the Sage.” The result was that Sāriputta, with his friend Kolita
and other disciples of Sañjaya, asked for admission, and were
received into the Buddhist Order. He rapidly attained to mastery in
the Buddhist system of self-training, and is declared to have been
the chief of all the disciples in insight. He was present at a dialogue
between the Buddha and a Wanderer named Aggivessana on the
nature of sensations; and at the end of that discourse he attained
to Arahatship. He is constantly represented as discussing points,
usually of ethics or philosophy, either with the Buddha himself,
or with one or other of the more prominent disciples. One whole
book of the Saṃyutta is therefore called after his name. A number
of stanzas inscribed to him are preserved in the Songs of the Elders
(Thera-gāthā), and one of the poems in the Sutta Nipāta is based on
a question he addressed to the Buddha. Asoka the Great, in his
Bhabra Edict, enjoins on the Buddhists the study of seven passages
in the Scriptures selected for their especial beauty. One of these
is called The Question of Upatissa, and this poem may be the passage
referred to. Feeling his end approaching, he went home, and died
just six months before the death of the Buddha, that is, approximately
in 480 B.C. He was cremated with great ceremony, and the ashes
placed in a tope or burial-mound. An inscribed casket in such a
mound at Sānchi opened by Cunningham in February 1851
contained a portion of these ashes which had been removed to that
spot, in General Cunningham's opinion by Asoka.
Bibliography.—For the birth, death, cremation and relics, see Alex. Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes (London, 1854); Rhys Davids and S. W. Bushell, Watters on Yuan Chwang (London, 1904, 1905). For names of mother and sisters, Therī Gāthā, ed. R. Pischel (London, 1883). For conversion Rhys Davids and H. Oldenberg, Vinaya Texts (Oxford, 1881), i. 144-151. For attainment of Arahatship, V. Trenckner, Majjhima Nikāya (London, 1888), i. 501. (T. W. R. D.)
SARK, a small island of the Channel Islands, 7 m. E. of Guernsey, much visited on account of its magnificent cliff scenery and caves. It is 3 m. long from N. to S. and 1½ m. in extreme breadth. Area, 1274 acres; pop. (1901) 504. It is divided into two unequal parts, known as Great Sark (the more northern) and Little Sark, connected by the Coupée, a lofty isthmus so narrow at the summit that it bears only a roadway, artificially built up, and flanked by a precipice on either side. Many islets and detached rocks lie oil the coast; Brechou Island to the west is large enough to have a few fields and a house upon it. Some of the rocks are very fine, such as the four lofty flat-topped pillars called the Autelets (altars).
The harbour of Sark lies on the east coast, a tiny cliff-bound bay protected by a breakwater, communicating with the interior only through two tunnels, one of which is modern, while the other dates from 1588. The harbour is called Creux. This is a term of common use in the Channel Islands, applying primarily to natural funnels or pits, but extended also to clefts such as that which forms the harbour. The Creux du Derrible (Old French, a downfall of rocks) is a wide shaft opening from the summit of the cliff and communicating with the sea through a double cave, through which the sea rushes at high water. Of the many majestic caverns in the cliffs the Boutiques and the Gouliots, both on the west coast of Great Sark, may be specially mentioned. The marine fauna is very rich. On Great Sark are the majority of the houses, the church, and the seigneurie or manor-house. An ancient mill stands at the summit of the island (375 ft.). Agriculture and fishing are carried on. In Little Sark a disused shaft marks a silver-mine, worked in 1835, but soon abandoned. The island is included in the bailiwick of Guernsey, but has a court of justice of feudal character, the officers being appointed by the seigneur.
SARLAT, a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Dordogne, 44 m. E. by N. of Bergerac on the railway to Aurillac. Pop. (1906) town 4018, commune 6195. The town grew up round a monastery founded in the 8th century and early in the 14th century became the seat of a bishopric which was suppressed in 1790. The former cathedral and abbey-church preserves interesting architecture of the Romanesque and later periods and remarkable wood-carving of the 15th century. There is also a curious pyramidical structure of the 12th century, which was probably used as a burial-place. The house where Étienne de la Boétie (d. 1563), the moralist, was born, and other houses in the Gothic and Renaissance styles are to be seen. La Boétie has a statue in the town. There is a large trade in cattle. Distilling, the manufacture of tin-boxes, and the preparation of truffles, pâtés de foie gras and other delicacies and of nut-oil are carried on; there are coal and iron mines and stone-quarries in the vicinity.
