PAL 
280 P A L 
PALILIC'IUM, a fixed ftar of the firft magnitude in 
the Bull’s Eye ; called alfo Aldeharan. Pliny gives the 
name P.dilicium to the Hyades, of which the Paliliciura 
is properly only one. See Taurus. 
PALILO'GI A, f. [from the Gr. •jra.Xm, again, and Myo$, 
a word.] A figure in rhetoric, in which the fame word is 
repeated, to give it greater force or energy. 
PAEIMBACH'IUS, f. in poetry, a foot confining of 
two long fyllables and one fliort. 
'PALIMBAN'. See Palamban. 
PALIMER'DI, a town of Hindooftan, in Madura : 
thirty-five miles north-north-eaft of Coilpetta. 
PALINfDI, a town of Hindooftan : forty-five miles 
north of Travancore. 
PAL'INDROME, J'. [palmdromus , Lat. from the Gr. 
TaAns again, and fyopo;, courfe.] A word or fentence 
which reads the fame either backward or forward ; as, did, 
madam; Anna, Hannah; or this fentence, “Lewd did I 
live, evil did I dwel.” 
Had I compil’d from Amadis de Gaul, 
Or fpim-out riddles, and weav’d fifty tomes 
Of logogriphes, and curious palindromes. B. Jonjon. 
Sentences of this kind thrown into metre have often 
been called devil's verfes, no doubt from the legendary 
tale (with a Latin diftich) which we have given under 
the article London, vol. xiii. p. 42,5. and, as we there 
pr'omjfed to renew this curious, difficult, but ufelefs, fub- 
Jecf, we (hall now redeem our pledge. 
1. Camden; fays: “ A fcholler and a gentleman living 
in a rude country-towne, where he had no refpeCt, wrote 
this with acoalein the Towne-Iiall: Suhi dura a rudibus ; 
Bear rude ufage from rude people.” 
2. The following is alfo from Camden. “ A noble 
lady in queene Elizabeth’s time, being forbidden the 
court for being over familiar with a great lord, [not an 
Italian footman,] gave this embleme, the moon covered 
with a cloud, and underneath, Ablata , at alba ; Taken 
from fight, but (fill white.” 
3. We find in Camden’s Remains the following far- 
caftic palindrome upon a lawyer : he is made to fay to his 
client, Si nummi, immunis ; “ Give me my fee, and I war¬ 
rant you free.” 
4. On the chriftening-font at Harlow in Elfex, Sandbach 
in Chefhire, alfo on the holy-water (hell at the entrance 
of St. Etienne des Gres at Paris, we find this curious 
Greek palindromical fentence : Nip^o:/ uvoiAnpa., /xu povuv 
; “ Wadi not thy face only, but alfo thy fin.” This 
appropriate fentence is faid, upon good authority, to have 
been originally written on the margin of the holy-water 
bafin at the church of Sanfta Sophia, built by the emperor 
Conftantine at Byzantium, called afterwards Conftanti- 
nople. It is moreover laid to be copied from the 6th 
book of the Anthologia, which contains ten more verfes 
of the fame extraordinary kind. The author of the 
“ Di£tionnaire de Paris” affirms that it is not in the An¬ 
thologia, neither is it a verfe. We have not the Antho¬ 
logia at hand, to afcertain the former faff ; and, as to the 
latter, it is certain that it is not an hexameter nor a pen¬ 
tameter ; yet, as the Greek verfes are of various kinds, it 
may ftill be a verfe, or a part of one. 
5. In the following example, alfo from Camden, it muft 
be obferved, that the hexameter line is not only palindro¬ 
mical, but that every component word reads the fame 
backwards as forward’s: 
Odo tenet mulum, madidam mappam tenet Anna, 
Anna tenet mappam madidam, mulum tenet Odo. 
“Odo (the hoftler) holds the mule; Anna (the maid) 
holds a wet napkin, or difliclout.” Or, “ Anna holds the 
wet napkin ; Odo holds the mule.” 
