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withstand it. The spray is often driven several miles on land. These storms however, afford many natives on the opposite shores a better livelihood than they could obtain by fishing or husbandry. They search from place to place, and from one cavern to another, in the hopes of finding timber, casks, and other floating articles of the wrecked vessels. The navigation of this pass is rendered more dangerous by the island of Stroma, and two rocks called the Skerries, lying near the middle of it. It may be crossed and sailed through, however, without danger, at particular times, known to the pilots on that coast.

PENTLAND HILLS, a ridge of hills which begin about four miles south by west of Edinburgh, and extend ten miles west towards the west borders of Mid Lothian. They are mostly green to the top, and afford excellent pasture to numerous flocks of sheep. The valleys between them are watered by several romantic streams; particularly the North Esk, Glencross, and Logan Water. Some of the hills are very high. Carketan Craig, the most northern, is 1450 feet above the sea level; Capelaw, west of it, is 1550; and Logan House hill is 1700. In this last is found the stone called Petunse Pentlandica, from its resemblance to the materials used in China for making china wares. The hills of Braid and Blackford are a continuation of this ridge.

PENTLAND SKERRIES, three islands in the east end of Pentland Frith; on the largest of which two light-houses were erected in 1794; four miles north-east of Duncan's-bay Head.

PENUCONDA, or Bilconda, an old town and fortress of the Mysore, south of India. On the defeat of the Hindoo sovereign of Bijanagur, in 1564, he fixed his residence here for some time, but finding it inconvenient removed back to Chandgherry. In 1575 Penuconda was besieged by the Mahometans, but nobly defended by Jug Deo, a relation of the Maha rajah, in recompense for which he received the government of an extensive district, which remained in his family, till dispossessed by the rajah of Mysore; since this period it has fallen to decay. It is now included in the British territories. Long. 77° 40′ E., lat.

14° 1' N.

PENULA, among the ancient Romans, was a coarse garment or cloak worn in cold or rainy weather. It was shorter than the lacerna, and therefore more proper for travellers. It was generally brown, and succeeded the toga after the state became monarchical. Augustus abolished the custom of wearing the penula over the toga, considering it as too effeminate for Romans; and the ædiles had orders to suffer none to appear in the circus or forum with the lacerna or penula. Writers are not agreed as to the precise difference between these two articles of dress; but we are told that they were chiefly worn by the lower orders of people.

PENULTÍMA, or PENULTIMATE SYLLABLE, in grammar, the last syllable but one of a word. PENUMBRA, a. s. Lat. pene and umbra. An imperfect shadow; that part of the shadow which is half enlightened.

The breadth of this image answered to the sun's diameter, and was about two inches and the eighth part of an inch, including the penumbra. Newton.

PENUMBRA, in astronomy, is a partial shade observed between the perfect shadow and the full light in an eclipse. It arises from the magnitude of the sun's body: for were he only a luminous point, the shadow would be all perfect; but, by reason of the diameter of the sun, it happens, that a place which is not illuminated by the whole body of the sun does yet receive rays from a part thereof. 'PEN'URY, n. s. PENU'RIOUS, adj. PENU'RIOUSLY, adv. PENURIOUSNESS, n. s.

Lat. penuria. Poverty; indigence; want penurious is, in the manner of one

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Sometimes am I a king

Hooker.

Then treason makes me wish myself a beggar;
And so I am then crushing penury
Persuades me I was better when a king;
Then I am kinged again.

Shakspeare. Richard III.
Let them not still be obstinately blind,
Still to divert the good designed,
Or with malignant penury

To starve the royal virtues of his mind. Dryden. All innocent they were exposed to hardship and penury, which, without you, they could never have. escaped. Sprat.

Some penurious spring by chance appeared Scanty of water.

Addison.

If we consider the infinite industry and penuriousstanding they furnish as great taxes as their neighness of that people, it is no wonder that, notwithbours, they make a better figure.

