433 
P I L 
a light cake; a kind of muffin.— Whenever he fmiled, 
he crumpled up his broad face like an half-toafted pikelet. 
A. Seward’s Letters. 
PI'KEMAN,/. A foldier armed with a pike.—Three 
great fquadrons of pikemen were placed againft the enemy. 
Knolles’s Hi ft. of the Turks. 
PIK'ERUN, atownffiipof America, in Chefter county, 
Pennfylvania, containing 1693 inhabitants. 
PI'KESTAFF, f. The wooden pole of a pike.-—To 
me it is as plain as a pikejlaff, from what mixture it is, 
that this daughter filently lours, t’other (teals a kind look. 
Taller. 
PIKESWA'RT, a name of the Hindoo goddefs Parvati, 
confort of Mahadeva, or Siva. The name is derived from 
the bird pika, of the cuckoo tribe, into which, in one of 
the extravagant fables of the Puranas, Parvati was meta- 
morphofed, in confequence of an anathema denounced 
againft her by her offended lord. Parvati, it is related, 
had become incarnated in the perfon of a daughter of 
Dakffia, for the purpofe of aflociating with her lord in 
one of his avataras, or defcents. She was on this occa¬ 
fion named Sati, or the pure. On fome grand occafion 
Dakfha, performing a folemn facrifice, invited all the 
gods except his fon-in law, which fo enraged his daugh¬ 
ter that (he flung herfelf into the facrificial fire, thereby 
defiling and hindering the facrifice. Siva, in his rage at 
fo great an offence, curfed her, and (lie was doomed in 
confequence to a tranfmigration of a thoufand years into 
the degraded form above-mentioned. To appeafe her, 
however, Siva affumed the form of the male bird, and 
accompanied her. Under this form he is called Pikefwari. 
This outline of the tale is very ridiculous; but fome 
learned and ingenious men have difcovered in its details 
and accompaniments, which are numerous and compli¬ 
cated, and frequently adverted to in Hindoo books, a 
correfpondence with feveral of the relations of ourfacred 
writings. In the violent death of Dakfha, that of Abel 
is thought to have been kept in view. Others find him 
conne&ed with the hiftory of Noah. Others, again, 
think Dakfha bears a ftrong refemblance to Atlas. In 
the ad, 5th, 6th, and 8th, vols. of the Aflat. Ref. thefe 
fpeculations are purfued; but it is not neceflary to intro¬ 
duce the refults in this place. See the article Parvati, 
vol. xviii. 
PI'LA, f. in antiquity, a ball made in a different 
manner according to the different games in which it was 
ufed: playing at ball was very common amongft the 
Romans of the firft diftin&ion, and was looked upon as a 
manly exercife, which contributed both to amufement 
and health. The pila was of four forts : iff, Follis, or 
balloon; ad, Pila trigonalis ; 3d, Pila paganica ; 4th, 
Harpafium. 
Pila was the name alfo of a finall ftandard which was 
ufed among the Romans, when the fhields were piled 
together, over which it floated. 
PI'LA MARI'NA, or Sea-ball, f. The name of a fub- 
ftance very common on the fhores of the Mediterranean, 
and elfewhere. It is generally found in the form of a 
ball about the fize of the balls of horfe-dung, and com¬ 
pofed of a variety of fibrillae irregularly complicated. 
Various conjectures have been given of its origin by 
different authors. John Bauhine tells us, that it confifts 
of fmall hairy fibres and ftraws, fuch as are found about 
the fea-plant called Alga vitriariorium ; but he does not 
afcertain what plant it owes its origin to. Imperatus 
imagined itconfifted of the exuviae both of vegetable and 
animal bodies. Mercatus is doubtful whether it be a 
congeries of the fibrillae of plants, wound up into a 
ball by the motion of the fea-water, or whether it be not 
the workmanfhip of fome fort of beetle living about.the 
fea-fliore, and analogous to our common dung-beetle’s 
ball, which it elaborates from dung for the reception of 
its progeny. Schreckius fays it is compofed of the fila¬ 
ments of fome plant of the reed kind: and Welchius 
Vol. XX. No. 1380. 
p r l 
fuppofes it to be compofed of the pappous part of the 
flowers of the reed. Maurice Hoffman thinks it the 
excrement of the hippopotamus; and others think it that 
of the Phoca, or fea-calf. 
