Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/250

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SAUERLAND—SAUL
235

“ sausage ” (O. Fr. saulcisse, Late Lat. salsicium), minced seasoned meat, chiefly pork, stuffed into coverings of skin. The colloquial use of “ saucy,” impertinent, “ cheeky ” is an obvious transference from the tartness or pungency of a sauce, and has a respectable literary ancestry; thus Latimer (Misc. Sel.) “when we see a fellow sturdy, lofty and proud, men say this is a saucy fellow.”


SAUERLAND, a mountainous district of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, between the Sieg and the Ruhr, separated by the former from the Westerwald on the S., and by the latter from the coal formation of Ardey on the N. It is a well-wooded plateau of the Devonian formation, diversified by deep valleys and tracts of heather land. The district is a favourite tourist resort.

See F. W. Grimme, Das Sauerland und seine Bewohner (2nd ed., Paderborn, 1886); Fricke, Der Tourist im Sauerland (Bielefeld, 1892), and Kneebusch, Reiseführer durch das Sauerland (Dortmund, 1809).


SAUGOR, or Sagar, a town and district of British India, in the Jubbulpore division of the Central Provinces. The town, in a picturesque situation on a spur of the Vindhyan hills, 1758 ft. above sea-level, has a station on the Indian Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 42,330. It has long ceased to be a growing place, though it if still third in importance in the province. It was founded in 1660, but owes its importance to having been made the capital of the Mahratta governor who established himself here in 1735. The cantonments contain a battery of artillery, a detachment of a European regiment, a native cavalry and a native infantry regiment. The town is handsomely built, and is an emporium of trade.

The District of Saugor has an area of 3962 sq. m. It is an extensive, elevated and in parts tolerably level plain, broken in places by low hills of the Vindhyan sandstone. It is traversed by numerous streams, chief of which are the Sunar, Beas, Dhasan and Bina, all flowing in a northerly direction towards the valley of the Ganges. In the southern and central parts the soil is black, formed by decaying trap; to the north and east it is a reddish-brown alluvium. Iron ore of excellent quality is found and worked at Hirapur, a small village in the extreme north-east. The district contains several densely wooded tracts, the largest of which is the Ramna teak forest preserve in the north.

The population in 1901 was 469,479, showing a decrease of 20% in the decade, due to the results of famine. The principal crops are wheat, millet, pulse, oil-seeds and a little cotton. The main line of the Indian Midland railway crosses the district, with a branch from Bina to Katni on the East Indian system.

By a treaty concluded with the Mahratta Peshwa in 1818, the greater part of the present district was made over to the British; and the town became the capital of the Saugor and Nerbudda Territories, then attached to the North-western Provinces. During the Mutiny of 1857 the whole district was in the possession of the rebels, excepting the town and fort, in which the Europeans were shut up for eight months, till relieved by Sir Hugh Rose. The rebels were totally defeated and order was again restored by March 1858.

See the Saugor District Gazetteer (Allahabad, 1907).

SAUJBULAGH, or Sujbulak, the principal town of the Mukri district, in the province of Azerbaijan in Persia, in a fertile valley, between 30 and 40 m. S. of Lake Urmia, at an elevation of 4270 ft. It has post and telegraph offices, and a population of about 7000, mostly Kurds of the Mukri tribe, and exports dried fruit, grain and tobacco. There are many more localities with this name (Turkish, meaning “cold stream,” or “cold spring”) in Persia, the most notable, after the above-mentioned Kurdish city, being a district of the province of Teheran, with many villages. The place was temporarily occupied by Turkish troops in January 1908.


