States when young, and has been for many years a resident of Nevada. He was elected lieutenant-governor of Nevada in 1895, and on the death of Governor Jones in 1896 became governor. He was regularly elected to the office in 1898, which he occupied until 1903.

SADLIER, Mary Anne (Madden), Canadian author: b. Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland, 21 Dec. 1820; d. 1903. She early contributed to London magazines, and in 1844 emigrated to Canada, where she settled in Montreal and in 1846 was married to James Sadlier. She was for many years editorially connected with the Roman Catholic press, and also translated religious and other works from the French. Author of 'Alice Riordan' (1851); The Confederate Chieftains, a Tale of the Irish Rebellion of 1641' (1859); Purgatory, Doctrinal, Historical and Political' (1886), etc.

SADO, sä'do, Japan, an island off the west coast of Hondo, opposite and 32 miles from Nügata, with an area of 336 square miles, and a coast line of 135 miles. It has a diversified surface culminating in Kimpokuzan, 3,820 feet high. South of Kimpokuzan is the town of Aikawa, near the east coast, with the ancient and still productive gold and silver mines in its vicinity, to which Sado owes its celebrity. On the west coast 18 miles distant from Aikawa is Ebisuminato, the port of the island. Pop. of island about 120,000.

SADOLETO, sä-dō-lā'tō, Jacopo, Italian theologian: b. Modena, 1477; d. Rome, 18 Oct. 1547. He was consecrated bishop of Carpentras, near Avignon, in 1517; belonged to the Contarini Reform party, and was a member of the commission appointed by Paul III to take steps toward effecting a Church reformation. He immediately opened a correspondence with Erasmus, Bucer, Sturm and Melanchthon, but when in 1539 he invited the Genevans to return to the Roman Catholic Church, he received a harsh rebuff from Calvin. After that he confined himself largely to his own diocese. He had been appointed cardinal in 1536, but while he was frequently summoned to Rome he preferred Carpentras, and his study, well-stocked with books of the new learning, in which he was an adept, being one of the Latinists of his day. He wrote commentaries on the Psalms, and on the Epistles of Saint Paul, and so excellent was their style that Erasmus made the somewhat invidious remark that "their very polish of expression will take off the edge of their pious suggestiveness." His works were published in four volumes in 1734. He was a diplomat in whom successive popes had confidence and acted as ambassador to Francis I in the interests of peace in 1544. Consult Joly, 'Etude sur J. Sadolet (1856).

one

SADOWA, sä'do-vä (Czech Sádová), Czecho-Slovakia, a village near Königgrätz, on the Bistritz, remarkable as of the hotly contested Prussian positions in the decisive battle of 3 July 1866, in which the Crown Prince of Prussia and Prince Frederick Charles commanding the Prussians defeated the Austrian forces under Benedek. This battle is known also as the battle of Königgrätz.

SADTLER, sat'ler, Samuel Phillip, American chemist: b. Pine Grove, Pa., 18 July 1847. He was graduated at Lehigh University in 1867

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and later studied at the universities of Berlin and Göttingen. He was professor of natural science at Pennsylvania College in 1871-74; assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1874-86, and professor. there in 1887-91. He was professor of chemistry at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1878-1916; and since 1891 has been a consulting chemical expert at Philadelphia. He was chemical editor of the United States Dispensatory) (15th to 19th editions); and from 1900 was a member of the committee of revision of the United States Pharmacopoeia.' Author of 'Hand Book of Chemical Experimentation (1877); 'Industrial Organic Chemistry) (1891); and joint author of Pharmaceutical Chemistry) (1895; 5th ed., 1917).

SÆMUND, sa'moond, Sigfússon, THE WISE, Icelandic scholar: b. Iceland, about 1056; d. Oddi, 1133. He undertook a course of foreign travel in pursuit of learning, and visited Paris and Rome; then, returning to Iceland, he became a priest at Oddi (1176). He was unknown to scholars till about 1643, when the newly-discovered 'Elder Edda' and other writings were falsely ascribed to him.

