SLADE, FELIX, antiquary and art-collector; left his art-collection to the British Museum, and money to found Slade professorships of art at Oxford, Cambridge, and London Universities (1789-1868).

SLAVE COAST, name given to the Bight of Benin, in West Africa, from Lagos to the Volta River.

SLAVONIA, a kingdom that at one time included Croatia and that lies between the Drave and the Military Frontier.

SLAVS, an important branch of the Aryan race-stock, comprising a number of European peoples chiefly in East Europe, including the Russians, Bulgarians, Servians, Bohemians, Poles, Croatians, Moravians, Silesians, Pomeranians, &c.  At the dawn of history we find them already settled in Europe, chiefly in the neighbourhood of the Carpathians, whence they spread N., S., and W., assuming their present position by the 7th century.  They are estimated to number now 100,000,000, and the various languages spoken by them are notable, compared with the Teutonic and Celtic tongues, for their rich inflections.

SLAWKENBERGIUS, an author quoted and referred to in “Tristram Shandy,” distinguished by the length of his nose, and a great authority on the subject of noses.

SLEEPING BEAUTY, a princess who was by enchantment shut up to sleep 100 years in a castle surrounded by a dense forest, and was delivered from her trance at the end of that term by a prince, to admit whom the forest opened of itself.

SLEIPNIR, in the Scandinavian mythology the horse of Odin, which had eight legs, as representing the wind with its eight principal “airts.”

SLESWICK-HOLSTEIN (1,217), a province of North Prussia, stretching up to Denmark, between the North Sea and the Baltic; various canals cross the country, bearing to the coast the export produce—­corn and cattle; the land is highly cultivated, and fishing is an important industry on the Baltic coast; Flensburg, the chief seaport, and Sleswick (15), the capital, are both situated on inlets of the Baltic; the latter lies 28 m.  NW. of Kiel, consists of a single street 31/2 m. long, and possesses a fine Gothic cathedral with a fine altar-piece, &c., the sections representing the history of the Passion of Christ.

SLICK, SAM, a clockmaker and pedlar, a character illustrating Yankee peculiarities, and remarkable for his wit, his knowledge of human nature, and his use of “soft sawder,” a creation of JUDGE HALIBURTON’S (q. v.).

SLIGO, 1, a maritime county of North-West Ireland (98), in the province of Connaught; fronts the Atlantic on the N. between Mayo (W.) and Leitrim (E.), Roscommon forming the S. boundary; the land, sloping N. to the coast from the Ox Mountains, is chiefly under grass for cattle pasture, and divided into small holdings; Sligo Bay is a fine sheet of water, and in the S. and E. are the picturesque Loughs Arrow and Gill; the manufacture of coarse woollens and linens and fishing are the principal industries; the Moy, Owenmore, and Garvogue are navigable rivers. 2, At the mouth of the Garvogue stands Sligo (10), the county town, 137 m.  NW. of Dublin; has ruins of a 13th-century Dominican abbey, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and exports cattle, corn, butter, &c.