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PALATINE PALESTIN E. 



except the archbishop of Gran. There was none 

 from 1765 to the death of Joseph II. (1790). Leopold 

 II. yielded to the complaints of the Hungarians, and 

 appointed a new one. The archduke Joseph Anthony, 

 brother to the emperor Francis, born 1776, is the 

 present palatine. 



PALATINE, COUNT (comes palatinus), was the 

 judge and highest officer of the Frauconian and 

 German kings. Every regal castle (palatium ; in 

 German, Pfalz), of which there were some in every 

 part of the realm, had such an officer. The count of 

 the palace of Aix-la-Chapelle (archisolium totius 

 regni) was the first among them, and one of the first 

 crown officers of the empire. The county palatine 

 on the Rhine originated from the dotation to" him. 

 Each of the ancient duchies had also its county pala- 

 tine. At a later period, the German emperors ap- 

 pointed comites S. palatii Lateranensis, to exercise 

 certain imperial privileges, also, in the territories of 

 the members of the empire. There were two classes 

 of them, one with more power (comitiva major) than 

 the other, authorized to raise to nobility, and confer 

 the comitiva minor ; the other had the power to make 

 doctors and notaries, to legitimate natural children, 

 confer coats of arms, &c. At present, the whole 

 dignity of the palatine court is a mere antiquated 

 form. Palatium was used, in many countries, for the 

 regal palace and the privileges connected with it ; 

 hence, in England, the counties palatine. See 

 Palatine. 



PALATINE HILL, PALATIUM. See Rome. 



PALE, THE ENGLISH. See Ireland. 



PALEMBANG. See Sumatra. 



PALENQUE ; a village of Central America, in 

 the state of Guatemala, about 215 miles N.W. of the 

 city of Guatemala. It is remarkable for the ruins 

 of a great city which it contains, and which, lying 

 in the centre of an immense wilderness, were not 

 known to the Europeans till 1750, when they were 

 discovered by some Spaniards. In 1787, captain 

 Del Rio was employed, by the king of Spain, to 

 examine them. The ruins extend along an elevated 

 ridge, for the distance of about twenty miles, and 

 consist of bridges, aqueducts, palaces, temples, &c., 

 all of stone ; from which circumstance the Spaniards 

 call them casas de piedras. The London Literary 

 Gazette of October 15, 1831, contains a letter from 

 Galindo, commander of the neighbouring district of 

 Peten, giving an account of his investigations on the 

 spot. The ruins, according to him, contain numerous 

 figures of men and animals, in relief, some of colossal 

 size, together with paintings, and what he conceives 

 to be characters representing sounds, or a phonetic 

 alphabet, of which no traces have been elsewhere 

 found in America. There is no tradition, among 

 the natives in the vicinity, as to the time of their 

 origin or their builders. See Writing. 



PALERMO, the capital of the kingdom of Sicily, 

 and of an intendancy of the same name, is situated 

 on a small gulf on the northern coast of Sicily ; lat. 

 38 6' N. ; Ion. 13 21' E. It is a well built and 

 strongly fortified city ; the harbour, into which 500 

 foreign ships enter yearly, is protected by two strong 

 castles. The number of inhabitants was formerly 

 200,000, but the population has declined, and is now 

 only 163,300. Among the principal buildings of the 

 city are the palaces of the viceroy and of the arch- 

 bishop, the great hospital, the convent of St Clara, 

 the professed house of the Jesuits, the archi-episcopal 

 cathedral, the council-house, and several splendid 

 churches and gates of marble and alabaster. The 

 two principal streets cross each other in the centre of 

 the city, and form a regular octagon (the piazza vil- 

 lena,) which is embellished by handsome buildings. 

