The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 337

PALLADIUS, ST., is called the "chief apostle of the Scottish nation," but his connection with Scotland during his lifetime is doubtful; he was sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine in A.D. 430, whence, after his death, his remains were brought by St. Ternan to Fordoun, Kincardines.h.i.+re.

PALLAS, one of the names of ATHENA (q. v.) considered as the G.o.ddess of war; a name of uncertain derivation.

PALLAS, PETER SIMON, a German traveller and naturalist, born in Berlin, professor of Natural History in St. Petersburg; explored Siberia, and contributed to the geographical knowledge of the Russian empire (1741-1811).

PALLAVICINO, FERRANTE, Italian patriot, who gave offence by his pasquinades to the Papal Court and the Barberini; was betrayed and beheaded (1618-1644).

PALLAVICINO, SFORZA, cardinal and historian, born at Rome; was of the Jesuit order, and wrote a "History of the Council of Trent," in correction of the work of Paul Sarpi (1607-1667).

PALLICE, LA, port of La Roch.e.l.le, from which it is 3 m. distant, with harbourage for ocean-going steamers.

PALM, JOHANN PHILIPP, a Nurnberg bookseller, tried by court-martial at the instance of Napoleon, and shot, for the publication of a pamphlet reflecting on Napoleon and his troops, an act, from the injustice of it, that aroused the indignation of the whole German people against him; "better," thinks Carlyle, "had he lost his best park of artillery, or his best regiment drowned in the sea, than shot that poor German bookseller"

(1768-1806).

PALM SUNDAY, the Sunday before Easter, is so called from its being commemorative of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem; it is observed by the Greek and Roman Churches; in the latter palm branches are blessed by the priest before ma.s.s, carried in procession, distributed to the congregation, carried home by them, and kept throughout the year.

PALMA, 1, capital of the Balearic Islands (61), on the Bay of Palma, SW. coast of Majorca; has a Gothic cathedral, a Moorish palace, and a collection of pictures in the old Town Hall; manufactures silks, woollens, and jewellery, and does a busy trade. 2, One of the Canary Islands (39), 67 m. NW. of Teneriffe; grows sugar, and exports honey, wax, and silk manufactures.

PALMA, JACOPO, or The Old, a celebrated painter of the Venetian school, was a pupil of t.i.tian; painted sacred subjects and portraits, all much esteemed (1480-1548).

PALMA, JACOPO, The Young, nephew of the preceding, also a painter, but of inferior merit, though he aimed to be the rival of Tintoretto and Paul Veronese (1544-1628).

PALMER, the name given to a pilgrim to the Holy Land who had performed his vow, in sign of which he usually bore a palm branch in his hand, which he offered on the altar on his return home.

PALMER, EDWARD HENRY, Oriental scholar, born at Cambridge; had an apt.i.tude for languages, and was especially proficient in those of the East; by his knowledge of Arabic contributed to the success of exploring expeditions to S. Palestine and Sinai; was appointed professor of Arabic at Cambridge in 1871; produced a Persian-English Dictionary, an Arabic Grammar, and a translation of the Koran, and in 1882 undertook two missions to Egypt, in the latter of which he and his party were betrayed and murdered; he was a man of varied gifts and accomplishments, and the loss in scholars.h.i.+p to his country by his fate is incalculable (1840-1882).

PALMER, SAMUEL, English landscape-painter, chiefly in water-colours (1805-1881).

PALMERSTON, HENRY JOHN TEMPLE, VISCOUNT, English statesman, born, of an Irish family, at Broadlands, Hants; was educated at the universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge; succeeded to his father's t.i.tle, an Irish peerage, in 1802, and entered Parliament in 1807 as member for Newport, Isle of Wight; during his long career he subsequently represented Cambridge University (1811-1831), Bletchingly, South Hamps.h.i.+re, and Tiverton; from 1809 to 1828 under five Premiers he was Junior Lord of the Admiralty and Secretary at War; and separating himself finally from the Tory party, he joined Earl Grey's Cabinet as Foreign Secretary in 1830; contrary to all expectation he kept the country out of war, and during the next 11 years he a.s.sociated England's influence with that of France in Continental affairs; returning to office in 1846, he remained at his old post till 1851, steering England skilfully through the Spanish troubles and the revolutionary reaction of 1848; a vote of censure on his policy was carried in the Lords in 1850, but, after a five hours' speech from him, the Commons recorded their approval; he resigned owing to differences with the Premier, Lord John Russell; in 1852 joined Lord Aberdeen's coalition ministry, and on its fall became himself Prime Minister in 1855; he prosecuted the Crimean War and the Chinese War of 1857, and suppressed the Great Mutiny in India; defeated in 1858, he returned to office next year with a cabinet of Whigs and Peelites; his second administration furthered the cause of free trade, but made the mistake of allowing the _Alabama_ to leave Birkenhead; he was Prime Minister when he died; a brusque, high-spirited, cheery man, sensible and practical, unpretending as an orator, but a skilful debater, he was a great favourite with the country, whose prosperity and prestige it was his chief desire to promote (1784-1865).

