PEL 
the town of Afte, a territory feparated from the continent 
of Thrace by a canal; by degrees they extended them- 
felves to the continent, and occupied Creftonia. 
Dionyfius informs us, that when fome of the Pelafgi, 
under the reign of Deucalion, pafled into Italy, the ille 
of Crete, and the Cyclades, Bceotia, the Phocide, and 
Eubcea, others migrated into Afia. According to Strabo, 
the Lefbians claim the honour in behalf of theirancedors 
of having been in the war of Troy, under the conduft of 
Pylteus, a chief of the Pelafgi. All the towns of the ma¬ 
ritime coaft of Ionia had been at one time inhabited by 
the Pelafgi; the inhabitants of the ifle of Chios alfo pre¬ 
tend that the Pelafgi of Theflaly were their founders ; 
nor indeed is there a country of Greece, Thrace, and 
Afia Minor, in which the Pelafgi have not left traces of 
their power. Soon after the war of Troy, the name of 
Pelafgi began to fink into oblivion. Thofe who exifted 
till the time of Herodotus, near the Hellefpont, and on 
the coafts of Thrace, were fubjeft to foreign dominion ; 
and the language which they fpoke was the only evidence 
of their ancient origin, Thucydides fays, that the chief 
caufe of the ruin of this nation was the confederation of 
the Hellenes , who fprang from the Pelafgi themfelves. 
The Hellenes made a league, formed among themfelves 
a feparate body, and made conquefts. After reparation 
from the Pelafgi, their parents, they edranged themfelves 
from their manners and habits, and by little and little 
changed their language, in confequence of the commer¬ 
cial intercourfe which they had with colonies from the 
eaft. Thofe at length who were originally Pelafgi joined 
this league, furrendered the name of Pelafgi, and adopted 
that of Hellenes. Herodian relates, that the Athenians, 
though reckoned to be Pelafgians at the time of the fa¬ 
mous emigration of thefe people, were become Hellenes, 
when the Pelafgi, driven from Italy, returned to Greece. 
About the lame time the Lacedaemonians, the Argians, 
and the Arcadians, who had been alfo known under the 
name of Pelafgians, laid afide the barbarifm of their pro¬ 
genitors, and aflumed the name of Hellenes. 
PELASGIO'TIS, or Pelas'gia, a country of Greece, 
whofe inhabitants are called Pelafgi, or Pelafgiotce. Every 
country of Greece, and all Greece in general, is indifcri- 
minately called Pelafgia, though the namelhould be more 
particularly confined to a part of ThefiTaly, fituate between 
the Peneus, the Aliacmon, and the Sperchius. The ma¬ 
ritime borders of this part of Theflaly were afterwards 
called Magnejia, though the fea or its fliore ftill retained 
the name of “ Pelafgicus Sinus,” now the Gulf of Volo. 
Pelafgia is alfo one of the ancient names of Epirus, as 
alfo of Peloponnefus. 
PELAS'GUS, a fon of Jupiter and Niobe, who reigned 
in Sicyon, and gave his name to the ancient inhabitants 
of Peloponnefus. But feveral perlons of this name are 
mentioned by ancient writers. The fcholiaft upon Apol- 
lodorus Rhodius makes Pelafgus to have been the fon of 
Inachus ; and this is the fame who, according to Hefiod, 
was the father of Lycaon king of Arcadia. See the pre¬ 
ceding articles; and Greece, vol. viii. p. 828. 
PELA'TiE, certain free-born citizens among the 
Athenians, who by poverty w'ere reduced to the neceflity 
of ferving for w-ages. During their fervitude they had 
no vote in the management of public affairs, as having 
no eftate to qualify them; but this redriftion was re¬ 
moved whenever they had releafed themfelves from their 
fervile fituation, which they w'ere allowed to do when 
able to fupport themfelves. While they continued fer- 
vant.s, they had alfo a right to change their mailers. Encij. 
Brit. 
PELATI'AH, [Heb. the Lord delivers.] Son of Ha- 
naniah, and father of Ifhi, of the tribe of Simeon. He 
fubdued the Amalekites upon Mount Seir; (i Chron. 
iv. 42.) The time of this aftion is unknowm. 
PELATI'AH, fon of Benaiah, a prince of the people, 
who lived.in the time of Zedekiah king of Judah, and op- 
pofed the wholefome advice given by Jeremiah, to fubmit 
PEL 497 
to king Nebuchadnezzar. See farther concerning him, 
Ezekiei xi. 1, 2, 3, 4. 
