public view, and rendering them infamous. There is a statute of the pillory, 51 Hen. III. And by statute it is appointed for bakers, forestallers, and those who use false weights, perjury, forgery, &c. 3. Inst. 219. Lords of leets are to have a pillory and tumbrel, or it will be the cause of forfeiture of the leet; and a village may be bound by prescription to provide a pillory, &c. 2 Hawk. P. C. 73

as cannot take bitter and ill-tasted medicinal draughts: as also to keep in readiness for occasional use without decaying. See MATERIA MEDICA Index. PILLAR, in Architecture. See ARCHITECTURE. PILLAR, in the manege, is the centre of the ring, or manege-ground, round which a horse turns, whether there be a pillar in it or not. Besides this, there are pillars on the circumference or sides of the manegeground, placed at certain distances, by two and two, from whence they are called the two pillars, to distinguish them from that of the centre. The use of the pil lar in the centre is for regulating the extent of ground, that the manege upon the volts may be performed with method and justness, and that they may work in a square, by rule and measure, upon the four lines of the volts; and also to break unruly high-mettled horses, without endangering the rider. The two pillars are placed at the distance of two or three paces one from the other; and the horse is put between those, to teach him to rise before and yerk out behind, and put himself upon raised airs, &c. either by the aids or chastisements.

Pompey's PILLAR. See ALEXANDRIA. PILLARS, in antiquarian topography, are large single stones set up perpendicularly. Those of them which are found in this country have been the work of the Druids; but as they are the most simple of all monuments, they are unquestionably more ancient than druidism itself. They were placed as memorials recording different events; such as remarkable instances of God's mercies, contracts, singular victories, boundaries, and sometimes sepulchres. Various instances of these monuments erected by the patriarchs occur in the Old Testament: such was that raised by Jacob at Luz, afterwards by him named Bethel; such also was the pillar placed by him over the grave of Rachel. They were likewise marks of execrations and magical talismans.

These stones, from having long been considered as objects of veneration, at length were by the ignorant and superstitious idolatrously worshipped; wherefore, after the introduction of Christianity, some had crosses cut on them, which was considered as snatching them from the service of the devil. Vulgar superstition of a later date has led the common people to consider them as persons transformed into stone for the punishment of some crime, generally that of sabbath-breaking; but this tale is not confined to single stones, but is told also of whole circles: witness the monuments called the hurlers in Cornwall, and Rollorick stones in Warwickshire. The first are by the vulgar supposed to have been once men, and thus transformed as a punishment for playing on the Lord's day at a game called hurling; the latter, a pagan king and his army.

At Wilton, where the earl of Pembroke has a very magnificent house, there is a pillar of one piece of white Egyptian granite, which was brought from the temple of Venus Genetrix at Rome, near 14 feet high and 22 inches diameter, with an inscription to Astarte or Ve

PILOT, the officer who superintends the navigation, either upon the sea-coast or on the main ocean. It i, however, more particularly applied by our mariners to the person charged with the direction of a ship's course on or near the sea-coast, and into the roads, bays, rivers, havens, &c. within his respective district.

Pilots of ships, taking upon them to conduct any ship from Dover, &c. to any place up the river Thames, are to be first examined and approved by the master and wardens of the society of Trinity House, &c. or shall forfeit 10l. for the first offence, 201. for the second, and 401. for every other offence; one moiety to the informer, the other to the master and wardens; but any master or mate of a ship may pilot his own vessel up the river and if any ship be lost through the negligence of any pilot, he shall be for ever after disabled to act as a pilot. 3 Geo. I. c. 13. Also the lord-warden of the cinque ports may make rules for the government of pilots, and order a sufficient number to ply at sea to conduct ships up to the Thames: 7 Geo. I. c. 21. No person shall act as a pilot on the Thames, &c. (except in collier ships) without a licence from the master and wardens of Trinity House at Deptford, on pain of forfeiting 20l. And pilots are to be subject to the government of that corporation; and pay ancient dues, not exceeding 1s. in the pound, out of wages, for the use of the poor thereof. Stat. 5 Geo. II. c. 20.