PALMISTRY, the art of reading character from the lines and marks on the palm of the hand, according to which some pretend to read fortunes as well.

PALMY'RA, a ruined city of Asia Minor, 150 m. NE. of Damascus, once situated in an oasis near the Arabian desert; a place of importance, and said to have been founded by Solomon for commercial purposes; of imposing magnificence as it ruins testify, as notably under Zen.o.bia; it was taken by the Romans in 272, and destroyed by Aurelian, after which it gradually fell into utter decay; its ruins were discovered in 1678; it contains the ruins of a temple to Baal, 60 of the 300 columns of which were still standing.

PALO ALTO, 33 m. SE. of San Francisco; is the seat of a remarkable university founded by Senator Stanford, and opened in 1891, to provide instruction, from the Kindergarten stage to the most advanced and varied, to students and pupils boarded on the premises; of these there were 1000 in 1897.

PALUDAN-MuLLER, FREDERICK, distinguished Danish poet, born in Funen; his greatest poem, "Adam h.o.m.o," a didactico-humorous composition; was an earnest man and a finished literary artist (1809-1876).

PAMELA, a novel of Richardson's, from the name of the heroine, a girl of low degree, who resists temptation and reclaims her would-be seducer.

PAMIRS, THE, or the "Roof of the World," a plateau traversed by mountain ridges and valleys, of the average height of 13,000 ft., NW. of the plateau of Thibet, connecting the mountain system of the Himalayas, Tian-Shan, and the Hindu Kush, and inhabited chiefly by nomad Kirghiz bands; territorial apportionments have for some time past been in the hands of Russian and British diplomatists.

PAMPAS, vast gra.s.sy, treeless, nearly level plains in South America, in the Argentine State; they stretch from the lower Parana to the S. of Buenos Ayres; afford rich pasture for large herds of wild horses and cattle, and are now in certain parts being brought under tillage.

PAMPELUNA or PAMPLONA (31), a fortified city of Northern Spain, is 80 m. due SE. of Bilbao. It has a Gothic cathedral and a surgical college, with manufactures of pottery and leather, and a trade in wine.

Formerly capital of Navarre, it has suffered much in war; has this century several times resisted the Carlists.

PAN, in the Greek mythology a goat-man, a personification of rude nature, and the protector of flocks and herds; originally an Arcadian deity, is represented as playing on a flute of reeds joined together of different lengths, called Pan's pipes; and dancing on his cloven hoofs over glades and mountains escorted by a bevy of nymphs side by side, and playing on his pipes. There is a remarkable tradition, that on the night of the Nativity at Bethlehem an astonished voyager heard a voice exclaiming as he pa.s.sed the promontory of Tarentum, "The great Pan is dead." The modern devil is invested with some of his attributes, such as cloven hoofs, &c.

PANAMA (15), a free port in the State of Colombia, on the Pacific coast of the isthmus of the same name, and an oppressively hot and humid place, is the terminus of the Panama railroad and the seat of a great transit trade. It has a Spanish cathedral. The population, of Indian and negro descent chiefly, is only half what it was when the ca.n.a.l works were in full operation.

PANAMA Ca.n.a.l Geographers were familiar with the idea of connecting the two oceans by a ca.n.a.l through Central America as early as the beginning of the 16th century, and Dutch plans are said to exist dating from the 17th century. The first practical steps were taken by Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1879; two years later work was begun; the cost was estimated at 24,000,000, but on January 1, 1889, the company was forced into liquidation after spending over 70,000,000, and accomplis.h.i.+ng but a fifth of the work. Extravagance and incapacity were alleged among the causes of failure; but the apparently insurmountable difficulties were marshes, quicksands, and the overflow of the Chagres River, the prevalence of earthquakes, the length of the rainy season, the cost of labour and living, and the extreme unhealthiness of the climate.

PANATHENaeA, a festival, or rather two festivals, the Lesser and the Greater, anciently celebrated at Athens in honour of Athena, the patron-G.o.ddess of the city.

PANCHATANTRA, an old collection of fables and stories originally in Sanskrit, and versions of which have pa.s.sed into all the languages of India, have appeared in different forms, and been a.s.sociated with different names.

PANCRAS, ST., a boy martyr of 16, who suffered under the Diocletian persecution about 304, and is variously represented in mediaeval legend as bearing a stone and sword, or a palm branch, and trampling a Saracen under foot, in allusion to his hatred of heathenism.

PANDECTS, the digest of civil law executed at the instance of the Emperor Justinian between the years 530 and 533.

PANDORA (i. e. the All-Gifted) in the Greek mythology a woman of surpa.s.sing beauty, fas.h.i.+oned by Hephaestos, and endowed with every gift and all graces by Athena, sent by Zeus to EPIMETHEUS (q. v.) to avenge the wrong done to the G.o.ds by his brother Prometheus, bearing with her a box full of all forms of evil, which Epimetheus, though cautioned by his brother, pried into when she left, to the escape of the contents all over the earth in winged flight, Hope alone remaining behind in the casket.

PANDOURS, a name given to a body of light-infantry at one time in the Austrian service, levied among the Slavs on the Turkish frontier, and now incorporated as a division of the regular army.