What more can our penurious reason grant

To the large whale or castled elephant?
May they not justly to our climes upbraid
Shortness of night, and penury of shade?

Id.

Prior.

Id.

O blessed effect of penury and want, The seed sown there, how vigorous is the plant! No soil like poverty for growth divine. As leanest land supplies the richest wine.

Cowper.

PENZANCE, a sea-port and market-town of Penwith hundred, Cornwall, on the north-west side of Mount's Bay, three miles from Marazion, and 280 W. S. W. from London. The town is well built, and is formed principally of four streets. Several ships belong to the port, although the harbour will not admit large vessels. The pier, which was first erected nearly fifty years since, was considerably extended in 1813, and was improved in 1816 by the erection of a light-house. It has several meeting houses for dissenters, a Jews' synagogue: a grammar school, dispensary, geological society, an agricultural institution, &c. The surrounding country abounds with metallic ore, and it is said that at low water veins of lead, copper, and tin, are to be discovered in the sea. The tin mines furnish considerable traffic and employment here, and hot and cold baths have been established for the accommodation of invalids. The town is governed by a mayor, recorder, twelve aldermen, and twenty-four common-councilmen. In 1595

it was burnt by the Spaniards, but it was soon after rebuilt, and made a coinage town. High water, spring tides, at 5 o'clock. Market on Thursday. Fairs, Trinity Thursday and Holy Thursday.

PEON, in the language of Hindostan, a foot soldier, armed with sword and target. In common use, it is a footman, so armed, employed to run before a palanquin. Piada is the proper word, of which peon is a corruption.

fits.

PEONY, n. s. Lat. paronia. A flower.

A physician had often tried the peony root unseasonably gathered without success; but having gathered it when the decreasing moon passes under Aries, and tied the slit root about the neck of his patients, he had freed more than one from epileptical Boyle, PEOPLE, n. s. Fr. peuple; Lat. populus. A nation; in this sense it admits the plural, frequent in Scripture, people; the multitude; the commonalty or vulgar; men in general: to people is to stock with people.

For myn ghen han seyn thin helth: which thou hast maad redy before the face of alle peeplis. Wictif. Luk. i. Ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their

meat in summer.

Proverbs xxx. 25,

Prophesy again before many peoples and nations

and tongues.

Revelations x. 11.

What is the city, but the people! -True, the people are the city.

Shakspeare, Coriolanus. Suppose that Brute, or whosoever else that first peopled this island, had arrived upon Thames, and called the island after his name Britannia. Raleigh. If a man temper his actions to content every combination of people, the musick will be the fuller.

Bacon.

A small red flower in the stubble field country people call the wincopipe.

I must like beasts or common people dye, Unless you write my elegy.

The knowing artist may

Judge better than the people, but a play Made for delight,

If you approve it not, has no excuse.

Id.

Cowley.

Walter.

He would not be alone, who all things can: But peopled heaven with angels, earth with man.

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same chain. It is very likely that Peor took its name from some deity, for Peor, Phegor, or Baal-Peor, was worshipped in this country. See Numb. xxv. 3; Deut. iv. 3; Psal. ev. 28; and BAAL-PEOR.

PEOR, a city of Judah, which is not mentioned in the Hebrew, nor in the Vulgate, but only in the Greek of the Septuagint. Josh. xv. 60. Eusebius says it was near Bethlehem, and Jerome adds, that in his time it was called Paora.

PEPARETHOS, an island in the gean Sea, on the coast of Macedonia, twenty miles in circumference; famous for excellent wine and olives. Plin. iv. 12; Ovid. Met. vii. 470; Liv. xxviii. 5.

PEPIN DE HERISTAL, Or Le Gros, mayor of the palace under Clovis III., Childebert, and Dagobert III. The power of these mayors in France was so great that they left the sovereign only the empty title, and in the end seized on the

throne itself.

