PER 
PERMACOI'L, a town of Hindooftan in the Carnatic: 
feventeen miles north-north-weft of Pondicherry, and 
forty-five fouth-fouth-eaft of Arcot. Lat. 12. 14. N. 
Ion. 79. 55. E. 
PER'MAGY, f. A little Turkifh boat. 
PERMALOO'R, a town of Hindooftan in the Carna¬ 
tic: twelve miles fouth-weft of Conjeveram. 
PER'MANENCE, or Permanency,/. Duration ; con- 
fiftency; continuance in the fame ftate; laftingnefs.— 
Salt, they fay, is the bafis of folidity and permanency in 
compound bodies, without which the other four elements 
might be varioufly blended together, but would remain 
incompafted. Boyle. —Shall I difpute whether there be 
any fuch material being that hath fuch a permanence or 
fixednefs in being? Hale. —From the permanency and im¬ 
mutability of nature hitherto, they argued its permanency 
and immutability for the future. Barnet's Theory. —Con¬ 
tinuance in reft.—Such a punftum to our conceptions is 
almoft equivalent to permanency and reft. Bentley. 
PER'MANENT, atlj. [Fr. from permanens, Lat.] Du¬ 
rable; not decaying ; unchanged.—If the authority of 
the maker do prove unchangeablenefs in the laws which 
God hath made, then muft all laws which he hath made 
be neceflarily for ever permanent, though they be but of 
circumftance only. Hooker. 
Their joy fincere with no more forrow mixt; 
Eternity ftands permanent and fixt. Dryden. 
Of long continuance.—His meaning is, that in thefe, or 
fuch other light injuries, which either leave wo permanent 
effeft, or only fuch as may be born without any great pre¬ 
judice, we fliould exercife our patience. Kettleiucll. 
PERMANENTLY, adv. Durably; laftingly.—It does, 
like a compaft or confident body, deny to mingle perma¬ 
nently with the contiguous liquor. Boyle. 
PERMAN'SION, / [from permaneo, Lat.] Continu¬ 
ance.— Although we allow that hares may exchange their 
fex fometimes, yet not in that viciffitude it is prefumed ; 
from female unto male, and from male to female again, 
and fo in a circle without a permanjion in either. Brown's 
Vulg. Errors. 
PER'MEABLE, adj. [from permeo, Lat.] Such as may 
be palled through.—The pores of a bladder are not eafily 
permeable by air. Boyle. 
PER'MEANT, adj. Palling through. — It entereth 
not the veins, but taketh leave of the permeant parts at 
the mouths of the meferaieks. Brown. 
To PER'MEATE, v. a. To pafs through.—This heat 
evaporates and elevates the water of the abyfs, pervading 
not only the fiffures, but the very bodies of the ftrata, 
permeating the interftices of the fand or other matter 
whereof they confift. Wooward's Nat. Hijl. 
PERMEA'TION, /. The aft of palling through.— 
The fenfible world is inclofed within the intelligible; but 
withall I muft add, that here is not a mere involution 
only, but a fpiritual permeation. Bp. Hall's Invif. World. 
PERMEL'LY, a tow n of Hindooftan, in the circar of 
Aurungabad : thirty miles north-weft of Nander. 
PER'MERA ROC'KS, rocks in the Eaftern Indian 
Sea, near the coaft of Canara : twenty miles north of 
Mangalore. Lat. 13. 10. N. 
PERMES'SUS, in ancientgeography, a river ofBceotia, 
rifing in mount Helicon, and flowing all round it. It re¬ 
ceived its name from PermelTiis the father of Aganippe, 
who alfo gave her name to one of the fountains of Heli¬ 
con. The river PermefTus, as well as the fountain Aga¬ 
nippe, was facred to the mules. 
PER'MIANS, a branch of the Finns, called in the Ice¬ 
landic Reports Biarmians, and denominated by the Ruf¬ 
fians Permiaki, fituated in the governments of Perm and 
Viatka, and in the northern diftrifts of the river Oby. 
In the middle ages the Scandinavians feem to have 
given the name of Biarmia to the whole country between 
the White Sea and the Ural. The Permians on the 
Dwina were difcovered in the ninth century by Othere 
of Halgoland, a province at the extremity of Norway, 
Vol.XIX. No. 1331. 
