pisces abdominales. Head naked; mouth set round with hairyfilaments; bronchi* with from four to fourteen rays; ray of thepectoral fins, or the first dorsal one, prickly, denlated backwards.There are 29 species, most of them natives of the Indian and Ame-rican seas.
S. Clarias of Linnaeus , called scheilan by the Arabians, ismentioned by Flasselquist. If it pricks one with the bone of thebreast-fin, it is dangerous; and our author saw the cook of a Swe-dish merchant-ship die of the poison communicated by the prickof one of these fish.
SIMBIRSK, a town of Russia , capital of Simbirskoe, 330 milesE. S. E. of Moscow , and 680 S. E. of Petersburg!).
Simbirsk , or Simbirskoe, a province or government ofRussia ; bounded on the N. by Kazanskoe; E. by Uphinskoe;S. by Saratov , and W. by Nizegorodskoe and Penzenskoe.
SIMEON, a respectable old man of Jerusalem , who waited forthe fulfilment of the prophecies, respecting the coming of theMessiah, whom he had a divine intimation that he should live tosee, and who bore public testimony to our Saviour in the templein his infancy. (Luke ii. 25 —35.) From his speech, or addressof thanks to God , on that occasion, and particularly from his pro-phetic address to the mother of Jesus , he appears to have hadmuch more clear views of the nature of the Messiah’s kingdom,than the most of his countrymen of that age. But these too per-haps he had by immediate revelation. Tradition says, that Si-meon was the son of the famous Hillel, president of the Jewish Sanhedrim, and that he taught the celebrated Gamaliel, fromwhom St. Paul received his instructions. See Hillel .
SIMERING, a town of Germany , in the empire of Austria, 4miles S. S. E. of Vienna .
SIMETHUS, or SYMITHUS, an ancient town of Sicily ,near a river so named: where Virgil says the gods Palici wereborn. See Palici .
SIMI, or SYMT, an island in the Mediterranean, betweenRhodes and the continent of Asia , 6 miles N. of Rhodes.
S1MIA, the Monkey; a genus of the class mammalia, andorder primates, in the Linnsan system. Front-teeth in each jawnear together; canine teeth solitary, longer than the others,distant from the grinders ; grinders obtuse. Animals of this genusare commonly divided into such as have no tails; such as haveonly very short ones; such as have very long ones; and, lastly,such as have prehensile tails, with which they can lay hold of anyobject at pleasure. These four classes are called respectivelyapes, baboons, monkeys, and sapajous. In the whole genus thereare enumerated by Gmelin sixty-three species, of which we shallnotice some of the most important. They are lively, agile, fullof frolic, chatter, and grimace. From the structure of their mem-bers, they have many actions in common with the human kind.Most of them are fierce and untameable; some are of a mildernature, and will shew a degree of attachment; but in general theyare endowed with mischievous propensities ; and are filthy, ob-scene, lascivious, and thieving. They inhabit the woods, and live°n trees; feeding on fruits, leaves, and insects. In general, theyare gregarious, going in vast companies ; but the different speciesnever mix with each other, always keeping apart and in differentquarters. They leap with vast activity from tree to tree, even''hen loaded with their young, which cling to them. They areibe p re y 0 j leopards and others of the feline race: and of serpents,"’Inch pursue them to the summits of the trees, and swallow themEntire. They are not carnivorous, but for mischief’s sake willfob the nests of birds of the eggs and young. In the countries
here (hey most abound, the sagacity of the feathered tribe isMarvellously shewn in their contrivances to fix the nest beyond,e reach of these invaders.
is I ^ EGAUS > King Monkey, or Full-bottom' Mon key,g j above three feet high when erect: the head is small, with ash° i |k' ai 'k» naked face ; and the head, cheeks, throat, neck, andy lers, are covered with long, coarse, flowing hairs, of a dirtyod cn ' ,n1r > mixed with black, and resembling a full-bottoni-
-"’'8! the body, arms, and legs, are covered with short hairs ofthuM black colour; the bands are naked, and have no
ed w n ’ t * le ^ eet b ave five very long slender toes, which are arm-ed w'tu narrow pointed claws; the tail is very long, and is cover-limKc. 1 h snow white hairs, having a tuft at the end; the body and‘mbs a re very slender. See Plate CLXVII.
