443 
P I L 
or failing within fight of land. Proper piloting is the 
art of failing to diftant places through the ocean, and 
out of fight of land. 
PI'LOTISM, /. Pilotage; fkill of a pilot. Cotgrave and 
Sherwood. 
PILO'TO, or Sali'nus del Pilo'to, rocks on the weft 
coaft of Mexico, near Cape Corrientes. 
PI'LOTRY, f. Skill of a pilot.—As a fliip is the end 
of {hipbuilding, or navigating the end of pilotry. Har¬ 
ris’s Three Treat. 
PPLOUS, adj. [pilofus , Lat.] Hairy; fullof hairs.— 
That hair is not poifon, though taken in a great quan¬ 
tity, is proved by the excrements of voracious dogs, 
which is feen to be very pilous. Dr. Robinfon's Endoxa, 
fye. 1658. 
PILOU'TA, a town of Candahar, on the Attock: 
ninety miles north-north-weft of Moultan. 
PILOUTA'I HO'TUN, a town of Chinefe Tartary, 
near the river Hoang-ho: 308 miles weft of Pekin. Lar. 
40. 38. N. Ion. 108. 53. E. 
PIL'PAY, or Bidpay, an ancient oriental philofo- 
pher, concerning whofe country, time, life, or works, we 
have no information that can be relied on with any cer¬ 
tainty. According to tradition, he was the counfellor 
and vizier to Dabfhelim, an ancient king of India; to 
which polls he was promoted after having been tutor to 
that prince, for whole ufe he compofed a work replete 
with moral and political precepts, dreffed up, after the 
oriental cultom, in ingenious apologues, or fables. 
Thefe apologues are in the form of dialogues between 
two animals, of a fpecies called in the Eaft Schacal, 
which refembles that of the European fox in figure and 
properties. The fame of this work having reached Per- 
fia, Cofroes, furnamed Noufchirvan, the king of that 
country, is faid to have fent his phyfician Buzzovich into 
India, for the foie purpofe of procuring a copy of it. 
This phyfician, being permitted to perufe it in the library 
of the fovereign of India, where it was preferved with 
great care, tranfiated it into the Pehlevi, or ancient Per- 
fian language, and gave it the title'of Homaioun Nameh, 
meaning, the Royal or Auguft Book. Such is the ac¬ 
count which tradition gives us of Pilpay, and of the in¬ 
troduction of his fables into Perfia. On the fame autho¬ 
rity it has been faid, that the author flouriflied 2000 
years B. C. The work, however, contains many inter¬ 
nal proofs that it w'as written at a much later period ; 
and it is not improbable, that it was the production of 
tome ingenious Perfian, who, to give it the greater cre¬ 
dit, pa fled it upon the world as a relic of the ancient In¬ 
dian philofophy. For an account of the oriental verfions 
of this work from the Pehlevi, and the different titles 
under which they have appeared, we refer to the firft of 
our authorities. It has alfo been tranfiated into moft mo¬ 
dern languages : but the beft European verfion of it is 
faid to be the French one of M. Galland, publifhed at 
Paris in 1714, in 2 vols. lamo. with the relics of the fa¬ 
bles of Lokman. The fame writer publifhed the tranfla- 
tion of another work attributed to Pilpay, to which he 
has given the title of “ The Shipwreck of the floating 
Iflands; or, the Bafiliad,” 1755, iamo. Enfield's Hijt. 
Philof. vol. i. 
PIL'SEN, a town of Hungary, on the river Ipol: ten 
miles north-call of Gran, and twenty-five north of Buda. 
PIL'SEN, a town of Bohemia, and capital of a circle of 
the fame name, fituated near the conflux of the rivers 
Miza and Radbuza; the town is fortified and well built. 
The circle is particularly rich in fheep; and the cheefe 
made by the inhabitants is preferred to the reft of the 
kingdom : forty-four miles fouth-weft of Prague, and 
eighty fouth of Drefden. Lat. 49. 43. N. Ion. 13. 33. E. 
PIL'SEN (Francis), an engraver, was born at Ghent 
in the year 1676, and became the pupil of Robert Aude- 
naerd. There are very few prints by the hand of this 
artift; and the following are all we can fpecify. 1. The 
Holy Virgin fuckling the Infant Chrilt, after Rubens, 
P I L 
8vo. 2. The Converfion of St. Bavon, a grand compofi- 
tion, arched at the top, after Rubens, large folio. 3. 