PER 631 
who afterwards entered into the fervice of Alfred the 
Great, and drew up an account of this voyage in the 
Anglo-Saxon language. 
The Icelandic Reports abound with accounts of thefe 
people. According to thefe Reports, the Permians on 
the White Sea, and the parts about the Dwina, were the 
moft wealthy, moft powerful, ar 1 molt remarkable, of all 
the northern Finns. Here the carved image of the god 
Yummala, who was the univerfal deity of the Finns, as 
Perune was of the Slavonians and Lettes, and Odin of 
the Germans, had its far-famed temple, the .defeription 
of which borders on the marvellous. According to this 
defeription, the temple was artfully conftrufted of coftly 
wood, and fo richly ornamented with gold and precious 
ftones, that it threw a radiance round the whole circum¬ 
jacent country. The image of the god wore a golden 
crown fet with twelve precious ftones, a necklace worth 
three hundred marks in gold, and a drefs which out¬ 
weighed the lading of three of the richeft fhips that 
navigated the Grecian fea. The figure alfo bore on its 
knees a golden chalice of fuch capacity, that four men 
might quench their thirft from its contents ; and this vef- 
fel was filled with the fame valuable metal of which its 
mafs confifted. The northern free-hooters were tempted 
by the reports of the wealth of this country to make in- 
curfions into it, and to take away fome fpoil from this 
temple. Eveh feveral Norwegian kings made predatory 
excurfions into Permia, and ufually returned with rich 
booty. We find alfo that the Scandinavian mariners vi- 
fited this country for the purpofes of trade, &c. without 
any piratical views. It is a curious inquiry how thefe 
Permian Finns accumulated fo much gold, and how 
their country became the mart of a-greatand lucrative 
commerce. In very remote ages the Permians were al¬ 
ready famous for their trade with the Perfians and In¬ 
dians: thefe nations brought their commodities over the 
Cafpian, up the Volga and the Kama, to Tfcherdyn, a tra¬ 
ding town of ancient date on the river Kolva; and the 
Permians tranfported thefe goods as well as their own 
produfts along the Petftiora to the Frozen Ocean, where 
they bartered them with the people of thofe parts againft 
furs for their oriental trade. The ruins of ancient towns 
bear witnefs to the flourifhing condition and the civiliza¬ 
tion of this people. The Permians appear, by hiftorical 
traces ftill fubfifting, to have been the only race of the 
Finns who were a poliflied and commercial people, and 
known to other nations, while their kindred rribes were 
in a ftate of barbarifm. The reports likewife fpeak of 
kings, and a fort of political conftitution in Biarmeland. 
With the year 1217, the expeditions of the Norwegians 
to Permia ceafe; but probably at an earlier period, in the 
eleventh and twelfth centuries, the republic of Novgorod 
made itfelf mafterof this country, leading thither Ruffian 
colonies to keep the people in fubjeftion. About the 
year 1372, the Chriftian faith was propagated in Permia 
by bifhop Stephen. The Novgorodians having re¬ 
nounced ail claim to this country, the Permians for a 
confiderable period maintained the liberty of choofmg 
their rulers from their own body. In 1543 the czar Iv-.a 
gave them the firft viceroy, to whom the chief of the in¬ 
habitants were to aft in a fubordinate capacity in the af¬ 
fairs of government, and who had his feat, firft at Kol- 
mogor, and afterwards at Archangel. At prefent the 
whole of ancient Biarmia, the borders of which cannot 
nosv be accurately defined, is divided into feveral go¬ 
vernments; and the defeendants of the Permians, here¬ 
tofore fo famous, numerous, and powerful, are dwindled 
away into an inlignificant remainder, who, amidft tho¬ 
rough Ruffians, have loft almoft all their national charafter- 
iftics, even to their very language. Tooke's Raffia, vol. i. 
PERMIS'CIBLE, adj. [ permijeeo, Lat.] Such as may 
be mingled. 
PERMISSIBLE, adj. [ptrmiffus, Lat.] What may be 
permitted. 
PERMISSION, / [Fr. from permiffns, Lat.] Allow¬ 
ance ; grant of liberty,—You have given me your pw- 
7 Y mijjion 
