Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/461

* SAFFLOWER. 421 SAGA. fades with light and age, it is not as popular as formerly. Rouge derives its color from safflowtT. SAF'FORD, James Merrill {1822—). An Auiericaii geologist, born at Zanesville, Ohio, and educated at the Ohio University and at Yale. Ho was professor of natural sciences at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn. ; of chemistry in the medical department of the University of Xash- ville, and in 1875 was made professor of min- eralogy, botany, and economic geology at Vander- bilt University. His publications include A Ge- ological Rccoimoissancc of the ,Statc of Tennes- see (18.50). and the Geology of Tennessee, with a map of the State (1809). SAFFORD, Truman Henry (183G-ln01). An American astronomer, born in ^"ermont. and edu- cated at Harvard. In 1803 he was made assist- ant observer at the Cambridge Observatory, and in 1805 became director of that at Chicago. He was professor of astronomy at Williams College (1870-99) and built a meridian observatory there. He published a star catalogue and a catalogue of right ascensions of close polar stars. SafTord also predicted the position of the companion of Si- rius (q.v.). SAFFRON (OF. sfifrtm, snf- fran, Fr. safrun. It. zafferans, Sp. asafran. from Ar. asfaran, saffron, from safra', yel- low). A bright yellow flavoring and coloring ma- terial, consisting of the dried stig- mas of the com- mon j-ellowcrocus {Croeus satii-us), the bulbs of which w ere introduced into Europe from Asia Minor. The.y are largely culti- vated in Spain. Saffron is often employed as a perfume, but its chief uses in America are for flavoring and coloring confec- tionery and culinary articles. Its great solubility in water prevents its use as a dye for fabrics. See Crocus. SAFFRON WOOD. A South African timber tree. See El.eodenduox. SAFI, sa'fe, or SAFFI (Arab. Asfi, or Asaffi). A seaport on the northwest coast of Morocco. 102 miles west-northwest of the city of that name ( Map : Africa. D 1 ) . It was at one time the chief seat of the trade with Europe, and. though it has declined with the rise of Mogador. it still has considerable export trade, chiefly in leather, horses, and grain. Popu- lation alinut 9,nn0. SAFTLEVEN, saft'la'fcn, SAFTLEBEN, or ZACHTLEVEN, CoRXELis ( 1000-81 l. A Dutch painter and etcher, born in Rotterdam. Influenced by Brouwer and Teniers, he painted s.AFFRON (Crocus saTtvus). guard rooms, rural interiors, and landscapes with figures and cattle, characteristic upecimcns of which may l)c seen cs|)ecially in tlie Dresden (Jallery, while others are in the Louvre, in Am- sterdam, Cologne, Karlsruhe, Hrunswick, Vienna, and Saint Petersburg. His etchings are held in great esteem. — Hebma.n ( 1009-H5), a brother and probably pupil of the preceding, was a landscape painter and etcher, who formed himsidf chielly by studying nature. In lO.i.i he went fniin Kot- terdam to Utrecht, where, in 105.>, he became head of the painters' guild. His views on the Rhine, Meuse, and Moselle, enlivened with Hgures and animals, are distinguished by tiu-ir clear perspective and a soft bluish coloring. The Dres- den Gallery jjossesses seventeen of his pictures on a small scale, executed with minute delicacy, while others may be seen in most of the principal galleries of Europe. His etchings, about .'iS in number (1040-09). include a portrait of himself and rank among the best of their kind. SAGA, sii'ga. The capital of the prefecture of the same name in >Ia])an, situated in the north- western part of the island of Kiushiu, 82 miles by rail northeast of Nagasaki (Map: .Japan, B 7 ). It was formerly the resi<lence of the lord.s of Hizen, whose beautiful park is a feature of the town. Population, in 1898, .32,753. SAGA (Icel., tale, story, history). The name applied to the most important division of Ice- landic prose literature. This form of literary production was developed in Iceland alone, and this was due possibly to the fact that the fami- lies that settled there were men in whom the talent for story-telling was inherent, while the long period of gloom and semi-night that shrouds this remote island the greater part of the year evoked this form of instructive amusementj, whereby the deeds of their ancestors and even their friemls were related in attractive form. Possibly their intercourse with the Irish, who even before the eleventh century had a prose literature, may have abetted this tendency. At the annual gathering at the Thing in Ice- land in midsummer old sagas were told and ma- terial for new ones was often gathered. At first the sagas were merely told by Sagnamcnn and kept alive in the hearts and minils of each suc- ceeding generation tnitil they were written down, some in the twelftli century, but the majority in the thirteenth. The written saga has ised the oral saga only as a background, inasmuch as it has borrowed certain delinite ilata and genealo- gies, but the author of the written saga has l)een original in language, in characterization, and in dramatic arrangement. The saga has its fi.xed laws and set plirases, and. although there is a vast difference in .style among the sagas, certain restrictions are as clearly adhered to as in ver.se. The saga rises at times to an almost epic grandeur and some of them have much poetry interspersed through them. The simplest form of saga was the |>attr and the fnlsogn or fr.lsaga, the former of which was nutinly some stirring deed or episode out of the life of a great Ice- lander, and the latter a simple narrative. The sagas are divided into several groups: (1) Historical sagas; (2) mythical or heroic sagns; (3) romantic sagas. Historical sagas are sub- divided into fslrndingnxiigiir :ind Konungnsiigtir. The fslendingasngur had as their theme the life of some noted Icelander. They freipiently began with his ancestry, traced it down through him