Sa´lem, a young seraph, one of the two tutelar angels of the Virgin Mary and of John the Divine, “for God had given to John two tutelar angels, the chief of whom was Raph´ael, one of the most exalted seraphs of the hierarchy of heaven.”—Klopstock, The Messiah, iii. (1748).
Sal´emal, the preserver in sickness, one of the four gods of the Adites (2 syl.).—D’Herbelot, Bibliothèques Orientale (1697).
Salian Franks. So called from the Isăla or Yssel, in Holland. They were a branch of the Sicambri; hence, when Clovis was baptized at Rheims, the old prelate addressed him as “Sigambrian,” and said that “he must henceforth set at naught what he had hitherto worshipped, and worship what he had hitherto set at naught.”
Salisbury (Earl of), William Longsword, natural son of Henry II. and Jane Clifford, “The Fair Rosamond.”—Shakespeare, King John (1596); Sir W. Scott, The Talisman (time, Richard I.).
Sallust of France (The). César Vichard (1639-1692) was so called by Voltaire.
Salmigondin, or “Salmygondin,” a lordship of Dipsody, given by Pantagruel to Panurge (2 syl.). Alcofribas, who had resided six months in the giant’s mouth without his knowing it, was made castellan of the castle.—Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. 32; iii. 2 (1533-45).
The lordship of Salmygodin was worth 67 million pounds sterling, per annum, in “certain rent,” and an annual revenue for locusts and periwinkles, varying from £24,357 to 12 millions in a good year, when the exports of locusts and periwinkles were flourishing. Panurge, however, could not make the two ends meet. At the close of “less than fourteen days” he had forestalled three years’ rent and revenue, and had to apply to Pantagruel to pay his debts.—Pantagruel, iii. 2.
Salmo´neus (3 syl.), king of Elis, wishing to be thought a god, used to imitate thunder and lightning by driving his chariot over a brazen bridge, and darting burning torches on every side. He was killed by lightning for his impiety and folly
Salmoneus, who while he his carroach drave
Over the brazen bridge of Elis’ stream,
And did with artificial thunder brave
Jove, till he pierced him with a lightning beam.
Lord Brooke, Treatise on Monarchie, vi.