ho 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 i