S'wain, Nathan, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in 1767, and converted when fourteen years of age. In 1799 he was admitted on trial in the Phila- delphia Conference, in 1801 admitted into full connec- tion and ordained deacon, and in 1803 ordained elder. He continued effective, with the exception of two years, until 1816, when he took a supernumerary relation, which he sustained until 1832, when he became superannuated, and so remained until his death, I\Iarch 1, 1845. See Minutes of A nnual Conferences, iv, 14.
S'wain, Richard, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was a native of New Jersey. In 1789 he was aihnitted on trial, in 1791 into full connection, and filled the fol- lowing stations: Trenton, N. -J., in 1789; Flanders, in 1790-91; JMiddletown Circuit, Conn., in 1792; New London, in 1793; Salem, N. J., in 1794; Burlington, in 1795; Freehold, in 1796; Trenton, in 1797; Freehold, in 1798; Salem, in 1799 and 1800; Bethel, in 1801; Cape May, in 1802 ; Salem, in 1803. He became super- numerary iu 1804-7, and died Jan. 17, 1808. He was a man of great usefulness in the ministry. See Min- utes of Annual Conferences, i, 159; Stevens, Hist, of the M. E. Church, iv, 280 ; Bangs, Hist, of the M. E. Church, ii, 252.
S'wallo'W is the rendering, in the A. Y., of two Heb. words, and possibly the true meaning of a third. (The following account is taken in part from tlie dic- tionaries of Kitto and Smith.)
1. "I1"i'n, (leror, \)ro\y. liberty (as often rendered), i. e. strictly siciftness, occurs in two passages only with ref- erence to a bird : Psa. Ixxxiv, 3 (Heb. 4), '• The sical- low [hath found] a nest;" Prov. xxvi, 2, " as the swal- low by flying." The ancient versions, in the former passage, understand a turtle-dove (Sept. rpwyo^i^; Vulg. turtui-'), and in the latter a sparrow (arpov^oQ, passer). The radical signification of the word favors the idea that it may include the swallow, with other swiftly Hy- ing or free birds. The old commentators (so the rab- bins), except Bochart (Hieroz. ii, 590 S(i.), who renders it " columba fera," apply it to the swallow, from the love of freedom in this bird and the impossibility of retain- ing it in captivity (De Wette, I'mbreit. Ewald, Gese- nius, Thesaur. p. 355). It is more likcdy that it was so named from its rapidity of flight. It probably, there- fore, is more properly the "swift" or "black martin," and probably the dururi, mentioned by Forskal as mi- grating to Alexandria from Upper Egypt about the end of October (Descript. A nim. p. 10). The frequenting of jiublic buildings by this class of birds (Herod, i, 159; .Elian, ]'. II. v, 17) is proverbial (Schultens, Monum.
SWALLOW
45
SWALLOW
Vetf. A rab. Cafvi. p. 1 ; Niebuhr, Reisen, ii, 270). See Sparrow.
2. "1^3", 'uf/ur, the twittcrer, also occurs twice : Isa. xxxviii, 14, " Like a crane [or] a swdllow, so did I chat- ter;" Jer. viii, 7, "The turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time." In both these passages it is associated with a third term, ClD, sus (v. r. 0*^0, sis), rendered "crane," but in the former passage the connective 1 ("and," "or") is wanting. The Sept. in Isa. renders both words by the single one ^(^iXiSwv, Yulg. piillus hirundiiiis ; and in Jer. j^tXiSoiv dypov, hiriindo et ciconia ; thus agreeing with tlie A. V. in de- noting the swallow. Bochart, however (fJieivz. ii, 614 sq.), maintains that \i(/iir is the proper Hebrew desig- nation of the crane. He compares the word with the Chald. X'^^TIZ, kurkeya, the Arab, kiirhi, the Gr. ytp<t- VOQ, the Welsh //tuxin, and the Germ, kran, all of which are, like it, onomatopoetic. The twittering or queru- lous sound (w|^3U) and the migratory habit are both characteristics which meet in the crane; its cry is often compared by the poets with that of a person in distress or grief, and its migrator^' habits are frequently dwelt upon by ancient writers (Aristot. ^4 7iim. viii, 12 ; iElian, Anim. iii, 13, 23: Pliny, x, 31; Quint. Curt. Smyrn. ii, 107; xiii, 102 sq.). This view has been followed by Eosenmiiller, Maurer, and Henderson in their comments on Isaiah. Gosenius, though seeming to favor tliis view in his commentary on Isaiah, repudiates it in his Tkesaiuus, where he treats \uiur as a verbal adjective signifying chattering} or ticittering, and regards it as an epithet of the swallow in the passage in Isaiah, and as a designation of the swallow in that in .Jeremiah. This is followed by Knobel (Iter Prophet Jesaia erkldrt). It is in favor of this that in the former the copulative is wanting between the two words; but this may be ex- plained as a case of asyndeton (as in Hos. vi, 3 ; Hab. iii, 11, etc.); whereas the insertion of the 1 in the other passage seems clearly to prove that \i(jur and sus de- note different birds. Hitzig, indeed, proposes to strike out this copula, but without sufficient reason. Maurer derives "1^5" from an Arabic root sigiiifj'ing turbavit aquam, so as to designate an aquatic bird ; Knobel would trace it to another Arabic root meaning to mourn pifeousl//. The DID, siis, if distinct from the "IISS?, \igtir. is probably a large species of swallow, and tlie latter term, when not a mere epithet of the former, probably signifies a peculiar kind of heron. Sis, how- ever, may perhajis be an imitative name expressive of the swallow's voice or twitter; and in Dr. Kennicott's re- mark that in thirteen codices of Jeremiah he read Isis for sis we find the source of the ancient fable of the Egyp- tian Tsis being transformed into a swallow. See Crank. Whatever be the precise rendering, the characters ascribed in the several passages where the names occur are strictly applicable to the swallow, viz. its swiftness of fliglit, its nesting in tlie buildings of the Temple, its mournful, garrulous note, and its regular migration, shared, indeed, in common with several others. We may observe that the garrulity of the swallow was pro- verbial among the ancients (see Nonn. Dionys. ii, 138, and Aristoph. Batr. 93). Hence its epithet KWTtXac, '• the twitterer," KdiTLKdSac St rag i(;£\i^ovrtc, Athen. 622. See Anacr. 104, and opSrpoyoi], Hesiod, Op. 566 ; and Vir- gil, Georg. iv, 306. Although Aristotle, in his A'atural History, and Pliny, following him, have given cnrrenc}' to the fable that many swallows bury themselves dur- ing winter, yet the regularity of their migration, alluded to- by the prophet Jeremiah, was familiarly recognised by the ancients. See Anacreon {Od. xxxiii). The ditty quoted bj' Athen. (360) from Theognis is well known —