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 SCANDINAVIA of a district, with a force of 5,000 horse. On the death of his father in 1432 his princi- pality was made a province with a Turkish governor, and from that time Scanderbeg re- solved upon its recovery. He served for sev- eral years in the Turkish armies, and com- manded the force sent against Servia in 1439. In 1443 he was second in command of the army sent into Hungary, and in a battle on the Morava purposely gave the victory to John Hunyady. In the confusion of defeat he ex- torted a firman for the government of Alba- nia from the sultan's chief secretary, whom with his attendants he immediately afterward slew. Hastening with a few hundred follow- ers to Oroia, the gates of which were opened to him, he assumed his hereditary sovereignty and abjured Islamism. The Albanians rose at his call, and in 30 days he had become mas- ter of all the fortresses in the country, giv- ing the Turkish garrisons their choice between massacre and baptism. Being appointed gen- eralissimo, he soon collected an army of 15,- 000 natives, French, and Germans, with which he defeated one of 40,000 under Ali Pasha. He overthrew three other large armies, and in 1449, and again in 1450, worsted Amurath himself, compelling him in the latter year, though his army numbered 100,000 men, to raise the siege of Croia and retreat. Moham- med II. continued the war with energy but without success, though Scanderbeg was some- times defeated, and was harassed by internal dissensions and treason. Peace was concluded in 1461 at the suit of the sultan, leaving Scan- derbeg in full possession of his territories. At the solicitation of Pope Pius II., he then went to Italy to support Ferdinand of Naples against John of Anjou, and secured the victory of Troja, Aug. 18, 1462, which drove John out of Italy. The pope, at the instance of the Vene- tians, having proclaimed a crusade against the Turks in 1463, Scanderbeg broke the truce, re- newed the war, defeated the Turks in several battles, forced Mohammed with an army of 100,000 to retreat in 1465, drove another army of 80,000 from before Croia, and during three days massacred its remains in the defiles of Tirana. He successfully resisted his enemies to the last, and it was not until after his death that Albania was reduced by the Turks. He was buried at Alessio, and when the Turks took the town soon after, the janizaries dis- interred his bones and used them as amulets. He left a young son to the guardianship of the Venetians, whose descendants held a Nea- politan dukedom. His life has been written in Latin by his friend Marinus Barletius (Frank- fort, fol., 1537; translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and German) ; in French by C. Paganel (1850) ; and in English by Dr. C. C. Moore (New York, 1850). SCANDINAVIA, the ancient name of that por- tion of Europe now comprised in the king- doms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and the island of Iceland. SCARAB^EUS 663 SCANSORES (Lat. scandere, to climb), an or- der of birds, comprising such as have the toes in pairs, two before and two behind, the latter being the outer anterior and the hind toes. This arrangement facilitates climbing, as is seen in the families of parrots, toucans, cuckoos, trogons, and woodpeckers. (See OE- NITHOLOGY.) SCAPULAR (Lat. scapula, the shoulder blade), a part of the habit of most ancient religious orders, and in particular a badge worn by the guild of the scapular of our Lady of Mount Carmel, as a symbol of the wearer's connec- tion with the Carmelite order. The full reli- gious habit called scapular is an oblong piece of cloth with a hole in the middle for the head, and falling over the shoulders and breast be- low the knees. It varies in color in different orders, and the same variety of color attaches to the symbolic scapular, the scapular of the passion being red, that of the immaculate con- ception blue, &c. That of Mount Carmel is composed of two small square pieces of brown cloth connected by ribbons or strings, and bearing emblems or monograms of Christ and , his mother. This confraternity was first in- stituted about 1250 by St. Simon Stock, sixth general of the Carmelites, and spread rapidly from England throughout Christendom. It counted among its members Kings Edward I. of England and Louis IX. (saint) of France. It was endowed by the popes with many privi- leges and indulgences, and is the most popu- lar guild in the Roman Catholic church. SCARAB/El'S (Linn.), the representative genus of a large family of pentamerous lamellicorn beetles, having the antenna? generally termi- nated by a club, and either composed of leaf- lets or of box-like joints. Of the old family several thousand species were enumerated, of about 200 genera, but these are now separa- ted into many distinct families. The proper scarabceidce or coprophagi comprise those which live in and feed upon excrements, especially those of herbivorous animals. The form is generally short and thick, and their color shi- ning black or brilliant metallic ; they excrete an oily matter, which prevents the substances among which they live from adhering to them ; they are able to dig very rapidly into the ground; in the spring they enclose their eggs in small balls of dung, which they roll along with the hind feet to holes in which they are to be deposited. The type of this family is the genus ateuchm (Weber and Fabr.), equiv- alent to the genus scarabceus of McLeay ; this is peculiar to the old world, and of more than 40 species nearly 30 belong in Africa. The body is rounded, flattened above, the four pos- terior limbs hairy and ending in a single spur ; the external edge of the wing covers is nearly straight, and the head is lobed and festooned in front. Two species were worshipped by the ancient Egyptians, and often represented by their hieroglyphics and on their monuments ; models of them, in the most precious materials,