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* SLAVONIC MUSIC. 237 SLEEP. ■with great favor outside of Bohemia. Perliaps the best known of these is The Bartered Bride (1860). AmoMj; more recent Bohemian compos- ers may be mentioned Hfinialy (1842 — ), whose opera The Enchnntcd Prince (1870) scored a last- ing success, and Fibich (1859 — ), who between 1870 and 1898 wrote five operas and a trilogy, Uippolamia (1891). This composer is also prolific in the field of instrumental music. Beyond doubt the greatest of Bohemian composers is Antonin Dvoti'ik (1841 — ) (q.v.), wlio has done much for the cause of Bohemian music through his mas- terly arrangement of national dances for orches- tra as well as pianoforte. Consult: Cni. Ili-stori- cnl Sketch of Music in Russia, in "The Century Library of ilusic" (New York, 1901) ; Zielinski, The Poles in Music (ib.) ; Soubies, Precis de I'his- toire de la musique russe (Paris. 1893) ; Pougin, "Essai historique sur la miisique en Russie," in Rirista Musicnle Italiana, vols. iii. and iv. (Turin, 1896-97). SLAVOPHILS. See P.xslavism; Russi. LlTERATURE. SLAVS. A branch of the Aryan or Indo- Oermanic family, which constitutes the great bulk of the population of Europe east of the me- ridian of 15° E. as well as of Siberia. They are broad-headed, below the average Aryan in height, with the color of skin pale white, swarthy, or light brown, and eyes brown, hazel, graj', and black. The Slavs comprise the following groups and nationalities: Eastern Group — Great Russians, Little Russians or Malo-Russians (including the Ruthenians), White Russians. Western flroup — Poles, Wends, Czechs (Bohemians and Moravi- ans), Slovaks. Southern Group — Slovenians, Serbo-Croats, Croats. Serbs, Morlaks, Uskoks, Herzegovinians, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Slavic inhabitants of Macedonia. Bulgarians. It has long been recognized that in this vast complex resulting from racial mixtures there can be found no 'Slav type.' Investigations among the Slav peoples show an interblending of 'races' ex- clusive of the Finno-Tatar admixture. The most persistent physical character among the Slavs is the head form, which is brachycephalic, so that this uniformity, conflicting materially with diverse statures in the various groups, has led most anthropologists to class them with the Alpine race, i.e., short-headed people like the Celts. The country occupied by the Slavs before the time of the gi'eat migration of nations appears to have been a region extending several hundred miles on either side of the Upper Dnieper, reach- ing northward as far as the Valdai Hills and westward into the basin of the Upper Vistula. From this seat in the period from the third or fourtli century to the seventh century they spread in all directions, toward the Baltic, beyond the Elbe, into the basin of the Danube, and beyond into the Balkan Peninsula. In the tenth cen- tury they occupied the basin of the Lower Dnieper, From the tenth century on the Oermans pressed back the Slavs, and in the course of several cen- turies region after region that had been occupied by Slavic tribes again became German. The I5ul- garian invaders of the Balkan Peninsula were a Finnic people, who appear to have been akin to the Huns. .After their settlement in Bulgaria they became Slavicized, The Polabians, a Slavic people, who dwelt about the Lower Elbe and the soutlnvestern corner of the Baltic Sea, have be- come extinct. The total number of Slavs is not far from 125,000,000, Consult Zograf, Les peuples de la Russie (Moscow, 1895). See Colored Plate of White R,C'ES OF KrROi'E, under El'ROPE, People.s of. SLAVYANSK, slav-yansk'. A town in the Russian Government of Kharkov, about 100 miles southeast of Kharkov (Jlap: Russia, E 5). It is noted for its large output and export of salt, obtained from the adjacent lakes. Population, in 1897, 15.044, SLEDGE DOG. A dog used for hauling sledges, especially in the Arctic regions. Until civilized explorers, fur traders, and miners intro- duced other breeds, the native dogs of all north- ern peoples were little more than half-domesti- cated wolves. The typical Eskimo dog is broad- chested, with powerful shoulders, a short, thick neck, sharp wolf-like muzzle, slanting eyes, short and generally erect ears. He has a coat of the warmest and thickest hair, normally wolf gray, although black, black and white, and pure white occur. The Eskimo dog does not bark or bay, but howls a long-drawn wolfish howl. The ifac- kenzie River dogs or "huskies' resemble the Arctic fox. They are slenderer and more grace- ful than the Eskimo dogs, with sharper noses and pricked ears. The 'native dogs' are able to en- dure a surprising amount of cold and work, so long as they are fairly fed. Harnessed to a toboggan or a sleilge, a team of five will drag a heavy load 60 miles a day, day after day. The demand for beasts of burden following the rush to Alaska in 1898 took there all kinds of large dogs. This incursion and the havoc wrought) among the native dogs by overwork is modifying the breed of the sledge dog in Alaska. There are two other kinds of sledge dogs, the 'Ostiaks' and 'Samoyeds.' The Ostiaks vary very much in appearance, some being stout, heavily boned, and weighing 50 to 70 pounds, others leggy and wolf-like. In color they range from gray to dark brown, are thick-coated, prick- eared, and more or less wolf-like in disposition, especially in their dealings with one another. The Samoyed dogs are entirely white, with the exception of the nose; the tail is bushy and turned over the back, and the ears are pricked. They weigh from 40 to 60 pounds and much re- semble large Pomeranians, SLEEK, AMINADAB, A hypocrite in Morris Barnett's comedy TJie Serious Faniih/. SLEEP (AS. sl(Fp, Goth, slcps, OHG. slaf, Ger. Schlaf, sleep, from AS. slwpan, Goth. sli-jMn, OHG. sUifati. Ger, sehlafen, to sleep: connected with OChurch Slav, slalii, lax, Lat, labi, to slide, fall), A condition of the body in which the normal activity of the nervous system is so far reduced that self-consciousness and consciousness of surroundings are entirely wanting, or at an extremely low ebb. (On the question of dream- less sleep and the consciousness of conditions be- tween waking and sleeping, see D'REAMIXG and SoMNAMBi'LlSM.) It is, furthermore. a normal and rhythmic process, and as such differentiated from stupor, unconsciousness under drugs, and other cases of abnormal loss of consciousness. Its most conspicuous physiological features are cerebral, or at least cortical, anipmia ; relaxation of nuiscular tone; slower and deeper breathing;