavonic origin, and further than this we have no means of penetrating. Various explanations have been given of the name, and one old writer gravely connects it with the prophet Elisha ; but there is little doubt that it was first applied to the district round Mount Zlenz (the modern Zobten) and the river Zlenza (Lohe), and thence spread gradually over the whole region now known as Silesia. These early Slavonic inhabitants be- longed to the family of Lechs (Poles), and the modern Polish name for the inhabitants is Zlesaki. The history of Silesia consists substantially of the process which has con- verted it from a Slavonic territory into a predominantly German land. The earliest notices of Silesia are extremely vague, nor can we exactly define the scope of the name in the first thousand years of our era. It seems to have formed part of the great but short-lived kingdom of MORAVIA (q.v.) in the 9th century, and afterwards oscillated between the neighbouring kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland, becoming definitely incorporated with the latter at the end of the 10th century. Christianity was introduced about the year 960, and from 1000 on we have an unbroken list of bishops of Breslau. The first contact of Germany with Silesia was disastrous to the former, as it was on the fastnesses of Silesia that Henry V. squandered his strength in his unsuccessful expedition against Poland in 1109. More fortunate was the intervention of Frederick Barbarossa in 1163 in behalf of the three sons of the dispossessed Ladislaus, a member of the Polish royal family of the Piasts. He succeeded in securing as their share of the Polish dominions the whole of Silesia, though it was not till forty or fifty years later that it could be said to have gained actual independence of Poland. These three princes were the ancestors and founders of the various ducal lines that henceforth ruled in Silesia, and their intimate connexion with the German king accounts in great measure for the process of Germanization which Silesia now began to undergo, chiefly through the in- troduction of German colonists in scantily peopled or desolated districts. The eldest of the three sons of Ladislaus received the town of Breslau and by far the largest portion of territory, so that the history of Silesia for the next two or three generations is practically that of his line. Under his grandson Henry the Bearded (1202-1238} the Germanization of Silesia made rapid pro-