Chapter Seremenes to Seven Champions of Christendom of S by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Seremenes to Seven Champions of Christendom

Seremenes , brother-in-law of king Sardanapalus, to whom he entrusts his signet-ring to put down the rebellion headed by Arbacês the Mede and Belesis the Chaldean soothsayer. Seremenês was slain in a battle with the insurgents.—Byron: Sardanapalus (1819).

Serena, allured by the mildness of the weather, went into the fields to gather wild flowers for a garland, when she was attracted by the Blatant Beast, who carried her off in its mouth. Her cries attracted to the spot sir Calidore, who compelled the beast to drop its prey.— Spenser: Faërie Queene, vi. 3 (1596).

Serendib, now called Ceylon. When Adam and Eve were cast down from paradise, Adam fell on the isle of Serendib, and Eve near Joddah, in Arabia. After the lapse of 200 years, Adam joined Eve, and lived in Ceylon.

We passed several islands, amongst others the island of Bells, distant about ten days’ sail from that of Serendib.—Arabian Nights (“Sinbad,” sixth voyage).

A print of Adam’s foot is shown on Pico de Adam, in the island of Serendib or Ceylon. According to the Korân, the garden of Eden was not on our earth at all, but in the seventh heaven.—Ludovico Marracci: Al Korân, 24 (1698).

Sergis (Sir), the attendant of Irena. He informs sir Artegal that Irena is the captive of Grantorto, who has sworn to take her life within ten days, unless some knight will volunteer to be her champion, and in single combat prove her innocent of the crime laid to her charge.—Spenser: Faërie Queene, V.II (1596).

Sergius, a Nestorian monk, said to be the same as Boheira, who resided at Bosra, in Syria. This monk, we are told, helped Mahomet in writing the Korân. Some say it was Saïd or Felix Boheira.

Boheira’s name, in the books of Christians, is Sergius.—Masudi: History, 24 (A.D.956).

Serian Worms, silkworms from Sericum (China), the country of the Serês; hence, serica vestis, “a silk dress.”

No Serian worms he knows, that with their thread
Draw out their silken lives; nor silken pride;
His lambs’ warm fleece well fits his little need,
Not in that proud Sidonian tincture dyed.
   —P.Fletcher: The Purple Island, xii. (1633).

Serina, daughter of lord Acasto, plighted to Chamont (the brother of Monimia “the orphan”).—Otway: The Orphan (1680).

Seriswatee, the Janus of Hindu mythology.

Sermons by Dr. Isaac Barrow (1685). One of these sermons took three hours and a half in delivery.

Charles II. called Barrow an unfair preacher, “because he so exhausted his subject, as to leave nothing for others to say.”

Serpent (A), emblem of the tribe of Dan. In the old church at Totness is a stone pulpit divided into compartments, containing shields decorated with the several emblems of the Jewish tribes, of which this is one.

Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse’s heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.—Gen. xlix. 17

(For Lucan’s list of African Serpents, see PHARSALIA, p.835).

The Serpent and Satan. There is an Arabian tradition that the devil begged all the animals, one after another, to carry him into the garden, that he might speak to Adam and Eve, but they all refused except