Klein, who had thoroughly and minutely examined 
the bodies themfelves, and alfo what authors had con¬ 
jectured concerning them, thinks that they are wholly 
owing to, and entirely compofed of, the capillaments 
which the leaves, growing to the woody (talk of the Alga 
vitriarorum, have when they wither and decay. Thefe 
leaves, in their natural ftate, are as thick as a wheat-ftraw, 
and they are placed fo thick about the tops and extremi¬ 
ties of the ftaiks, that they enfold, embrace, and lie over, 
one another; and from the middle of thefe clufters of 
leaves, and indeed from the woody fubftance of the plant 
itfelf, there arife feveral other very long, flat, fmooth, and 
brittle, leaves. Thefe are ufually four from each tuft of 
the other leaves; and they have always a common vagina 
or (heath, which is membranaceous and very thin. This 
is the ftyle of the plant; and the pila marina appears to 
be a clufter of the fibres of the leaves of this plant, which 
cover the whole (talk, divided into their conftituent 
fibres ; and by the motion of the waves firft broken and 
worn into ffiort ffireds, and afterwards wound up toge¬ 
ther into a roundifh or longifli ball. 
PILA'IA (Paul), an Italian engraver, born about the 
year 1718. The circumftances ot his life have not been 
recorded, but he feems to have worked at Rome. He 
engraved the prints for a book entitled Storia di Volfena, 
by the Abbe Adami, with the portrait of the author; 
which book was printed at Rome in the year 1737. He 
alfo engraved in folio, the llatue of the prophet Elias, 
from Aug. Cornachini, erected at St. Peter’s cathedral; 
the portrait of Pope Benedict XIII. from J. B. Brughi; 
the Martyrdom of the Capuchin St. Fedele da Simaringa, 
from Seb. Conca, both of folio fize; and many others, 
in a very good ftyle. 
PI'LAR (El), a town of New Grenada: twenty-five 
miles eaft-north-eaft of Tunja. 
PILARE'TI, a town of Georgia, in the province of 
Carduei: fifty-four miles fouth-fouth-weft of Teflis. 
PILAS'TER, f. [Italian.] A fquare column, fome- 
times infulated, but oftener fet within a wall, and only 
(bowing a fourth or a fifth part of its thicknefs. See the 
article Architecture, vol. ii. p. 71.— PilaJ'ters mull not 
be too tall and (lender, left they relemble pillars; nor too 
dwarfifh and grofs, left they imitate the piles or piers of 
bridges. Wotton. 
Clap four dices of pilajler on’t, 
That laid with bits of ruftick makes a front. Pope. 
PI'LATE, a town of the ifland of Hifpaniola : thirty 
miles fouth-louth eaft of Port Paix. 
PI'LATE (Pontius), governor of Judea when our 
Lord was crucified. Of his family or country we know 
but little, though it is believed that he was of Rome, or 
at leaft of Italy. He was fent to govern Judea in the 
room of Gratus, in the year a6 ; and governed this pro¬ 
vince for ten years, from the twelfth year of Tiberius to 
the twenty-fecond. He is reprefented both by Philo and 
Jofephus as a man of an impetuous and obftinate temper, 
and as a judge who ufed to fell juftice, and to pronounce 
any fentence that was defired, provided he was paid for 
it. The fame authors make mention of his rapines, his 
murders, the torments that he infliCled upon the inno¬ 
cent, and the perfons he put to death without any form 
or procefs. Philo, in particular, defcribes him as a man 
that exercifed an exceffive cruelty during the whole time 
of his government, who difturbed the repofe of Judea, 
and gave occafion to the troubles and revolt that followed 
after. St. Luke (xiii. 1, a.) acquaints us, that Pilate had 
mingled the blood of the Galileans with their facrifices. 
It is unknown upon what occafion Pilate caufed thefe 
Galileans to be (lain in the Temple while they werefacri- 
5 S ficing;. 
