ing to the generality of readers. Indeed the period of Provençal poetry is most interesting to literature, and the melody to which it was sung is a subject of curious enquiry; for it is generally allowed that the Troubadours, by singing and writing in a new tongue, occasioned a revolution not only in literature but the human mind. And, as almost every species of Italian poetry is derived from the Provençals, so air, the most captivating part of secular vocal melody, seems to have had the same origin. At least the most ancient strains that have been spared by time, were such as are set to the songs of the Troubadours. Songs seem to belong by universal consent to the language of Italy. The ancient Romans were no great songsters; and by what degrees the Latin language became Italian would be a tedious and difficult enquiry. But that it was most importantly smoothed and polished by Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio is clear: the Italian language has been allowed to be more musical in itself when merely spoken with purity, than any other in Europe. Maffei allows the Provençal, French, Spanish, and Italian languages, to be descendants from the Latin, but denies that the ancient inhabitants of Italy adopted any words from the Goths or Huns. The genius of the German, Francic, or Teutonic language, which was spoken by the Lombards, was so diametrically opposite to that of the Italians, that it seems incredible there should have been any exchange or union of dialects, he thinks, between them: the one being as remarkable for its numerous consonants and harsh terminations, as the other for its open vowels and mellifluous endings. As it is the opinion of this critic that the Romans had always a vulgar dialect, less grammatical and elegant than that of the senate and of books, he supposes the French, Spanish, and Italian languages to have been different modifications of this rustic, plebeian dialect. But it is as difficult to assign a reason for all these daughters of one common mother being so dissimilar, as it is to account for the little resemblance that is frequently found between other children of the same parents. And why the French language should have so many nasal endings, the Spanish so many sibillating, and the Italian alone have none but vocal terminations, can only have been occasioned by some particular and radical tendency in the vulgar and plebeian language of each country from very high antiquity, While the modern language was forming, no music seems to have been cultivated in Italy, except the canto firmo of the church; and, unluckily, no written melody can be found to the Canzoni of Dante, the sonnets of Petrarca, or the songs of Boccaccio, the three great founders of the Italian tongue. Yet these, we are told, were all set to some kind of music or other, and sung even in the streets. See the biographical articles of these lyric poets, particularly that of Boccaccio; whose Decamerone has always been regarded as a natural and faithful delineation of the manners and customs of Italy, at the time when it was written. Boccaccio says, at the end of his prima giornata, or first day, that 'after supper the instruments were called in, when the queen for the day ordained that there should be a dance; and, after one had been led off by Lauretta, Emilia sung a song, in which she was accompanied by Dion, a gentleman of the party, on the lute.' There is nothing new or extraordinary in this quotation. But in Italy, whence all the liberal arts have travelled to the rest of Europe, it is curious to know in what rank music was held at this early period. And here a writer, justly celebrated for the exactness with which he has described the customs of his contemporaries in all situations, tells us, that in an assembly of persons of birth and education, who passed ten days together during summer in a constant succession of innocent amusements, each evening was closed by dance and song; in which the whole company, consisting of seven ladies and three gentlemen of different characters and acquirements, were able to perform their parts. When we are told that the lady who sang was accompanied by the lute, we know not of what this accompaniment consisted, whether it only fortified the voice-part by playing the same melody, or more elaborately furnished a base and a different treble, arising out of its harmony. On the second day we find that, one of the company leading off a carol, a song was sung by another, which was answered in a kind of chorus by the rest. At the close of the second day Boccaccio says, that after the song, of which he gives the words, had been performed, many others were sung, and many dances danced to different tunes, by which we may gather that besides carols and ballads, the singing of which marked the steps of a dance, there were at this time songs without dances, and tunes without songs. Whoever reads the history of the CambroBritons will find innumerable instances of the reverence which they paid to their poet-musicians, the bards both of Pagan and Christian times; and songs of very high antiquity have been preserved in the Welsh language, though not all the tunes to which they were sung. We are told (Miscel. Antiq. vol. ii. p. 8) that sir Thomas Wyatt was the first who introduced Italian numbers into English versification. This may have contributed to improve our lyric poetry; but to confess the truth, from the few parts of the first class throughout Europe, who, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, condescended