Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/796

 770 SENNACHERIB SEPOYS sterile and unproductive tracts. Rain seldom falls in the north, sometimes not for two or thre*e years together; but in the south it is abundant between May and September. The climate is exceedingly hot, the thermometer rising to 120 in the shade. Extensive forests border the flat tracts along the White Nile, and in the lower part of the country whore the river overflows its banks abundant crops of durra and beans are raised. These are the principal products, but wheat, cotton, and to- bacco are also cultivated. Much of the coun- try is well adapted for pasturage, and large numbers of horses, camels, sheep, goats, and cattle are raised. Among the leading exports are leather and cotton goods to the neigh- boring countries, ivory, ostrich feathers, and honey. The elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, an- telope, lion, leopard, hysena, baboon, hippo- potamus, wild boar, crocodile, heron, and ibis are met with. The inhabitants represent a number of races, and vary from light yellow to black. There are several Arab tribes, and the territory of the Dinkas embraces the S. W. corner of Sennaar. The better classes are gen- erally well made and handsome, but about half the population are negro slaves. The people understand working in metals, and are good weavers and potters, and particularly skilled in leather making, which is their chief manu- facture. Cotton stuffs are also made. Mo- hammedanism is the prevailing religion, but its requirements are little regarded, and there are many Christians and pagans in the S. E. part of the country. Sennaar formerly be- longed to Abyssinia, and was subsequently an- nexed to the government of Nubia, but appears to have achieved independence about the 14th century. Its history is imperfectly known, but there is reason to believe that during the last 200 years its territory has been parcelled out among various chiefs practically indepen- dent of one another. Since the invasion by Ismail Pasha in 1820-'22 Sennaar has been subject to Egypt. SKVV ( IIKK1K. See ASSYRIA, vol. ii., p. 35. SENS (anc. Agendicum or Civitat Senonurri), a town of France, in the department of Yonne, on the right bank of the Yonne, 60 m. S. E. of Paris; pop. in 1872, 11,514. It is the seat of an archbishop, and has a museum of anti- quities, an episcopal seminary, a theatre, and an ancient Gothic cathedral. Serge, druggets, dials, pottery, cutlery, and nails are manufac- tured. In the time of .Julius Csesar Sens was one of the principal towns of the Senones, and subsequently as capital of Lugdunensis Quarta it was a focus of great Roman roads. It was strongly fortified and often besieged. It was taken by the allies, Feb. 11, 1814, after a brave resistance by the inhabitants. SENSITIVE PLANT. See MIMOSA. SEPIA, a pigment made from the black secre- tion of the sepia or cuttle fish, which it ejects when pursued or annoyed. This secretion was used as an ink by the ancients. Several varieties of sepia yield the ink, but the sepia officinalis, common in the Mediterranean, af- fords the most, and is the one chiefly sought. The sac containing the secretion is extirpated, and the juice dried as soon as possible, as it quickly putrefies. Caustic alkalies render it soluble in water, but absorption of carbonic acid again precipitates the sepia. The dried native sepia is prepared for the painter by triturating with caustic lye, adding more lye, boiling half an hour, filtering, neutralizing with an acid, filtering, washing the filtrate, and drying it with a gentle heat. It has a beautiful brown color with a fine grain, and has given name to a species of drawing. SEPOYS (probably from Pers. sipuhi, a sol- dier), the native soldiers of the British army in India. The practice of employing the na- tives as troops originated with the French about the middle of the 18th century, and in 1748 the East India company organized a small body of sepoys at Madras, which had increased to 14 battalions, numbering 10,000 men, at the time of the battle of Plassey. Two of the bat- talions took part in the expedition under Clive, who at once began to form a similar native army in Bengal, which as early as 1765 con- tained 19,000 troops. A sepoy force was also raised in Bombay, which consisted of about 3,500 men in 1772; and in 1773, when the office of governor general was established, the estimated strength of the East India company's native army was 45,000 men. This entire mil- itary establishment was reorganized in 1796 on a basis which remained essentially unchanged till 1861. A native regiment was about 1,100 strong in Bengal, and 900 in Madras and Bom- bay ; there were about 120 native non-commis- sioned officers, 20 native commissioned officers, and theoretically 25 European officers, but in fact only 12 or 15. The highest rank to which a native could attain was that of subahdar or captain ; native lieutenants were known as je- madar$, and sergeants as havildars. The se- poys were volunteer troops. Those of tho Bengal army were mainly high-caste Hindoos, but in the armies of Madras and Bombay the aristocratic element was not so prominent. According to Kaye, the Bengal sepoy was to the outward eye the finest soldier, tallest, best formed, and of the noblest presence; but he was less docile and serviceable than the sepoy of the southern and western armies. Notwith- standing occasional local mutinies and murder- ous outbreaks on the part of the native sol- diery, their discipline, fidelity, and good ser- vice in the field, extending through so many years, inspired an extraordinary and almost universal confidence in their loyalty, which existed throughout India up to the beginning of the great sepoy revolt in 1857. (See IN- DIA.) When it began, the East India com- pany's army consisted of about 300,000 men, all sepoys with the exception of 40,000. The mutiny was almost wholly confined to the Ben- gal army ; in Madras but a single regiment was