By the former laws of France, no person could be received as pilot till he had made several voyages and passed a strict examination; and after that, on his return in long voyages, he was obliged to lodge a copy of his journal in the admiralty; and if a pilot occasioned the loss of a ship, he had to pay 100 livres fine, and to be for ever deprived of the exercise of pilotage; and if he did it designedly, be punished with death. Lex Mercat. 70, 71.

The laws of Oleron ordain, That if any pilot designedly misguide a ship, that it may be cast away, he shall be put to a rigorous death, and hung in chains and if the lord of a place, where a ship be thus lost, abet such villains in order to have a share of the wreck, he shall be apprehended, and all his goods forfeited for the satisfaction of the persons suffering; and his person shall be fastened to a stake in the midst of his own mansion, which, being fired on the four corners, shall be burned to the ground, and he with it. Leg. Ol. c. 25. And if the fault of a pilot be so notorious that the ship's crew see an apparent wreck, they may lead him to the hatches, and strike off his head; but the common law denies this hasty execution: an ignorant pilot is sentenced to pass thrice under the ship's keel by the laws of Denmark. Lex Mercat. 70.

The regulations with regard to pilots in the royal navy are as follow: "The commanders of the king's ships, in order to give all reasonable encouragement to so useful a body of men as pilots, and to remove all their ob4 A 2 jections

Pilot. jéctions to his majesty's service, are strictly charged to treat them with good usage, and an equal respect with warrant officers.

"The purser of the ship is always to have a set of bedding provided on board for the pilots; and the captain is to order the boatswain to supply them with hammocks, and a convenient place to lie in, near their duty, and apart from the common men; which bedding and hammocks are to be returned when the pilots leave the ship.

"A pilot, when conducting one of his majesty's ships in pilot-water, shall have the sole charge and command of the ship, and may give orders for steering, setting, trimming, or furling the sails; tacking the ship; or whatever concerns the navigation; and the captain is to take care that all the officers and crew obey his orders. But the captain is diligently to observe the conduct of the pilot; and if he judges him to behave so ill as to bring the ship into danger, he may remove him from the command and charge of the ship, and take such methods for her preservation as shall be judged necessary; remarking upon the log book, the exact hour and time when the pilot was removed from his office, and the reasons assigned for it.

"Captains of the king's ships, employing pilots in foreign parts of his majesty's dominions, shall, after performance of the service, give a certificate thereof to the pilot, which being produced to the proper naval officer, he shall cause the same to be immediately paid; but if there be no naval officer there, the captain of his majesty's ship shall pay him, and send the proper vouchers, with his bill, to the navy-board, in order to be paid as bills of exchange.

"Captains of his majesty's ships, employing foreign pilots to carry the ships they command into or out of foreign ports, shall pay them the rates due by the establishment or custom of the country, before they discharge them whose receipts being duly vouched, and sent, with a certificate of the service performed, to the navy-board, they shall cause them to be paid with the same exactness as they do bills of exchange." Regulations and Instructions of the Sea-service, &c.

PILOT Fish. See GASTEROSTEUS, ICHTHYOLOGY Index.

Osbec tells us, that they are shaped like those mackerels which have a transverse line upon the body. "Sailors (continues he) give them the name of pilots, because they closely follow the dog fish, swimming in great shoals round it on all sides. It is thought that they point out some prey to the dog-fish. They are not only not touched, but also preserved by it against all their enemies.

It likewise follows the shark, apparently for the purpose of devouring the remains of its prey. It is pretended that it acts as its pilot. The manner in which it attends the shark, according to M. Daubenton, may have given rise to this name. It is said to swim at the height of a foot and a half from the snout of this voracious animal, to follow and imitate all its movements, and to seize with address every part of its prey which the shark allows tó escape, and which is light enough to buoy up towards the surface of the water. When the shark, which has its mouth below, turns to seize any fish, the pilot fish starts away; but as soon as the shark resumes his ordinary position, it returns to its former

place. It is said, that in the gulf of Guinea those fishes Pilot follow ships for the sake of the offals and human excrements ; and hence the Dutch give them the name of Pimento, dung fish. It is remarkable, that though so small they can keep pace with ships in their swiftest course.