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PEPLIS, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, and hexandria class of plants: natural order seventeenth, calycanthema. The perianthum is campanulated; the mouth cleft in twelve parts; there are six petals inserted into the calyx: CAPS, bilocular.

ancient times, reaching down to the feet, witho PEPLUS, a long robe worn by the women in sleeves, and so very fine that the shape of the body might be seen through it. The Athenians used much ceremony in making the peplus, and dressing the statue of Minerva in it. Homer makes frequent mention of the peplus of that goddess.

PEPOZIANS, a sect of Christian heretics, who sprung up in the second century; a branch of the Montanists.

PEPPER, . S. γύρω; Gr. πέπερι.

Fr. poivre ; I at., ip r; Ital.
A pungent spice.

We have three kinds of pepper; the black, the white, and the long, which are three different fruits produced by three distinct plants: black pepp ́e is

a dried fruit of the size of a vetch and roundish, with this we are supplied from Java, Malabar, and but rather of a deep brown than a black colour Sumatra, and the plant has the same heat and fiery monly factitious, and prepared from the black by taste that we find in the pepper: white pepper is ontaking off the outer bark; but there is a rarer sort, which is a genuine fruit, naturally white. long pepper is a fruit gathered while unripe and dried, of an inch or an inch and half in length, and of the thickness of a large goose quill.

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PEPPER, piper, in natural history, an aromatic berry of a hot dry quality, chiefly used in seasoning. Pepper is principally used by us in food, to assist digestion: but the people in the East Indies esteem it as a stomachic, and drink a strong infusion of it in water by way of giving them an appetite; they have also a way of making a fiery spirit of fermented fresh pepper with water, which they use for the same purposes. They have also a way of preserving the common and long pepper in vinegar, and eating them afterwards at meals. There are three kinds of pepper at present used in the shops, the black, the white, and the long pepper.

I. PEPPER, BLACK, is the fruit of the piper, and is brought from the Dutch settlements in the East Indies.

spicuous. The whole surface of both sides of the leaves is marked with numerous minute resinous spots, in which the essential oil resides. The foot-stalks are about half an inch in length, round on the under side, angular above, quite smooth. The flowers we have not seen. What Mr. White has sent as the ripe capsules of this tree (although not attached to the specimens of the leaves) grow in clusters, from six to eight in each, sessile and conglomerated. These clusters are supported on angular alternate footstalks, which form a kind of panicle. Each capsule is about the size of a hawthorn berry, globular, but as it were cut off at the top, rugged on the outside, hard and woody, and of a dark brown color. At the top is a large orifice, which shows the internal part of the capsule divided into four cells, and having a square column in the centre, from which the partitions of the cell arise. These partitions extend to the rim of the capsule, and terminate in four small projections, which look like the teeth of a calyx. The seeds are numerous, small, and angular. The name of pepper-mint tree has been given to this plant by Mr. White, on account of the very great resem

II. PEPPER, LONG, is a dried fruit, of an inch or an inch and a half in length, and about the thickness of a large goose quill: it is of a brown-blance between the essential oil drawn from its ish gray color, cylindrical in figure, and produced on a plant of the same genus.

III. PEPPER, WHITE, factitious, being prepared from the black in the following manner: -they steep this in sea-water, exposed to the heat of the sun for several days, till the rind or outer bark loosens; they then take it out, and, when it is half dry, rub it till the rind falls off; then they dry the white fruit, and the remains of the rind blow away like chaff. A great deal of the heat of the pepper is taken off by this process, so that the white kind is more fit for many purposes than the black. However, there is a sort of native white pepper produced on a species of the same plant; which is much better than the factitious, and indeed little inferior to the black. PEPPER, BARBARY. See CAPSICUM. PEPPER, GUINEA. See CAPSICUM.

leaves and that obtained from the pepper-mint (mentha piperita) which grows in England. This oil was found by Mr. White to be much more efficacious in removing all cholicky complaints than that of the English peppermint, which he attributes to its being less pungent and more aromatic. A quart of the oil had been sent by him to Mr. Wilson. The tree appears to be undoubtedly of the same genus with that cultivated in some greenhouses in England, which M. L'Heritier has described in his Sertum Anglicum by the name of eucalyptus obliqua, though it is commonly called in the gardens metrosideros obliqua; but we dare not assert it to be the same species, nor can this point be determined till the flowers and every part of both be seen and compared: we have compared the best specimens we could procure of each, and find no specific

PEPPER, JAMAICA. See MYRTUS and PI- difference. The eucalyptus obliqua has, when

MENTO.

