SICILY although the mode is rode and careless, the cropalre often remarkable for their luxuri- ance- the most important are wheat, maize, barley, and pulse. Artificial grasses are grown to a small extent, and hemp is raised m the deeper and lower grounds. The vine and olive are extensively cultivated, and often inter- mixed. The other productions include sugar, cotton, sumach, saffron, manna ob- tained from a species of ash (fraxinus ornus), an.l the mulberry, which is extensively applied to roaring silkworms. Various kinds of fruit abound. The most valuable kinds of timber are ash, oak, pine, elm, and chestnut. Cattle are not numerous, and are generally neglected. Sheep are extensively reared, but the breed is inferior, and in many places goats are preferred to them. Snakes are common in the plains, and wolves in the mountains. The population is a mixture of many races, but the Sicanians or Siculians seem to have been the aborigi- nes. Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Herulians, Arabs, and Normans after- ward settled among them. The Sicilians are of light olive complexion, middle stature, and c made. The dialect differs considerably from the Italian, being much mixed with Ara- bic and other languages. They are all Roman Catholics, excepting a number of descendants of modern Greek settlers, who adhere to the Greek church. The unequal distribution of landed property, the fatal rule of the Bour- bons, the total neglect of education, and other untoward circumstances have produced great misery in Sicily; but the island is gradual- ly improving under Victor Emanuel, although brigandage still prevails, especially under a wide-spread organization known as the Mafia. There are now elementary schools in the vil- lages and higher schools in the towns, and Palermo has a celebrated university. Industry is not much developed, and the manufactures arc limited chiefly to the larger towns. The vin> -. of the country are largely exported, along with fruit, grain, oil, sulphur, silk, wool, su- mach, &c. The fisheries are among the most ive in the Mediterranean. The first in- habitants of Sicily are supposed to have come from the continent of Italy. The Phoenicians early founded colonies there, including Panor-
- mw Palermo) and Eryx. In the 8th
< '. the Greeks drove them into the , and in that and the following two cen- turies established several colonies on the coasts, such as Zancle or Messana (Messina), Syracuse, Leontini (Lentini), Catana (Catania), several towns called Hybla, Gela, Selinus, and Agri- (Girgenti), of which Syracuse and Mes- sana became the most celebrated. The Cartha- fled the island early in the 5th cen- nd also established colonies, which, after long contests with the Greeks, finally fell under ver of Syracuse. (See SYRACUSE.) Du- nic w.-ir Agrigentum was the prin. ipal stronghold of the Carthaginians, but
- ': the Romans, who subse-
SICKLES quently obtained possession of the whole isl- and, afterward their principal granary. On the decline of the Roman empire Sicily was overrun by barbarians. The Ostrogoths, who conquered it at the close of the 5th century, were expelled in 535 by the Byzantine general Belisarius. The Saracens occupied it about 830, and made Palermo their capital. In the llth century they were driven out by the Nor- mans, who established the feudal system, and united Sicily to Naples, with which its subse- quent history is identified. (See SICILIES, THE Two.) Among recent works on Sicily are: UHistoire de la Sidle sous la domination des Normandy by Bazancourt (2 vols., Paris, 1846) ; Storia del Musulmani di Sicilia, by Amaii (Florence, 1853); Compendia della storia di Sicilia, by San Filippo (7th ed., Palermo, 1859) ; Neapel und Sicilien, by Loher (2 vols., Munich, 1864); Siciliana, by Gregorovius, in- cluded in his Wanderjahre in Italien (4 vols., Leipsic, 1874) ; " History of Sicily to the Athe- nian War," by W. Watkiss Lloyd (London, 1874) ; and GescJiichte Siciliens im Alterthum, by Ad. Holms (3 vols., Leipsic, 1874 et seq.}. SICKINGEN, Franz von, a German soldier, born in the castle of Sickingen, Baden, March 1, 1481, died May 7, 1523. lie was rich and dis- tinguished for valor and generosity. He en- couraged the reformation, protected Reuchlm and Ulrich von Hutten, and offered an asylum to Luther. In 1513 he declared war against the city of "Worms, and subsequently fought against the duke of Lorraine, levied large amounts of money upon Metz and other cities, and laid siege to Mentz, when the quarrel was adjusted by the emperor. In 1521 he invaded Picardy with the count of Nassau, but was forced by a stratagem of the chevalier Bayard, and by sickness in his army, to abandon the expedition. In 1522 a private dispute brought him into war with the archbishop of Treves, and he raised an army of 12,000 men and des- olated his territories. In 1523 he was besieged in his castle Landstuhl near Eaiserslautern, and surrendered after receiving a mortal wound. He was one of the last nobles who maintained in Germany the right of private warfare. His descendants became counts of the empire; only one branch of them now survives. See Ritter Franz von Sickingen und seine NacTi- Tcommen, by Schneegans (Creuznach, 1867). SICKLE. See SCYTHE. SICKLE-BILL. See CURLEW. SICKLES, Daniel Ephraim, an American general, born in New York, Oct. 20, 1822. He studied at the university of New York, but did not graduate, and was admitted to the bar in 1844. In 1847 he was elected to the state legislature, and in 1853 was appointed corporation attor- ney in New York city. In the latter year he accompanied Mr. Buchanan to England as sec- retary of legation. He was elected to the state senate in 1855 and to congress in 1856, and re- elected to the latter in 1858 and 1860. In 1859 he shot Philip Barton Key in Washington for