PILTEN, a division of Courland, which lies in Courland properly so called, derives its name from the ancient castle or palace of Pilten, built by Valdemar II. King of Denmark about the year 1220, when he founded a bishop's see in this country for the more effectual conversion of its Pagan inhabitants. This district afterwards successively belonged to the Germans, then again to the king of Denmark, the duke of Courland, and to Poland; and by virtue of the instrument of regency drawn up for this district in the year 1717, the government is lodged in seven Polish senators or counsellors, from whom an appeal lies to the king. The bishop of Samogitia also styles himself bishop of Pilten.

The most remarkable part of this district is the promontory of Domesness, which projects northward into the gulf of Livonia. From this cape, a sand-bank runs four German miles farther into the sea, half of which lies under water, and cannot be discerned. To the east of this promontory is an unfathomable abyss, which is never observed to be agitated. For the safety of vessels bound to Livonia, two square beacons have been erected on the coast, near Domesness church, opposite to the sand bank, and facing each other. One of these is twelve fathoms high, and the other eight; and a large fire is kept burning on them from the first of August to the first of January. When the mariners see these fires appear as one in a direct line, they may conclude that they are clear of the extremity of the sand bank, and consequently out of danger; but if they see both beacons, they are in danger of running upon it. The district of Pilten contains seven parishes, but no towns worthy of notice. The inhabitants are chiefly of the Lutheran persuasion.

PILUM, a missive weapon used by the Roman soldiers, and in a charge darted upon the enemy. Its point, we are told by Polybius, was so long and small, that after the first discharge it was generally so bent as to be rendered useless. The legionary soldiers made use of the pilum, and each man carried two. The pilum underwent many alterations and improvements, insomuch that it is impossible with any precision to describe it. Julius Scaliger laboured much to give an accurate account of it, and would have esteemed success on this head amongst the greatest blessings of his life. This weapon appears, however, to have been sometimes round, but most commonly square, to have been two cubits long in the staff, and to have had an iron point of the same length hooked and jagged at the end. Marius made a material improvement in it; for during the Cimbrian war, he so contrived it, that when it stuck in the enemies shieid it should bend down in an angle in the part where the wood was connected with the iron, and thus become useless to the person who received it.

PIMENTO, PIEMENTO, JAMAICA PEPPER, or Allspice, a species of myrtus. See MYRTUS, BOTANY Index.

"The pimento trees grow spontaneously, and in great abundance, in many parts of Jamaica, but more particularly on hilly situations near the sea, on the northern side of that island; where they form the

most

an excellent remedy for thick viscid phlegm in the Pimple, breast.

Timento most delicious groves that can possibly be imagined; filling the air with fragrance, and giving reality, though Pimple. in a very distant part of the globe, to our great poet's description of those balmy gales which convey to the delighted voyager

'Sabean odours from the spicy shore ' Of Araby the blest.

'Cheer'd with the grateful smell, old ocean smiles.'

"This tree is purely a child of nature, and seems to mock all the labours of man in his endeavours to extend or improve its growth: not one attempt in fifty to propagate the young plants, or to raise them from the seeds, in parts of the country where it is not found growing spontaneously, having succeeded. The usual method of forming a new pimente plantation (in Jamaica it is called a walk) is nothing more than to appropriate a piece of woodland, in the neighbourhood of a plantation already existing, or in a country where the scattered trees are found in a native state, the woods of which being fallen, the trees are suffered to remain on the ground till they become rotten and perish. In the course of twelve months after the first season, abundance of young pimento plants will be found growing vigorously in all parts of the land, being without doubt produced from ripe berries scattered there by the birds, while the fallen trees, &c. afford them both shelter and shade. At the end of two years it will be proper to give the land a thorough cleansing, leaving such only of the pimento trees as have a good appearance, which will then soon form such groves as those I have described, and except perhaps for the first four or five years, require very little attention afterwards.

"Soon after the trees are in blossom, the berries become fit for gathering; the fruit not being suffered to ripen on the tree, as the pulp in that state, being moist and glutinous, is difficult to cure, and when dry becomes black and tasteless. It is impossible, however, to prevent some of the ripe berries from mixing with the rest; but if the proportion of them be great, the price of the commodity is considerably injured.

