PILLORY PINDAREES. 



501 



fa Paix, vol. iv.) The French considered the 1'ill- 

 niU convention as the basis of tlie coiilitiou of Europe 

 against France, which greatly irritated them. 



PILLORY ; a frame of wood erected on posts, 

 with movable boards, and holes through which were 

 put the head and hands of a criminal for punishment. 

 In this situation criminals in Britain were formerly 

 often exposed to the outrages of the mob in a way 

 inconsistent with any rational notions of punishment. 

 Those who were offensive to the crowd were in no 

 small danger from the missiles by which they were 

 assailed. The culprit was allowed to make speech- 

 es, defending himself and attacking his enemies. 

 In 1816, tliis punishment was abolished in all cases 

 except that of perjury, and it lias now altogether 

 fallen into dissuetude. 



PILLOW ; a block of timber whereon the inner 

 end of the bowsprit is supported. 



PILOT MOUNTAIN. See Ararat. 



PILPAY, OR BILPAI, a fabulist, is said to have 

 lived 400 years before Christ, and to have written, 

 by the order of king Dabschlim, a well known col- 

 lection of interesting narratives and apologues, in 

 (he Indian language, under the title of Kalila and 

 Dimnah, which, in ancient and modern times, has 

 met with general approbation, and has been translat- 

 ed into most of the Eastern and Western languages. 

 But it has been shown by Beigel, in Ideler's work 

 On the Names of the Stars, p. 366, that this account 

 of the author is entirely erroneous, and that the name 

 Pilpay originated from the Sanscrit word hitopadesa 

 (useful instruction), which is the title of the work in 

 the Sanscrit edition (Serampore, 1804, 4to ; London, 

 edited by Wilkins, 1808, 4to.). Silv. de Sacy has 

 published a fine edition of the Arabic, with a French 

 translation (Paris, 1816, 2 vols). Wilkins translat- 

 ed the Sanscrit original into English (London, 1787.) 



PIMELITE ; a variety of clay coloured by oxide 

 of nickel. 



PI M ENTO. See Allspice. 



PIN ; in commerce, a little necessary instrument 

 made of brass wire, chiefly used by women in adjust- 

 ing their dress. When the wire is received at the 

 manufactory, it is wound off from one wheel to 

 another, and passed through a circle of a smaller 

 diameter in a piece of iron. Being thus reduced to 

 its proper size, it is straightened by drawing it be- 

 tween iron pins, fixed in a board in a zigzag manner. 

 It is afterwards cut into lengths of about four yards, 

 and then into smaller pieces, every length being 

 sufficient for six pins. Each end of these is ground 

 to a point by boys, each of whom sits with two small 

 grindstones before him, turned by a wheel. Taking 

 up a handful, he applies the wires to the coarsest of 

 the two stones, moving them round, that the points 

 may not become flat. He then gives them a smooth- 

 er and sharper point on the oilier stone : a lad of 

 twelve years of age can point 10,000 in an hour. 

 When the, wire is pointed, a pin is taken off from 

 each end, till it is cut into six pieces. The next 

 operation is to form the heads, or head-spinnings, as 

 they are termed : this is done by a spinning wheel. 

 One piece of wire is with rapidity wound round 

 another ; and the interior one being drawn out, 

 leaves a hollow tube between the circumvolutions. 

 It is then cut by shears, every two 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 lo children, who sit with anvils and 

 hammers before them. These they work with their 

 feet by means of a lathe. They take up one of the 

 lengths, and thrust the blunt end into a quantity of 

 the heads which lie before them ; catching one at 

 the extremity, they apply it 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 be described, and with a 

 dexterity that can only be acquired by practice. 

 The pins are thrown into a copper containing a solu- 

 tion of tin and wine lees. Here they remain for 

 some time, and when taken out, their brass colour 

 has become changed to a dull white. In order to 

 give them a polish, they are now put into a tub con- 

 taining a quantity of bran, which is set in motion by 

 turning a shaft that runs through its centre, and thus, 

 by means of friction, the pins become entirely bright. 

 They are now separated from the bran, which is per- 

 formed by a mode exactly similar to the winnowing 

 of corn ; the bran flying off and leaving the pin be- 

 hind it fit for sale. 



PINANG. See Prince of IJfales's Island. 



PINCHBECK; an alloy of copper, in which the 

 proportion of zinc is greater than in brass. 



PINDAR ; one of the most energetic and sublime 

 poets of Greece. He sang the praises of the victors 

 in the Grecian games, those public festivals in 

 which the most distinguished men, even kings, com- 

 peted. Not only the conquerors and their fellow 

 citizens, but all assembled Greece was celebrated in 

 his poems, and thus they were soon spread wherever 

 the Greek language was spoken. To understand 

 Pindar, it is necessary to be intimately acquainted 

 with Greek antiquities. In the judgment of the 

 best critics, his poems belong to the most beautiful 

 remains of ancient literature. Forty-five are still 

 extant, fourteen in celebration of Olympic victors, 

 twelve of Pythian, eleven of Nenuean, and eight of 

 Isthmian. They are all written in the Doric dialect. 

 Of the editions of Pindar, the following deserve to 

 be recommended : the edition of West and Welsted 

 (Oxford, 1697, fol.), of Heyne (latest 1817, 3 vols.), 

 and of Bockh (Leipsic, 1811, 3 vols., 4to.). Some 

 of the odes have been translated by Gilbert West. 

 Pindar was born in Boeotia, in or near Thebes, in the 

 sixty-fifth Olympiad, about 520 B. C. His father 

 was a flute-player, and he is said to have been him- 

 self a masterly performer on the lyre. At an early 

 age, he was instructed in music and poetry ; and for 

 the development of his poetical talent he was espe- 

 cially indebted to the beautiful Corinna, who was 

 herself a distinguished poet, and is said to have ob 

 tained the prize more than once in the poetic com- 

 petition with her friend. Little else is known with 

 certainty of his life ; even the date of his death is 

 doubtful : according to some, he died in his sixty- 

 fifth year, according to others, he lived to the age of 

 eighty or ninety. His reputation was so great that 

 Alexander, notwithstanding his exasperation against 

 the Thebans, spared the house in which Pindar had 

 lived, when the city was destroyed. The same had 

 been done by the Spartans when they entered Thebes 

 in triumph. Even in his lifetime, his fellow citizens 

 are said to have erected a statue in his honour. 



PINDAR, PETER. See Wolcot. 



PINDAREES (that is, freebooters'}; the name 

 given in British India to the hordes of mounted rob- 

 bers who, for several years (since 1812), infested the 

 possessions of the East India company. In the 

 autumn, when the Nerbudda is so low that it is ford- 

 able by cavalry, they entered into the rich territory 

 of the company, devastated the country, and carried 

 off the spoils to their mountains. These freebooters 

 had existed since 1761, but made themselves parti- 

 cularly formidable in the nineteenth century. They 

 were descended mostly from the caste of Moham- 

 medan warriors, which formerly received high pay 

 from the Indian princes. But the British East India 

 company disarmed many of the tributary native prin- 

 ces, and maintained under the command of tht 

 2 N 



