The silk known to us is entirely produced by one in- sect, the caterpillar of a sluggish moth known as Bom- byx mori, after its proper food-plant, the mulberry {Mo- ras'). The larvie of other mollis jiroduce silk, and in India several species are cultivated, as the Tnsseh and the Arrindy silk-worms. But there is none that can compete with the Chinese worm for the excpiisite soft- ness, gloss, and beauty of its silk, and its suitability for the finer textiles. Every one in this country is now familiar with the history of the borabyx; with the
round, flattened eggs; the gray worms which they pro- duce which feeii so voraciously on mulberry-leaves, till they become plump white caterjiillars, three inches long, and furnished with a little Imrn behind; with the oval yellow cocoons of silk which these caterpillars form around their own bodies; with the short brown pupa into which each immured caterpillar changes; and with the soft, downy, cream-colored moth with feathery an- tenn;e that in due time emerges from the pupa, and from the cocoon if undisturbed. The mode of unwind- ing the cocoons and reeling off the silken thread is also familiarly known Fairbairn.
Sill, CiLi,, or Soi.E (Fr. sevil, from Lat. solum). 1 . The horizontal piece of timber or stone forming the bottom of a window, doorway, or other similar open- ing. 2. Also the horizontal piece of timber, or plate, at the bottom of a wooden partition. 3. Also the horizontal piece of timber near the base of houses whieh are built parth of timber and parti} of brick. — Paiker, Glo^s.of Aithitect. « \
Silk-woim. 1. Moth; 2. Chrysalis; D. Cocoon.
Window-sill, Fotheriugay, England.
Sill, George G., a Presbyterian minister, was born at Lyme, Conn., Jan. 26, 1791. He received a good edu- cation, studied theology at Auburn Seminary, N. Y., was licensed by Rochester Presbytery in 1821, and ordained by the same in 1825 as an evangelist among the new settlements of the presbytery. He afterwards jireached at Mendon, N. Y., for some years. In 1827 he edited the Rochester Observer, the first religious newspaper in West- ern New York. He removed, in 1835, to Illinois, where, in 18-11, he joined the Keformed Dutch Church, and labored at Brunswick, Peoria Co. In 1849 he re- moved to Farmington, Mich., and finally returned East with no regular charge, preaching in the vicinity of Albany, N. Y., to the ()oor and destitute. He died May 28, 18o9. Mr. Sill was- a good scholar, and specially fond of antiquarian research. He was the author of a Verse Book of Scripture for Sunday-schools (Kochester, 1834, 8vo) : — a Manual of the History and Polity of the Reformed Dutch Church:— and a Genealoyical History of the Sill Family (Albany, 1859, ]2mo), posthumous. See Wilson, Presh. Hist. Almanac, 18<)0, p. 204; Whit- more, lliind-hook of A me?: Geneal. p. 158. (.J. L. S.)
Sil'la (Ileb. Silla', xVp, a twig or basket [Gesen.], a highway [Fiirst]; Sept. PaaXXa and PoXooc'; Vulg. Sela). " The liouse of Millo which goeth down to Silla"' was the scene of the murder of king Joash (2 Kings xii, 2(t\ Millo seems most probably to have lieen the citadel of the town, and situated on jMount Zion. Silla must have been in the valley below, overlooked by that part of the citadel which was used as a residence. The situ- ation of the present so-called Pool of Siloam would be appropriate, and the agreement between the two names is tem|)ting (Schwarz, Palest, p. 241); but the likeness exists in the Greek and English versions only, and in the original is too slight to admit of any infiTence. Gesenius, with less than bis usual cnilion, affirms Silla to be a town in the neighborhood of .lerusaUni. Others (as Thenius, in Kurzgef. exeg. JIandh. on the passage; Ewald, (lesch. Isr. iii, 70) refer it to a place on or con- nected with the causeway or flight of steps (n^Dp) which led from the central valley of the city up to the court of the tem]>le.— Smith. This latter is confirmed
SILLA
Ul
SILOAH
by the etj'mology (from b?D, to 7-aise an embankment). See Jerusalkm.
Silla, the actual and supreme god in the mythology of the Greenlanilers, who is also named Pirksonni. Tlie name signifies the one above. He raises the dead to eter- nal life, and is graciously or angrily disposed towards men in accordance with their character for virtue. The training of children is not at all understood by that peo- ple; but the invariable earnestness, quietness, and good behavior of the older persons produce their effects upon tlie j'oung in begetting in them similar traits. A mother may, nevertheless, be heard now and then to rebuke her child with the words " Silla tekoa," i. e. the one above sees it. Silla is to them the Supreme and Incompre- hensible Being. — Yollmer, Worleib. d. Mythol. s, v.
Sillagik Sartok, a powerful idol, venerated among the (ireenlanders. He dwells in the fields of ice, and causes storms. — Vollmer, Worterb. d. Mythol. s. v.
Sillery, Fabio Buulart de, a French prelate, was born at the castle of Pressigny (Touraine) Oct. 25, 1055, and was a relative of the marquis Nicolas de Brulart. He was educated in philosophy at the College de la Jlareche, and was received into the Sorbonne as a teacher in lOSl. In 1689 he was appointed bishop of Avranches, and in 1(;92 exchanged that see for Soissons. He died at Paris Nov. 20, 1714. He left a few religious works, fur which see Hoefer, Nouv. Biofj. Generule, s. v.