"It is gathered by the hand; one labourer on the tree, employed in gathering the small branches, will give employment to three below (who are generally women and children) in picking the berries; and an industrious picker will fill a bag of 70lbs. in the day.

"The returns from a pimento walk in a favourable season are prodigious. A single tree has been known to yield 150lbs. of the raw fruit, or one cwt. of the dried spice; there being commonly a loss in weight of one third in curing; but this, like many other of the minor productions, is exceedingly uncertain, and perhaps a very plenteous crop occurs but once in five years.'

PIMPINELLA, BURNET SAXIFRAGE; a genus of plants belonging to the pentandria class. See BOTANY Index.

PIMPLE, in Medicine, a small pustule arising on the face. By mixing equal quantities of the juice of house-leek (sedum minus), passed through paper, and of spirit of wine rectified by itself, a white coagulum of a very volatile nature is formed, which Dr Bughart commends for curing pimples of the face; and says, that the thin liquor separated from it with sugar-candy is

PIN, in commerce, a little necessary instrument made of brass-wire, chiefly used by women in fastening and adjusting their dress.

In the year 1543, by statute 34 and 35 of Henry VIII. cap. 6. it was enacted, "That no person shall put to sale any pinnes but only such as shall be doubleheaded, and have the heads soldered fast to the shank of the pins, well smoothed, the shank well-shapen, the points well and round filed, cauted, and sharpened." From the above extract it should appear that the art of pin-making was but of late invention, probably introduced from France; and that our manufactories since that period have wonderfully improved.

Though pins are apparently simple, their manufacture is, however, not a little curious and complex. We shall therefore give our readers an account of it from Ellis's Campagna of London.

"When the brass-wire, of which the pins are formed, is first received at the manufactory, it is generally too thick for the purpose of being cut into pins. The first operation therefore is that of winding it off from one wheel to another with great velocity, and causing it to pass between the two, through a circle in a piece of iron of smaller diameter: the wire being thus reduced to its proper dimensions, is straightened by drawing it between iron pins, fixed on a board in a zig-zag manner, but so as to leave a straight line between them: afterwards it is cut into lengths of three or four yards, and then into smaller ones, every length being sufficient to make six pins; each end of these is ground to a point, which was performed when I viewed the manufactory by boys who sat each with two small grinding stones before him, turned by a wheel. Taking up a handful, he applies the ends to the coarsest of the two stones, being careful at the same time to keep each piece moving round between his fingers, so that the points may not become flat: he then gives them a smoother and sharper point, by applying them to the other stone, and by that means a lad of 12 or 14 years of age is enabled to point about 16,000 pins in an hour. When the wire is thus pointed, a pin is taken off from each end, and this is repeated till it is cut into six pieces. The next operation is that of forming the heads, or, as they term it, head spinning; which is done by means of a spinning-wheel, one piece of wire being thus with astonishing rapidity wound round another, and the interior one being drawn out, leaves a hollow tube between the circumvolutions it is then cut with sheers; every two circumvolutions or turns of the wire forming one head; these are softened by throwing them into iron pans, and placing them in a furnace till they are red hot. As soon as they are. cold, they are distributed to children, who sit with anvils and hammers before them, which they work with their feet, by means of a lathe, and taking up one of the lengths, they thrust the blunt end into a quantity of the heads which lie before them, and catching one at the extremity, they apply them immediately to the anvil and hammer, and by a motion or two of the foot, the point and the head are fixed together in much less time than can it be described, and with a dexterity only to be acquired by practice; the spectator being in continual apprehen

sion

Pin.

whole sack at once.

Pindar, however, soon quitted Pindat. the leading strings of these ladies, his poetical nurses, and became the disciple of Simonides, now arrived at extreme old age: after which he soon surpassed all bis masters, and acquired great reputation over all Greece: but, like a true prophet, he was less honoured in his own country than elsewhere; for at Thebes he was frequently pronounced to be vanquished, in the musical and poetical contests, by candidates of inferior merit.