The Judgment of Midas, after the fame painter. 4. The 
Martyrdom of St. Blaize, from Gafpar de Crayer 5 both in 
folio. 
PIL'SEN, /! in botany. See Boletus. 
PIL'SEN ITZ, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Pil- 
fen : five miles fouth-eaft of Pilfen. 
PIL'SER ,_/1 A kind of moth, an infeCt that frequently 
flies into the flame of a candle. 
PILS'NO, a town of Auftrian Poland; fifty-fix miles 
fouth-weft of Sandomirz. 
PIL'START. See Pylstart. 
PIL'STING,a town ofBavaria : eight miles eaft-north- 
eaft of Dingelfingen, and two north of Landau. 
PIL'TEN, or Pyltyn, a town of the duchy of Coitr- 
land, and capital of a diftrift anciently called the Diocefe 
of Courland. This was the fee of a bifhop, founded in 
the thirteenth century by Waldemar ILkingof Denmark, 
and owes its name to the caftle or palace which he built. 
Some years after, it fell, with all Courland, into the 
hands of the Germans. It now belongs to the Ruffians. 
It is twelve miles north-north-weft of Goldingen, and 
fixty-eight W'eft of Riga. Lat. 57. 5. N. Ion, 21. 38. E. 
The moft remarkable parr of this diftrift is the pro¬ 
montory of Domefnefs, which projects northward into 
the Gulf of Livonia. From this cape a fand-bank runs 
four German miles farther into the fea, half of which lies 
under water, and cannot be difeerned. To the eaft of 
this promontory is an unfathomable abyfs, which is 
never obferved to be agitated. For the fafety of veflels 
bound to Livonia, two fquare beacons have been erefted 
on the coaft, near Domefnefs church, oppofite to the fand- 
bank, and facing each other. One of thefe is twelve fa¬ 
thoms high, and the other eight; and a large fire is kept 
burning on them from the firft of Auguft to the firft of 
January. When the mariners fee thefe fires appear as 
one in a direft line, they may conclude that they are 
clear of the extremity of the fand-bank, and confequently 
out of danger; but, if they fee both beacons, they are 
in danger of running upon it. The diftrift of Pilten 
contains feven parifhes, but no towns worthy of no¬ 
tice. The inhabitants are chiefly of the Lutheran per- 
fuafion. 
PIL'TEN LA'KE, a lake of Chinefe Tartary, twenty- 
three miles in circumference: twenty-five miles fouth- 
weft: of N irngouta. 
PIL'TON, a village in Devonfiiire, with 831 inhabit¬ 
ants. It is joined to Barnftaple by a bridge over the 
North Yeo ; and it once had a monaftery. 
PIL'TON, a village in Somerfetfhire; two miles from 
Shepton Mallet. 
PIL'TON, a village in Rutlandfhire, near Luffenham. 
PIL'TON, or Pilkton, a village in Northamptonfhire, 
on the Nen, between Oundle and Thrapfton. 
PILULA'RIA, f. [fo named by Juflieu, from the re¬ 
ceptacle of the feed having the fhape and fize of a com¬ 
mon pill.] Pill-wort, or Pepper-grass; in botany, a 
genus of the clafs cryptogarnia, order mifcellaneae, natu¬ 
ral order of Alices, or ferns. Generic charafters—-Com¬ 
mon receptacle globofe, with four cells and four valves, 
lined with numerous antherse, and many globofe germs 
beneath them. But one fpecies. 
Pilularia globulifera, pill-wort, or pepper-grafs. The 
ftem is perfectly proftrate and trailing, throwing out nu¬ 
merous roots at every joint, by which it creeps to a con- 
fiderable extent, and alfo about three delicate flender. 
leaves, two or three inches in length, Ample, upright, 
awl-fhaped, fmooth. Fruftifications globular, like pep¬ 
per-corns, downy, folitary, feflile or on very fhort pedi¬ 
cels at the bafe or axil of the leaves. What at firft fight> 
feems a capfule, is in fail a hollow receptacle, as in the 
fig, which ieparates into four valves, and is internally di¬ 
vided into as many cells : the valves are lined with organs 
of fi unification, feveral leftile club-fhaped anthers being 
ia 
