Chapter Sack Race to Saga of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Sack Race to Saga

Sack Race (A). A village sport in which each runner is tied up to the neck in a sack. In some cases the candidates have to make short leaps, in other cases they are at liberty to run as well as the limits of the sack will allow them.

Sackbut A corruption of sambuca. (Spanish, sacabuche; Portuguese, saquebuxo; French, saquebute; Latin, sacra buccina, sacred trumpet.)

Sackerson The famous bear kept at “Paris Garden” in Shakespeare's time. (See Paris Garden .)

Sacrament Literally, “a military oath” taken by the Roman soldiers not to desert their standard, turn their back on the enemy, or abandon their general. We also, in the sacrament of baptism, take a military oath “to fight manfully under the banner of Christ.” The early Christians used the word to signify “a sacred mystery,” and hence its application to the Baptism and Eucharist, and in the Roman Catholic Church to marriage, confirmation, etc.
   The five sacraments are Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction. (See Thirty-nine Articles, Article xxxv.)
   The seven sacraments are Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and Extreme Unction.
   The two sacraments of the Protestant Church are Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

Sacramentarians Those who believe that no change takes place in the eucharistic elements after consecration, but that the bread and wine are simply emblems of the body and blood of Christ. They were a party among the Reformers who separated from Luther.

Sacred Anchors, in Greek vessels, were never let go till the ship was in the extremity of danger.

Sacred City (See Holy City .)

Sacred Heart The “Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” owes its origin to a French nun, named Mary Margaret Alacoque, of Burgundy, who practised devotion to the Saviour's heart in consequence of a vision. The devotion was sanctioned by Pope Clement XII. in 1732.

Sacred Isle or Holy Island. Ireland was so called because of its many saints, and Guernsey for its many monks. The island referred to by Thomas Moore in his Irish Melodies (No. II.) is Scattery, to which St. Senanus retired, and vowed that no woman should set foot thereon.

“Oh, haste and leave this sacred isle,
Unholy bark, ere morning smile.”
St. Senanus and the Lady.

   Enhallow (from the Norse Eyinhalga, Holy Isle) is the name of a small island in the Orkney group, where cells of the Irish anchorite fathers are said still to exist.

Sacred War
   (1) A war undertaken by the Amphictyonic League against the Cirrhaeans, in defence of Delphi. (B.C. 594-587.)
   (2) A war waged by the Athenians for the restoration of Delphi to the Phocians, from whom it had been taken. (B.C. 448-447.)
   (3) A war in which the Phocians, who had seized Delphi, were conquered by Philip of Macedon. (B.C. 346.)

Sacred Way (The) in ancient Rome, was the street where Romulus and Tatius (the Sabine) swore mutual alliance. It does not mean the “holy street,” but the “street of the oath.”

Sacred Weed (The). Vervain. (See Herba Sacra .)

Sacrifice Never sacrifice a white cock, was one of the doctrines of Pythagoras, because it was sacred to the moon. The Greeks went further, and said, “Nourish a cock, but sacrifice it not,” for all cockerels were sacred either to the sun or moon, as they announced the hours. The cock was sacred also to the goddess of wisdom, and to Esculapios, the god of health; it therefore represented time, wisdom, and health, none of which are ever to be sacrificed. (See Iamblichus: Protreptics, symbol xviii.)

Sacrifice to the Graces is to render oneself agreeable by courteous conduct, suavity of manners, and fastidiousness of dress. The allusion is to the three Graces of classic mythology.