 The streets are well paved and lighted. The univer- 



sity (Accademia Reale) has a respectable library, an 

 observatory, and a cabinet of coins. There is also an 

 academy of sciences in Palermo. The exports are 

 almost ail the productions of the island, wine, oil, 

 fruits, wheat, manna, &c. ; the imports are colonial 

 goods and manufactures. The silk of Palermo is 

 cultivated in the neighbourhood, and chiefly exported 

 raw. Palermo has frequently suffered from earth- 

 quakes, principally in 1726 and 1823. See Sicily; 

 and Naples and Sicily, Revolution of. 



PALES ; one of the rural deities of Italy, the 

 giver of good pasturage, and the protectress of the 

 flocks from contagion and wild beasts. She was re- 

 presented as a pastoral goddess, with a staff, and a 

 crown on her head, and was worshipped, sometimes 

 under the trees, sometimes in temples. Her festival 

 was celebrated on the same day as the anniversary of 

 the founding of Rome (April 21.) The offerings to 

 her were milk and cakes. Some authors represent 

 Pales as a male deity, the son of Jupiter. 



PALESTINE (Falesthin,} called the land of pro- 

 mise, on account of the promise given to the poster- 

 ity of Abraham, embraces the coast of Syria on the 

 Mediterranean, from Lebanon south to the limits of 

 Egypt, and was one of the most fertile countries of 

 the old world. Wine, salt, wild honey, balsam, 

 olives, dates, figs, and pomegranates, with large 

 flocks and herds, were its productions. The alterna- 

 tion of mountain and valley, the temperate climate, 

 the numerous streams, the rains of spring and au- 

 tumn, caused its fertility. Its present barrenness 

 arises from the inactivity of its inhabitants, who ob- 

 tain their living either from the pilgrims, or as rob- 

 bers. It was called, after the ancestor of its inhabi- 

 tants, Canaan, when Abraham travelled into its 

 southern provinces, and, by buying a burial-place for 

 his femily, laid the foundation for the subsequent 

 conquest of the country by the Hebrews, under 

 Joshua, 1450 B. C. They divided it into twelve 

 confederate states, according to their tribes. Saul 

 united it into one kingdom, and David extended it, 

 by his conquests, to the east and south. Phoenicia, 

 the northern part of the western coast, where the 

 conquered Canaanites maintained themselves, re- 

 mained entirely independent of the Hebrews. The 

 two kingdoms, Israel (to the north) and Judah (to the 

 south,) into which Palestine was divided, 975 B. C., 

 comprehended together the country between 34 and 

 39 of longitude, and 31 and 34 of latitude. By 

 the fall of these kingdoms (754 and 730 B. C.), Pa- 

 lestine became a Persian satrapy, and the political 

 and religious division between the Hebrew colonies, 

 when returning from captivity to Palestine, under 

 Cyrus and Darius I., was the origin of that separa- 

 tion which continued to the time of Christ. The 

 country on this side the Jordan (the principal river, 

 which flows south from Lebanon, through the lake of 

 Genesareth, to the Dead sea) was called Judaea, in a 

 wider sense, and contained these provinces : Judasa, 

 or the largest southern province, including Jerusa- 

 lem, Bethlehem and Jericho on mount Judah, the 

 ports of Cesarea and Joppa (now Jaffa,) on the coast 

 of the Mediterranean, and a part of Idunuea; Sama- 

 ria, or the smallest interior province, with the city 

 of Samaria (afterwards Sebaste,) and Sichem now 

 (from the Greek name Neapolis.) Nablus, and mount 

 Ephraim, or Israel, upon which lies mount Gerizim ; 

 and Galilee, the most northern and fertile province, 

 bounded on the south by mount Carmel and mount 

 Tabor (which joins the other mountain,) on the con- 

 fines of Samaria, on the west by Phoenicia, and on the 

 north by Lebanon, and containing the towns of Tibe- 

 rias (which, after the destruction of Jerusalem, was 

 celebrated as the seat of Jewish learning.) Caperna- 

 um and Bethsaida on the lake of Genesareth, Nain, 