PEPPER, POOR MAN'S. See LEPIDIUM. PEPPER, WATER, a liquor prepared by putting common black pepper, grossly powdered, into an open vessel of water. In a few days it acquires a pellicle or thin surface, which is composed entirely of animalcules excellently adapted for microscopical observation.

PEPPER GRASS. See PILULARIA. PEPPER-MINT. See MENTHA. PEPPER-MINT TREE, in botany, the eucalyptus piperita. In a journal of a voyage to New South Wales, by John White, esq., we have a plate of this tree, with the following account of it: "This tree grows to the height of more than 100 feet, and is above thirty feet in circumference. The bark is very smooth, like that of the poplar. The younger branches are long and slender, angulated near the top; but as they grow older the angles disappear. Their bark is smooth, and of a reddish brown. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate, pointed, very entire, smooth on both sides, and remarkably unequal or oblique at their base; the veins alternate, and not very con

dried, an aromatic flavor, somewhat similar to
our plant. We have remarked, indeed, innu-
merable minute white spots, besides the resinous
ones, on both surfaces of the leaves in some spe-
cimens of the garden plant, which are not to be
seen in ours; and the branches of the former are
rough, with small scaly tubercles. But how
far these are constant we cannot tell. The ob-
liquity in the leaves, one side being shorter at
the base than the other, as well as somewhat
narrower all the way up, as in the Begonia
nitida of the Hortus Kewensis, is remarkable in
both plants. Mr. White's figure represents a branch
of the pepper-mint tree in leaf: on one side of it
part of a leaf separate, bearing the gall of some
insect; on the other the fruit above described.'
PEPPER-POT. See CAPSICUM.
PEPPER-WORT. See LEPIDIUM.

PEPUSCH (John Christopher), Mus. D., and F. R. S., one of the greatest theoretic or scientific musicians of modern times, was born at Berlin in 1667. In 1680, when not fifteen, he had made such proficiency on the harpsichord that he was appointed to teach music to the prince royal of

Prussia. About 1700 he came over to England, and was engaged at Drury Lane. The popularity of Hande! kept him in the secondary rank; but Pepusch chose a new track for himself, and taught music in the full sense of the word; i. e. the principles of harmony and the science of composition,-not to children or novices, but to professors of music themselves, who attended him; so much were his talents and judgment respected. In 1713 the University of Oxford admitted him Doctor of Music. In 1724 he accepted an offer from Dr. Berkeley to go with him to Bermudas, as professor of music in his intended college; but the ship being wrecked he returned to London, and married Frances Margaret De L'Epine, who had made a fortune of 10,000 guineas by her voice. His fortune and reputation were now at their height. At the desire of Messrs. Gay and Rich he composed the music for the Beggar's Opera. In 1737 he was chosen organist for the Charter House. In 1740 his wife died, and a short time after their only son. He wrote An Account of the Ancient Genera of Music, which was read before the Royal Society, and published in the Phil. Trans. for October, November, and December, 1736; and was soon after chosen F. R. S. He died July 20th, 1752, aged eighty-five.