SAFE, a strong and substantial receptacle for money, important papers and valuables, usually of iron or steel, or of both combined; sometimes with a filling of concrete to resist heat. A safe, to justify its name, should be proof against fire, explosives, acids, drills, wedges and the other implements and opening devices resorted to by burglars. The great majority of safes are designed mainly to preserve the contents from fire and to resist sneakthieves. But the larger and most costly safes are built to safeguard the cash and securities of banks, trust companies, etc. The history of the progress of these strong safes is mainly a record of struggles between the burglar and the safemanufacturer; the result is, that safes can now be obtained which are all but impregnable. With the modern safe of the best kind the lock may be said to be the only vulnerable point; hence much care and ingenuity have been expended on its mechanism. Numerous patents, mostly of American origin, have been introduced in recent years. Of these, the keyless permutation locks deserve particular mention, as they obviate the danger which arises from lost or false keys. Such locks allow of opening only after an inIdicator has been moved in accordance with a certain combination of numbers arranged before closing the safe. Some safe-locks are so constructed that to be freed they require different keys on different days, some can only be opened at a certain hour, this being fixed on before the door is closed; while others again require two or more keys in charge of different persons; in fact, the arrangement contrived to render the plundering of safes next to impossible are too even to mention. The connection of safes with electric alarms in a variety of ways forms another safeguard. See VAULT.

numerous

SAFE-CONDUCT, a security granted by the sovereign authority, or persons delegated by it, to strangers or other persons to enable them to repair to and return from a certain place undisturbed. In most of these cases passports have now taken the place of special safe-conducts. Sometimes the safe-conduct is given to

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persons accused, to secure them against harm when summoned to an examination.

SAFE INDUSTRY IN AMERICA. Various methods for the safe-keeping of treasure, jewels and other valuables have been in use since the earliest periods in history, and the advancement in this line has necessarily kept pace with increased wealth. Thus we have witnessed the evolution from the old-fashioned strong-box to the massive chilled-iron and steel vaults, absolutely fire-proof and burglarproof, till they have reached the highest degree of efficiency and perfection that science and skill can make them. Locks of rude construction were in use by the ancient Egyptians, and during the Middle Ages by the Romans. The Chinese also used a lock similar in construction to the famous Bramah lock, invented in England in 1784. These were made of wood, the tumblers being of different length to fit the sizes of the wards in the keys. Beginning with the Middle Ages the inventive genius of man was turned toward providing something more substantial than a lock as a method of warding off the burglar, who at that time had not attained to the remarkable skill and cunning of the modern "cracksman," and indeed the professional thief of modern times would look back with envy on his predecessor who had nothing more than a mere wooden box, sometimes bound with iron, with which to cope. The first means of securing valuables was by placing them in some secret cavity in a wall, the door of which was opened by a spring or other device, but more often articles of household furniture were used, such as desks with secret drawers, or tables and chairs with false bottoms. These constituted the chests of the wealthy for some time and some of them were furnished with locks and bound with strips of iron, the whole very artistically made so as to ward off suspicion of their contents. The oaken-chest or strong-box, reinforced with iron bands and knees, was in the beginning of the 18th century considered to be the best means of security. Such a chest was used in 1707 to guard the crown jewels of Scotland.

Prior to the 19th century the all-metal safe was unknown. The first improvement along this line was made in France about 1820, consisting of a metal box built within double walls, the space between being filled with a composition of non-conducting substances. A little later a so-called fire-proof safe was constructed in New England, considered to be a vast improvement over the existing types. This safe had a body of solid oak plank from three to four inches thick, which, after being thoroughly saturated with alkali, was covered with sheets of thin iron. To make this more surely fireproof, bands of iron were crossed and recrossed over these plates and nailed down with large round-headed iron spikes. The great fire in New York in 1835 proved the worthlessness of these, several hundred of them being then destroyed. The idea of filling in the walls of a safe with non-conducting substances was first put into use in this country in 1843 by Daniel Fitzgerald. His idea was to fill the metal walls of the safe with plaster of paris because of its tendency to throw off heat, and having secured a patent on his invention he immediately began to manufacture a safe known as the "Sala

mander." His patent was later assigned to B. J. Wildey, who made a safe called "Wildey's Patent," the principle of these being to leave the space between the walls empty, trusting that the contents of the inner portion of the safe would be protected from heat by the non-conducting properties of the air. Other mixtures, such as asbestos, mixed with plaster of paris, clay, alum, fire-clay, mica, chalk, etc., were then used to fill the vacant space, but none of these proved absolutely satisfactory. To-day the modern safe walls are filled either with alum or some other salt, which when heated gives off a quantity of water. Various water-chamber devices have also been employed, with a view to maintaining a body of steam between the inner and outer shells of the safe when exposed to a hot fire.

