PAR 

 These materials endured in literary 



in tin- |i\ I. Hill. I a .-. if not 

 in- illi i-riitiii v ( .ur 

 era, surviving ca.Mi.ilU i > ' 



IliM-nt. .1 I.. i Ki.'\ ptiaii utmi.', 



they were a<l"|>t<-<l f. n- Aramaic (as 

 nt Elephantine), Cn. L. Latin, and 



Ai.it. h', ei.|i>titutlliL! ail inn 

 export tr.i.le at Alexam:. 



in times. The uloVst 

 example, now at -,taitn 



KM. .nls of the Vth <l\ nasty Linn 

 A&sa, during whoso reign his tutor, 

 1'tnhhotep, compiled the famims 

 maxims preserved in H Xllth 

 dynasty ropy, the Prisse at Paris, 

 sometimes called the oldest book 

 in the win Id. The longest roll is the 

 Harris No. 1, 13;"> ft. long, a pane- 

 ^yrii ..f I {, -i ineses III (c. 1170 B.C.), 

 in t he Brit i.sh Museum. An invalu- 

 able king list is at Turin. The 

 finest rolls are the illustrated copies 

 of the Book of the Dead. The 

 Alexandrian library, destroyed by 

 fire. 47 B.C., contained 700,000 

 works. The masses of papyri found 

 in Egypt have yielded valuable 

 literary remains. SeeAni ; Codex; 

 Egypt Exploration Society ; Oxy- 

 rhynchus ; Paper ; consult also 

 The Palaeography of Greek Papyri, 

 F. G. Kenyon, 1899. 



Par (Lat., equal). Financial 

 term for the price of a stock or 

 share when such sells for exactly its 

 face value. Thus if Consols rose to 

 100 it would be said that the 

 price was at par. Above or below 

 par means that the selling price is 

 higher or lower than the face 

 value. 



Para. Coin in general use in 

 Turkey, Montenegro, Serbia, 

 Cyprus, and Egypt. Usually of cop- 

 per, but also an alloy of various 

 metals, it is the fortieth part of a 

 piastre. Forty, 20, 10, 5, and 1 

 para pieces are coined in Turkey. 

 In Serbia the para is the one hun- 

 dredth part of the dinar, and is 

 eq ui va- 

 lent to a 

 centime. 

 Fifty, 20. 

 10, 6, 2, 

 and 1 

 Para, Turkish copper para 

 coin, actual size coin( , afe 



issued. In N. Borneo the para is a 

 weight equivalent to 90 Ib. avoir- 

 dupois. See Piastre. 



Para. River of Brazil. Strictly 

 the S. distributary of the Amazon 

 delta, it receives the Tocantina and 

 Ins the island of Marajo between it 

 and the N. Channel. It is 200 ra. 

 long with a width from 12 to 40m., 

 and has a bore during the spring 

 tides 15 ft. in height. 



Para. State of Brazil. It is 

 situated in the N.E., adjacent to 

 the three Guianas, to the E. of 

 Amazonas, with a long coast-line 



5803 



on the Atl.llltii- ( (refill. The l<iri 



ii almost bisect* the state, 



u In. 1 1 e.mt a ins the lower counts of 



ii'.'ii, and Tocan- 



tins tributarily, inul include* the 

 ixlniid of Marajo in the Amazon 

 delta. The only rly. is from I '.in 

 to Braganca. Most of the state 

 is covered with dense forest. 

 Rubber, cacao, timber, and Brazil 

 nuts are obtained, and it gives its 

 name to a form of rubber. Para is 

 the capital It* area is 443,903 

 t(|. m. Pop. 688,000. See Rubber. 

 Para OR BELEM DO PARA. Sea- 

 port of Brazil, capital of the state 

 of Para. It is situated on the Bay 

 of Guajara, a por- u 

 tii ui of the arm of 

 the Amazon delta 

 known as the Rio 

 Para. Formerly 

 vessels lay in the 

 deep-water anchor- 

 age and loaded 

 from lighters, but 

 a deep channel has 

 been made, and 

 vessels now lie up 

 to the quay. The 

 finest buildings are Par<i > Bra/.:!. 

 the governor's palace, the Parlia 

 ment House, the cathedral, Goeldi 

 museum, and La Paz theatre. All 

 merchant ships trading on the 



PARACELSUS 



clawed under three headings 

 enigmatical assertions, ornate dis- 

 courses, and illustrative stories. 

 The last m aching was 



IN muii among the Jews, and 

 several of Christ's parables occur 

 also in th> >f the great 



Rabbi- ; ' hrmtianity. 



Parabola. In geometry, one of 

 the sections of a cone. It is the 

 M-. -tioii produced by a cut parallel 

 t 1 1., -la MI mg edge of the cone. In 

 analytical geometry it is defined as 

 the focus of a point the distance of 

 whiHi from a fixed point, called 

 the focus, U always equal to its dis- 

 tance from a fixed straight line, the 



Paraboloid. Diagram illustrating 



a paraboloid surface. P Q is a 



parabola along which the vertex 



of parabola A B moves 



Amazon must enter or clear at the 

 port, which exports cacao, Brazil 

 nuts, hides, and half the Brazilian 

 yield of rubber (q.v.). Pop. 200,000. 

 Parable (Gr. paraboll, juxta- 

 position, comparison). Illustration 

 of a statement in a discourse. The 

 term is now mainly confined to 

 those teachings of Christ which 

 convey a spiritual lesson in the 

 form of an anecdote or short story. 

 Popularly described as an et.rt.hly 

 story with a heavenly meaning, a 

 parable differs from a fable or an 

 allegory in being either a true record 

 of fact, or at least true to experi- 

 ence, while a fable always, and an 

 allegory usually, is purely fictitious 

 and often impossible. In the Bible 

 the word parable is used somewhat 

 vaguely, but its meanings may be 



The Praca, looking towards the Amazon 

 directrix. The curve is an impor- 

 tant one in dynamics as the path 

 of a body projected at an angle to 

 the horizon, and in optics, since a 

 light placed at the focus of a para- 

 bolic mirror has its rays reflected 

 in parallel lines, a fact made use of 

 in the construction of lighthouse 

 lanterns. See Conic Sections. 



Paraboloid. In solid geometry, 

 a solid whose surface is generated 

 by a parabola which moves with 

 its vertex always on another para- 

 bola. The axes of the two para- 

 bolas are parallel and their planes 

 at right angles. A paraboloid of 

 revolution is generated by the revo- 

 lution of a parabola about its axis, 



Paracelsus OR THEOPHBASTUS 

 BOMBAST VON HOHENHEIM (c. 1492- 

 1541). Swiss physician and phil- 

 osopher. Born 

 at Einsiedeln, 

 the son of a 

 physician, h i s 

 education Was 

 irregular, but 

 being preco- 

 cious, he picked 

 up from various 

 teachers a 

 knowledge o f 

 medicine, 

 chemistry, etc. 



Paracelsus, 

 Swiss physician 



He travelled much, 

 studied nature, and despised book- 

 men. Although he had no de- 

 gree, he practised, and was even 

 appointed professor of physic and 

 surgery at Basel, lecturing in 

 German. Of undoubted ability, 

 though of erratic life, Paracelsus, by 

 his successful if empirical appli- 

 cation of mineral medicines. gve 



