SAIONJI, KIMMOCHI, PRINCE ( ) Japanese statesman, was born in October, 1849, at Kyoto. When less than 20 years of age, he took part in the councils which led to the Res toration, and at 19 was commander-in-chief of an imperial army. In 1881 he commenced his official career, and in the following year accompanied Ito to Europe and the United States to investi gate the parliamentary system. In 1885 he was appointed minister to Austria ; three years later he became vice-president of the house of peers and was raised to the privy council in 1894. In the same year he received the portfolio of education in the second Ito cabi net. In July 1903 he became the leader of the Seiyu-Kai and in 1906 formed his first cabinet as prime minister; he was again premier from 1911 to 1912. In 1919 he represented Japan as chief envoy at the Peace Conference and was invested with the grand order of merit. He was made prince in 192o in recognition of his services in war and peace.
SAIS (Egyptian Sai), an ancient city of the Egyptian Delta, lying westward of the Thermuthiac or Sebennytic branch of the Nile. It was the capital of the 5th nome of Lower Egypt and must have been important from remote times. In the 8th century B.C. Sais held the hegemony of the Western Delta, while Bubastite families ruled in the east and the kings of Ethiopia in Upper Egypt. At the time when invasions by the Assyrians drove out
the Ethiopian Taracus again and again, the chief of the twenty princes to whom Esarhaddon and Assur-bani-pal successively entrusted the government was Niku, king of Sais and Memphis. His son Psammetichus (q.v.) was the founder of the XXVIth Dynasty. Although the main seat of government was at Memphis, Sais remained the royal residence throughout this flourishing dynasty. Neit, the goddess of Sais, was identified with Athena, and Osiris was worshipped there in a great festival.
The brick enclosure wall of the temple is still plainly visible near the little village of Sa-el-hagar (Sa of stone) on the east bank of the Rosetta branch ; otherwise only crude brick ruins and rubbish heaps remain on the site, but a few relics conveyed to Alexandria and Europe in the Roman age have come down to our day, notably the inscribed statue of a priest of Neit who was high in favour with Psammetichus III., Cambyses and Darius. Bronze figures of deities are now the most interesting objects to be found at Sa-el-hagar.