SARMATAE, or Sauromatae (the second form is mostly used by the earlier Greek writers, the other by the later Greeks and the Romans), a people whom Herodotus (iv. 21. 117) puts on the eastern boundary of Scythia (q.v.) beyond the Tanais (Don). He says expressly that they were not pure Scythians, but, being descended from young Scythian men and Amazons, spoke an impure dialect and allowed their women to take part in war and to enjoy much freedom. Later writers call some of them the “woman-ruled Sarmatae.” Hippocrates (De Aere, &c., 24) classes them as Scythian. From this we may infer that they spoke a language cognate with the Scythic. The greater part of the barbarian names occurring in the inscriptions of Olbia, Tanais and Panticapaeum are supposed to be Sarmatian, and as they have been well explained from the Iranian language now spoken by the Ossetes of the Caucasus, these are supposed to be the representatives of the Sarmatae and can be shown to have a direct connexion with the Alani (q.v.), one of their tribes. By the 3rd century B.C. the Sarmatae appear to have supplanted the Scyths proper in the plains of south Russia, where they remained dominant until the Gothic and Hunnish invasions. Their chief divisions were the Rhoxolani (q.v.), the Iazyges (q.v.), with whom the Romans had to deal on the Danube and Theiss, and the Alani. The term Sarmatia is applied by later writers to as much as was known of what is now Russia, including all that which the older authorities call Scythia, the latter name being transferred to regions farther east. Ptolemy gives maps of European and Asiatic Sarmatia. (E. H. M.)
SARMENTOSE (Lat. sarmentum, twigs), a botanical term for plants producing long runners.
SARNEN, the capital of the western half (or Obwalden) of the Swiss canton of Unterwalden. It stands 1558 ft. above sea-level, at the north end of the lake of Sarnen (3 sq. m. in extent) and on the river Aa. Pop. (1900) 3949. It has a large parish church and two convents. In the archives is preserved the famous MS. known from the colour of its binding as the White Book of Sarnen, which contains one of the earliest known versions of the Tell legend (see Tell). Sarnen is a station on the Brünig Railway, being 4½ m. from Alpnachstad, its port on the lake of Lucerne. (W. A. B. C.)
SARNIA, a town and port of entry, Ontario, Canada, capital of Lambton county, 55 m. N.E. of Detroit, on the left bank of the river St Clair. Pop. (1901) 8176. It is on the Grand Trunk and Lake Erie & Detroit River railways, and is a port of call for steamers plying on the Great Lakes. It contains a large oil-refinery which handles the greater part of the product of the Ontario oil region. The Grand Trunk railway crosses the river at this point by the St Clair tunnel, 6025 ft. long or, including the approaches, 2¼ m., which connects the town with the American city of Port Huron (Michigan).
SARNO (anc. Sarnus), a town of Campania, Italy, in the province of Salerno, 15 m. N.E. from that city and 30 m. E. of Naples by the main railway. Pop. (1901) 15,130 (town), 19,192 (commune). It lies at the foot of the Apennines, 92 ft. above sea-level, near the sources of the Sarno (anc. Sarnus), a stream connected by canal with Pompeii and the sea. Sarno has the ruins of a medieval castle, which belonged to Count Francesco Coppola, who took an important part in the conspiracy of the barons against Ferdinand of Aragon in 1485. Walter of Brienne is buried in the ancient church of S. Maria della Foce rebuilt in 1701. Paper, cotton, silk, linen and hemp are manufactured. The travertine which forms round the springs of the Sarno was used even at Pompeii as building material. Before its incorporation with the domains of the crown of Naples Sarno gave its name to a countship held in succession by the Orsini, Cappola, Suttavilla and Colonna families.
SARONNO, a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Milan, from which city it is distant 13 m. N.N.W. by rail. Pop. (1901) 8729 (town), 9533 (commune). The pilgrimage church of the Madonna dei Miracoli, begun in 1498 by Vincenzo dell' Orto, has a dome of rich architecture externally; the campanile dates from 1516, the rest of the church is later. Internally it is decorated with fine frescoes by Gaudenzio Ferrari, representing a concert of angels, while those in the choir are by Bernardino Luini and are among his finest works (see F. Malaguzzi Valeri
