PAGODAS....PALLAS....PALMA CHRISTI. 279

The captain received a blow on the back, and fell with his face into the water; where he was surrounded by a throng of savages, who soon despatched him, nothwithstanding his vigorous efforts to defend himself, which he continued to the last. A boat from his ship, filled with armed marines, was within a few yards from him, and he was observed, several times, in his struggles with the savages, to cast a supplicating look towards his friends; but such was their consternation that they gave him no manner of assistance....Cooke's Voyages.

P.

PAGODAS, idolatrous temples in the East-Indies.

The Pagoda is a small edifice not capable of containing more than an hundred persons. The idol is placed ona little pedestal, ornamented with flowers and exposed to the veneration of the people. They burn before the image of the idol a great quantity of cocoa-oil in a multitude of small lamps: they present it with offerings of fruits, milk, grain, oil, and flowers; and at each offering a number of little bells, fastened to a machine of wood, in the form of a triangle, are rung.... Grandpre.

PALLAS, or Olbers, a primary planet between Mars and Jupiter, discovered by Dr. Olbers, of Bremen in Germany, on the 28th of March, 1802. Its diameter, according to Dr. Herschell, is only one hundred and ten miles; it appears like a star of the eighth magnitude. Its medial distance from the sun is about two hundred and sixty-six million mités; its periodice rolution is performed in sixteen hundred and eighty-three days.... Bowditch.

PALMA CHRISTI, the tree that produces the castor oil-nut. This tree is of a speedy growth; as in one year it arrives at its full height, which seldom exceeds twenty feet. When the bunches of the palma christi begin to turn black, they are gathered, dried in

280

PALMIST....PALMYRA....PAN.

the sun, and the seeds picked out. They are afterwards put up for use, as wanted, or for exportation. An English gallon of the seeds or nuts of the palma christi tree yields about two pounds of oil, which is obtained either by expression or decoction: the first method is practised in England, the latter in Jamaica....American Mu

seum.

The stem

PALMIST, a species of the palm tree. of the palmist is sometimes above a hundred feet high, is perfectly straight, and bears on its summit, all the foliage which it has, a bunch of palms; from the midst of which issues a long roll of plaited leaves. The trunk of the palmist, though exceedingly hard, may be cleft with the utmost ease from end to end, and is filled, inwardly, with a spongy substance, which may be easily separated. Thus prepared, it serves to form for conducting waters, tubes which are not corruptible by hu midity. In certain islands of the southern or eastern ocean, cloth, for wearing apparel, and carpets, are made of the bark of some kinds of the palm tree....St. Pierre, Perouse.

PALMYRA, once a city of astonishing opulence and splendor; situated in a large sandy plain, ninety miles east of Damascus; and thought by the Asiatics to have owed its origin to king Solomon. Here Zenobia, a woman of a surpassing genius, reigned with great glory; and Longinus, the famous critic, was her secretary.— The Roman tyranny becoming insupportable, she waged war with Aurelian the Roman emperor, who took her prisoner, led her in triumph to Rome, and put Longinus her secretary to death, together with her principal nobility; afterwards destroying her city, and massacreing its inhabitants. The stupendous grandeur of Palmyra, or Tadmor in the Desert, as the ancients called it, is evident from its ruins which are still to be seen, scattered around for many miles; among which is a colonade extending four thousand feet in length, and terminated by a noble Mausoleum.

PAN, in pagan mythology, the god of hunters, shepherds, and husbandmen. He was painted partly man

PANACEA....PANDECTS.

-281

and partly goat, having a goat's horns, feet and tail, and a chaplet of pine on his red and laughing face, a motley skin covering his body, with a crooked stick in one hand, and a pipe in the other. Pan was said continually to play on this mysterious pipe, composed of seven unequal reeds, but so fitted as to produce together the most perfect melody, metaphorically called the music of the spheres; which results from the sublime and wonderful order of the seven planets, that is, the six primary planets and the moon; moving in orbits of unequal dimensions, and performing their revolutions with different degrees of velocity, but all with unerring concord.... Young, Russell.

