[Serapis], an Egyptian divinity of partly Greek derivation and partly Egyptian, and identified with Apis.
[Seraskier], a Turkish general, in especial the commander-in-chief or minister of war.
[Serbonian Bog], a quagmire in Egypt in which armies were fabled to be swallowed up and lost; applied to any situation in which one is entangled from which extrication is difficult.
[Serfs], under the feudal system a class of labourers whose position differed only from that of slaves in being attached to the soil and so protected from being sold from hand to hand like a chattel, although they could be transferred along with the land; liberty could be won by purchase, military service, or by residing a year and a day in a borough; these and economic changes brought about their gradual emancipation in the 15th and 16th centuries; mining serfs, however, existed in Scotland as recently as the 18th century, and in Russia their emancipation only took place in 1861.
[Seringapatam] (10), a decayed city of S. India, formerly capital of Mysore State, situated on an island in the Kaveri, 10 m. NE. of Mysore city; in the later 18th century was the stronghold of Tippoo Sahib, who was successfully besieged and slain by the British in 1799; has interesting ruins.
[Serjeant-at-Arms], an officer attendant on the Speaker of the House of Commons, whose duty it is to preserve order and arrest any offender against the rules of the House.
[Serpent, The], is used symbolically to represent veneration from the shedding of its skin, and sometimes eternity, and not unfrequently a guardian spirit; also prudence and cunning, especially as embodied in Satan; is an attribute of several saints as expressive of their power over the evil one.
[Serpukoff] (21), an ancient and still prosperous town of Russia, on the Nara, 57 m. S. of Moscow; has a cathedral, and manufactures of cottons, woollens, &c.
[Serrano y Dominguez], Duke de la Torre, Spanish statesman and marshal; won distinction in the wars against the Carlists, and turning politician, became in 1845 a senator and favourite of Queen Isabella; was prominent during the political unrest and changes of her reign; joined Prim in the revolution of 1868, defeated the queen's troops; became president of the Ministry; commander-in-chief of the army, and in 1869 Regent of Spain, a position he held till Amadeus's succession in 1871; won victories against the Carlists in 1872 and 1874; was again at the head of the executive during the last months of the republic, but retired on the accession of Alfonso XII.; continued in active politics till his death (1810-1885).