* GL. -- - l97i
S. Leonina. or the Leonine Monkey, is supposed to beaninhabitant of Abyssinia, and is (wo feet in length, from the nose tothe tail ; along the face is a great quantity of long hair, extendingnearly from the eyes back over the forehead and crown of thehead, and from the chin over the neck, and this bushment of hairgives it, in addition to the general form and countenance of the ani-mal, no slight resemblance to the lion, from which it derives itsdesignation. See Plate CLXVII,
S. Inuus, the Magot, or Barbary Ape , has a long face, notunlike that of a dog; canine teeth, long and strong ; ears like thehuman ; nails flat; buttocks bare; colour of the upper part of thebody of a dirty greenish brown ; bell^, of a dull pale yellow;grows to above four feet in length. They inhabit many parts ofIndia, Arabia, and all parts of Africa, except Egypt . A few arefound on the bill of Gibraltar , which breed there ; probably froma pair that had escaped from the town; as they are not found inany other part of Spain . They are very ill-natured, mischievous,and fierce. See Plate CLXVII.
S. Satyros, or the Orang-Outang . This animal is said togrow in its native woods of Africa and India to the height of sixfeet, and to subsist, like most other species, on fruits. It flies fromthe haunts of mankind, leads a solitary life, and displays greatstrength, agility, and swiftness, which render it extremely diffi-cult to be taken. It has been known to attack and destroy ne-groes, wandering at a distance from their habitations, and to carryoff women to its wretched habitation, watching them with suchextraordinary vigilance, as scarcely to admit the possibility oftheir escape. Its general resemblance to the human figure andcountenance is particularly and mortifyingly strong, yet minuteobservation and dissection have pointed almost innumerable dif-ferences, the detail of which is here impossible. It is capable ofbeing tamed and domesticated, and, many years since, one wasexhibited in London which had been disciplined to sit, and work,and eat, like a human being, using a knife and fork for the latterpurpose. Its disposition was pensive; its manners were gentle;and it appeared to possess, for its keepers, and those to whom ithad been long familiarized, a high degree of genuine gratitude aridattachment. For the orang-outang, see Plate CLXVII.
S. Nasuta, or the Long-nosed Monkey. Two remarkablemonkeys are represented in Mr. Pennant’s History of Quadru-peds, from drawings by a Mr. Paillou. The one is called thelong-nosed monkey ; it has a very long and slender nose, coveredwith a flesh coloured skin; the hair on the forehead falls back;on thgbody and breast it is long; the colour of the head and up-per parts is pale ferruginous mixed with black ; of the breast andbelly light ash colour; tail very long ; height when sitting down,about two feet. Native country uncertain: probably Africa .Its face has very much the appearance of a long-nosed dog. SeePlate CLXVII.
S. Sciureus, the Saimiri , or Orange-Monkey, has noheard; the hinder part of the head is prominent; and the nailson the four toes of the hind paws are narrow and pointed.They inhabit South America , and are the most beautiful of allthe sapajous; their movements are graceful; size small; coloura brilliant yellow; visage round, with large vivacious eyes, sur-rounded by flesh-coloured rings; hardly any forehead; thenose is elevated at the base, and flattened at the point; themouth small, the ^ftce flat and naked, and the ears are gar-nished with hair, and a little pointed; the tail is only half pre-hensile ; they stand with ease on two feet, but commonly walkon all four.
SIMILAR, in mathematics, things having their parts in thesame proportion and alike situated in respect of ene another. SeeArithmetic, Algebra, and Geometry .
Similar Bodies, in natural philosophy, are such as have theirparticles of the same kind and nature with one another. SeePhysics, Body, Particle , &e.
Similar Figures, in geometry, such as have their angles re-spectively equal, and the sides, about the equal angles, propor-tional. See Geometry .
SIMILE, or SIMILITUDE, in rhetoric, a comparison oftwo things, which, though different in other respects, yetagree in some one. The difference between a simile and com-parison is said to consist in this, that the simile propel !v be-longs to whatever we call the quality of a thing, and the7 L comparison