SAUL (Heb. shā’ūl, “asked”), in the Old Testament, son of Kish, and king of Israel.[1] His history is closely interwoven with that of the prophet Samuel and the Judaean king David. Two distinct accounts are given of his rise. In one Samuel, after defeating the Philistines, rules as the last “judge” of Israel; the people demand a king, and Saul, a young giant of Benjamin, is chosen by lot; the choice is confirmed when he delivers Tabesh-Gilead from the Ammonites (1 Sam. i.-viii., X. 17-27, xi., xii.). In the other, Saul is raised up by Yahweh to deliver Israel from a sore Philistine oppression. Samuel, a seer of local fame, previously unknown to Saul, gives him the divine commission, and ultimately a complete victory is gained which is celebrated by the erection of an altar (ix. 1-x. 16, xiii. seq.). See further Samuel. Once king, Saul achieves conquests over the surrounding states, and the brief summary in 1 Sam. xiv. 47-51 may be supplemented by 2 Sam. i. 19 sqq., Where the brave deeds of the loving pair Saul and his son Jonathan, and their untimely death, form the subject of an old poem which vividly describes the feelings of a prostrate nation. Saul and his sons fell in the battle on Mt. Gilboa in the north and the land was thrown into confusion (1 Sam. xxxi.). Iabesh-Gilead, mindful of its debt, secretly carried away the dead bodies (cf. 2 Sam. xxi. 12 seq.), and Abner the commander hurriedly removed the surviving son, Ishbosheth,[2] to Mahanaim and at length succeeded in establishing his power over all Israel north of Jerusalem (2 Sam. ii. 8 seq.). But the sequel is lost in the more popular accounts of the rise of David.

Little old tradition is preserved of the house of Saul. The interest now lies in the prominence of Samuel, and more particularly in the coming supremacy of the Judaean king David (see the introductory verse 1 Sam. xiv. 52); as a result of this Saul is depicted in less sympathetic colours, his pettiness and animosity stand in strong contrast to David's chivalry and resignation, and in the melancholy Benjamite court with its rivalry and jealousy, the romantic attachment between David and Jonathan forms the one redeeming feature. The great Israelite disaster is foreshadowed in a thrilling narrative of Saul's visit to the since famous Witch of Endor (1 Sam. xxviii.). Israel had lostits mainstay through the death of Samuel (cf. xii. 23), and the king, uneasy at the approach of the enemy, invoked the shade of the prophet only to learn that his cause was lost 'through his own sin. The incident is now connected with David's' nearing supremacy, and refers to a previous act of disobedience in his Amalekite campaign. In a detailed account of Saul's expedition |'we learn that his failure to carry out Yahweh's commands to the letter had brought the prophet's denunciation (cf. Ahab, 1 Kings xx. 42), and that he had lost the divine favour (xv.). This in turn ignores an earlier occasion when Saul is condemned and the loss of his kingdom foretold ere he had accomplished the task t o which he had been called (xiii. 8-14).[3]

This later tendency to subordinate the history of Saul to that of David appears especially in a number of detailed and popular narratives encircling Judah and Benjamin, superseding other traditions which give an entirely different representation of David's move from the south to Jerusalem. Consequently it proves impossible to present a consistent outline of the history. Instead of the sequel to Ishbaal's recovery of power, and instead of David's incessant conflicts north of Hebron, ending with the capture of Jerusalem and its district from a strange people (2 Sam. v. xxi. 15-22, xxiii. 8 sqq.), we meet with the stories of the war with Benjamin and Israel, of the intrigue of Abner (q.v.) and the vengeance of Joab (q.v.). While Saul's death had left Israel in the hands of the Philistines, it is David who accomplishes the deliverance of the people (2 Sam. iii. 18, xix. 9). So, also, in accordance with his generous nature, David takes vengeance upon the Amalekite who had slain Saul (2 Sam. i. 6-10, contrast the details in 1 Sam. xxxi.), and upon the treacherous aliens who had murdered Ishbaal (iv.). When king at Jerusalem (seven years after Saul's death) he seeks out the Survivors of Saul in order to fulfil his covenant with Jonathan. Jonathan's son Mephibosheth[4] is found in safe-keeping east of the Jordan

  1. On the name Saul, also that of an Edomite king (Gen. xxxvi. 37'seq.), see SAMUEL note 1. Kish seems to be identical with the Arabic personal and god-name Kais.
  2. Ishbosheth, i.e. lshbaal, “man of Baal,” cf., 1 Chron. viii. 33.
  3. For other explanations see 1 Chron. x. 13 seq. (which refers to 1 Sam. xxviii.), and Josephus, Ant. vi. 14, 9 (a reference to Saul’s massacre of the priests at Nob, 1 Sam. xxii., a crime which is not brought to his charge in biblical history and probably belongs so one of the latest traditions).
  4. Perhaps Meribaal, “man of Baal,” or Meribbaal, “Baal contends”; for the intentional alteration of the name cf. note 2 above, and see Baal.