SIBYL, name given to a woman, or rather to a number of women, much fabled of in antiquity, regarded by Ruskin as representing the voice of God in nature, and, as such, endowed with visionary prophetic power, or what in the Highlands of Scotland is called “second-sight”; the most famous of the class being the Sibyl of Cumae, who offered King Tarquin of Rome nine books for sale, which he refused on account of the exorbitant sum asked for them, and again refused after she had burnt three of them, and in the end paid what was originally asked for the three remaining, which he found to contain oracular utterances bearing on the worship of the gods and the policy of Rome.  These, after being entrusted to keepers, were afterwards burned, and the contents replaced by a commission appointed to collect them in the countries around, to share the same fate as the original collection.  The name is applied in mediaeval times to figures representative of the prophets who foretold the coming of Christ; the prophets so represented were reckoned sometimes 10, sometimes 12 in number; they are, says Fairholt, “of tall stature, full of vigour and moral energy; the costume rich but conventional, ornamented with pearls and precious stones.”

SICILIAN VESPERS, name given to a massacre of the French in Sicily at the hour of vespers on the eve of Easter Monday in 1282, the signal for the commencement being the first stroke of the vesper bell; the massacre included men and women and children to the number of 8000 souls, and was followed by others throughout the island.

SICILY (3,285), the largest island in the Mediterranean, lying off the SW. extremity of Italy, to which it belongs, and from which it is separated by the narrow strait of Messina, 2 m. broad; the three extremities of its triangular configuration form Capes Faro (NE.), Passaro (S.), and Boco (W.); its mountainous interior culminates in the volcanic Etna, and numerous streams rush swiftly down the thickly-wooded valleys; the coast-lands are exceptionally fertile, growing (although agricultural methods are extremely primitive) excellent crops of wheat and barley, as well as an abundance of fruit; sulphur-mining is an important industry, and large quantities of the mineral are exported; enjoys a fine equable climate, but malaria is in parts endemic; the inhabitants are a mixed—­Greek, Italian, Arabic, &c.—­race, and differ considerably in language and appearance from Italians proper; are ill-governed, and as a consequence discontented and backward, even brigandage not yet being entirely suppressed.  Palermo, the largest city, is situated on the precipitous N. coast.  As part of the “Kingdom of the Two Sicilies,” comprising Sicily and Naples, it was overrun by Garibaldi in 1860, and in the same year was incorporated with the kingdom of Italy.

SICKINGEN, FRANZ VON, a German free-lance, a man of a knightly spirit and great prowess; had often a large following, Goetz von Berlichingen of the number, and joined the cause of the Reformation; lost his life by a musket-shot when besieged in the castle of Landstuhl; he was a warm friend of Ulrich von Hutten (1481-1523).