PELCHIL'LEN, a town of Pruflia, in Natangen: 
twenty-five miles foutli-fouth eall of Konigfberg. 
PELDRZ'IMOW. See Pilgram. 
PE'LE, in ancient geography. There were two towns 
of this name in Theflaly ; the one fubjeft to Eurypylus, 
the other to Achilles ; both extinft. 
PELECA'NUS, f. [from tteAexus, Gr. a hatchet, on ac¬ 
count of the fliape of the bill and pouch.] The Pelican; 
a genus of birds of the order of anferes; including, be- 
fides the pelicans properly fo called, the cormorants, 
(hags, boobies, gannefs, See. amounting to thirty-three 
fpecies, which are divifible into thole with plain bills, 
and thofe with ferrated bills. Generic characters —Bill 
ftraighr, the tip confiding of a hooked nail; nodrils ob- 
feure chinks; face fomewhat naked ; feet balanced; all 
the four toes palmated ; the nail of the mid-toe is ge¬ 
nerally ferrated. 
In Hebrew the pelican was denominated kahili ; in 
Arabic, link and alhaufal, meaning gullet; in Perfian kik 
tacab, which fignifies water-carrier; or tnifo, fheep, on ac¬ 
count of its bulk; in Egyptian, gemel-el bahr, water-ca¬ 
mel; in Turkifh, JackaguJ'ch; in Spanifh, groto; in Ita¬ 
lian, agrotto ; at Rome, truo ; in the Alps of Savoy, goet- 
trvfe , becaufe its bag refembles the goitres to which the 
mountaineers are fubjeft ; in German, meergans, fchnee- 
gans, fea-goofe, fnow-goofe ; in Aufiria, ohne-vogel, the 
awme, or tierce-bird; in Polifli, bah cudzoziemjki; in 
Ruflia, baba; in modern Greek, toubano; in the French 
Welt-India \(\ands,gi-antlgoJier, great-gullet; in Mexico, 
atototl; and by the Spanifh lettlers alcatraz. 
This bird has been long and early diflinguilhed by the 
fabulous celebrity of its name, facred among the reli¬ 
gious emblems of ignorant nations. It has been em¬ 
ployed to reprefent maternal tendernefs, tearing its bread 
to nourifh its ianguifhing family with its blood. This 
hieroglyphic, which the Egyptians had before depicted of 
the vulture, cannot apply judly to the pelican, which 
lives in abundance, and even enjoys an advantage over 
the other pifeivorous birds, being provided with a capa¬ 
cious bag for fioring its provifions. And the fa ft is, 
that very few birds, if we except the odrich, fliow lefs af- 
feftion for their helplefs odspring. It is with great re- 
luftance that w'e deprive the bird of the honourable office 
of being a true fymbol ofcharity;but,as w'eintend to let no 
idea, though ever fo pleafing, intrude itfelf into the minds 
of our young readers at the expenfe of truth, we mud un¬ 
deceive them, whenever we find an opportunity. This 
bird is often reprefented fcratching her bread and feed¬ 
ing her young with the blood that gufhes out of the 
wounds; and is ufed as a reprefentation of the unfpeak- 
able goodnefs of him who fhed his blood to redeem man¬ 
kind. But all this has no other ground than the bird 
having been fometimes, though feldom, feen picking off 
the down of her bread to foften the ned (he is making. 
However, as this pious pelican is often painted or drawn 
more like a vulture than the bird of that name, wefliould 
not be furprifed if the quality of the one had been trans¬ 
ferred to the other, by fome ancient and accidental mif- 
take. Thus much of pelicans in general; we now pro¬ 
ceed to enumerate the fpecies. 
I. Bill not ferrated. 
1. Pelecanus onocrotalus, [from the Gr. ovo;, an afs, 
and y.poloKov, a rattle, becaufe of the gurgling in its throat 
or pouch ;] the large white pelican : colour dirty white ; 
gullet pouched. The bill is red; the upper mandible 
deprefled and broad, the low r er forked ; the bag at the 
throat flaccid, membranaceous, capable of great didention; 
the irides hazel-coloured; the gape of the mouth wide; 
the head is naked at the fides, covered with a flefh-co- 
loured fkin; the hind head is fomewhat creded ; the body 
is faintly tinged with fledi-colour; the fpurious wings 
and fird quill-feathers are black ; the legs are of a lead 
colour. 