Outside of the fire element, the most important part of the safe to be considered is the lock, for with our modern methods of fire protection the danger of burglary is often as great as possible loss by fire. The first supposedly non-pickable lock was the Bramah, but was finally proved to be valueless and easily picked, this being done by a Mr. Hobbs, by the (tentative process." Three other locks then came into use, the Chubb, also picked by Mr. Hobbs, the Pye lock, invented in 1851, but picked by Linus Yale, Jr., of Philadelphia, by the "impression process," and the Yale lock. Since then many new forms of locks have been invented, and the modern lock-combinations are constructed in a manner which has made the trade of burglary extremely difficult.

There are three ways of procuring security against burglary, first by the laminated construction; second, by the use of blocks of chilled iron, this method being more useful in the construction of large vaults than in the making of portable safes; and third, by the spherical chilled-iron safe. In the first method of construction the chamber is made of alternate layers of hard and soft plates of iron and of plates of hardened steel, the two laid alternately over each other in the walls of the chamber in such a way that they form a single mass. Thus the body of the safe, being constructed of alternate plates of iron, welded iron and steel, carbonized and decarbonized steel, and crystal steel, fastened together by means of bolts from the inside, has made safes practically impregnable to drills, jimmies, jackscrews and other devices. Another method of making safes, in common use by manufacturers, is to roll down together while hot into one solid sheet of tempered steel three layers of soft iron or steel alternated with two intermediate layers of hard steel. These composite sheets, when they have been rolled till about one-half of an inch thick, are then built into the walls of the safe and alternated with plates of heavy steel about one-half inch thick. The doors are generally the weak point in the construction of a safe, for it is these which a burglar first attacks to see if there is any crevice into which a wedge might be inserted, or any crack into which nitro-glycerine or any other high explosive might be introduced. In some safes the plates comprising the door are dovetailed, engaging with the corresponding parts of the jamb; in some an air-tight packing is used between the jambs and their abutments; while in others a screw door is used.

One solid mass of metal is used in the second and third types of safes, the tough and hard qualities of the metal being obtained by modern processes of steel-making. The metal used is a soft sheet-iron, the surface of which can be hardened by cooling. In the construction of many vaults, blocks of chilledmetal, weighing from three-quarters to several tons, are bolted together on the inside, the sides being dovetailed together, and the outside surface is chilled to the highest degree of hardness. The door is a single casting of steel, two inches thick, and also chilled on the outside.

In the third type, the spherical, invented by William Corliss, the shell, constructed of steel from four to seven inches thick and chilled to a depth of about two inches, sometimes contains a "bugging" made from a special ore. This material, which is excessively hard and is in appearance somewhat like crystallized silver, is so interwoven with wrought-iron rods that it can be battered with immense force with

out damage. The purpose of this construction of wrought and crystallized iron is to hamper a burglar in his work, it being supposed that in an attempt to drill through the walls of the safe, the drill will penetrate the soft metal more readily than the hard, and, consequently, working sideways, will be broken off when it strikes the hard metal. The "bugging" may, however, be used in precisely the opposite manner, the rods being made of the hardest tool-steel and the body of the filling composed of cast-iron segments, but the principle of turning the point of the "cracksman's" drill is the same. The circular door is especially suitable for the spherical safe. They are closed after the manner of the breech-block of a large gun, with an interrupted thread or screw.

In large banks and safe-deposit vaults there is no room sufficiently large to contain the number of individual safes which would be required to hold the enormous masses of money and other valuable securities with which these institutions are entrusted. This has turned the attention of the manufacturer in recent years to the building of large vaults which would be absolutely fire and burglar-proof. The interior of these vaults may be constructed to suit the tastes and requirements of the owner, but the walls are now made much thicker than formerly and the builder has made more use of fireproofing materials. The most important feature of the modern vault is the lock, which has now reached the acme of perfection. The first form of lock used was the combination-lock, an outgrowth of the "tumbler" lock, and the mechanism of these is very ingenious. These locks are not limited in the number of combinations upon which they may be set, and may be changed at any time should the combination become known to undesirable persons. The most valuable asset of the modern vault, however, is the chronometer, or time-lock, the mechanism of which is as intricate and as complicated as the best watch, but at the same time it runs as true and as smoothly. To offset any possible disarrangement in the mechanism of a single clock, which would, of course, prevent the opening of the safe, three movements are usually enclosed in a single case. As these safes cannot be opened by any available agency until the time set for the clock to operate the

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mechanism which swings back the ponderous doors, it is obvious that the chronometer combination is the greatest safeguard against robbery which the bank can employ.

