P E K 
P E K 
pry zing each fyllable. Sidney's Def. of Poefy.~ Led leaden 
dumber peizc me down. S/ia^cJpeare's Rich. III. 
All the wrongs that he therein could lay, 
Might not it pcize. Spenfer. 
Again I view the parts fo pcized, 
And thefe in number fo, and meafure, raifed. B. Jonfon. 
PEISE, f. [pefa, Span.] A weight, or poife ; a blow ; 
a ftroke. Obfolete. —With a great pcxfe they let the erode 
and the body fall down togyder in to the morteffe. Lib. 
Fcfi. 
Great Ptoleme it for his leman’s fake 
Ybuilded all of glade by magicke powre, 
And alfo it impregnable did make ; 
Yet, when his love was fali'e, he with a peaze it brake. 
Spenfer. 
PEISKREIT'SCHAM, or Pysko'yvice, a town of Si- 
1 -efia, in the principality of Oppeln : twelve miles weft- 
north-weft of Beuthen, thirty fouth-eaft of Oppeln. 
PEIT'SCHENDORF, a town of Pruflia, in Bartenland: 
twenty-two miles fouth of Raftenburgh. 
PEITZ, a town of Brandenburgh, in the UcRer Mark, 
on a fmall river which runs into the Sprene. In the 
neighbourhood are iron-mines, and manufadlures of 
pitch and turpentine: twenty miles eaft-fouth-eaft of 
Luben, thirty fouth-fouth-weft of Frankfort on the Oder. 
Lat. 51. 53. N. Ion. 14. 40. E. 
PE'KAH, J’. [Heb. one that opens.] A man’s name. 
Pekah, the fon of Remaliah, was general of Pekahiah 
king of Ifrael’s army. Together with Argoband Ariel), 
and fifty Gileadites, he murdered his mafter in the fecond 
year of his reign, and reigned twenty years in his ftead. 
Entering into a league with Rezin king of Syria, they in¬ 
tended to dethrone Ahaz, and the whole family of David, 
and let up the fon of one Tabeel to govern Judea, as their 
tributary. Pekah’s army cut off no,000 of Judah, and 
took aoo,ooo prifoners, but they foon returned the latter 
with great humanity. Inftigated by Ahaz, Tiglath Pile- 
fer king of Afi’yria invaded the kingdom of Pekah, and 
murdered and carried off into captivity a great part of 
the Naphthalites, eaftern Manaffites, Reubenites, and 
Gadites. At lalt Hofhea murdered Pekah, and reigned 
in his Head. Ifaiah viL i. 2 Kings xv. 25. 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 6. 
PEKAHI'AH, [Heb. the Lord opens.] A man’s name. 
See the preceding article. 
PEKE'A, J'. in botany. See Rhizoeolus. 
PEKE'NEN, a town of Africa, on the Grain Coaft: 
fifteen miles fouth of Sanguin. 
PE'KET, a town on the north coaft of the ifland of 
Cumbava. Lat. 8. 15. S. Ion. 117. 36. E. 
PE'KIN, a city of China, and capital of the empire, 
lituated in a very fertile plain, twenty leagues diifant 
from the Great Wall. This name, which fignifies the 
Northern Court-, is given to diftinguifli it from Nankin, 
or the Southern Court. The emperor formerly refided 
in the latter; but the Tartars, a reftlefs and warlike 
people, obliged the prince to remove his court to the 
northern provinces, that he might more effedtually repel 
the incurftons of thofe barbarians, by oppofmg to them 
the numerous militia that he generally keeps around his 
perfon. 
This capital forms an exa£l fquare, and is divided into 
two cities; the firft is inhabited by Chinefe, the fecond 
by Tartars. Thefe two cities, without including the 
fuburbs, are fix leagues in circumference, according to 
the moft accurate meafurement made by the exprefs or¬ 
der of the emperor. The walls of the Tartar city are 
very lofty, and fo thick, that twelve horfemen might eafily 
ride abreaft upon them ; with fpacious towers at inter¬ 
vals, a bow-fhot diftant from one another, and large 
.enough to contain bodies of troops. The city has nine 
.gates, which are lofty, and well arched; over them are 
.large pavilion-roofed towers, divided into nine ftories, 
Vob. XIX. No. 1318. 
