Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/635

* SAPOTACE^. 569 SAPPORO. iciiiaiiiclor of sulitiopical rimiitiii's. The fruits III >iiim' are jileasaut, as tlie sapodilla and oilier species of the genus Achras, the star apiile (q.v.) and other speeies of Chrysophylluni, vari- ous speeies of Mimusops, Lucuina, etc. Tlie genus Bassia contains species valuable for the oils which they yield. The seeds of Jlinnisops Klengi also yield oil abundantly. The followinf; "eiiera embrace species wliieli yield fii'tt'i-pereha, some of thorn at one time being almost the only .sources of that product : Payena. Falaiiuiuui, Bassia, Is- onandra or Dichopsis, and Jlimusops. SAPPHIRE (OF.. Fr. .s»/)/iir, from Lat. fxip- phinis, from Ok. aanpf^pos, xii ijpliciros. sapphire, or perhaps lapis lazuli, from Heb. sappir, sa|)- phire). A blue variety of corundum (q.v.), higii- ly prized as a gem. It is similar in composition to the ruby, but it is somewhat harder and of slightly higher specific gravity. It crystallizes in the he.xagonal system, usually in the form of double pyramids. The sapphire has a beautiful blue color, although spotted varieties are not rare, the yellow, white, and blue spots being some- times sharply separated or again grading into each other. Heating the stone drives the blue color away permanently. The value of the gem increases with the depth of the color up to the limit of translucency, the most prized specimens having a corn-flower blue tint. Asteria is the name applied to an imperfectly transparent variety which, when cut in the form of a dome, shows six star-liUc rays. Sapphires of good color and size are more connnon than rubies and much cheaper. A specimen of good color, weighing two or three carats, has about the same value as a diamond of equal size. Some very large sapphires have been found: one of 951 carats was recorded in 1827 as being in the pos- session of the King of Ava. Other large stones are in the museum of the .Tardin des Plantes, Paris. Sapphires occur in very nnich the same regions as the ruby, and indeed the two are often found together. The best sapphires come from Siam, where they are mined in the loose surface deposits which yield the ruby. They are also found in Burma. Ceylon, and Kashmir, and at many localities in Australia. The Australian saiJphiies are not regarded with much favor, ow- ing to their dark color. In the United States the most valuable stones are obtained in North Carolina and Montana. In the former State they are found in gravel defwsits, from which they are separated by a washing process. The IMontana deposits, the most important discovered in recent years, occur as bars on the upper Mis- souri River, and also in an igneous dike, which can be traced for several miles. The stones are obtained chiefly from the decomposed portion of the dike and are separated from the matrix by washing. They range in weight from less than one carat up to four or five carats. The pro- duction of sapphires in the United States in 1901 was valued at $90,000. almost the entire out- put coming from Montana. BiBi,ioGR.PiiY. Bauer, EdrJ-steinl-uitde (Leip- zig, 1896) : Kunz, Gcmf: and Precious atones ( New York ) ; Pratt, "The Occurrence and Dis- . tribution of Corundum in the United States." Vnited lifafes Geoloc/ical f^urvey BiiUetin So. If^O (Washington, 19(11). SAPPHO (Lat.. from Ok. Sott^u'). A Les- bian poetess of good family, a contemporary of Alcitus (e.tiOO B.C.) and with him the chief creator of the -Kolian personal lyric. Sappho i.s for us ehielly a name — a theme for the fervent rhetoric evoked l)y impassioned contemplation of the few ex(iuisite fragments of her poems that time has spareil, a type of the highest achieve- ment of woman in literature, a .symbol and synonym of the intoxication of absolute lyric, 'all fire ami dew.' She was born possibly at Kresos, more probably at Mityleiie, where she lived until she was exiled by an uprising of the democratic party against the oligarchs. From her poems we infer that she practiced and taught her art in a coterie, club, or scl 1 of maidens, to whom she was devotedly attached, whom she addressed in the languagi- of jmssioiiate aduralioii, an<l whose bridal odes she composed when they li'ft her to marry. Familiar to all poets and lovers is the legend of her unrequited love for Phaon and of her casting herscdf down from the promontory of Lover's Leap to that "Leueadian grave which hides too deep the su- preme head of .song" (Swinburne). Alcauis is said to have been her lover and to have ad<tressed her in the words, "Violet-lrcsscd, sweetly smiling, pure Sappho, fain would 1 speak, but shame for- bids." To this she replied, "If thy desire was of aught fair and good, shame had not beset thine eves, but thou hadst spoken thereof frank and true." The ancients read her poems in nine books. The extant fragments include (1) the ode to Aphrodite, twenty-seven lines in Saiiphic strophes quoted by the critic Dionysius of Halicarnassus as an example of the 'smooth style;' ('2) the "Blest as the innnortal gods is he." to name it by Ambrose Philips's hopelessly inadeipuite translation, four Sapphic strophes cited by Lon- ginus as a specimen of the sublime; and (S) some hundred or more single lines and stanzas in a great variety of lyric metres. They may be found in Bergk's Poetw Lyrici, in the Teubner Antliolofiia Lj/rica. and, with English transla- tions added, in Wharton's Sapphn. Some ad- ditional fragments have recently been recovered from Egyptian papyri. The chief motives of Sappho's poems are love and the beauty of na- ture. They contain no profound thoughts and few striking images, and the exquisite beauty of their diction and the liqtiid lapse of the rhythm can no more be rendered into English than Keats's odes could be translated into French or German. Swinlmrne, in "On the ClitTs," thus strives to reproduce the impression of one wistful waif of verse: Attliis, of old time, once — one low. lonf^fall. Sigliinp: — one lon^. low, lovely. loveU'SS call, D.vinjx — one pause in sonp; eo ftanielike fast^- Atthitt, Intif^ sinre in oki time ovprpiiKt — One soft tlrst pause and last. One.— then the old raiire of rapture's tleriest rnln Storms all the music-maddened niprht airaln." SAPPHO'S LEAP. The high cliff anciently called Leucadia or Leucas. now Cape Ducato. on Santa Maura, one of the Ionian Islands. From it Sappho the poetess is said to have thrown herself into the sea on account of her hopeless love for Phaon. SAPPORO, siip'p'irA. The capital of the island of Yezo. .Tapan, situated on the Ishigari River, a short distance from the western coast (Jlap: .Tapan, G 2). It has an agricultural col- lege, a museum with specimens of the work of
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