PAT 
782 
PA'TER, or Pader, a river of Germany, which rifes 
near Paderborn, and runs into the Lippe about one 
mile eaft of Neuhaus. 
PA'TER-NOSTER, f. [Latin.] The Lord’s Prayer; a 
form fo called from the two initial words thereof in Latin. 
—An ignorant plain man, having learned his puler-nojler 
and ave-mary, wants to learn his creed. Pope, cited bp 
Wart on. 
He did defire 
Short paler-nofters, faying as a friar 
Each day his beads. Donne's Poems. 
Peter-Noster is alfo ufed for a chaplet or firing of 
beads; becaufe ferving to number the rehearfals of that 
prayer. 
Pater-Nosters, in architeflure, a fort of ornaments 
cut in form of beads, either round or oval; ufed on 
baguettes, aftragals, &c. 
PA'TER NOSTERS, rocks in the Atlantic, on the 
fouth fide of the entrance into the bay of St. Helena. 
Lat. 32. 20. S. 
PA'TER NOSTERS, or Pierres de Lec, rocks near 
the north coall of the ifland of Jerfey. 
PA'TER NOSTERS (Great), a duller of fhoals and 
iflets in the Eaflern Indian Sea, about 120 miles in length 
from north-cad to fouth-wefl, and 30 in breadth. Lat. 
6. 30. to 7. 42. S. Ion. 117. 10. to 119. 10. E. 
PA'TER NOSTERS (Little), a cluder of 13 rocks in 
the Eadern Indian Sea, between the idands of Borneo and 
Celebes, called by the Malays Pulo Bulabataken. They 
are covered with trees, and have navigable channels be¬ 
tween them ; but the anchorage is uneven. 
PATER-NOSTRE', udj in heraldry. A crofs pater- 
noilre is a crofs made of beads. This crofs is to be fo 
dtadowed in drawing, as that the fphericity of the beads 
may appear, to didinguidt them from befants. 
PA'TER PATRA'TUS, f. among the Romans, the 
fird and principal perfon of the college of heralds, which 
formed a kind of board or council, to examine the dif¬ 
ferences that arofe between neighbouring dates, and en¬ 
deavour amicably to accommodate the fame. 
PAT'ERA, f. among antiquaries, a goblet or veffel 
ufed by the Romans in their facrifices; wherein they of¬ 
fered their confecrated meats to the gods, and wherewith 
they made libations. The word is Latin, formed from 
pateo, I am open ; becaufe it has a great aperture, in con- 
tradiftinclion to bottles, See. which have only narrow 
necks, or whofe aperture is lefs than the body of the 
veffel. 
On medals the patera is feen in the hands of feveral 
deities, and frequently in the hands of princes, to mark 
the facerdotal authority joined with the imperial, &c. 
Hen ce F. Joubert oblerves, that, befides the patera, there 
is frequently an altar upon which the patera feems to be 
pouring its contents. 
The patera .was of gold, filver, marble, brafs, glafs, or 
earth ; and they uled to inclofe it in urns with the allies 
of the deceafed, after it had lerved for the libations of 
the wine and liquors at the funeral. 
The Patera, or Patra as it is commonly written, of 
the Hindoos, is a veil'd of capacity, to which, under a 
mythological afpe£l, a great deal of myfticifm is attached. 
It is feen in the hand of Parvati, and of fome other dei¬ 
ties of the avenging character, in the (hapeof a fmall ba- 
fin or cup ; and is Laid to be for the purpofe of receiving 
the blood of her victims, which die is poetically repre- 
lented to quaff. The patra is, however. Hill more myf- 
tically contemplated in India, as an emblem or type of 
the world, and is then called arg-ha-patra. The urgha 
means a cup, or difli, in which fruits or dowers are of¬ 
fered to the deities ; and ought to be diaped like a boat, 
as fome are dill feen, but more ufually of a round form. 