to write madrigals and songs for music, it seems that the rage for canon, fugue, multiplied parts, and dissimilar melodies, moving at the same time, had so much employed the composers, and weaned the attention of the hearers of these learned, or, as some call them, Gothic contrivances, from poetry, that the words of a song seem to have been only a pretence for singing; and, as the poets of the two or three last centuries were in little want of music, musicians, in their turn, manifested as little respect for poetry; for, in these elaborate compositions, the words are rendered utterly unintelligible by repetitions of particular members. of a verse; by each part singing different words at the same time; and by an utter inattention to accent. In the Essays on Song-writing, published with a collection of English songs, there are many judicious and excellent reflections; and the songs are admirably selected, and form the best collection in our language. : The SONG OF BIRDS is defined by the honorable Daines Barrington to be a succession of three or more different notes, which are continued without interruption, during the same interval, with a musical bar of four crotchets in an adagio movement, or whilst a pendulum swings four seconds. It is affirmed that the notes of birds are no more innate than language in man, and that they depend upon imitation, as far as their organs will enable them to imitate the sounds which they have frequent opportunities of hearing and their adhering so steadily, even in a wild state, to the same song, is owing to the nestling attending only to the instruction of the parent bird, whilst they disregard the notes of all others that may be singing round them. Birds in a wild state do not commonly sing above ten weeks in the year, whereas birds that have plenty of food in a cage sing the greatest part of the year: the female of no species of birds ever sings. This is a wise provision, because her song would discover her nest. In the same manner we may account for her inferiority in plumage. The faculty of singing is confined to the cock birds; and accordingly Mr. Hunter, in dissecting birds of several species, found the muscles of the larynx to be stronger in the nightingale than in any other bird of the same size; and, in all those instances where he dissected both cock and hen, the same muscles were stronger in the cock. It is an observation as ancient as the time of Pliny that a capon does not crow. Some ascribe the singing of the cock in the spring solely to the motive of pleasing his mate during incubation; others, who allow that it is partly for this end, believe it is partly owing to another cause, viz. the great abundance of plants and insects in spring, which are the proper food of singing birds at that time of the year, as well as seeds. Mr. Barrington remarks that there is no instance of any singing bird which exceeds our blackbird in size; and this, he supposes, may arise from the difficulty of its concealing itself, if it called the attention of its enemies, not only by its bulk, but by the proportionable loudness of its notes. He farther observes that some passages of the song in a few kinds of birds correspond with the intervals of our musical scale, of which the cuckoo is a striking and known instance; but the greater part of their song cannot be reduced to a musical scale; partly, because the rapidity is often so great, and it is also so uncertain when they may stop, that we cannot reduce the passages to form a musical bar in any time whatsoever; partly also, because the pitch of most birds is considerably higher than the most shrill notes of those instruments which have the greatest compass; and principally because the intervals used by birds are commonly so minute that we cannot judge of them from the more gross intervals into which we divide our musical octave. This writer apprehends that all birds sing in the same key; and found by a nightingale, as well as a robin : which was educated under him, that the notes reducible to our intervals of the octave were always precisely the same. Most people, who have not attended to the notes of birds, suppose that every species sing exactly the same notes and passages: but this is not true, though there is a general resemblance. Thus the London bird-catchers prefer the song of the Kentish goldfinches and Essex chaffinches; and some of the nightingale fanciers prefer a Surry bird to those of Middlesex. Of all singing birds the song of the nightingale has been most universally admired and its superiority consists in the following particulars its tone is much more mellow than that of any other bird, though at the same time, by a proper exertion of its musical powers, it can be very brilliant. Another superiority is its continuance of song without a pause, which is sometimes twenty seconds; and when respiration becomes necessary it takes it with as much judgment as an opera singer. The sky-lark in this particular, as well as in compass and variety, is only second to the nightingale. The nightingale also sings with judgment and taste. Mr. Barrington says that his nightingale began softly like the ancient orators, reserving its breath to swell certain notes, which thus had a most astonishing effect. He adds that the notes of birds, which are annually imported from Asia, Africa, and America, both singly and in concert, are not to be compared to those of European birds. He also constructed the following table to exhibit the comparative merits of the