Chapter Sibylline Verses to Significavit of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

“the plume of war.” The poet refers to the battle of Zutphen, where Sir Philip received his death-wound. Being thirsty, a soldier brought him some water; but as he was about to drink he observed a wounded man eye the bottle with longing looks. Sir Philip gave the water to the wounded man, saying, “Poor fellow, thy necessity is greater than mine.” Spenser laments him in the poem called Astrophel (q.v.).
   Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother. Mary Herbert (nee Sidney), Countess of Pembroke, poetess, etc. (Died 1621.) The line is by William Browne (1645).

Sidney-Sussex College Cambridge, founded by Lady Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex, in 1598.

Siegfried (2 syl.). Hero of the first part of the Nibelungen-Lied. He was the youngest son of Siegmund and Sieglind, king and queen of the Netherlands, and was born in Rhinecastle called Xanton. He married Kriemhild, Princess of Burgundy, and sister of Günther. Günther craved his assistance in carrying off Brunhild from Issland, and Siegfried succeeded by taking away her talisman by main force. This excited the jealousy of Günther, who induced Hagan, the Dane, to murder Siegfried. Hagan struck him with a sword in the only vulnerable part (between the shoulder-blades), while he stooped to quench his thirst at a fountain. (Nibelungen-Lied.)
   Horny Siegfried. So called because when he slew the dragon he bathed in its blood, and became covered all over with a horny hide which was invulnerable, except in one spot between the shoulders, where a linden-leaf stuck. (Nibelungen-Lied, st. 100.)
   Siegfried's cloak of invisibility, called “tarnkappe” (tarnen, to conceal; kappe, a cloak). It not only made the wearer invisible, but also gave him the strength of twelve men. (Tarnkappe, 2 syl.)

“The mighty dwarf successless strove with the mightier man;
Like to wild mountain lions to the hollow hill they ran;
He ravished there the tarnkappe from struggling Albric's hold,
And then became the master of the hoarded gems and gold.”
Lettsom: Fall of the Nibelungers, Lied iii.

Sieglind (2 syl.). Mother of Siegfried, and Queen of the Netherlands. (The Nibelungen-Lied.)

Sieglind (3 syl.). The paint so called is made of terra di Siena, in Italy.

Sierra (3 syl., Spanish, a saw). A mountain whose top is indented like a saw; a range of mountains whose tops form a saw-like appearance; a line of craggy rocks; as Sierra Morena (where many of the incidents in Don Quixote are laid), Sierra Nevada (the snowy range), Sierra Leone (in West Africa, where lions abound), etc.

Siesta (3 syl.) means “the sixth hour”- i.e. noon. (Latin, sexta hora). It is applied to the short sleep taken in Spain during the mid-day heat. (Spanish, sesta, sixth hour; sestéar, to take a mid-day nap.)

Sieve and Shears The device of discovering a guilty person by sieve and shears is to stick a pair of shears in a sieve, and give the sieve into the hands of two virgins, then say: “By St. Peter and St. Paul, if you [or you] have stolen the article, turn shears to the thief.” Sometimes a Bible and key are employed instead, in which case the key is placed in a Bible.

Sif Wife of Thor, famous for the beauty of her hair. Loki having cut it off while she was asleep, she obtained from the dwarfs a new fell of golden hair equal to that which he had taken.

Sight for “multitude” is not an Americanism, but good Old English. Thus, in Morte d'Arthur, the word is not unfrequently so employed; and the high-born dame, Juliana Berners, lady prioress in the fifteenth century of Sopwell nunnery, speaks of a bomynable syght of monkes (a large number of friars).

“Where is so huge a syght of mony.”- Pulsgrave: Acolastus (1540).

Sight (Far). Zarga, the Arabian heroine of the tribe Jadis, could see at the distance of three days' journey. Being asked by Hassân the secret of her long sight, she said it was due to the ore of antimony, which she reduced to powder, and applied to her eyes as a collyrium every night.

Sign your Name It is not correct to say that the expression “signing one's name” points to the time when persons could not write. No doubt persons who could not write made their mark in olden times as