SUTRAS, name given to a collection of aphorisms, summaries of the teachings of the Brahmans, and of rules regulative of ritual or religious observances, and also given to these aphorisms and rules themselves.

SUTTEE, a Hindu widow who immolates herself on the funeral pile of her husband, a term applied to the practice itself.  The practice was of very ancient date, but the custom was proclaimed illegal in 1829 under Lord William Bentinck’s administration, and it is now very seldom that a widow seeks to violate the law.  In 1823, in Bengal alone, 575 widows gave themselves to be so burned, of whom 109 were above sixty, 226 above forty, 209 above twenty, and 32 under twenty.

SUWARROW or SUVOROFF, Russian field-marshal, born at Moscow; entered the army as a private soldier, distinguished himself in the Seven Years’ War, and after 20 years’ service rose to command; in command of a division he in 1773 routed an army of the Turks beyond the Danube, and in 1783 he reduced a tribe of Tartars under the Russian yoke; his greatest exploit perhaps was his storming of Ismail, which had resisted all attempts to reduce it for seven months, and which he, but with revolting barbarities however, in three days succeeded by an indiscriminate massacre of 40,000 of the inhabitants; his despatch thereafter to Queen Catharine was “Glory to God and the Empress, Ismail is ours!” he after this conducted a cruel campaign in Poland, which ended in its partition, and a campaign in Italy to the disaster of the French and his elevation to the peerage as a prince, with the title of Italinski; he was all along the agent of the ruthless purposes of POTEMKIN (q. v.) (1730-1800).

SVEABORG, a strong fortress in Finland, protecting Helsingfors, in the Baltic, 3 m. distant from that town, and called the “Gibraltar of the North.”

SVIR, a Russian river that flows into Lake Ladoga.

SWABIA, an ancient duchy in the SW. of Germany, and most fertile part, so called from the Suevi, who in the 1st century displaced the aboriginal Celts, and which, along with Bavaria, formed the nucleus of the Fatherland; was separated by the Rhine from France and Switzerland, having for capital Augsburg, and being divided now into Wuertemberg, Bavaria, Baden, and Lichtenstein.

SWAHILI (i. e. coast people), a people of mixed Bantu and Arab stock occupying Zanzibar and the adjoining territory from nearly Mombasa to Mozambique; they are an enterprising race, and are dispersed as traders, hunters, carriers, &c., far and wide over Central Africa.

SWALE, a river in the North Riding of Yorkshire, uniting, after a course of 60 miles, with the Ure to form the Ouse.

SWAMMERDAM, JAN, a Dutch entomologist, born at Amsterdam, where he settled as a doctor, but turning with enthusiasm to the study of insect life, made important contributions to, and practically laid the foundations of, entomological science (1637-1680).