6. An epitaph on Henry IV. of France, by Panchafius, 
feems to have given the author a great deal of trouble, 
and certainly would give a great deal more to any one 
who Ihould attempt to tranilate it. It is an elegiac diftich: 
Area, feremim me gere regem, munere faera, 
Solem, aulas, animos, omina, ftilva, melos, 
7. The following verfe is from Miflon’s Voyage to Italy, 
vol. ii. Sacrum pinque dabo, non snacrumfacr ificabo ; “I 
will give a fat offering, not a lean facrifice.” This is co» 
pied from the old cloifter of St. Maria Novella at Florence | 
where it is applied to the facrifices of Cain and Abel, 
The above hexameter verfe applies to Abel; but, read 
backward, not by letters but by words, and altering the 
punftuation, it will produce a pentameter verfe applica¬ 
ble to Cain ; thus: Saerijicabo macrurn, non dabo pinque 
facrum. “ I will give a lean facrifice, not a fat offering.” 
It might appear to be no very difficult matter to form 
a verfe that would make good fenfe with merely the words 
reverfed. Yet thofe who might choofe to try the expe- 
riment would find it perhaps not eafy to form a I.atin 
hexameter, which, read backward, becomes a pentame- 
ter; each verfe alfo to form a fentence well adapted to 
the charaffer of the.party fuppofed to utter it. Add to 
this, that both are leonine verfes alfo, the middle and end 
of each rhyming to one another, 
8. Many things of this kind would no doubt be difeo- 
vered, were the difcovery confid^red worth the pains of 
feekingfor them. The two following were fent us a few 
days ago : they evidently allude to the prefent “indelicate 
inveftigation” into the conduct of the queen of England, 
— () ! Regem non me gero ; “ I do not behave myfelf as a 
king.”— Regina hunger ; “The queen, a lamb !” 
9. Although our Gallic neighbours are confidered to 
be fond of, and fkilful in, all forts of futile amufements, 
we do not recolleft any French palindromic compofition; 
the reafon is, perhaps, that few French words end with a - 
bare confonant, and that mod of them are long com-," 
pound ones. It is remarkable, however, that many French 
words, read backwards, give Englifii ones : rat, tar ; net, 
ten ; 7 -eve, ever; fi, if; Jeton, (a rowel,) notes ; on, no ; ft, 
is ; par, rap ; edit, tide ; &c. &c. We muft however 
notice a moft common, but alfp mod unheeded, palin- 
dromic expreffion in the French tongue ; mpnnotn, which 
reads reciprocally; alfo Noyon, a town of France; and 
we doubt not that many more might be difeovered, 
As a fort of appendage to the foregoing obfervations, wa 
muft fubjoin two Latin hexameter verfes which were in¬ 
terchanged between two boys at a French fchool. The 
firft fent the following line to his friend; Mitto tibi nctvenx 
puppi prorique carentem ; “ I fend you a flip without 
either ftern or prow.” The meaning is : I fend you ave ; 
the word 7 iavem being ftripped of its firft and laft letters, 
(the prow and the ftern,) leaves ave, “ all hail, or health," 
The other boy anfweredina palindromical way, and fent 1 
Mitto tibi metulas, candros imitare legendo ; “ I fend you 
metulas (a word of no fenfe in this cafe, fince the firft fyl- 
lable of metula, from met a, a mark, a meafure, is long) ; 
but imitate the crab, i. e. read it backward, then you have 
falutem; and the line means clearly, “ I fend you greeting; 
good health.” 
10. We have feen but one Englifii fentence of the pa¬ 
lindromic kind, which is quoted at the head of this arti¬ 
cle. We have indeed fome pleafure in finding that thefe 
difficiles rmgee make no figure in our language, 
PA'LING, f. A kind of fence-work for parks, gardens, 
and grounds: 
To every houfe belongs a fpace of ground, 
Of equal fize, once fenc’d with paling- round, Crnbb6, 
PA'LING-MAN, f. This word, mentioned in flat. 2a 
Edw. IV. c. 23. and 11 Hen. VII. c. 23. feems to be a 
merchant-denizen, or one born within the Englifii pale , 
But Skinner judges it to to be a fifiimonger, or merchant 
of fifli. Cowell. 
PALIN'GE, a town of France, in the department of 
the Saone and Loire, iituated on the Charollois canal j 
feven miles north-north-weft of Charolles, and fifteen 
fouth of Montcenis, 
PALIN- 
