Chapter Shot Window to Sibylline Leaves of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Shylock (A). A grasping moneylender. (See above.)

“Respectable people withdrew from the trade, and the money-lending business was entirely in the hands of the Shylocks. ... Those who had to borrow coin were obliged to submit to the expensive subterfuges of the Shylocks, from whose net once caught, there was little chance of escape.”- A. Egmont-Hake: Free Trade in Capital, chap. vii.

Si the seventh note in music, was not introduced till the seventeenth century. The original scale introduced by Guido d'Arezzo consisted of only six notes. (See Aretinian Syllables .)

Si Quis A notice to all whom it may concern, given in the parish church before ordination, that a resident means to offer himself as a candidate for holy orders; and SI QUIS- i.e. if anyone knows any just cause or impediment thereto, he is to declare the same to the bishop.

Siamese Twins: Yoke-fellows, inseparables; so called from two youths (Eng and Chang), born of Chinese parents at Bang Mecklong. Their bodies were united by a band of flesh, stretching from breast-bone to breast-bone. They married two sisters, and had offspring. (1825-1872.)
   Siamese Twins. The Biddenden Maids, born 1100, had distinct bodies, but were joined by the hips and shoulders. They lived to be thirty- four years of age.

Sibberidge (3 syl.). Banns of marriage. (Anglo-Saxon sibbe, alliance; whence the old English word sibrede, relationship, kindred.) (See Gossip .)

“For every man it schuldë drede
And Nameliche in his sibrede.”
Gower: Confessio Amantis.

Sibyl (See Amalthæa .)

Sibyls Plato speaks of only one (the Erythræan); Martian Capella says there were two, the Erythræan and the Phrygian; the former being the famous “Cumæan Sibyl;” Solinus and Jackson, in his Chronologic Antiquities, maintains, on the authority of Ælian, that there were four - the Erythræan, the Samian, the Egyptian, and the Sardian; Varro tells us there were ten, viz. the Cumæan (who sold the books to Tarquin), the Delphic, Egyptian, Erythræan, Hellespontine, Libyan, Persian, Phrygian, Samian, and Tiburtine.
    The name of the Cumæan sibyl was Amalthæa.

“How know we but that she may be an eleventh Sibyl or a second Cassandra?”- Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel, iii. 16.

   Sibyls. The mediaeval monks reckoned twelve Sibyls, and gave to each a separate prophecy and distinct emblem:-
   (1) The Libyan Sibyl: “The day shall come when men shall see the King of all living things.” Emblem, a lighted taper.
   (2) The Samian Sibyl: “The Rich One shall be born of a pure virgin.” Emblem, a rose.
   (3) The Cumæn Sibyl: “Jesus Christ shall come from heaven, and live and reign in poverty on earth.” Emblem, a crown.
   (4) The Cumæan Sibyl: “God shall be born of a pure virgin, and hold converse with sinners.” Emblem, a cradle.
   (5) The Erythræan Sibyl: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, the Saviour.” Emblem, a horn.
   (6) The Persian Sibyl: “Satan shall be overcome by a true prophet.” Emblem, a dragon under the Sibyl's feet, and a lantern.
   (7) The Tiburtine Sibyl: “The Highest shall descend from heaven, and a virgin be shown in the valleys of the deserts.” Emblem, a dove.
   (8) The Delphic Sibyl: “The Prophet born of the virgin shall be crowned with thorns.” Emblem, a crown of thorns.
   (9) The Phrygian Sibyl: “Our Lord shall rise again.” Emblem, a banner and a cross.
   (10) The European Sibyl: “A virgin and her Son shall flee into Egypt.” Emblem, a sword.
   (11) The Agrippine Sibyl: “Jesus Christ shall be outraged and scourged.” Emblem, a whip.
   (12) The Hellespontic Sibyl: “Jesus Christ shall suffer shame upon the cross.” Emblem, a cross.
   This list of prophecies is of the sixteenth century, and is manifestly a clumsy forgery or mere monkish legend. (See below, Sibylline Verses.)
   The most famous of the ten sibyls was Amalthæa, of Cumæ in Æolia, who offered her nine books to Tarquin the Proud. The offer being rejected, she burnt three of them; and after the lapse of twelve months, offered the remaining six at the same price. Again being refused, she burnt three more, and after a similar interval asked the same price for the remaining three. The sum demanded was now given, and Amalthæa never appeared again.