483 
each having feveral apertures or port-holes; the lower 
ftory forms a large hall, for the life of the foldiers and 
officers who quit guard, and thofe appointed to relieve 
them. Before each gate a fpaceis left of more than 360 
feet; this is a kind of place of arms, inclofed by a femi- 
circular wall, equal in heightand thicknefs to that fur¬ 
rounding the city. The great road which ends here, is 
commanded by a pavilion-roofed tower, like the firft, in 
fach manner that, as the cannon of the former can batter 
the houfes of the city, thole of the latter can lweep the 
adjacent country. 
Theftreets of Pekin are ftraight, about 120 feet wide, 
a full league in length, and bordered with (hops. It is 
aftonifiiing to fee the immenfe concourfe of people that 
continually fills them, and the confufion caufed by the 
prodigious number of horfes, camels, mules, and car¬ 
riages, which crofs or meet each other. Befules this in¬ 
convenience, one is every now and then flopped by 
crowds, who (land liftening to fortune-tellers, jugglers, 
ballad-fingers, and a thoufand other mountebanks and 
buffoons, who read and relate (lories calculated to pro¬ 
mote mirth and laughter, or diftribute medicines, the 
wonderful effefls of which they explain with all the elo¬ 
quence peculiar to them. People of diftindlion oblige 
all their dependents to follow them. A mandarin of the 
firft rank is always accompanied in his walks by his whole 
tribunal; and to augment his equipage, eacli of the in¬ 
ferior mandarins in his fuite is generally attended by fe¬ 
veral domeftics. The nobility of the court, and princes 
of the blood, never appear in public without being fuc- 
rounded by a large body of cavalry ; and, as their pre¬ 
fence is required at the palace every day, their train alone 
would be fufficient to create confufion in the city. 
As there is a continual influx of the riches and mer- 
chandife of the whole empire into this city, the number 
of ftrangers that refort hither is immenfe; they are car¬ 
ried in chairs or ride on horfeback ; the latter is .more 
common : but they are always attended by a guide, ac¬ 
quainted with the ftreets, and who knows the houfes of 
the nobility and principal people of the city. They are 
alfo provided with a book, containing an account of the 
different quarters, fquares, remarkable places, and of the 
refider.ee of thofe in public offices. In fummer, there 
are to be feen fmall temporary (hops, where people are 
ferved with water, cooled by means of ice; and one finds 
every-where eating-houfes, with refreffiments of tea and 
fruits. “ I obferved,” fays Mr. Anderfon, “ a great num¬ 
ber of butcher’s (hops, whole mode of cutting up their 
meat refembles our own ; nor can the markets of London 
boaft a better fupply of flefh than is to be found in Pekin. 
But they fell it cooked as well as raw ; and, on my en¬ 
tering the (hop, I faw on a ftall before it an earthen (love, 
with a gridiron placed upon it; and on my employing a 
variety of figns to obtain the information I wanted, the' 
butcher inftantly began to cut off fmall thin dices of 
meat, about the fize of a crown piece, which he broiled 
as fall as I could eat them. I took about a dozen of thefe 
dices, which might all together weigh feven or eight 
ounces ; and when I paid him, which I did by giving him 
a ftring of caxee, or fmall coin, he pulled off, as I fuppofe, 
the amount of his demand, which was one conderon, or 
ten caxee, the only current money in the empire. I faw 
numbers of people in other butcher’s diops, as I palled 
along, regaling themfelves with beef and mutton in the 
fame manner. 
“The houfes for porcelain utenfils and ornaments are 
peculiarly attra&ive, having a row of broad dielves, 
ranged above each other, on the front of their diops, on 
which they difpofe the moft beautiful fpecimens of their 
trade in a manner full of fancy and effe£l. 
“ Befides the variety of trades which are ftationary in 
this great city, there are many thoufands of its inhabi¬ 
tants who cry their goods about, as we fee in our own 
metropolis. They generally have a bamboo placed acrofs 
their (boulders, and a balket at each end of it, in which 
6 H they 
