PUNCTUATION 



PUNJAB 



493 



Britain, and is based principally upon grammatical 

 laws. The old-fashioned method of putting in a 

 comma (or even a stronger stop) wherever a reader 

 would naturally pause to take oreath when reading 

 aloud (as at this point of this sentence) has little 

 in reason to commend it. Punctuation is confessedly 

 difficult, partly owing to the vast differences in the 

 style of different writers, and partly owing to the 

 conflicts between logical meaning and grammatical 

 word-arrangement which in some cases are inevit- 

 able. Given a sensible system, practical experi- 

 ence is the best teacher. In theory little more can 

 be done than to lay down a few general maxims for 

 guidance. 



In the first place, follow a logical method of 

 sentence subdivision : let the first and foremost 

 aim be to bring out the meaning clearly and unam- 

 biguously, in so far as this can be done with the 

 help of stops. Use commas and semicolons spar- 

 ingly, especially commas ; use them, indeed, only 

 where they are absolutely necessary. The sentence 

 should stand on its own feet, not rest upon a lone 

 array of comma crutches. It is not as a general 

 rule necessary to set commas to fence or adorn 

 every adverbial clause. Especial care is required 

 in punctuating sentences that contain relative 

 clauses. If the relative sentence is entirely sub- 

 ordinate to the main sentence, or if it gives addi- 

 tional information, separate it by a comma or com- 

 mas ; if on the other hand it belongs essentially to 

 tin; structure of the thought expressed by the main 

 sentence, put no comma. For example, in ' the 

 man who had an impediment in his speech,' written 

 without the comma, the relative clause points out 

 this particular man and distinguishes him from 

 (some other or others who have been also spoken of : 

 it fulfils in fact the function of an article or demon- 

 strative pronoun. In the same sentence printed 

 with the comma, 'the man, who had' Vo. , the rela- 

 tive clause gives an entirely new piece of informa- 

 tion, and is no longer demonstrative. The colon 

 is generally put before a long quotation. It would 

 Ire well to confine the use of it to this and to one 

 other case namely, to part a general statement 

 from the immediately following particular applica- 

 tion of it or exemplification of it in detail. As for 

 dashes, it is difficult to summarise the rules for 

 their use. They are commonly employed to indi- 

 cate a sudden break or change in the grammatical 

 structure or the logical development of the sent- 

 ence, as well as to put ironical emphasis upon a 

 word or words thrown to the end of the sentence, 

 as in Heine's phrase, 'Gottingen is noted for its 

 professors and its sausages ;' but even this would 

 be better without such a clumsy advertisement of 

 the humour. A dash may precede an enumeration 

 of mere names or dates or objects expressed in very 

 brief terms. One dash may also be put before and 

 one after a short clause that merely explains in 

 other words or makes clearer a statement that has 

 just been made ; l>ot li dashes, and not one dash and 

 some other stop, should be used, except where the 

 second would fall at the end of a sentence, lint 

 for this purpose, especially where the parenthetical 

 nature of the added explanatory clause is more 

 prominent, brackets are frequently employed. 

 Semicolons are most appropriately used in com- 

 pound sentences or sentences that embrace anti- 

 thetical statements. In the former class of sentence 

 they should mark off the subordinate sentences 

 from the main sentence or co-ordinate sentences 

 from one another ; in the latter class they should 

 separate the antithetical sentences, whicligenerally 

 liegin with ' but ' or some equivalent. The mark 

 of exclamation has another besides its legitimate 

 use : it is frequently put after absurd or highly 

 improbable statements. The mark of interroga- 

 tion too has a secondary use : placed in brockets 



immediately after a word it throws doubt upon its 

 correctness, either as according with fact or as 

 being philologically or grammatically correct. 



Of coarse these are only general rules. Many 

 exceptions even to them must necessarily occur. 

 The golden rules in all cases of doubt are two : ( 1 ) 

 let logic or, better, common sense be the supreme 

 guide; (2) punctuate so as to bring out the sense 

 best. It is greatly to be desired that British 

 printing-houses would come to some agreement as 

 to a uniform and systematic method of punctuation. 

 See H. Beadnell's Spelling and Punctuation (4th 

 ed. 1891 ). 



Pundit (Hindi, pandit; Skr. pandita, 'a 

 learned man'), in India a teacher, especially a 

 Brahman learned in Sanskrit and in Hindu litera- 

 ture, law, and religion. Of late native pundits 

 have done good service as geographical explorers 

 in districts, such as Tibet, not accessible to 

 Europeans. 



Pllllgwe, a river of Portuguese East Africa, 

 forming the principal waterway to Manicaland and 

 Mashonaland ; its mouth is situated some 25 miles 

 NE. of Sofala and 130 SW. of the Zambesi delta. 

 After some diplomatic difficulties between Britain 

 and Portugal, it was agreed (1891) by Portugal 

 that British commerce should have unimpeded 

 access by this route to the British sphere in the 

 interior, the Pungwe being made freely navigable 

 for British vessels. In 1894 nearly 200 miles of the 

 railway to the interior had been laid. See BEIRA. 



Punic Wars. See CARTHAGE. 



Punishment will be found described in the 

 articles in this work on Criminal Law, Imprison- 

 ment, Prisons (p. 420), Flogging, Execution, Pillory, 

 &c. See also the description of Tortures, Boot, 

 Guillotine, Thumb-screw, Branks, Jougs, Ducking- 

 stool, Stocks, &c. ; the articles on the several 

 crimes ; and W. Andrews, Old-time Punishments 

 ( 1891 ). The question of future punishment is 

 treated in the article HELL. 



Punjab, or PANJAB (pdnf-ab, 'five rivers;' 

 the Pentanotamia of the Greeks ), a separate pro- 

 vince of India, occupying the north-west corner, 

 is watered by the Indus and its five great atHuents 

 the Jhelum, Chenab, Kavi, Beas, and Sutlej. 

 It is bounded on the \V. by Afghanistan, on the 

 N. by Cashmere, on the E. by the Jumna and the 

 North-western Provinces, and on the S. by Raj- 

 putana and Sind. The area under direct British 

 administration is 106,632 sq. m. ; that of the 

 native states, thirty-four in number, under British 

 control is 35,817 sq. m. Pop. (1881) 18,850,437 

 in British province and 3,861,683 in the depend- 

 ent states; (1891) 20,803,000 in British territory 

 and 4,256,670 in the feudatory states. The capital 

 is Lahore, but both Delhi (formerly in North- 

 western Provinces) and Amritsar (the religious 

 capital of the Sikhs) are larger. The whole of the 

 northern parts are traversed by spurs from the 

 Himalayas, which enclose deep valleys. On the 

 west the Sulaiman Mountains run parallel to the 

 Indus. In the south the surface is not broken by 

 any important eminence, except the Salt Range, 

 varying from 2000 to 5000 feet high, between the 

 Indus and the Jhelum. The country, divided into 

 six doabs, or interfluvial tracts, and frequently 

 spoken of as the plains of the Indus, has a general 

 slope towards the south-west. The climate in the 

 plains is most oppressively hot and dry in summer, 

 reaching in May 87'4 to 116-6 F. in the shade at 

 several stations ; but is cool, and sometimes frosty, 

 in winter. Little rain falls except in the districts 

 along the base of the Himalayas. The soil varies 

 from stiff clay and loam to sand ; but, in general, 

 is sandy and barren, intermixed with fertile spots. 

 Ilivers and 1 canals afford ample means of irrigation. 



