PALAIS ROYAL PALATINE. 



395 



colours. The elegant shops of the milliners afford 

 all that fancy can create with riband and gauze, with 

 flowers and feathers. One lofty arch glitters with 

 brilliant silk stuffs ; another with the finest cloths, 

 the richest Eastern shawls, or the most delicate em- 

 broidery. Shops with watches of every kind alter- 

 nate with others filled with beautiful porcelain : here 

 are ornaments of Wedgewood ware and of diamonds; 

 there are gold watch-chains, sword-hilts of polished 

 steel or of silver ; here are exhaled the most delicious 

 perfumes ; there, beautiful miniature pictures or 

 splendid engravings attract the eye ; bonbons and 

 mathematical instruments, playthings and arms, are. 

 exhibited in beautiful variety ; in one place we meet 

 with a shop which contains all articles, of dress, made 

 in the most exquisite taste ; in another, with luxuri- 

 ous furniture. Lottery-ticket sellers and money- 

 changers, seal-engravers and pastry-cooks, restora- 

 teurs and fruit venders, are all crowded together. 

 The choicest delicacies, from the sea and from the 

 provinces, are collected in the celebrated boutique au 

 gourmand, while the best ice is to be found in the 

 cafe de foi, where assembles the most select com- 

 pany. In the caf6 des aveugles is heard the gayest 

 music, executed by blind persons, while loud cries 

 and reckless gayety resound from the cafe du caveau 

 and the cafe du sauvage. The cafe du ventriloque 

 attracts many guests to witness the performances of 

 its proprietor ; and the cafe des mille colonnes, to 

 view its thousand brilliant mirrors. All the articles for 

 sale in the palais royal are dearer by one half, than in 

 the rest of Paris. Every thing here appears to be in- 

 tended for the gratification of the senses : nothing 

 spiritual, pure, or natural finds a congenial atmo- 

 sphere, and the uncorrupted stranger soon wishes 

 himself away from this intoxicating labyrinth. But 

 the upper halls are still more seducing and danger- 

 ous than the galleries. Here, in the first story, be- 

 tween the rich shops and the brilliant halls of the 

 restorateurs, are the infamous gambling-rooms, 

 where, at the green tables, roulette and rouge et noit 

 stand ready for their victims. In the attics live the 

 shopkeepers, whose places of business are below ; 

 and also a few public girls, under the charge of older 

 women, though neither in such numbers nor so well 

 educated as they are represented in the accounts of 

 most travellers. At every hour of the day, men are 

 to be found walking in the palais royal. Early in the 

 morning, the industrious tradesman passes through it 

 to breathe the fresh air before he goes to his labour. 

 The inhabitants are yet plunged in sleep. At eight 

 o'clock the shops are opened, and at nine the coffee- 

 houses begin to fill ; the newspaper-readers assemble, 

 and the groups collect. From twelve to two, it is 

 the rendezvous of the gay world. The benches are 

 insufficient; hundreds of straw-bottomed chairs, which 

 are piled up under the trees, are brought forward, and 

 let for two sous each. From two to five, the crowd 

 diminishes, but the nursery maids, and mothers, with 

 their little children, employ this interval ; soon, all 

 those who frequent the theatre pass by in crowds. 

 About eight o'clock, the public women appear in the 

 garden : at a later hour, they are found, for a short 

 time, in still greater numbers, in the galleries, which 

 the police allows them for their walks. The bril- 

 liant illumination now begins, and the hours, until 

 eleven, are noisy and variously employed. After 

 eleven, the noise gradually ceases, and at twelve the 

 gardens are empty, and every thing is still. The 

 walks are watered three times a day, so that the dust 

 is not troublesome. A pleasant coolness is preserved 

 by a large fountain, in the middle of the garden, 

 with a jet d'eau in twenty-four streams. From the 

 gardens one can also pass, through a second gallery, 

 into the court, when; the most beautiful flowers and 



foreign plants are to be had. Another entrance 

 leads, by an open staircase, into the splendid rut 

 Vivienne. The palais royal is the richest and most 

 faithful picture of the frivolity and luxury, of the 

 sensuality and corruption, of modern times. 



PALAMEDES ; one of the Grecian heroes at 

 the siege of Troy, said to have been the son of 

 Nauplius, king of Euboea, and of Clymene. After 

 having, with the other Grecian ambassadors, in vain 

 demanded of Priam the restitution of Helen, and 

 having discovered the feigned madness of Ulysses, 

 by which this prince had hoped to escape partici- 

 pation in the Trojan war, he joined the army of the 

 Greeks. In the councils of the heroes, he opposed 

 the measures of Agamemnon, and, for a while, took 

 his place as commander-in-chief. Homer, however, 

 says nothing of this conduct of Palamedes. The 

 accounts relating to him, and especially to his death, 

 are very contradictory. The most common are, that 

 Ulysses buried a treasure in his tent, and, by a forged 

 letter, brought him under suspicion of a correspon- 

 dence with Priam, whereupon he was stoned to death 

 as a traitor. To him is attributed the invention of 

 dice and of dramatic entertainments, or, at least, the 

 introduction of the latter, and also the invention of 

 arithmetic, and of weights and measures. He is 

 commonly said to have added four letters (t, , <p, %) 

 to the old Greek alphabet of sixteen letters, introduc- 

 ed by Cadmus. A knowledge of astronomy and of 

 medicine is also ascribed to him. He is likewise 

 said to have written poems. According to general 

 tradition, he played a distinguished part in the early 

 history of Grecian improvement. 



PALANQUIN, or PALANKEEN ; a sort of litter, 

 or covered carriage, used in the East Indies, and 

 borne on the shoulders of four porters, called coolies, 

 eight of whom are attached to it, and who relieve 

 each other. They are usually provided with a bed 

 and cushions, and a curtain, which can be dropped 

 when the occupant is disposed to sleep. The motion " 

 is easy, and the travelling, in this way, is safe and 

 rapid. 



PALATINATE, UPPER and LOWER, were 

 two countries of Germany. (For the derivation of 

 the name, see Palatine.) The Upper Palatinate 

 \yas a territory of 2756 square miles, bordering on 

 Bohemia and Bavaria. Amberg was the seat of 

 government. Until 1620, the Upper and Lower 

 Palatinate belonged together ; but when the elector 

 Frederic V. (son-in-law of James I. of England), after 

 the battle of Prague, was put under the ban of the 

 empire, the Upper Palatinate was given to Bavaria. 

 The Lower Palatinate, or Palatinate on the Rhine 

 (1590 square miles, with 305,000 inhabitants), was 

 situated on both sides of the Rhine. This territory 

 is, in spite of the horrible devastations which it has 

 suffered from time to time by war, one of the most 

 productive parts of Germany. In consequence of 

 the great changes in Europe, after the first French 

 revolution, the country which formerly constituted 

 the Palatinate on the Rhine, is now possessed by 

 Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau, 

 &c. 



PALATINE (from palatium, the word used in 

 the middle ages to signify the royal palace) was 

 originally applied to persons holding an employment 

 in the king's palace, and afterwards to one invested 

 with royal privileges and rights. (See County Pala- 

 tine.) In Hungary, palatine signifies the highest 

 baron of the realm, or magnate (q. y.), chosen by 

 the diet from among four magnates proposed by the 

 king (the emperor of Austria), in order to represent 

 the latter, in all important affairs. He is president 

 of the council of regency, of the highest court ot 

 appeal, and lias the highest rank of all the magnates, 



