[Samaria], a city of a district of the name between Judea and Galilee in the Holy Land, and which became the capital of the North Kingdom of Israel after the revolt from the Southern; was desolated by the hosts of Assyria in 720 B.C., and repeopled afterwards by Assyrian settlers, who were converted to the Jewish faith, and ministered to by a Jewish priest; when the Jews rebuilt the Temple of Jerusalem, the Samaritans' offer to aid was rejected, and the refusal led to a bitter hostility between the Jews and Samaritans ever after.
[Samaritan Pentateuch], a version of the Pentateuch in use among the Samaritans, and alone accepted by them as canonical. It is of value from its independence of other versions.
[Samaritans]. See [Samaria].
[Samaveda], the section of the Veda that contains the chants, intended for singers.
[Samian Sage], name given to Pythagoras as a native of Samos.
[Samnites], a warlike people of ancient Italy in territory SE. of Rome; gave the Romans much trouble till, after two successive wars in 343 and 327 B.C., they were subdued in 290 B.C. A revolt in 90 B.C. led to their extermination as an nation.
[Samoa], or Navigators' Islands (36), a group of 14 volcanic islands in the W. Pacific, of which three alone are of any size—Savaii, Upolu, and Tutuila; all are mountainous and richly wooded; climate is moist and warm; copra is the chief export, and cotton, coffee, tobacco, &c., are grown; the natives, a vigorous Polynesian race, have been Christianised; the islands are under the joint suzerainty of Britain, Germany, and the United States; the chief town of the group is Apia (2), at the head of a pretty bay in Upolu; near here R. Louis Stevenson spent the last five years of his life.
[Samos], a fertile island in the Ægean Sea, about 30 m. long and 8 wide, separated from the coast of Ionia, three-quarters of a mile wide; had an extensive trade with Egypt and Crete; came through various fortunes under the chief Powers of ancient and mediæval Europe till it became subject to Turkey; had a capital of the same name, which in the fifth century B.C. was one of the finest cities in the world.
[Samothrace], a mountainous, bleak island in the Ægean Sea, NW. of the mouth of the Dardanelles; has only one village of 2000 inhabitants; was in ancient times place of [Cabiri worship] (q. v.).
[Samoyedes], a people of the Mongolian race, occupying the N. shores of Russia and Siberia from the White Sea to the Yenisei; live by hunting and fishing, and are idol-worshippers; they are fast disappearing.