SAHIB 182 SAINT SAHIB, a common term used by natives of India and Persia in addressing or speaking of Europeans. The feminine form is Sahibah. SAHLITE, in mineralogy, a name for- merly applied to a grayish-green variety of pyroxene from Sala; but now adopted by Dana and others for a group, viz., the lime-magnesia-iron pyroxene. SAI, the name applied to the weeper- monkey of Brazil. SAIGA, in zoology, a genus of Bovidse, with one species, S. tartarica, from east- ern Europe and western Asia. They dif- fer so much from all other antelopes that some naturalists have made them a dis- tinct family. Also, any individual of the genus Saiga. They are about the size of a fallow deer, tawny yellow in summer, and light gray in winter; horns, found only in the male, less than a foot long, slightly lyrate and annulated. SAIGON, capital of French Cochin- China; on the Saigon, a branch of the delta of the Mekhong; about 35 miles from the sea. The present town has grown up under French influences since 1861, and with its fine streets and squares and boulevards is one of the handsomest cities of the East. It has a magnificent governor's palace, a cathedral (1877), two higher colleges, an arsenal, floating dock and drydock, administrative offices, and a botanical and zoological garden. Saigon (properly Gia-dinh) is the most important port between Singapore and Hong Kong. It exports every year rice, chiefly to China, the Philippines, Japan, and the Straits Settlements. The remain- ing exports include fish, salt, cotton, wood, beans, and hides. Previous to the French occupation (1861) Saigon, though only a collection of common Siamese huts, was the capital of the province of Lower Cochin-China. Pop. (1919) 64,496, prin- cipally Chinese, Annamese, and French. SAIL, a piece of canvas cloth spread to catch the wind, so as to cause or assist in causing a ship or boat to move through the water. Sails are supported by the masts, spars, or stays of the vessel, and take their names from the mast, yard, or stay on which they are stretched, as the mainsail, etc. The upper edge of a sail is the head, the lower edge the foot, the vertical edge the leech, the weather side or edge (that is, the side or edge next the L nast or stay to which it is attached) of any but a square-sail is the luff, and the
- >ther edge the after leech. The clews or
clues are the lower corners of a square sail, or the lower after corner of a fore- and-aft sail. A tack is the lower weather corner of a square sail, or the lower for- ward corner of a fore-and-aft sail. The earing is the upper corner of a square sail. A square sail is one that is extended by a yard hung (slung) by the middle and balanced. A sail set on a gaff, boom, or stay is called a fore-and-aft sail. Also, that part of the arm of a windmill which catches the wind. SAILCLOTH, a strong linen, cotton, or hempen cloth used in making sails. The best is made of flax, and combines flexi- bility with lightness and strength. SAILING, the act of moving on water, or the movement of a ship or vessel im- pelled by the action of wind on her sails; act of setting sail or beginning a voy- age; also, smooth impulsion through the air, as in a balloon; or the aerial passage of a bird. In navigation, the art of di- recting a ship on a given line laid down on a chart. It is called plane sailing when the chart is constructed on the supposi- tion that the surface of the ocean is an extended plane; and globular sailing, when the chart is a globular chart, or constructed on the hypothesis that the earth is a sphere, the ship being then supposed to be sailing on the arc of a great circle. Sailing order, or order of sailing, is any determinate order pre- served by a squadron of ships. It usually implied, in the days of sailing fleets, one, two, or three parallel columns; but it is at the disposition of the admiral or com- modore. SAINFOIN, a plant, Onobrychis sati- va, natural order Leguminosie, a native of central and southern Europe and part of Asia. It has been in cultivation for centuries for the purpose of supplying fodder for cattle either in the green state or converted into hay. It is a pretty plant with narrow pinnate leaves and long spikes of bright pink flowers; stem lV 2 -2 feet high. SAINT, a name applied in the New Testament to the members of the Chris- tian community generally, but restricted by ecclesiastical usage from very early times to those who have been specially remarkable for their personal virtues and their eminent services to the cause of re- ligion. In the ages of persecution the quality which most of all challenged the admiration and reverence of the faithful was naturally constancy in the profession and the defense of the Christian faith; and the honors of the martyrs, even be- fore the age of persecution had passed, were extended to confessors, and event- ually to all who died in the odor of sanctity, and especially to those who also obtained the reputation of performing miracles. In general, the saints of the Catholic Church are distributed into sev-
