Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/38

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
22
*

PIXLAK SAINT. 22 PILLOW. with a view to separating thenisehes more com- pletely from earth and fellow-men. took up their abode on the top.-* of pillars, and remained thus without descendin}.' to earth, exposed to all the variations of climate or sheltered only by a hut built on top of the pillar. The earliest of these and the most celebrated, was Saint Simeon or Simon Stylites, a Syrian monk, who was born near the close of the fourth century, and is said at first to have lived for ten years in extreme seclusion in his monastery in the neighborhood of Antioch, without ever movinff from his narrow cell. Increasint; in enthusiasm, about 42.3 he withdrew from the monastery, and built a pillar, on the top of which, only a yard in diameter, he took up his position. From this pillar he re- moved to several others in succession, each higher than its predecessor, till at last he attained to 40 cubits, or about 60 feet in height. In this life he spent .37 years, ilany remarkable stories are told of his austerities, and he acquired the reputation of a miracle-worker. The fame of his sanctity brought crowds of pilgrims from the m<«t distant countries to see him : and he is .said to have converted many to the Church. A disciple of Simeon, named Daniel, succeeded to his reputation for sanctity, and to his mode of life, which he maintained for ,33 years, in the still more trj-ing climate of the shores of the Bosporus, about four miles from Constantinople, In Syria there were many pillar saints as late as the twelfth century: after the sixteenth cen- tury they disappeared altogether. In the West there is only a solitary example. A monk named Wulflaicus, near Treves, attempted the pillar life in the sixth century, but the neighboring bishops compelled him to desist, and destroyed his pillar. PILLAES OF HERCXTLES. See Hercuij:s, Pillars oy. PILLAX7, pil'lou. A seaport town, fortress, and bathing resort of Eastern Prussia, situated on the southern end of a tongue of land separating the Frisches Haff from the Baltic Sea. at the entrance to the former and about 2,5 miles west of Kiinigsherg. with which it is connected by a navigable diannel (Map: Prussia, .11). It is the outer port of Kiinigsberg. PILL BEETLE. A beetle of the family Byr- rhidop. a term used by English collectors. The group is a small family of 200 to 300 species, of which about 40 occur in the United States. They are small insects, move very slowly, and when disturbed at once contract the limbs so com- pletely that they look like inanimate objects. PIL'LING, .Umes Coxstaxtine (1846-95). .

American ethnologist, bom in Washington, 

D. C. He was educated at (Jonzaga College in that city, and while with Major •!. W. Powell on the Rocky Mountains Geological Survey (1872-79) had opportunity for studying aboriginal dialects. In 1881 he was appointed chief clerk of the Bureau of Ethnology, and ten years afterwards was made head of the same bureau in the Smith- sonian Institution. Washington. He catalogued the Linffvistic J/.S'S. in the Bureau of Ethnology (1881) and made bibliographies of the following Indian languages, which were published by the Government: Siouan (1887). Iroquoian (1888), UuKkhogean (1889), Algonquin (1891), Atha- pascan (1892), Chinookan (1893), Salishan (1893), and Wakashan (1894). FILLNITZ, pU'nits. A palace and ordinary summer residence of the royal family of Saxony, in a beautiful situation, six miles southeast of Dresden. Pillnitz acquired a historic interest from the meeting of Leopold II. and Frederick William II. held in the castle in August. 1791, when the declaration of Pillnitz was framed, in which Austria and Prussia affirmed that the af- fairs of King Lfmis XVI. (then a prisoner in the Tuileries, after his ineffectual attempt to escape from France) were a matter of common interest to the sovereigns of Europe, and expressed the hope that common cause would be made for hi3 restoration. The Emperor and the King of Prus- sia were resolved to use force in order to effect this result : but any immediate interference on their part was rendered unnecessary by Louis's acceptation of the Constitution as modified by the National Assembly, after which he was again placed on the throne. PILLORY (OF., Fr. pilori, from Prov. espit- lori, pillory, from Lat. speculatorius, relating to an observer, from speculator, observer, investiga- tor, scout, spy, from speculare. to view, from specula, watch-tower, from specere, to see). An obsolete instrument for the public punishment of criminals. It consisted of two parallel boards, joined by sliding hinges and fixed like a sign- board on the top of a strong pole, supported on a wooden platform elevated above the ground. A large circular hole with its centre in the line of junction of the two planks received the neck, and two corresponding holes of smaller size, one on each side of it. the wrists. The pillory existed in England before the Conquest, in the form of the halsfang or catch-neck, an instrument by which the neck only was confined : according to the "statute of the pilory' of Henry III. it was originally intended for "forestallers, users of de- ceitful weights, perjury, forgery, etc.." and all such dishonorable offenses. Its use was confined to this class of offenders till 1637, when restric- tions were put upon the press, and all who printed books without a license were put in the pillory. From this time it became the favorite mode of punishing libelers, authors and publish- ers of seditious pamphlets, or of strictures on the Government, and many eminent men suffered on the pillory. The inadequacy of the pillory as a means of inflicting punishment, however, be- came apparent, for to those who were popular favorites it was no punishment, while those who were objects of popular dislike were ill-used to such an extent as occasionally to suffer death. In France the pillory was anciently called pilori, and later carcan, from the iron collar by which the criminal's neck was attached to the post; but punishment by this mode was abolished in that countrj- in 1832. It was also in use in Germany, where it was known as tlie Pranger. The pillory was abolished in England in l.S;$7. and in the United States, where early statutes had proviiled for it for some offenses, in 1839. In Dielaware, however, the punishment remained. PIL'LOW, Fort. See Fort Pillow. PILLOW, Gideon Johnson (1806-78). An American lawyer and soldier, prominent as an officer in the Mexican War. and on the Confeder- ate side in the Civil War. He was bom in