British singing birds, wherein twenty is the point of perfection. divine allegory, representing the union of the Messiah with his church, it would never have found a place in the sacred canon; and our Saviour himself, when on earth, would have exclaimed against it, and denounced it as he did the corrupt traditions of the Pharisees. His frequent censures of these traditions, and his general approbation of the Old Testament Scriptures, by frequently quoting them without any censure, afford us the most decisive authority and security of trusting to them as genuine, and holding them sacred. Derham. If he should ask me why a clock strikes, and points to the hour; and I should say, it is by an indicating form and sonorific quality, this would be unsatisfactory. Watts's Logick. SONNA, a book of the Mahometan traditions, which the orthodox of the mussulmans are required to believe. SONNERATIA, in botany, a genus of plants belonging to the class of icosandria, and to the order of monogynia: CAL. is cut into six segments; the petals are six: CAPS. multilocular and succulent; and the cells contain many seeds. The only species is, S. acida. SON'NET, n. s. Fr. sonnet; Ital. sonnetto. SONNETTEER'. A short poem, of which the rhymes are adjusted by a particular rule. It has not been used by any man of eminence since Milton, according to Dr. Johnson; but this will be doubted at the present day: a sonnetteer is a writer of sonnets. Let us into the city presently, To sort some gentlemen well skilled in musick; Id. Love's Labour Lost. There are as many kinds of gardening as of poetry: your makers of parterres and flower-gardens are epigrammatists and sonnetteers in this art. Spectator. What woful stuff this madrigal would be, In some starv'd hackney sonnetteer or me! But let a lord once own the happy lines, How the wit brightens! how the style refines! Pope. The SONNET, in poetry, must contain fourteen verses, viz. two stanzas or measures of four verses each, and two of three, the first eight verses being all in three rhymes. SONNINI DE MANONCOURT (Charles Nicholas Sigisbert), a modern French traveller and naturalist, was born at Luneville, February 1st, 1751. He was the son of a gentleman of Roman descent, who was counsellor and treasurer to Stanislaus I. of Poland, and studied under the Jesuits at Pont-à-Mousson. Before he was sixteen he received the degree of doctor in philosophy; but, being designed for the magistracy, he went to Strasbourg as a student of law. In 1768 he was admitted an advocate of the court of Nanci. Being of an active disposition, he afterwards relinquished the law for the army, and was in 1772 sent to Cayenne. Previously to this he had been acquainted with Buffon. He now travelled over various parts of Guiana, and, after a voyage made to the western coast of Africa, returned to France in 1775, with a collection of birds for the cabinet of natural history. He passed part of the years 1776 and 1777 at Montbard, where he drew up for Buffon that part of his Natural History which relates to foreign birds. In 1779 he went to Greece and Egypt, and returning home the following year, employed himself in the cultivation of science till the commencement of the Revolution. For some time he was administrator of the department of La Meurthe; but was imprisoned 'during the reign of terror. After this he went to Paris, and published an account of his travels in Greece and Egypt; and occupied himself in other literary undertakings. Under the consular and imperial governments he was unable to obtain any office notwithstanding the patronage of Lucien Buonaparte, who in vain endeavoured to overcome the prepossessions of Napoleon against Sonnini, on account of his remarks on the Egyptian expedition. In 1805 he was director of the college of Vienne, which however he was soon after forced to resign. He had subsequently a prospect of an establishment in Moldavia; but was again destined to meet with disappointment; and, after travelling thither, returned to Paris in December 1811. His death took place there May 29th, 1812. His chief works are Voyage dans la Haute et Basse Egypt, 1799, 6 vols 8vo.; Voyage en Grèce et en Turquie, 1801, 2 vols. 8vo.; besides which he published the seventh edition of the Natural History of Buffon in 127 vols. 8vo.; assisted in the Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle, in 24 vols. 8vo. ; and was conductor of the Bibliothèque Physicoéconomique. The Egyptian travels of Sonnini were translated into English by Dr. Henry Hunter, 1799, 3 vols. 8vo.; and his Travels in Greece appeared in an English dress, 1801, 2 vols. 8vo. SONNITES, among the Mahometans, an appellation given to the orthodox mussulmans or true believers; in opposition to the several heretical sects, particularly the Shiites or followers of Aii. See SHIITES. SONORA, an intendancy or province of Mexico, very thinly peopled, and extending along the gulf of California, for more than 280 leagues or from the bay of Bayona, or the Rio del Rosaria, to the mouth of the Rio Colorado. The breadth is by no means uniform. From the tropic of Cancer to 27°, it scarcely exceeds fifty leagues; but farther north, towards the Rio Gila, it increases so considerably that on the parallel of Arispe it is more than 128 leagues. This intendency of Sonora comprehends the three provinces of Cinaloa, Ostimury, and Sonora Proper. The first extends from the Rio del Rosaria to the Rio del Fuerto; the second from the Rio del Fuerto to the Rio del Mayo; and the province of Sonora includes