In 1914 there were 31 establishments engaged in the manufacture of safes and vaults, capitalized at $6,898,000. They utilized the services of 2,107 employees, paying wages of $1,366,000; manufactured products totaling $5,366,000 in value, of which $3,571,000 was value added to the cost of materials. These figures indicate a serious reduction in the industry in the decade, for in 1905 there were 3,488 wageearners, and the gross products were $7,861,000. The value of the American safe has been recognized in foreign countries, and to-day may be found throughout Great Britain, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, etc. See LOCK; VAULT, ETC.

SAFED, sä'fěd, Palestine, occupies the summit of a hill 2,700 feet high, on the shores of the Mediterranean, about 10 miles northwest of the Sea of Galilee. Safed was a fortified place of importance during the Crusades, and is one of the four holy cities of the modern Jews in Palestine, their settlement dating from the 16th century. Pop. (estimate) 19,000.

SAFETY-LAMP. See LAMPS.

SAFETY-VALVE, a device used upon steam boilers and other vessels subject to an internal pressure, for the purpose of automatically preventing that pressure from rising to a dangerous intensity. It consists essentially of an opening in the boiler (or other vessel) over which a suitable lid or "valve-disc" is fitted. The valve-disc is pressed against its opening with a definite, constant pressure, whose magnitude is regulated according to the pressure that the boiler is intended to carry. So long as the pressure that the steam within the boiler exerts upon the under side of the valve-disc is less than the constant force with which the disc is pressed down upon the opening. the valve remains closed and no steam escapes. If the pressure within the boiler rises, however, so that the steam exerts upon the disc a total pressure that is greater than the external force that tends to hold the disc in place, the valve opens and permits steam to escape until the pressure in the boiler is sufficiently reduced for the external force again to close the opening. There are three general types of safety-valve in use, which are respectively known as "deadweight," "lever" and "pop" valves. The fundamental principle of operation is the same in all and the classification relates merely to the means that are employed to hold the valve-disc against the opening in the boiler. In the "deadweight" valve this is accomplished by placing weights directly upon the valve-disc. Safetyvalves of this type can be recommended for low pressure boilers and they are much used, in England, upon heating and upon kitchen boilers. They are not adapted for use in connection with high pressures, however, for the load resting upon the valve-disc must then be very great, in order to prevent the valve from opening at the ordinary running pressure. It is common, therefore, to use the "lever" type for high pressure service. In this type the valvedisc is held against its seat by the action of a weight, but the weight does not rest directly upon the disc. A horizontal lever two or three

feet long is provided, and this is pivoted at one end, while the weight is attached near its free end. The centre of the valve-disc comes directly under the lever, a few inches from the pivoted end, and the lever is supported by means of a stout vertical rod whose lower end rests upon the centre of the valve-disc. By this means the total downward force acting upon the disc and tending to keep it in position may easily be made to be 8 or 10 times as great as that which would be realized if the weight rested upon the valve-disc directly; and the pressure at which the valve will open can be nicely regulated by shifting the position of the weight upon the lever arm. In the "pop" valve the disc is forced against its seat by means of a stout spiral spring, which is held in position by a framework or casing which is securely attached to the boiler. The compression on the spring is regulated by means of a screw that acts upon its upper end and which can be turned by a wrench. It is now customary, however, to have the adjusting screw entirely within the casing of the valve so that the attendant in charge of the boiler cannot tamper with it; the casing being provided with a lock, the key to which remains in the possession of the owner of the boiler. The name "pop" refers to the sound that these spring valves make when they open and close. Lever valves and dead-weight valves open and close gradually and before they open they give warning by a hissing sound. "Pop" valves, on the contrary, open without any such premonitory signal, and when they close they do so with corresponding quickness. "Pop" valves are used exclusively upon railroad locomotives, as the violent swaying and vibration to which these are subject would render weighted valves undesirable.

SAFFLOWER, a large thistle-like composite plant (Carthamus tinctorius) with orangecolored flowers, said to have been originally brought from the East, but now naturalized in many parts of Europe and extensively cultivated. The tubular flowerets are collected, dried and used somewhat as a feeble laxative medicine, in place of, or as an adulterant of, saffron. They are, however, chiefly important as the source of carthamin, a dyeing principle originally much employed by the Chinese and later by Occidental silk manufacturers, as it gives brilliant, although fugitive, red tints; mixed with French chalk it forms the cosmetic rouge. In Spain the flowers are used to color soups and other dishes. The Jews in Poland are remarkably fond of the flowers and mix them with their bread and most of their viands. Oil, in India, is expressed from safflower seeds, for culinary and lighting purposes.