PEPYS (Samuel), F. R.S., secretary to the admiralty in the reigns of Charles II. and James I., was born at Brampton in Huntingdonshire,

of an ancient family of the same name, of Cottenham in Cambridgeshire, and educated at St. Paul's school, London, whence he was removed to Magdalen College, Cambridge. He early acquired the patronage of the earl of Sandwich, who employed him as secretary in the expedition for bringing Charles II. from Holland. On his return he was appointed one of the principal officers of the navy, which post he maintained during the plague, the fire of London, and the Dutch war. In 1673, when the king took the admiralty into his own hands, he appomted Mr. Pepys secretary. In 1684 he was accused of being a papist, without a shadow of proof; and soon after, the admiralty being put into commission, he lost his place. He was still, however, employed under lord Dartmouth, in the expedition against Tangier, and often accompanied the duke of York to Scotland, and in his cruises. When Charles II. resumed the office of lord high admiral he was once more appointed secretary, and held the office until the Revolution. On the accession of William and Mary he resigned, and published his Memoirs,' relating to the navy. He led a very retired life from this time; and, having survived his lady, retired for two years before his death to the seat of a naval friend at Clapham, where he died May 26th, 1703. Such indeed was his literary and scientific reputation that in 1684 he was elected president of the Royal Society, which office he held for ten years. He left a large collection of MSS. to Magdalen College, Oxford, and five large folio volumes of ancient English poetry, begun by Selden, and carried down to 1700, from which the Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, by Dr. Percy, are chiefly selected. Mr. Pepys has lately become more known by the publica

tion of his very interesting Diary, by lord Braybrooke.

PEPYS' ISLANDS, a name given to Falkland Islands.

PERA, one of the suburbs of Constantinople, where ambassadors and Christians usually reside. See CONSTANTINOPLE.

PERACUTE, adj. Lat. peracutus. Very sharp or violent.

Malign, continual peracute fevers, after most dangerous attacks, suddenly remit of the ardent heat.

Harvey.

Fr. par

PERADVENTURE, adv. & n. s. aventure. Perhaps; may be; by chance; as a noun-substantive, doubt or question.

For a good man peradventure summan dar die. Wiely. Rom. 5. Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the eity; wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein ? Genesis xviii. 24. That wherein they might not be like unto either, lawful. was such peradventure as had been no whit less unHooker.

As you return, visit my house; let our old acquaintance be renewed; peradventure I will with you Shakspeare.

to court.

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PERAMBAUCAM, a town of the south of India, Carnatic. This, though a small place, is memorable for the defeat and destruction of a fine British army, commanded by the gallant colonel Bailie, in the month of September 1780, by Hyder Aly. Of eighty-six British officers present, thirty-six were killed, thirty-four wounded, and the remaining sixteen taken prisoners; the greater part of them dying in captivity. In August 1781 a second battle was fought here between Hyder and the army commanded by Sir Eyre Coote. On this occasion the British were Victorious. It is situated on the south side of the Coortelier, fourteen miles north-east of Conieveram.

PERAM BULATE, v. a.) Lat. perambulo. PERAMBULA'HION, n. 8. To walk, or pass through; survey by passing through: perambulation is, the act of passing through; survey made, or districts perambulated.

The duke looked still for the coming back of the Armada, even when they were wandering and making their perambulation of the northern seas.

Bacon.

Persons the lord deputy should nominate to view and perambulate Irish territories, and thereupon to divide and limit the same.

Davies on Ireland.

It might in point of conscience be demanded, by what authority a private person can extend a personal correction beyond the persons and bounds of his own perambulation? Holyday.

France is a square of five hundred and fifty miles traverse, thronging with such multitudes that the general calcul, made in the last perambulation, exHowel. ceeded eighteen millions.