all the northern extremity of the intendancy. The intendancy is bounded on the west by the sea, on the south by the intendancy of Guadalaxara, and on the east by a very uncultivated part of New Biscay. Its northern limits are very uncertain. The villages de la Pimeria Alta are separated from the banks of the Rio Gila, by a region inhabited by independent Indians, of which neither the soldiers stationed on the military fort in that quarter, nor the monks of the neighbouring missions, have been hitherto able to make any conquest. The three most considerable rivers are the Mayo, Culiacun, and Yaqui or Sonora; chief town Arispe. SOODERA, or SOODERS, in Indian mythology and polity, the fourth caste, or the lowest class of the people. See GENTOOS and HINDOOS. The Parias are the lowest class of the Sooders but there is still a more degraded class of the Parias, called Seriperes, who are miserably despised. See PARIAS. What monstrous distinctions human pride has invented in all countries! SOOLOO ISLES, a group of islands which extend in a north-east and south-west direction, from the north-eastern extremity of Borneo to the western extremity of Magindano, and are comprehended between 4° and 7° N. lat. There are several good harbours among them, particularly at Bewabewa, Tavitave, Tappool, Secassee, between Boobooan, and Tappeautana, south of Basselan. The harbour before Bewan, the Sooloo capital, is not good, except during the south-west monsoon. The island of Sooloo, from which the rest are named, is situated in long. 119° E. from Greenwich, and lat. 6° N. It is thirty miles long, twelve broad, and is said to contain 60,000 inhabitants. Lying midway between Borneo and Magindano, this island affords a fine prospect from the sea, on every side, and the hills on it not being very high, nor consequently the clouds stopped by them, it has no certain rainy season. It enjoys a perpetual summer. Up the country it is cool, especially under the shade of the teak trees, which are numerous. There is no such difference in the wetness of the seasons, or monsoons, as on continents or very large islands; but the southwest monsoon brings most rain. Much falls at the change of the monsoons, especially the autumnal. The capital of the island, Bewan, or as others call it Sooloo or Soong, is on the northwest coast. It is of considerable size; the houses are built after the manner of the Malays, elevated about four feet from the ground with bamboos, of which the floors are also made. It contains about 6000 inhabitants. The island being small, for its number of inhabitants, they study agriculture more than do those of the adjacent islands. The Sooloos plant rice; but the crop cannot be depended on, as they are not sure of rain. They therefore cultivate many roots, the Spanish or sweet potato, the clody or St. Hillano yam, the China yam, both red and white; sending to Mindano for what rice they consume. They have great variety of fine tropical fruits; their oranges are full as good as those of China. They have also a variety of the fruit called jack or nanka, durians, a kind of large custard apple named madang, mangoes, mangustines, rambustines, and a fruit called bolona, like a large plum or mango, white inside. They enjoy also, in great abundance, an innocent and delicious fruit, called lancey. The Sooloos having great connexion with China, they have learned the art of ingrafting and improving their fruits, while the fruits at Magindano have remained indifferent. They have a very good breed of horses, which they train to trot fast, seldom suffering them to gallop, and abundance of diminutive cocatoes and small green parrots. There is no spice tree but the cinnamon. Here are wild elephants, which seem to avoid meeting with horned cattle; though not shy of horses. Sooloo has spotted deer, abundance of goats and black catle (but the people seldom milk their cows), and of wild hogs. After harvest the Sooloos hunt the elephants and hogs. Sooloo formerly was visited by vessels from Japan, Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, and the coast of Coromandel, with valuable cargoes. At present two Chinese junks arrive annually from Amoy. Their cargoes consist of iron articles, of brass salvers, sugar candy, silk, black nankeen, white linen of a strong fabric, kangans, quallis, a thin iron pan three feet in diameter, china-ware, flowered silks, besides tea, cutlery, and other hardware, brass wire, gongs, beads of all colors, little swan shot, fireworks, &c. &c. In return they bring back to China biche de mer, black and white, wax, pearl, oyster-shells, birds' nests, and tortoise-shell; also agal, a sea weed used as gum or glue, and many other articles, such as Carooang oil, clove bark, black wood, ratans, sago, various barks for dyeing, cassia, pepper, native camphire, sandal-wood, curious shells for grottoes, pearls, and spices. Country ships from India occasionally visit these islands, import cutlery, brasiery, cloth, gunpowder, glass-ware, guns of various sizes, hardware, iron in bars, ironmongery, looking-glasses, opium, piece goods, saltpetre, shot of all sorts, swords, tin-ware, tobacco, sugar, vermilion, and watches. From the north-east coast of Borneo, the inhabitants import sago, biche de mer, cowries, and tortoise-shell. From Magindano they receive rice, for which they usually pay with Chinese goods. The Buggesses also trade with these islands. At the Sooloo islands is a famous pearl fishery, a source both of wealth and of maritime power. The dredges