SKIKT DANCE. 219 SKUA. fects; and later she produced the fire dance, the effect of which, in a darkened theatre, is gained by a brilliant red light thrown on the dancer wearing a light-colored skirt. Various colors, iu succession or combination, are also used. SKITTAGETAN, skit'ta-ge'tan. A North American Indian linguistic family. See Haida. SKITTLES (variant of shittle, sJiuttle, from AS. scCoiiii), (lUU. si*iu::un, Ger. schicssen, to slioot; ultimately connected with Skt. skaitd, to leap, Lat. scaiidere, to climb). Excepting in the details and method of playing, skittles does not differ materially from American bowling. The nine pins are set in the same pattern at the end of an alley, but are much heavier, weighing nine pounds each. The ball, which is of a different pattern from that used in American bowling, is in the shape of a flat cheese rounded at the edges, and usually weiglis from twelve to fourteen pounds. It is cast at the pins and not rolled. It must hit a pin after leaving the player's hand be- fore touching the ground, no hit counting which is caused by a rebound of the ball from the allej3 side. Each skittle fairly downed counts one. It is a game considerably played in Great Britain in the agricultural districts, but in the eastern counties the usual number of pins is four, one at each angle. SKOBELEFF, skr/bp-lyef, JIikiiail Dmitri- viTCH (1843-82). A Russian general. He entered a guard regiment in 18G1 and fought with re- nown against the Polish insurgents in 1863. As a member of the general staff he was sent in 1869 to Samarkand, and in 1873, in the Khiva expedi- tion, he commanded the vanguard of one of the Russian columns, and was among the first to enter the Khan's capital. Two years later he commanded the cavalry in the expedition against Khokand, and after the city had surrendered pur- sued the fleeing Khan and took him prisoner. He was made major-general in 1876 and placed over the newly organized Province of Ferghana. As commander of a division in the Russo-Turkish War he stormed Lovatz (September 3, 1877), and fought bravely around Plevna, which he oc- cupied on December 10th. after the defeat of Osman Paslia. He led the Russian advance over the Balkans, and on January 9, 1878, with Generals Mirski and Radetzky. captured the Turkish forces in the Shipka Pass, proceeding thence to Adrianople. In 1880 he was once more in Turkestan as head of an expedition to suppress the marauding Tekke tribes, and aeliieved a bril- liant feat in the storming of Geok-Tepe (Janu- ary 24, 1881). In the same year he was made Governor of IMinsk and became prominent as an ardent advocate of Panslavism. He died at Mos- cow. July 8, 1882. SKO'DA, Joseph (1805-81). An Austrian physician, born at Pilsen, Bohemia. After study- ing in Vienna and a short practice in Bohemia, he was detailed to the Public Hospital in Vienna in 1833, became primary physician in 1841, pro- fessor at the clinic in 1846, and was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1848. His Ahhaiidliing iiher die Auskiiltotinn iiml Perktis- sion (1839; 6th ed. 1864) created an epoch in diagnostics, by demonstrating the principle that the physical symptoms observed in a patient only indicated certain physical conditions in his or- ganism, whereupon it devolved upon the rational Vol. SVlIl.— 13. physician to draw his conclusions as to the real internal disease from his pathologic-anatomical experience. This was in opposition to the Krench doctrine, until then prevalent, which interpreted the physical symptoms immediately as the signs of a definite process of disease. SKOKOMISH,. skokO'mish. A tribe of Sali- shan stock (q.v.) formerly occupying both sides of Hood's Canal on Puget Sound, Washington, and now gathered upon a small reservation near Union, within their own limits. In primitive characteristics they resembled the neighboring Nisqualli and Puyallup (qq.v. ) in nearly every- thing excepting language. The women were ex- pert in weaving hair cloth, mats, and baskets. The men usually went nakeil except for the G-string, while the women wore a sort of skirt of twisted strands. In war the men wore hel- mets of cedar bark with boJ}' armor of quilted elkskin or a sort of corset of strips of wood. Scalping was not practiced. Head-flattening was universal. The dead were usually laid away in the grave, and slaves were sacrificed according to the rank and wealth of the deceased, frequently being starved to death or even tied to the corpse and left thus to perish. The great ceremonial was the potlatch (q.v.) and the clan .system was unknown. The Skokomish have now decreased to 16.5. SKOPTSY, skop'tsi (Russ., eunuchs) . A Rus- sian religious sect practicing castration. The first to adopt this practice in Russia was a for- eign monk, Adrian ( 1001 ) , and at least six other cases are on record among the higher Russian clergy up to Theodosius, Bishop of Lutsk (1326). Two famous trials occurred in the eighteenth cen- tury, and in 1772 Catharine II. severely pun- ished the leading heretics. The Skoptsy emi- grated in masses, chiefly into Roumania. The movement reached its height in 1871 under Lisin, "the second Redeemer and Tsar Peter III.;" he was sent to Siberia in 1876, and prosecutions have been continued since then. SKOWHEGAN, skou-he'gan. The county-seat of Somerset County, Me., 18 miles north of Waterville. on the Kennebec River, here spanned by two bridges, and at the terminus of the Maine Central Railroad (Map: Maine, D 6). It has a public library of 8000 volumes, a fine court house, and Coburn Park. There are manufactures of oilcloth, woolen and worsted goods, shoes, sash and blinds, wooden ware, foundry and machine shop products, etc. Population, in 1900, 4266. Skowhegan was originally part of Canaan, and was incorporated as the town of Milburn in 1823. It received its present name, the old Indian name for the place, in 1836. Consult Hanson, History of the Old Towns of 'Sorridgewock and Canaan, comprising Skowhegan (Boston, 1849). SKXJ'A (Norweg. skiia, Icel. skfimr, skufr, skua), or Jaeger Gull. A gull (q.v.) of the subfamily Stercorariina?, in which the nostrils open beneath the edge of a horny cere and other structural peculiarities exist, sufficient, in the o])inion of some ornithologists, to entitle this group to family rank. These birds are fierce and rapacious, habitually attacking and annoying terns and small gulls, and compelling them to drop or disgorge fishes they have already taken. The Antarctic species strike down living birds as hawks would do and feed upon them. They