A rim round the argha reprefents the mylterious Yoni, 
and a bofs or convexity in the centre refers to the navel 
of Vifhnu, whence, according to fome popular fables, the 
PAT 
creative Brahma fprang on a lotos to perform his great 
work. We dial! here notice no farther on this point than 
the coincidence of w-ild umbilical myfteries common to 
the mythologifls of India, Egypt, and Greece. Such my¬ 
thological coincidences are linking and curious, and we 
fhall proceed to notice fome connected with thefubjeft of 
this, article. The name, form, and ufe, of the patra as 
a drinking veffel, or for oblation, reminds us at once of 
the patera of the ancients. 
In vol. xiv. of the Archseologia, a defeription and plate 
are given of a Roman patera and vafe dug up when fink¬ 
ing a ditch in Efiex in June 1800. They were found 
near an ancient Roman road between Camulodunum and 
Camboritum. “The metal vafe and patera merit atten¬ 
tion, as none dmilar to the firfl have been figured or de- 
feribed in the w'orks of the fociety; nor do I know that 
any like either have been prefented for their infpeftion. 
The vafe is of that form which Montfaucon has figured 
in his 2d vol. pi. 19. fig. 10. and calls a prafericulum , ufed 
by the Romans at their facrifices, for pouring wine into 
the patera. Another more nearly refembling that here 
prefented is given in his 3d vol. pi. 24. fig. 9. and called 
by Beger an epic/n/Jis, but not allowed to be fuch by 
Montfaucon. The metal patera which belongs to the 
above, differs from the earthen patera, in general, by 
being bofled in the centre, a circumflance not eafily to 
be accounted for, unlefs it was for the firmer fixing the 
pnefericulum upon, when placed with the body at the 
time of interment.” With the above Roman antiquities 
were found feveral little cups of Samian ware. “The 
ufes of thefe elegant little cups have not,” the antiquary 
continues, “ that I know of, been afeertained by any au¬ 
thor. The real purpofes to which they were applied mull 
remain at prefent in obfeurity.” 
The learned author of this communication, Thomas 
Walford, efq. F. A. S. earneflly invites an explanation of 
thefe feveral Roman antiquities- It is, perhaps, no expla¬ 
nation to Hate that the Hindoos, in their facrifices and 
ceremonies, have immemorially ufed, and flill ufe, articles 
exadlly fimilar to thofe exhibited, with the above com¬ 
munication, in vol. xiv. of the Archaeologia, Plate IV. 
V. But it is curious to fee how nearly they agree in 
form. A comparifon of the article in the plates juft ad¬ 
verted to, with thofe in plates 83, 86, and 105, of the 
Hindoo Pantheon, will ftrikingly evince this. The “ fa- 
crificial vafe,” in the latter plate, has the fame form, 
though more elaborately ornamented, as the above de- 
feribed praeferieulum; and the others exhibit metallic 
circular paterae, and the central emboffment, which, 
though “not eafily accounted for,” is found among Hin¬ 
doo myftics to have very profound allufions. The Roman 
patera has alfo the myfterious rim, or Yoni, refpefting 
which the reader may confult the work laft referred to. 
Hr. Clarke, in his recentiy-publiihed Travels, notices that’ 
the pateras ufed by prieiteffes in the rites of Ceres, had 
this pyramidal node or cone in the centre. A prieftefs 
is reprefented holding one of thefe, on a bas-relief, in the 
veftibule of the Cambridge Univerfity Library. Similar ar¬ 
ticles are ftill ufed in the rites of the Hindoo Ceres; as 
are alfo the “little cups” deferibed and exhibited in the 
Archasol. as above referred to, and in many of the Hin¬ 
doo Pantheon. In India they are ufed for holding cla¬ 
rified butter, a common ingredient in the frequent ob¬ 
lations to fire; and unguents, and holy water, in the 
Sradha or funeral obfequies, and in other rites and ce¬ 
remonies. Adverting for a moment to the place near 
which the Roman patera was found, we may remark, 
wdthout laying any llrefs on it, that Camulodunum 
might, by a determined etymologirt, be derived from the 
Sanfcrit word Kama! or goddefs Kamala. And long af¬ 
ter this remark was written, we find fuch a derivation 
adopted in the nth vol. of the Afiatic Refearches, art. 2. 
eh. 4. 
PAT'ERA, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in Natolia. 
This town, anciently called Patara, was a city of Lycia, 
and 