PANACEA, a universal medicine. The kind of nostrums which is pretended to cure or prevent diseases generally, is called panacea; others which promise the certain cure or prevention of particular disorders, are called specifics. It is affirmed in Dr. Willich's Lectures on Diet and Regimen, that most of the nostrums advertised as cough drops, &c. are preparations of opium, similar to the paregoric elixir of the shops, but disguised and rendered more deleterious, by the addition of aromatic and heating gums; and that the indiscriminate use of them has pernicious effects. In all the annals of human folly nothing can exceed the unreflecting confidence with which people swallow the medicines of advertising impostors. Some well persons. take these medicines to preserve their health, or to give it a higher tone. An Italian count did so; and finding his error had cost him his life, he ordered the following inscription to be placed on his tomb. "I was well;' I wanted to be better; I took medicine, and here I am.”

PANDECTS, or Digest, a body of Roman laws, drawn up in the reign and by the order of Justinian the emperor. The pandects were designed to contain all that was useful in the works of the ancient lawyers, which amounted to more than two thousand volumes :: they appeared in the year 553; the compilers having been engaged more than three years in the work. the eastern Roman empire this great body of laws continued only till the ninth century; when the emperor

In

282

PANGOLIN....PANTHER....PAPER.

Basilius substituted a code of laws called the Basilica, in its stead. In the western empire the pandects were first abrogated by the laws of the Lombards, and continued in oblivion till the twelfth century, when a copy was found at Amalsi. The pandects were no sooner found than they excited the general attention of the lawyers of Europe; and Justinian's legislation was made in a considerable measure the model and foundation of the laws of modern nations.

PANGOLIN, an animal of the scaly kind, and a native of the torrid climates of the eastern continent. The pangolin is defended by thick scales, but has no teeth: it lives on insects, particularly ants. It has a very long tongue, which is doubled in its mouth; this tongue is round, red, and covered with an unctious and slimy liquor, which gives it a shining hue. When the pangolin, therefore, approaches an ant-hill, in quest of the insects on which it chiefly feeds, it lies down near it, concealing as much as possible the place of its retreat; and stretching out its long tongue among the ants, keeps it for some time quite immoveable. These little animals, allured by its appearance and the unctious substance with which it is surrounded, instantly gather upon it in great numbers; and when the pangolin perceives he has enough of them, he instantly withdraws his tongue and swallows them up.... Goldsmith.

PANTHER, commonly called Catamount, a furious animal of the American forests. The American Indians lay their male children on the skins of panthers, on account of the communicative principle, which they reckon all nature is possessed of, in conveying the qualities according to the regimen followed; and as the panther is endued with many qualities beyond any of his fellow animals in the American woods, as smelling, strength, cunning, and a prodigious spring, they reckon such a bed to be the first rudiment of war. But their female children they lay on the skins of fawns, or buffalo-calves, to render them shy and timorous.... History of American Indians. See CATAMOUNT.

PAPER, a substance on which we write or print,

PAPER MULBERRY....PARAGUAY.

283

made of rags ground, macerated in water, and formed into thin sheets by means of a sieve. It took its name from a kind of reed that grows on the banks of the river Nile, called Papyrus. The leaf of this plant was first used for paper: hence we say leaf of a book, as books were first made of real leaves. Afterwards the bark of a species of mulberry tree was used for writing; whence the Latin word liber signifies a book, and also the bark of a tree; and so the word library is derived from the ancient practice of making books from bark. Paper made of cotton rags began to be in use, in the eleventh century; that made of linen rags began to be used, in the fifteenth century. The manufacture of paper was introduced into England, in the year 1558. It is lately made of other materials besides rags. In the New London Review, it is said, "There is in possession of the London Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, a great variety of specimens of paper made from raw vegetables, thistles, potatoe haum, poplar, and hop bines."

PAPER MULBERRY, a plant which rarely grows more than seven feet in height, and about the thickness of four fingers: it affords clothing to a part of the human species. The female inhabitants of the island of Tongolaboo, in the South Sea, take the tender stalks of the paper mulberry, and strip the bark, and scrape off the exterior rind; after which the bark is rolled up, and steeped for some time in water; it is then beaten with a square instrument of wood, full of coarse grooves.— After repeating the operation, it is spread out to dry; the pieces being from four to six or seven feet in length, and about half as broad. They join these pieces together with the glutinous juice of a berry, and stain them with a juice extracted from the bark of a tree, called kokka. They proceed, joining and staining by degrees, till a piece of cloth, of the requisite length, is obtained. ....Cooke's Voyages.

PARAGUAY, a large country in South America; situated between 12° and 37° south latitude; extending one thousand and five hundred miles in length, and one thousand miles in breadth; bounded by Amazonia, by