Pin sion for the safety of their fingers ends. The pin is now finished as to its form, but still it is merely brass; -Pindar. it is therefore thrown into a copper containing a solution of tin and the leys of wine. Here it remains for some time; and when taken out assumes a white though dull appearance: in order therefore to give it a polish, it is put into a tub containing a quantity of bran, which is set in motion by turning a shaft that fans through its centre, and thus by means of friction it becomes perfectly bright. The pin being complete, nothing remains but to separate it from the bran, which is performed by a mode exactly similar to the winnowing of corn; the bran flying off and leaving the pin behind fit for immediate sale. I was the more pleased with this manufactory, as it appeared to afford employment to a number of children of both sexes, who are thus not only prevented from acquiring the habits of idleness and vice, but are on the contrary initiated in their early years in "those of a beneficial and virtuous industry." See NEE

DLES.

PINACIA, among the Athenians, were tablets of 'brass inscribed with the names of all those citizens in each tribe who were duly qualified and willing to be judges of the court of Areopagus. These tablets were cast into a vessel provided for the purpose, and the same number of beans, a hundred being white and all the rest black, were thrown into another. Then the names of the candidates and the beans were drawn out one by one, and they whose names were drawn out together with the white beans were elected judges or senators. In Solon's time there were only four tribes, each of which chose 100 senators; but the number of tribes afterwards increasing, the number of senators and judges increased to so many hundreds more.

PINANG, the Chinese name of the Areca Catechu Lin. See ARECA, BOTANY Index.

PINCHBECK, a factitious metallic substance, or an alloy of zinc three parts, and of copper, four. See CHEMISTRY Index.

PINDAR, the prince of lyric poets, was born at Thebes, about 520 years B. C. He received his first musical instructions from his father, who was a fluteplayer by profession; after which, according to Suidas, he was placed under Myrtis, a lady of distinguished abilities in lyric poetry. It was during this period that he became acquainted with the poetess Corinna, who was likewise a student under Myrtis. Plutarch tells us, that Pindar profited from the lessons which Corinna, more advanced in her studies, gave him at this school. It is very natural to suppose, that the first poetical effusions of a genius so full of fire and imagination as that of Pindar would be wild and luxuriant; and Lucian has preserved six verses, said to have been the exordium of his first essay; in which he crowded almost all the subjects for song which ancient history and mythology then furnished. Upon communicating this attempt to Corinna, she told him smiling, that he should sow with the hand, and not empty his

The custom of having these public trials of skill in all the great cities of Greece was now so prevalent, that but little fame was to be acquired by a musician or poet any other way than by entering the lists; and we find, that both Myrtis and Corinna publicly disputed the prize with him at Thebes. He obtained a victory over Myrtis, but was vanquished five dif ferent times by Corinna. The judges, upon occasions like these, have been frequently accused of partiality or ignorance, not only by the vanquished, but by posteri ty; and if the merit of Pindar was pronounced inferior to that of Corinna five several times, it was, says Pausanias, because the judges were more sensible to the charms of beauty than to those of music and poetry (4). Was it not strange, said the Scythian Anacharsis, that the Grecian artists were never judged by artists, their peers?

Pindar, before he quitted Thebes, had the vexation to see his Dithyrambics traduced, abused, and turned into ridicule, by the comic poets of his time; and Athenæus tells us, that he was severely censured by his brother lyrics, for being a lipogrammatist, and composing an ode from which he had excommunicated the letter S. Whether these censures proceeded from envy or contempt cannot now be determined; but they were certainly useful to Pindar, and it was necessary that he should be lashed for such puerilities. Thebes seems to have been the purgatory of our young bard when he quitted that city, as his judgement was matured, he avoided most of the errors for which he had been chastised, and suddenly became the wonder and delight of all Greece. Every hero, prince, and potentate, desirous of lasting fame, courted the muse of Pindar.