PERAMBULATOR, in surveying, an instrument for measuring distances, called also pedometer, way-wiser, and surveying-wheel. It consists of a wheel A A two feet seven inches and a

B

A

half in diameter; consequently half a pole, or eight feet three inches, in circumference. On one end of the axis is a nut, three quarters of an inch in diameter, and divided into eight teeth; which, upon moving the wheel round, fall into the eight teeth of another nut c, fixed on one end of an iron rod Q, and thus turn the rod once round in the time the wheel makes one revolution. This rod, laying along a groove in the side of the carriage of the instrument, has at its other end a square hole, into which is fitted the end of a small cylinder P. This cylinder is disposed under the dial-plate of a movement, at the end of the carriage B, in such a manner as to be moveable about its axis; its end a is cut into a perpetual screw, which falling into the thirty-two teeth of a wheel perpendicular to it, upon driving the instrument forward, that wheel makes a revolution each sixteenth pole. On the axis of this wheel is a pinion with six teeth, which, falling into the teeth of another wheel of sixty teeth, carries it round every 160th pole, or half a mile. This last wheel, carrying a hand or index round with it over the divisions of a dial-plate, whose outer limb is divided into 160 parts, corresponding to the 160 poles, points out the number of poles passed over. Again, on the axis of this last wheel is a pinion, containing twenty teeth, which, falling into the teeth of a third wheel which has forty teeth, drives it once round in 320 poles, or a mile. On the axis of this wheel is a pinion of twelve teeth, which, falling into the teeth of a fourth wheel having seventy-two teeth, drives it once round in twelve miles. This fourth wheel, carrying another index over the inner limb of the dial-plate, divided into twelve for miles, and each mile subdivided into halves, quarters, and furlongs, serves to register the revolutions of the other hand, and to keep account of the miles and half miles

passed over, as far as twelve miles. The use of this instrument is obvious from its construction. Its proper office is the surveying of roads and large distances, where a great deal of expedition, and not much accuracy, is required. It is evident that driving it along and observing the hands has the same effect as dragging the chain advantages are its hardness and expedition: its and taking account of the chains and links. Its contrivance is such that it may be fitted to the wheel of a coach, in which state it performs its office, and measures the road without any trouble.

PERAMES, in geography, a town of America, in Bergen county, New Jersey, lying on the point of land formed by the branches of Saddle River, a north branch of the Passaick; about eighteen miles north of Bergen.

PERCA, the perch, a genus of fishes belonging to the order of thoracici. The head is furnished with scaly and serrated opercula; there are seven rays in the membrane of the gills; and the fins on the back are prickly. There are thirty-eight species, principally distinguished by peculiarities in the back fin. The most re

markable are

1. P. cernua, the pope, or ruffe, is found in several English streams: it is gregarious, assembling in large shoals, and keeping in the deepest part of the water. It is of a much more slender form than the perch, and seldom exceeds six inches in length. The teeth are very small, and disposed in rows. It has only one dorsal fin, extending along the greatest part of the back; the first rays, like those of the perch, are strong, sharp, and spiny; the others soft. The body is covered with rough compact scales. The back and sides are of a dirty green, the last inclining to yellow but both spotted with black. The dorsal fin is spotted with black; the tail marked with transverse bars.

2. P. fluviatilis, or common perch, has a deep body, very rough scales, and the back much arched. The colors are beautiful; the back and part of the sides being of a deep green, marked with five broad black bars pointing downwards; the belly is white, tinged with red; the ventral fins of a fine scarlet; the anal fins and tail of the same color, but rather paler. In a lake called Llyn Raithlyn, in Merionethshire in Wales, is a very singular variety of this fish: the back part is quite hunched, and the lower part of the back-bone next the tail strangely distorted; in color and other respects it resembles the common perch, which are as numerous in this lake as the deformed fish. They are not peculiar to this water; for Linnæus takes notice of them in a lake at Fahlun in his country. It is said that they are also met with in the Thames near Marlow. The perch was much esteemed as food by the Romans; nor is it less admired at present as a firm and delicate fish; and the Dutch are particularly fond of it when made into a dish called water-souchy. It is a gregarious fish, and loves deep holes and gentle streams; is exceedingly voracious, and an eager biter: if the angler meets with a shoal of them he is sure of taking every one. The perch is very tenacious of life, and has been known to survive a journey of sixty

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