Page:EB1911 - Volume 25.djvu/479

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SOUSLIK—SOUTH AFRICA
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(London, 1890). The Historia de S. Domingos may be read in a modern edition (6 vols., Lisbon, 1866).

Authorities.Obras de D. Francisco Alexandre Lobo, ii. 61–171; Innocencio da Silva, Diccionario bibliographico portuguez, v. 327, xvi. 72; Dr Sousa Viterbo, Manoel de Sousa Coutinho (Lisbon, 1902).  (E. Pr.) 

SOUSLIK, or Suslik, the vernacular name of a European burrowing rodent mammal, nearly allied to the marmots, but of much smaller size and of more slender and squirrel-like build (see Rodentia). The species, Spermophilus (or Citillus) citillus, is rather smaller than an ordinary squirrel, with minute ears, and the tail reduced to a stump of less than an inch in length. The general colour of the upper parts is yellowish grey, with or without a rusty tinge, which is, however, always noticeable on the head; while the underparts are lighter. The range of this species embraces south-east Europe, from southern Germany, Austria and Hungary to the south of Russia. Farther east it is replaced by more or less nearly allied species; while other species extend the range of the genus across central and northern Asia, and thence, on the other side of Bering Strait, all through North America, where these rodents are commonly known as gophers. Many of the species have medium or even long tails, while some are nearly double the size of the typical representative of the group. All, however, have large cheek-pouches, whence the name of pouched marmots, by which they are sometimes called; and they have the first front-toe rudimentary, as in marmots. They are divided into several sub generic groups. One of the most striking American species is the striped gopher, S. (Ictidomys) tridecemlineatus, which is marked on each side with seven yellow stripes, between which are rows of yellow spots on a dark ground. The common souslik lives in dry, treeless plains, especially on sandy or clayey soil, and is never found either in forests or on swampy ground. It forms burrows, often 6 or 8 ft. deep, in which food is stored up and the winter sleep takes place. Each burrow has but one entrance, which is closed up when winter approaches; a second hole, however, being previously driven from the sleeping place to within a short distance of the surface of the ground. This second hole is opened the next year, and used as the ordinary entrance, so that the number of closed up holes round a burrow gives an indication of the length of time that it has been occupied. Sousliks feed on roots, seeds and berries, and occasionally on animal food, preying on eggs, small birds and mice. They bring forth in the spring from four to eight young ones, which, if taken early, may be easily tamed. Sousliks are eaten by the inhabitants of the Russian steppes, who consider their flesh an especial delicacy.  (R. L.*) 


SOUTANE, the French term adopted into English for a cassock especially used for the general daily dress worn by the secular Roman clergy in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The Med. Lat. subtaneus, adapted in O. Fr. as sotane, in Span. and Ital. as sotana, and Port. as sotaina, meant an under-skirt, and is formed from subtus, beneath, sub, under. (See Cassock.)


SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716), English divine, was born at Hackney, Middlesex, in September 1634. He was educated at Westminster school and at Christ Church, Oxford. Before taking orders in 1658 he was in the habit of preaching as the champion of Calvinism against Socinianism and Arminianism. He also at this time showed a leaning to Presbyterianism, but on the approach of the Restoration his views on church government underwent a change; indeed, he was always regarded as a time-server, though by no means a self-seeker. On the 10th of August 1660 he was chosen public orator of the university, and in 1661 domestic chaplain to Lord Clarendon. In March 1663 he was made prebendary of Westminster, and shortly afterwards he received from his university the degree of D.D. In 1667 he became chaplain to the duke of York. He was a zealous advocate of the doctrine of passive obedience, and strongly opposed the Toleration Act, declaiming in unmeasured terms against the various Nonconformist sects. In 1676 he was appointed chaplain to Lawrence Hyde (afterwards earl of Rochester), ambassador-extraordinary to the king of Poland, and of his visit he sent an interesting account to Edward Pococke in a letter, dated Dantzic, 16th December, 1677, which was printed along with South’s Posthumous Works in 1717. In 1678 he was presented to the rectory of Islip, Oxfordshire. Owing, it is said, to a personal grudge, South in 1693 published with transparent anonymity Animadversions on Dr Sherlock’s Book, entitled a Vindication of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity, in which the views of William Sherlock (q.v.) were attacked with much sarcastic bitterness. Sherlock, in answer, published a Defence in 1694, to which South replied in Tritheism Charged upon Dr Sherlock's New Notion of the Trinity, and the Charge Made Good. The controversy was carried by the rival parties into the pulpit, and occasioned such keen feeling that the king interposed to stop it. During the greater part of the reign of Anne South remained comparatively quiet, but in 1710 he ranked himself among the partisans of Sacheverell. He declined the see of Rochester and the deanery of Westminster in 1713. He died on the 8th of July 1716, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

South had a vigorous style and his sermons were marked by homely and humorous appeal. His wit generally inclines towards sarcasm, and it was probably the knowledge of his quarrelsome temperament that prevented his promotion to a bishopric. He was noted for the extent of his charities. He published a large number of single sermons, and they appeared in a collected form in 1692 in six volumes, reaching a second edition in his lifetime in 1715. There have been several later issues; one in two volumes, with a memoir (Bohn, 1845). His Opera posthuma latina, including his will, his Latin poems, and his orations while public orator, with memoirs of his life, appeared in 1717. An edition of his works in 7 vols. was published at Oxford in 1823, another in 5 vols. in 1842. See also W. C. Lake, Classic Preachers of the English Church (1st series, 1877). The contemporary notice of South by Anthony Wood in his Athenae is strongly hostile, said to be due to a jest made by South at Wood’s expense.

SOUTH AFRICA. As a geographical unit South Africa is usually held to be that part of the continent south of the middle course of the Zambezi. The present article (1) deals with that part of Africa as a whole, (2) outlines the constitution of the British possessions forming the Union of South Africa, and (3) summarizes the history of the country from the time of its discovery by Europeans.

I.—General Features

In the geographical sense stated South Africa lies between 16° and 35° S. and 12° and 36° E., narrows from 1600 m. from west to east along its northern border to some 600 m. of coast facing south. Its greatest length south-west to north-east is also about 1600 m. It has an area of about 1,333,000 sq. m. It comprises the Union of South Africa (i.e. the provinces of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, with Zululand, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal); Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland and Southern Rhodesia, all British possessions; German South-West Africa, and the southern part of Portuguese East Africa. By some writers Northern Rhodesia is included in South Africa, but that district belongs more accurately to the central portion of the continent. Other writers confine the term to the British possessions south of the Zambezi, but in this case British South Africa is the proper designation. South African standard time, adopted in 1903, is that of 30° E., or two hours in advance of Greenwich.

Physical Features.—There is a marked uniformity in physical features throughout South Africa. The coast line, from the mouth of the Kunene on the west to the delta of the Zambezi on the east, is little indented and contains only two sheltered natural harbours of any size—Saldanha Bay on the west and Delagoa Bay on the east. At Port Natal, however, the removal of the sand bar at its entrance has made available a third magnificent harbour, while at Table Bay (Cape Town) and at other places ports have been constructed. South Africa presents, however, a solid land mass without peninsulas of any size or any large islands off its coasts. Moreover, behind the low-lying coastlands, which extend in general from 50 to 250 m. inland, rise ramparts of hills shutting off the interior. This conformation of the country has been a powerful influence in determining its history and development. Here and there the mountains,