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and reptiles, efpecially fnakes. But it alfo abounds with 
the mod beautiful birds, fome of which are as red as 
icarlet, and fing delightfully. Macaws and parrots are alfo 
very common,nearly every houfe having one or two at the 
door. Fifh are very numerous on this coad. The river near 
Pernambuco abounds with alligators, which are often very 
deftruftive; and that extraordinary fifh the torpedo is 
frequently caught here : the eleftric power is fo drong in 
this fifh, that even the line which catches him conveys a 
flight fhock. See Raja. The blacks have a curious way 
of catching fifh, which is thus performed : on a dark night 
they go on jungadas, (a fort of canoe compofed of three 
or four long pieces of wood laflied together,) on which 
they make a large fire, which attrafts the fifh, when they 
ftrike them with harpoons; mod of the fifli with which 
Pernambuco is fupplied are caught in this way. 
We have before oblerved that Olinda is a didinft 
city, three miles from, Pernambuco. It is feated on a 
hill, on the fummit of which is a large monadery. 
The place is frnall; and, though mod of the merchants 
of Pernambuco have feats here, it is neverthelefs very 
thinly peopled. The houfes are beautiful white build¬ 
ings, interfperfed with delightful gardens; rifing as they 
do one above another on the fides of the hill, the place is 
feen a great way off at fea. The trade and other advan¬ 
tages of Pernambuco have drawn all the merchants from 
it; and it now contains little more than two monaderies 
and a nunnery, with a few poor people dependent on 
them. The objeft which particularly attrafts attention 
is the monadery on the hill. One cannot imagine a more 
romantic fituation, or one which commands a more lovely 
profpeft, than this monadery, efpecially the church,which 
is far the highed objeft on this coad, and is vidble a long 
way oft’ at fea. 
This account is abridged from a very intereding article 
in the Monthly Magazine for Sept. j8ii, to which we 
refer for farther particulars. 
PER'NANCY, f. [from the Fr. prendre, to take.] In 
law, the taking or receiving any thing.—Tithes in per- 
nancy, are tithes taken, or which may be taken, in kind. 
Chambers. 
PER'NEK, a cadle of Hungary: twelve miles north of 
Prefbu rg. 
PER'NES, a town of France, in the department of the 
Straits of Calais : ig pod north of St. Pol, 8£ north of 
Amiens.—A town of France, in the department of the 
Mouths of the Rhone: twelve miles ead-north-ead of 
Avignon. 
PERNET'TI (James), hidoriographer of the city of 
Lyons, and a member of the academy of that place, was a 
native of Forez. He aflumed the title of “ Miles Ecclefiae 
Lugdunenfis ;” he was a man of pleafant manners, and 
entirely void of pedantry. He died at Paris in 1777. 
His works are, 1. Hidory of Cyrus, in three vols. iarao. 
2. Counfels of Friendfhip. 3. Letters on Phyiiognomy, 
3 vols. 4. The Abules of Education. 5. Piftureof the 
City of Lyons. 
PERNE'TY(Antony-Jofeph),an ingenious and learned 
French writer, was born in 1716 at Roanne in Forez. He 
entered into the order of Benediftines, and devoted 1 dm- 
felf to dudy, and the compodtion of numerous works, in 
which he difplayed a fydematizing fpirit with a fingular 
mode of thinking. Some of the principal of thefe are the 
following: 1. Diftionnaire de Peinture, Sculpture, et 
Gravure, 1757. 2. Diftionnaire mytho-hermetique, 1758. 
3. Difcours fur la Phyfiognomie. 4. Journal hidorique 
d’un Voyage fait aux Ides Malouines en 1763 et 1764, 2 
vols. 8vo. 1769. This contains many curious particulars : 
it was trandated into Englifh, and read with intered at 
the time of the difpute with Spain, relative to thefe idands, 
which are the fame with the Falkland Ides. 5. Diderta- 
tion fur PAmerique et les Americains, 1770. 6.Examen 
des Recherches Philofophiques de Pauw fur les Ameri¬ 
cains, 1772. 7. La Connoilfance de l’Homme moral par 
cede de l’Homme phydque, 1776. He likewife publidied 
a trandation of Columella, and of Wolff’s Courfe of Ma¬ 
thematics; affided in the 8vo. volume of the Gallia Chril- 
tiana; and communicated feveral memoirs to the Aca¬ 
demy of Berlin, of which he was a memher, and in which 
capital he redded a long time. He at length returned to 
Valence, in the department of the Drome, where he died 
about the clofe of the century. 