SAFFORD, Truman Henry, American mathematician and astronomer: b. Royalton, Vt., 6 Jan. 1836; d. Newark, N. J., 13 Tune 1901. He was early known as a calculator of great skill; in 1845 prepared an almanac; by a method of his own he abridged by one-fourth the task of computing the rising and setting of the moon, and after his graduation from Harvard was officially connected with the observatory there, 1854-66. In 1865 he was appointed professor of astronomy in the University of Chicago and director of the Dearborn Observatory; in 1874-76 was a member of the United

SAFFRON

He

States Coast Survey, and in 1876-1901 professor of astronomy in Williams College. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society of England. studied the nebulæ, discovering many new ones; computed cometary and planetary orbits and for some time devoted his attention to latitude and longitude work for the United States Corps of Engineers, for which he prepared a star catalogue. Among his further published writings were a catalogue of polar stars, Mathematical Teaching and its Modern Methods,' and numerous contributions to astronomical journals, to the Proceedings' of the American Academy and to the notices of the Royal Society.

SAFFRON, a bulbous autumnal plant (Crocus sativus) and a commercial dye-stuff obtained from it. The cultivated saffron originated probably in the Levant, and was grown in early times about the town of Corycus, Cilicia (from which the Crocus genus may have taken its name). The Arabs cultivated it in Spain about the 10th century, and it was an important crop in England, especially about Saffron Walden, Essex, in the 15th century, bringing the highest market price. It is now raised about the Mediterranean and in Asia. The saffron is low, with the grass-like leaves and long-tubed, funnel-shaped flowers, springing directly from the ground, which are characteristic of the crocuses. Its flower is purple, with a style tipped with three orange-colored stigmas, each more than an inch long, depending from one side of the perianth. These stigmas are picked off in the early morning and dried on a kiln, either loosely or between layers of paper, and under the pressure of a thick board which forms the mass into cakes, about 4,000 of these stigmas being necessary to give an ounce of saffron. In either case the commercial saffron is liable to suffer from adulteration. adulteration was so prevalent at one time that those guilty of it (when caught) were killed.

This

Saffron stigmas, when genuine, have a characteristic orange red color and an aromatic, bitter odor and taste. The substance has faint carminative and narcotic properties, but is seldom used medicinally, except for coloring tinctures and occasionally as a diaphoretic in the eruptive diseases of children. In the 'Song of Solomon' the saffron is mentioned among the sweet-smelling herbs, and it was much in demand among the Greeks and Latins for its perfume. A fragrant essence was made from it with water and wine for sprinkling in theatres and other places, even in the streets, for anointing the hair and for the bath. Saffron was also much employed in culinary operations, chiefly for its aromatic taste and for coloring, as the clown in the 'Winter's Tale' says he "must have saffron to color the warden pies."

Saffron, however, is most commonly used as a dye, giving a yellow hue to cloth, but it is being displaced by cheaper colors. This tint was in very early times the royal color in Greece, and was that of some of the women's court robes, but afterward appropriated by the hetairæ. In Ireland and the Hebrides it was also the color of the king's mantle and of the shirts of persons of rank. Saffron enters largely into the composition of the sacred spot

on the forehead of a Hindu Pundit. An extract made from saffron, used as a glaze on tinfoil, imitated gold in mediæval illuminations, and was also employed by painters.

HELEN INGERSOLL.

SAG HARBOR, N. Y., village in Suffolk County, on Gardiner's Bay, an inlet from the Atlantic Ocean, and on the Long Island Railroad, about 100 miles east of New York. It has a good harbor, regular steamer connections with New York and several of the Long Island coast towns. It has several manufactories, chief of which are a watch-case and silverware factory, flour and cotton mills, a tannery and machine shops. The Sacred Heart of Mary Academy (R. C.), opened in 1877, a union school, public and parish schools and a library constitute the educational institutions. There are three banks with a combined capital of $100,000. The village is a favorite summer resort. one time Sag Harbor was noted for its interests in whaling; its income from that industry amounting to $1,000,000 some years. In those days its tonnage equaled that of New York. The Indian relics found in and near the village show it was once an important Indian settlement. Pop. (1920) 2,993.