He seems frequently to have been present at the four great festivals, of the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games, as may be inferred from several circumstances and expressions in the odes which he composed for the victors in them all. Those at Olympia, who were ambitious of having their achievements celebrated by Pindar, applied to him for an ode, which was first sung in the Prytaneum or town-hall of Olympia, where there was a banqueting room, set apart for the entertainment of the conquerors. Here the ode was rehearsed by a chorus, accompanied by instruments. It was afterwards performed in the same manner at the triumphal entry of the victor into his own country, in processions, or at the sacrifices that were made with great pomp and solemnity on the occasion. Pindar,

There is no great poet in antiquity whose moral character has been less censured than that of Pindar. Plutarch has preserved a single verse of his Epicedium or Dirge that was sung at his funeral; which, short and simple as it is, implies great praise: This man was pleasing to strangers, and dear to his fellow-citizens. His works abound with precepts of the purest morality: and it does not appear that he ever traduced even his enemies; comforting himself, for their malignity, by a maxim which he inserted in his first Pythic, and which afterwards became proverbial, That it is better to be envied than pitied.

Pausanias says, that the character of poet was truly consecrated in the person of Pindar, by the god of verse himself; who was pleased, by an express oracle, to order the inhabitants of Delphos to set apart for Pindar one half of the first-fruit offerings brought by the religious to his shrine, and to allow him a conspicuous place in his temple, where, in an iron chair, he used to sit and sing his hymns in honour of that god. This chair was remaining in the time of Pausanias, several centuries after, and shown to him as a relick not unworthy of the sanctity and magnificence of that place.

But though Pindar's muse was pensioned at Delphos, and well paid by princes and potentates elsewhere, she seems, however, sometimes to have sung the spontaneous strains of pure friendship. Of this kind were, probably, the verses bestowed upon the musician Midas, of Agrigentum in Sicily, who had twice obtained the palm of victory by his performance on the flute. at the Pythic games (B). It is in his 12th Pythic ode that Pindar celebrates the victory of Midas over all Greece, upon that instrument which Minerva herself had invented (c).

Fabricius tells us, that Pindar lived to the age of 90; and, according to the chronology of Dr Blair, he died 435 years B. C. aged 86. His fellow citizens erected a monument to him in the Hippodrome at Thebes, which was still subsisting in the time of Pausanias; and his renown was so great after his death, that his posterity derived very considerable honours and privileges from it. When Alexander the Great at

ants.

PINDARIC ODE, in Poetry, an ode formed in imitation of the manner of Pindar. See POETRY, N° 136, &c.

PINDUS, in Ancient Geography, not a single mountain, but a chain of mountains, inhabited by different people of Epirus and Thessaly; separating Macedonia, Thessaly, and Epirus: An extensive chain, having Macedonia to the north, the Perrhoebi to the west, the Dolopes to the south, and the mountain itself. of Thessaly (Strabo).

PINDUS, a Doric city of Etolia, situated on the cognominal river, which falls into the Cephissus (Strabo).

PINE, in Botany. See PINUS, BOTANY Index. PINE-Apple. See BROMELIA, BOTANY Index ; and for an account of the mode of cultivating the pineapple, see GARDENING.

PINEA, or PIGNE, in commerce, is a term used in Peru and Chili, for a kind of light, porous masses, or lumps, formed of a mixture of mercury and silver-dust from the mines. The ore, or mineral, of silver, when dug out of the veins of the mine, is first broken and then ground in mills for the purpose, driven by water with iron pestles, each of 200 pounds weight. The mineral, when thus pulverized, is next sifted, and then worked up with water into a paste; which, when half dry, is cut into pieces, called cuerpos, a foot long, weighing each about 2500 pounds.

Each piece or cuerpo is again kneaded up with seasalt, which, dissolving, incorporates with it. They then add mercury, from 10 to 20 pounds for each euerpo, kneading the paste afresh until the mercury be incorporated therewith. This office, which is exceedingly dangerous on account of the noxious qualities of the mercury, is always made the lot of the poor Indians. This amalgamation is continued for eight or nine days; and some add lime, lead, or tin ore, &c. to forward it; and, in some mines, they are obliged to use fire. To try whether or no the mixture and amalgamation be sufficient, they wash a piece in water; and if the mercury be white, it is a proof that it has had its effect if black, it must be still farther worked.