PERN'IA, a town of Croatia : fixteen miles fouth-ead 
of Carldadt. 
PERNI'CIOUS, adj. [ perniciofius , Lat. pernicieux, Fr.] 
Mifchievous in the highed degree; dedruftive.—To re¬ 
move all out of the church, whereat they fhow themfelves 
to be forrowful, would be, as we are perfuaded, hurtful, 
if not pernicious thereunto. Hooker. 
I call you fervile miniders. 
That have with two pernicious daughters j'oin’d 
Your high-engender’d battles, ’gaind a head 
So old and white as this. Shakefpeare's K. Lear. 
Let this pernicious hour 
Stand ay accurfed in the kalendar! Shakefpeare. 
[Pernix, Lat.] Quick. An ufe which I have found only 
in Milton, and which, as it produces an ambiguity, ought 
not to be imitated. Jo/mfon. 
Part incentive reed 
Provide, pernicious with one touch to fire. Par. Lojl. 
PERNI'CIOUS I'SLANDS, a cluder of iflands in the 
South Pacific Ocean, about fifteen miles in circumference; 
fo called by Roggewein, on account of one of the veffels 
belonging to his fquadron being wrecked on the coad of 
one of them in the year 1772. Lat. 16. S. Ion. 140. 45.W. 
PERNI'CIOUSLY, adv. Dedruftively; mifehievoudy ; 
ruinoudy.—Some wilful wits, wilfully againd their own 
knowledge, pernicioujly againd their own confcience, have 
taught. Afchatn. 
All the commons 
Hate him pernicioujly, and vvifh him 
Ten fathom deep. Shakefpeare s Hen. VIII. 
PERNI'CIOUSNESS, f . The quality of being perni¬ 
cious. 
PERNI'CITY,_/. [from pernix, Lat.] Swiftnefs ; cele¬ 
rity.—Others armed with hard fhells, others with prickles, 
the red that have no fuch armature endued with great 
fwiftnefs or pernicity. Ray on the Creation. 
PER'NO, a town of Sweden, in the province of Nyland, 
at the mouth of a river which forms a bay on the north 
coad of the G.ulf of Finland : twelve miles ead of Borgo, 
thirty-five wed of Fredericfhamn. Lat. 60. 26. N. 
Ion. 16. 4. E. 
PERNOCTA'TION, )'. [ pernoSlatio , Lat.] Aft of tar¬ 
rying or watching all night.—Whether we have paid for 
the pleafure of our fin by fmart or forrow, by the effudon 
of alms, or pernoflations or abodes in prayers. Bp. Taylor's 
Holy Dying-. —When thefe pernoblations were laidafide, it 
was the cudom to rife early. Bourne's Anliq. of the Comm. 
People. 
PERNO'V or Pernau, a town of Rudia, in the govern¬ 
ment of Riga, on a river near the Baltic, fortided and de¬ 
fended by a cadle. In 1635, it was numbered among the 
Ilanfe-towns. In 1562, it was taken by the Swedes from 
the Poles, who recovered it in 1565. The Ruffians took 
it in 1575, but reftored it in 1617. It was afterwards 
taken by the Swedes ; and finally, with the red of Livonia, 
annexed to Rudia. It is ninety-two miles north of Riga. 
Lat. 58. 30. N. Ion. 42. 16. E. 
PER'NSTAIN, a town of Audria : twelve miles north- 
north-wed of St. Wolfang. 
PE'RO, or Pero'ne, a daughter of Cimon, remarkable 
for her filial affeftion. When her father had been fent to 
prifon, where his judges had condemned him to darve, 
fhe fupported his life by giving him the milk of her breads. 
Val. Max. 
PERO'E 