At

SAGA, Japan, capital of the province of Fizen, on the island of Kiu-siu, 74 miles northeast of Nagasaki. It is an important seaport and commercial centre. The town is intersected by numerous streams, chief of which is the channel of Sentonofutsi, 50 miles long. It unites the Gulf of Simabara with the Northern Sea, and is of considerable commercial importtance. Pop. about 36,500.

SAGA. The word saga is cognate with German Sage, "a short tale," with which, however, it must not be confounded in meaning, and with English saw, "saying." In its limited and original meaning and without qualification, a saga is a story or group of stories in prose, of an historical character, relating in a series of episodes the whole life-history of a Scandinavian hero and written down in Norway or, mainly, in Iceland during the Middle Ages. The historical events which the sagas narrate took place mostly in the period which extended from the date of Iceland's settlement in 874 to the middle of the 11th century. That was the heroic age of the Icelandic people. At first the sagas were nothing but oral transmissions from one tale-teller to another. Their composition began about the middle of the 12th century and lasted for about 100 years.

In a wider sense the word saga is applied to any narration of events of the past, mythical as well as historical in character, but possessing the traits of the genuine saga. In these tales some legendary champion, from whom the saga takes its name and around whom the important events are centred, is the hero. Heroic achievement and marvelous adventure, fact and fancy, are mingled freely. In the course of generations the saga undergoes important changes, acquires accretions and takes on a more or less poetic and artificial character. Finally it is consigned to writing and handed down as a kind of rudimentary epic. When applied, as they frequently are, to works of that kind, in which the historic element is found in greater or less degree, the words saga, myth,

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legend, Märchen, epopee and epos are used without clear distinction of meaning.

In the third and last stage of its development, the word saga has come to mean any free creation of the popular fantasy, sometimes incredible or even burlesque in character. Here the historical element is entirely lacking. In its widest sense, saga is sometimes used to include the entire body of the history and mythology of a people, or their literature or some division of it: hence we read of the Norse, German, Irish, or Greek sagas; of saga poetry, saga cycles, heroic sagas, beast-sagas, the Cuchulain saga, the Karl saga, the Nial saga. In Norse mythology Saga is also the name of a goddess.

The Icelandic sagas may be classified (1) geographically, according to the part of the country in which they arose or in which their scenes are located; (2) as major or minor sagas, the latter being more distinctly local in character and simpler in plot and interest than the former; and (3), as here, as (a) historical, (b) mythical, or (c) romantic. To the class of historical sagas belong: The well-known 'Landnámabók,' "Book of Settlements” which contains a list of all the notable men who, up to 930, settled in the island. It contains much that is valuable on the religion, laws and customs of the people. It is preserved only in a version dating from the 13th-14th century. The 'Islendingasögur,' which embody the lives and achievements of celebrated Icelanders and the fortunes of great Icelandic houses from 950 to 1130. The Biskupasögur are biographies of Icelandic bishops who flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries; they constitute an ecclesiastical history of Iceland, of less literary interest than the secular sagas but of the utmost historical value.

It would be difficult to say how much is to be regarded as authentic history in 'Noregs Konungasögur, also called 'Heimskringla,' "World-Circuit," from the words with which it opens. This was the work of the greatest of all Icelanders, Snorri Sturluson, who was born in 1178 in West Iceland and became distinguished as statesman, scholar, poet and sagaman. It was written about 1230 and gives the history of the kings (chiefly) of Norway. The Icelanders never lost the feeling of connection with the motherland with which their country was in close relations especially in the time of Harald Hárfagri, when Iceland was settled, and of Olaf Tryggvason, when it was converted. The Heimskringla possesses all the most excellent features of the best saga-art. At about the same time the 'Gudhmundarsaga Dyra' was written. Of historical importance also is the Sturlungasaga, "the history of Sturla," which is a collection of later Islendingasögur, telling of events which happened as late as the year 1250. The tales belonging to this saga arose in West Iceland about the beginning of the 14th century and contain some of the finest narrative passages in the whole body of Icelandic literature. The Thordharsaga Sighvatssonar) treats of Icelandic history up to the same period. The mythical sagas are those that treat of the old heroic legends, some of which, like the Völsunga Saga, which is a prose rendition of the Nibelungen story as given in the Eddic lays, are the common property of all the German peoples, while others,