for the oyster are generally made of bamboo, very slight, and sunk with a stone. The large pearls are the property of the nobility on whose estates they are found; they also extend their claim to the pearls found on the banks, as well as on the dry land. The Chinese mer chants, however, contrive, by their underhand dealing, to purchase from the fishermen pearls of great value. The sovereignty of the island descends to the eldest son of the sultan; but the government is partly monarchical and partly aristocratical. The legislative power resides in an assembly composed of fifteen datoos or nobles, and of the sultan, who has two votes. The heir apparent has also two votes, if he sides with the sultan; but, if he takes part against him, he has only one. There are two representatives of the people, called Manteries, like the military tribunes of the Romans. The common people, it is said, enjoy great freedom; but the vassals are often used in a tyrannical manner. The manners of the nobles are remarkably dissolute. The Sooloos seldom go in their own vessels to foreign parts, except on predatory excursions to make slaves among the Philippines. They depend chiefly on the lance, sword, and dagger, at the use of which they are very dexterous; and, being of a martial disposition, at an early period they had subdued not only all the adjacent small isles, but a great part of Borneo. The men generally go dressed in white waistcoats buttoned down to the waist, and white breeches. The ladies wear a fine white waistcoat fitted close, and a petticoat over drawers. The Sooloos assert that their island once formed part of an ancient Bornean empire, founded by the Chinese. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the island of Magindano assert, that the Sooloos were formerly subject to them. They have been accustomed to carry on an unceasing warfare with the Spanish colonies planted in the Philippines. Prior to the year 1746 the Spaniards attacked them with a fleet of thirty ships, and obtained possession of Bewan, the capital. In 1775 they attacked a settlement belonging to the East India Company, on the island of Balambangan, and drove the settlers on board their vessels. They are in the practice of attacking and plundering the vessels which visit them. } SOON, adv. Sax. rona; Goth. sun. Early; SOON'LY. before long time be past; shortly after any assigned or supposed time; readily; willingly used as an adjective by Sidney and others: hence the adverb soonly; speedily. How is it that you are come so soon to-day? Ex. ii. 18. camp, he saw Er. xxxii: 19. you the sooner. Heh. xiii. He hath preserved Argaius alive, under pretence of having him publicly executed after these wars, of which they hope for a soon and prosperous issue. Sidney. As soon as he came nigh unto the the calf and the dance. Do this, that I may be restored to O boy! thy father gave thee life too soon, Shakspeare. Henry VI. A mason meets with a stone that wants no cutting, and, soomly approving it, places it in his work. Nor did they not perceive their evil plight, Yet to their general's voice they soon obeyed. More. Milton.. You must obey me, soon or late; Why should you vainly struggle with your fate? Dryden. Id. Nor was his virtue poisoned, soon as born, With the too early thoughts of being king. and meadows, as when it is tossed up in so many whimsical figures at Versailles. I would as soon see a river winding through woods Addison's Guardian. Feasts and business, and pleasures, and enjoyments, seem great things to us, whilst we think of nothing else; but, as soon as we add death to them, they all sink into an equal littleness. Law. SOONDA, a district and town of Hindostan, in the province of North Canara, situated between 14° and 15° N. lat. Formerly the country was well cultivated, and produced fine timber and pepper: but it was laid waste by Hyder Aly in 1763; on which occasion the rajah made over to the Portuguese all the country between the sea and the mountains, for a stipulated pension. In 1799 the Soonda district became the property of the British. SOONTABURDAR, in the East Indies, an attendant who carries a silver bludgeon in his hand about two or three feet long, and runs before the palanquin. He is inferior to the chubdar; the propriety of an Indian newaury requiring two soontaburdars for every chubdar in the train. The chubdar proclaims the approach of visitors, &c. He generally carries a large silver staff, about five feet long, in his hands; and among the nabobs he proclaims their praises aloud as he runs before their palanquius! SOOSOOHOONAN, a district of Java, on the south side of the island, formerly extending to the north coast, and including the territories of Cheribon, and the greatest part of the island, under the title of the empire of Java; but it is much fallen from its ancient grandeur. SOOT, n. s. SOOT'ED, adj. Soo'TY, adj. & v. n. S smoke: the adjectives both signify covered with or abounding in soot: and Chapman uses sooty for to make black with Sax. rot; Island. soot. Condensed or embodied soot. Soot, though thin spread in a field, is a very good Bacon. compost. Then (for his own weeds) shirt and coat all rent, Tanned and all sootied with noisome smoke Chapman. She put him on; and over all a cloke. There may be some chemical way so to defecate this oil, that it shall not spend into a sooty matter. Wilkins. If the fire be not kept within the tunnel of the chimney, and some appointed to sweep down the soot, the house will be in danger of burning. Howel. |