Singing-bread, Chr. The larger altar breads used in the mass were called singing-bread; the smaller ones consecrated for the people were known as houseling bread. (See also Holy Bread.)
Sinister, Her. The left side of a shield (considered from the back, or wearer’s point of view). The bendlet or baton sinister is generally (not rigorously) regarded in modern Heraldry as the most appropriate difference of illegitimacy. (Consult Boutell’s English Heraldry, p. 194.)
Sinopia. A fine red pigment found upon ancient mural paintings.
Sinum or Sinus, R. A vessel of small dimensions, but tolerably wide and deep, which was used for holding wine or milk.
Siparium, R. The curtain of a theatre. It was divided in the middle and withdrawn to the sides to disclose the stage.
Sipho, Gr. (σίφων, a hollow body). A siphon for exhausting liquids from a vessel by the pressure of the atmosphere. A painting at Thebes shows that the principle of the siphon was known to the Egyptians as early as the eighteenth dynasty. The same name was applied to a suction and forcing pump, which was generally employed as a fire-engine.
Sirens (Gr. Σειρῆνες [probably from σειρὰ, a chain, to signify their attractive power]). These mythical representatives of the evil side of the seductive power of music, are represented in art as lovely women to the waist, and fishes or birds below. Sometimes they have wings, which the Muses are said to have plucked (see Muses) of their feathers; as Orpheus, by opening their minds to the unattainable higher music, drove them to suicide in the end. In Christian symbolism the sirens typify the three carnal lusts. (See Fig. [455].)
Sirpea. (See Scirpea.)
Sispa-sastra, Hind. A Hindoo work, the title of which means literally the science of manual art. It was a kind of encyclopædia, and comprised about thirty treatises on the manual arts, and included a treatise on architecture written by a Hindoo whose name has not come down to us; but a sage or mage called Dupayana compiled, abridged, and edited, about 1500 B.C., the lost treatise of the Hindoo architect. (Bosc.)
Sistrum, Egyp. (σεῖστρον; σείω, to shake). A kind of rattle formed by a certain number of metallic rods which passed through a framework also of metal; this was attached to a short handle ending in a head of Athor. By shaking the instrument by the handle the metallic rods and the movable rings suspended from them were made to give out a sharp rattling sound. The Egyptians made use of the sistrum in the ceremonial worship of Isis and at funerals. Roman coins of Hadrian present a personification of Egypt as a female figure seated with the sacred ibis at her feet, and a sistrum in her hand. The instrument is still in use on the Nile.