SAM SLICK.  See SLICK.

SAM WELLER.  See WELLER.

SAMARCAND (33), a city of West Turkestan, situated at the western base of the Tian-Shan Mountains, 130 m.  SE. of Bokhara.  Suffered at the hands of Genghis Khan in the 13th century; was Timur’s capital in the 14th century, and has since been held sacred by the Moslems.  Captured by the Russians in 1868, who have improved it, and built a handsome suburb on the west.  Manufactures silk, cotton, paper, &c.

SAMARIA, a city of a district of the name between Judea and Galilee in the Holy Land, and which became the capital of the North Kingdom of Israel after the revolt from the Southern; was desolated by the hosts of Assyria in 720 B.C., and repeopled afterwards by Assyrian settlers, who were converted to the Jewish faith, and ministered to by a Jewish priest; when the Jews rebuilt the Temple of Jerusalem, the Samaritans’ offer to aid was rejected, and the refusal led to a bitter hostility between the Jews and Samaritans ever after.

SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH, a version of the Pentateuch in use among the Samaritans, and alone accepted by them as canonical.  It is of value from its independence of other versions.

SAMARITANS.  See SAMARIA.

SAMAVEDA, the section of the Veda that contains the chants, intended for singers.

SAMIAN SAGE, name given to Pythagoras as a native of Samos.

SAMNITES, a warlike people of ancient Italy in territory SE. of Rome; gave the Romans much trouble till, after two successive wars in 343 and 327 B.C., they were subdued in 290 B.C.  A revolt in 90 B.C. led to their extermination as an nation.

SAMOA, or NAVIGATORS’ ISLANDS (36), a group of 14 volcanic islands in the W. Pacific, of which three alone are of any size—­Savaii, Upolu, and Tutuila; all are mountainous and richly wooded; climate is moist and warm; copra is the chief export, and cotton, coffee, tobacco, &c., are grown; the natives, a vigorous Polynesian race, have been Christianised; the islands are under the joint suzerainty of Britain, Germany, and the United States; the chief town of the group is Apia (2), at the head of a pretty bay in Upolu; near here R. Louis Stevenson spent the last five years of his life.

SAMOS, a fertile island in the AEgean Sea, about 30 m. long and 8 wide, separated from the coast of Ionia, three-quarters of a mile wide; had an extensive trade with Egypt and Crete; came through various fortunes under the chief Powers of ancient and mediaeval Europe till it became subject to Turkey; had a capital of the same name, which in the fifth century B.C. was one of the finest cities in the world.

SAMOTHRACE, a mountainous, bleak island in the AEgean Sea, NW. of the mouth of the Dardanelles; has only one village of 2000 inhabitants; was in ancient times place of CABIRI WORSHIP (q. v.).

SAMOYEDES, a people of the Mongolian race, occupying the N. shores of Russia and Siberia from the White Sea to the Yenisei; live by hunting and fishing, and are idol-worshippers; they are fast disappearing.