minor points, yet are acknowledged by each otlier to belong to the faithful and to be capable of salvation, and they each have a special oratory at Mecca. The first of these sects are the Hanefites, foimded by Abil Hanifa, who died 150 years after the Hegira. They are emphatically called " the followers of reason," while the other three are guided exclusively by tradition. They allow reason to have a principal share in their decisions on legal and other points. To this sect be- long chiefly the Turks and Tartars. The second sect are the Malekites, founded by Malek Ibn-Ans, who died at IMedina about 180 H. As one of the chief proofs of his real piety and humility, it is recorded that when asked for his decision on forty-eight questions, he would only decide on sixteen, freely confessing bis ig- norance about the others. In Barbary and other parts of Africa, the greatest part of his adherents are found. Mohammed Al-Shafei, born in Palestine. 150 H., but educated in Mecca, is the founder of the third sect, the Shafe'ites. He was a great enemy of the scholastic divines, and seems altogether to have been of an orig- inal cast of mind. He never swore by God, and always took time to consider whether he should at all answer any given question or hold his peace. The most char- acteristic saying recorded of him is, "Whosoever pre- tends to love l)oth the work and the Creator at the same time is a liar." He is accounted of such importance that, according to his contemporaries, " he was as the sun to the world, and as health to the body;" and all the relations of tlie traditions of Mohammed were said to have been asleep until he came and woke them. He appears to have been the first who reduced Moslem ju- risprudence into a method, and thus made it, from a number of vague sayings, a science. His followers are now chiefly found in Arabia and Persia. Ahmed Ibn- Hanbal founded the fourth sect, the Hanbaliies. He was born l(i4 H., and was a most intimate friend of Shafei. His knowledge of the traditions (of which he could repeat not fewer than a million) was no less famed than was his piety. He taught that the Koran was not created, but everlastingly subsisted in the essence of God — a doctrine for which he was severely punished by the caliph Al-Motasem. On the day of his death, no less than 20,000 unbelievers (Jews, Christians, and IMagians) are said to have embraced the Mohammedan faith. Once very numerous, the Hanbalites now are but very rarely met with out of Arabia. On the differ- ences between the Sunnites and Shiites, see Shiites. — Chambers's EncyclojJ. See Sonnitks.
Snnyabadls, a sect of Hindu Atheists, or rather Nihilists, who held that all notions of God and man are fallacies, and that nothing exists. Whatever we look upon is regarded as vacuity. Theism and Atheism, Maya and Brahm, all is false, all is error. — Gardner, Faiths of the World, s. v.
Suovetaurilia, peculiar sacrifices among the an- cient Romans, so named because they consisted of a pig, a sheep, and an ox. These were offered at the gen- eral lustration of the Roman people, which took place every five years. The Suovetaurilia, indeed, formed a part of every lustration, and the victims were carried around the thing to be purified, whether it was a city, a people, or a piece of land. The same sacrifices existed among the ancient Greeks, under the name of Trittya. A representation of the celebration of these sacrifices is found on the Triumphal Arch of Constantine at Rome. — Gardner, Faiths of the World, s. v. See Sacrifice.
Sup (^fiTri'fw). Our information on this subject is but scanty. The early Hebrews do not seem to have given special names to their several meals, for the terms rendered " dine" and " dinner" in the A. V. (Gen. xliii, 16; Prov. xv, 17) are in reality general expressions, which might more correctly be rendered " eat" and "portion of food." In the New Test, we have the Greek terms dpiarov and Shwvov, which the A. V. renders respectively "dinner" and "supper" (Luke xiv,
SUP
28
SUP
12; John xxi, 12). hut wliioli are more properly "break- fast" and '• dinner." There is some uncertainty as to the hours at which the meals were taken. The Egyp- tians undoulitedly took their principal meal at noon ((Jen. xliii. 1(3); laborers took a light meal at that time (Kuth ii, 14; com]i. ver. 17); and occasionally that earl}' hour was devoted to excess and revelling (1 Kings xx, IC). It has been inferred from those passages (some- what too hastily, we tiiink) that the principal meal generally took place at noon. The Egyptians do, in- deed, still make a substantial meal at that time (Lane, Mod. Efjypt. i, 1.S9), but liiere are indications that the Jews rather followed the custom that prevails among the Bedawin, and made their principal meal after sun- set, and a lighter meal at about 9 or 10 A.M. (Burck- hardt, Notes, i, 61). For instance, Lot ])repared a feast for the two angels " at even" (Gen. xix, 1-3) ; Boaz ev- idently took his meal late in the evening (Ruth iii, 7) ; the Israelites atejiesh in the evening, and bread only, or manna, in the morning (Exod. xvi, 12); the con- text seems to imply that Jethro's feast was in the even- ing (xviii, 12, 11). But, above all, the institution of the Paschal feast in the evening seems to imply that the principal meal was usually taken then: it appears highly improbable that the Jews would have been or- dered to eat meat at an unusual time. In the later Bib- lical period we have clearer notices to the same effect. Breakfast took place in the morning (John xxi, 4, 12), on ordinary daj's not before 9 o'clock, which was the first hour of prayer (Acts ii, 15), and on the Sabbath not be- fore 12, when the service of the synagogue was com- pleted (Josephus, Life, § 54) ; the more prolonged and substantial meal took place in the evening (ibid. § 44; \Vui\ i, 17, 4). The general tenor of the parable of the great supper certainly implies that the feast took place in the working-hours of the day (Luke xiv, 15-24) ; but we may regard this, perhaps, as jiart of the imagery of the parable rather than as a picture of real life. See Supper.